Satie Nocturnes

Satie's Nocturnes are his five piano pieces (planned as a set of seven, but unfinished) written between August and November 1919. With the exception of the Premier Menuet (1920) they were his final works for solo piano, and are considered among his most significant achievements in the genre. The Nocturnes stand apart from Satie's piano music of the 1910s in their complete seriousness, lacking the zany titles and extra-musical texts he typically appended to his scores. In performance the set lasts about 13 minutes.

Érik Satie (1866 – 1925) was a French composer and pianist, as well as a colorful figure in the early twentieth century Parisian avant-garde. He is perhaps best known for his short piano pieces, such as the Gnossiennes.

Averse to the Romanticism of Richard Wagner, he produced fascinating music of a simple, timeless, directionless, repetitious, eccentric, whimsical,  satirical, and humorous nature. He was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.

Tutorial

• Nocturne No. 1

Sheetmusic at imslp.org