Erik Satie

Satie

Talents / other work / aspects to career

.....writing
..........*
...............Gothic calligraphy
...............exquisite calligraphy - an art which he studied for years while poring over old Gothic manuscripts..... RM 90
...............music - use of contrasting inks..... Whit 192
...............invective, irony
...............mastered the high-pitched, amusingly devious advertising style that filled Parisian papers..... Whit 102
...............hyperbolic promotion..... Whit 103
..........works
...............essay - Les Musiciens de Montmartre..... Whit 213
...............review of Debussy's ballet Jeux in the Revue musicale SIM of June 15 1913.....Orl 64
...............article in Vanity Fair - Aug 1922..... Orl 39
...............open letter to Saint Saens - published in Le Menestrel.....Orl 49
.....language
..........remarkable command of language..... RM 28
..........fluent English..... Penrose 71
.....lectures
..........1916 - first public lecture..... Orl SR xxxiv
.....performing
..........as Baron Meduse..... Orl SR 162
..........conducting Chat Noir orchestra..... Orl 11

Personality

.....A
..........lively conversationalist..... Orl 19
..........happy gift of being able to communicate easily with people in all walks of life..... Orl 205
..........puckish behavior.....RS 118
..........his mischievous, expressive eyes were often mentioned as his most salient feature.....Orl 102
..........saw portents in all things..... Emboden 24
..........hermetic.....Orl 39
..........unique composer of multiple paradoxes..... Orl 262
..........moral rigour.....OV 94
..........concern for visual perfection..... Orl 10
..........obsessively secretive about his working methods..... Orl 58
..........openmindedness and untiring curiosity..... OV 94
..........talent for self-publicity.....Orl 7
..........thrived on notoriety.....Orl 9
.........."higher order dyslexia"..... Orl SR xiv
..........it was his constant introspection that led to the apparent distortions in Satie's
...............personality : but viewed from the inside his perspectives seem clear and logical.....Orl 50
.....B
..........hated the telephone..... Orl SR 131 - Sauguet
..........neatness of attire..... PT 59
..........gymnastic equipment.....Orl 15
..........black overcoat (collar turned up), umbrella, bowler hat.....Orl SR 123 - Bertin
..........umbrella - one of the most notorious fetishes of his later years.....Whit 104
..........hated sunshine, and bad weather was a positive encouragement to him.....Orl 19
..........did not believe in washing, preferring to rub his body with a pumice stone.....Emboden 24
..........never threw anything away..... PT 59
..........compulsive hoarder.....Orl 15
..........at the age of 59 he had behind him close on 40 years of solid drinking in the
...............bars of Montmartre..... JH 234
..........prodigious appetite.....Orl 14
.....C
..........persecution complex.....Orl 263
..........slow to forget his grudges..... Temp 70
..........infinite capacity for bearing grudges..... Orl SR xiii
.........."I am a man that women cannot understand"..... Orl 39
.........."Satie was never a homosexual, only a Platonist completely divorced from sexual activity, as all the homosexuals who
...............knew him have testified, beginning with those in Cocteau's circle"..... Orl 339 - Robert Caby
..........mistakes by people
...............P. Bertin in Meduse makes up face to look like Satie and imitates him..... Orl SR 124
...............Auric / Poulenc - buying rattle..... Hell 30

Influence, Admiration

.....music
..........lifelong love of Gregorian chant .....Orl 6
..........fascination with dance music..... Orl 264
..........Palestrina.....Orl 92
..........attended performance of "Le Roi malgre lui" (Chabrier) at Opera-Comique.....Templier 11
..........Chabrier - has the distinction of being the only musician of stature whose influence
...............can be felt in the works of Satie.....AG 18
..........1889 Exhibition / Romanian music..... Templier 12
..........one searches almost in vain for S's musical ancestors.....AG 7
.....art
..........as he remarked later, he learned more about music from painters than he ever did from musicians..... RM 34
..........his art derived more from painters (especially the Cubists) than any composer, alive or dead..... Orl 1
..........admiration for painter Puvis de Chavannes..... RM 23
..........Rodin
.....literature
..........Lewis Carroll
..........Hans Christian Andersen
...............was to remain a favorite for the rest of his life.....Templier 8
.....*
..........quite consciously he may have modeled something of his own unconventional behavior on the eccentric
...............careers of such men as Mery, Vachette, and Karr.....AG 14
..........fascination with mirrors.....Orl 354
..........always an avid reader.....Orl 219
..........fascinated by eyes and their power..... Orl 102
..........tendency to mysticism.....JH 47
..........his fascination with sorcerers, magicians, and the devil often surfaces in his drawings, just as his
...............alchemical obsessions recur in his writings..... Orl 42
..........fascination with the medieval past..... Orl 42
.........."Satie was a spiritist rather than a true mystic".....Orl 42 - Olga Satie