Erik Satie summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Erik Satie.

Erik Satie, orig. Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, (born May 17, 1866, Honfleur, Calvados, France—died July 1, 1925, Paris), French composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1879–82) but dropped out. From 1888 he played piano at the café Le Chat Noir; he became associated with the Rosicrucian movement in about 1890 and wrote several works under its influence. Living in austere poverty in a working-class district, he began to gain prominence in 1911, when he was lauded as a forerunner of modern music; his admirers included Claude Debussy, Jean Cocteau, and the group of composers known as Les Six. Satie’s music represents the first definite break with 19th-century French Romanticism; it also stands in opposition to Impressionism (a movement he frequently mocked). His mostly short piano works are spare and unconventional, and they characteristically take the form of parody, with flippant titles such as Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear (1903).

piano Summary

Piano, a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys. The vibration of the strings is transmitted to a soundboard by means

music Summary

Music, art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and, in most Western music, harmony. Both the simple folk song and the complex electronic composition belong to the same activity,

ballet Summary

Ballet, theatrical dance in which a formal academic dance technique—the danse d’école—is combined with other artistic elements such as music, costume, and stage scenery. The academic technique itself is also known as ballet. This article surveys the history of ballet. Ballet traces its origins to

dance Summary

Dance, is the movement of the body in a rhythmic way, usually to music and within a given space, for the purpose of expressing an idea or emotion, releasing energy, or simply taking delight in the movement itself. Dance is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by