This recording has appeared on LP's:
Musical Heritage Society MHS 4700, "Selected Works"
Erato STU71336, "Instrumental and Orchestral Works"
Not sure if it has ever been on CD.
Fanfare Nov/Dec 83, J.D.W:
(review of MHS 4700 LP)
It's a fine and enterprising idea to offer a recorded collection of
Erik Satie's furniture-music, and rather a relief that it all fits on one
disc. As so often happens, the idea raises expectations that are not altogether
fulfilled by the realization. I'm not writing here that I'm disappointed
by this record - not at all, because I knew what to expect - but those
who know only his more attractive and therefore better known music are
quite likely to find this side of Satie a bit of a trial. The hypersensitive,
bad-tempered, and reclusive Frenchman was a professional wit, but he was
never more serious than in his idiosyncratic perversion of a musical concept
all but extinct by the end of the 19th century.
First, the Musique d'ameublement is naturally based on repetition.
The full musical content of each piece is expressed in a few bars, marked
to be repeated ad libitum. Form there is none. Musical tension is
not wholly eliminated (which seems to me rather a failure on the composer's
part), but is reduced to a process measurable in a few beats of musical
time, in which (as happens variously) a dissonance is incompletely resolved
or just short circuited.
Second, Satie was extremely successful in deliberately formulating subject
matter of total unmemorability. The net effect is insipid if one insists
on listening to it in the traditional sense. Conductor Constant hammers
home the point by giving each section rather too much repetition, enough
to accommodate most events that one might want to carry through to this
accompaniment.
This notice is directed only to the casual individual record consumer:
Don't, I warn you, buy this record unless you feel capable of directing
your attention elsewhere while it is being played, or unless you get some
sort of charge out of counting tiles, frieze elements, or wallpaper blocks.
If your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, or TV repair person is of a certain
intelligence and uncertain temperament, the careless or thoughtless use
of this record could lead to pronounced unpleasantness, even violence.
On the other hand, the academic music librarian is assured that the bulk
of the works on this disc are not to be had elsewhere, and that the performances
are uniformly clean, fully adequate realizations of the composer's intentions.
Perhaps I overstate the toxicity of this production. In my house, everybody
is in the habit of listening (except for the adolescents) and even the
budgie criticizes freely. Others may not find it nearly so offensive. The
sound quality is excellent.
Gramophone: April 81, Max
Harrison:
(Erato STU7 1336 LP)
With a test pressing and no sleeve-notes to work on, there are uncertainties
here, but this very interesting LP is apparently called "Musiques
Répétitives/Phase Musics", and the idea was to bring
together those of Satie's works that use techniques of conspicuous repetition.
The accompanying publicity material says these have been "almost ignored
up to now", and that these are "premiére recordings".
In fact the "Entr'acte Cinenatographique" from Relâche
was done some years ago by the Radio Luxembourg Orchestra under Louis de
Froment <VoxBox review, also recorded by Takahashi
and Koji Ueno> and Vexations was recorded
by Peter Dickinson on Unicorn (11/76.) <also,
a 70 minute marathon by Alan Marks is on CD>
However, these are the first recordings known to me of the Sonnerie,
a minute-long piece of no consequence for two trumpets, and the Musique
d'ameublement, of which most people will first have heard in the pages
of Constant Lambert's Music Ho!
Satie's Relâche is usually described as a "ballet instantanéiste"
in two acts, none of the standard recordings of which includes the "Entr'acte
Cinematographique" - understandably in that it is longer than the
music of either act. Relâche (1924) was among the first
successful ventures in multimedia surrealism and the film, which showed,
among other things, Satie firing cannon and crawling over the argoyles
of Notre Dame, was directed by none other than the young Réne Clair.
To accompany this the composer wrote a piece designed not to draw attention
to itself through a developing musical argument, but simply to underline
the visual action. Actually, this new performance makes the "Entr'act"
sound more insistent, almost obsessive in its repetitions, though partly
because it was recorded with greater presence than on Vox.
The premiere of Musique d'ameublement is supposed to have occurred
at the Galerie Barbazanges in Paris on March 8th, 1920, in the
interval of a play by Max Jacob that was followed with music by Stravinsky
and Les Six. According to contemporary accounts, it was scored for three
clarinets, trombone, and piano, and consisted of incessantly repeated fragments
of Saint-Saëns's Danse macabre, Thomas's Mignon and
comparable scores juxtaposed by Satie with some assistance from Milhaud.
But the work on the above record is no such thing, being an entirely original
piece in three movements for a substantial orchestra, in a style very close
to the 'Entr'acte Cinematographique'. Either the contemporary accounts
were completely misleading or this is not the Musique d'ameublement.
In which case, what is it?
Vexations is a short piano piece probably dating from 1892-93, the
period of Satie's Rose+Croix music. He did not precisely direct
that it should be played 840 times, merely writing over the score, "to
play this piece 840 times in succession, is best to prepare oneself in
advance in complete silence and grave immobility". Nonetheless, John
Cage did arrange a 'complete' performance, with a relay team of pianists,
in New York in 1963, Michel Dalberto, in 9'40", does not play it 840
times, though he does play it quite often.
I would dearly love to own a good quality copy of this recording. anyone
willing to part with one contact me; gus, care of - angus@nva.org.uk
I am currently researching for an M.A. in composition at Salford University.
I am particularly looking into the idea of generative music as demonstrated
by Brian Eno. Satie's 'Furniture Music' is of great significance to the
development of this phenomenon. In short, I need to listen to this music
in order to evaluate it properly. Do you know where I could get hold of
this L.P.? If it's not too much trouble, I would be grateful if you could
point me in the right direction.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
Andy Greenwood (a.greenwood@virgin.net)
"Erato" is a German label (or is it French?). LP was originally
on Erato in 1970's. "MHS" stands for "Musical Heritage Society".
MHS buys the rights to older recordings and reissues them at a budget price.
MHS reissued this on LP in the early 80's. I imagine both versions of this
LP are pretty rare, probably your best chance of finding a copy would be
in a university library.
The other orchestral recording of "Musique d'ameublement" is
available on CD on FNAC 592292. You might want to
order it from "Music in the Mail": http://www.equinox.net/musicin/index.html
There is also a piano version of "Musique d'ameublement", see:
http://www.dragonfire.net/~Sequel/satie/piano.shtml#shimada
Dick