Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Erik Satie (1866-1925) came of age in the bohemian subculture of Montmartre, with its artists' cabarets and cafés-concerts. Yet apologists have all too often downplayed this background as potentially harmful to the reputation of a composer whom they regarded as the progenitor of modern French music. Whiting argues, on the contrary, that Satie's two decades in and around Montmartre decisively shaped his aesthetic priorities and compositional strategies. He gives the fullest account to date of Satie's professional activities as a popular musician, and of how he transferred the parodic techniques and musical idioms of cabaret entertainment to works for concert hall. From the esoteric Gymnopédies to the bizarre suites of the 1910s and avant-garde ballets of the 1920s (not to mention music journalism and playwriting), Satie's output may be daunting in its sheer diversity and heterodoxy; but his radical transvaluation of received artistic values makes far better sense once placed in the fascinating context of bohemian Montmartre.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Part I Caf'e-Concert, Music-Hall, Cabaret
• 1 Introduction
• 2 From Caf'Cong' to Music-Hall
• 3 The Cabaret artistique
• Part II Satie's Involvement in Popular Milieux
• Introduction
• 4 Satie at the Chat Noir
• 5 Satie and the Divan Japonais
• 6 Satie at the Auberge du Clou
• 7 From the Auberge du Clou to Arcueil
• 8 Satie and Hyspa
• 9 Of Pantomimes and Pears
• 10 Waltz, Cakewalk, Theatre Song
• Part III From Cabaret to Concert Hall
• Introduction
• 11 Satie's Humoristic Works for Piano
• 12 From Chanson to M'elodie and Back
• 13 The Composer as Playwright
• 14 Autour de Cocteau, or the Uses of Popular Music
• 15 On revient toujours: Satie's Last Ballets
• Bibliography
• Index of Satie's Works and Writings
• General Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Whiting's accomplishment is an all-too-rare example of exhaustive first-rate scholarship and page-turning readability. The book is less a conventional biography (and in no sense a psychological study, as might be inferred from the title) than a thorough stylistic history of "Satierik" or "Esoterik Satie" entailing detailed sketch studies and analytical discussions of many Satie compositions. Whiting (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) has much to report on Satie's compositional methods in and of themselves and in the context of his Montmartre and Montparnasse milieux, artistic and aesthetic movements from Rosicrucianism to Dada and beyond. His explications of Satie's performance directions and parodies (in all senses of the word) should be essential for any performer; a mark of Whiting's achievement here is that despite his warning about humor killed by analysis, his discussions never spoil a joke. References to the work of other scholars are wide-ranging and always generous. The shaping of the story and the engaging prose speed the reader through what in other hands might have been an oppressive recital. This is an exemplary study, highly recommended for all upper-division undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and professional collections. J. McCalla; Bowdoin College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Steven Moore Whiting is at University of Michigan.