Satie, Erik
The French composer Erik Satie was born on May 17, 1866, and died on
July 1, 1925, was the son of an English mother and a Parisian music publisher.
He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1879 but failed to benefit from
academic education, which he embarked on again only in his 40th year, when he
enrolled as a pupil of Vincent d'Indy and Albert Roussel at the Schola Cantorum.
Long before that, however, he had composed a number of short piano pieces, whose
eccentric titles and unfashionable and yet convincing simplicity of melody were
matched by an individual sense of harmony. It is still a moot point whether
Satie got his harmonic ideas from his fellow student and friend Claude Debussy,
or whether the debt was on Debussy's side. It is quite clear, however, that
Satie's tasteful principles influenced Debussy in the composition of his opera
Pelleas et Melisande and that Satie was the main influence in helping Debussy to
free himself from the musical domination of......
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