erik satie
cubist works and pablo picasso (1913-1924)

Erik Satie was first introduced to the Spanish-born artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in Paris by polymath auteur and catalyst Jean Cocteau. At this time Cocteau was then working on the 'realist ballet' Parade, to be staged in Paris in May 1917 by Sergei Diaghilev's celebrated Russian Ballet, and with the expressed ambition of representing the principles of Cubism on stage.

Satie was commissioned to compose the musical score, and Picasso (a founder of Cubism together with Georges Braque) to design costumes and décor. Famously, the impact of Parade was much enhanced by the use of striking scenic sound effects within the music score, including typewriter keys, gunshots, sirens, aeroplanes and lottery wheels. If these scenic sound effects can be said to owe any debt to Futurism and the Art of Noises, however, it is because Diaghilev imposed these elements on Cocteau, much against Satie's wishes.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Cocteau attributed the following comments to Satie: "I have composed a background to throw into relief the various noises the playwright considers indispensable for giving each of his characters the right atmosphere. These noises are, in music, of the same character as the pieces of newspaper, painted wood-grain and other everyday objects that Cubist painters frequently employ in their pictures, in order to localize objects and masses in nature."

Probably the sentiments are those of Cocteau alone. Satie himself seems to have been disinclined to write about either Cubism or Futurism, although he noted more generally in a sketchbook, "Musical evolution is always a hundred years behind pictorial evolution." However Fernande Olivier, Picasso's mistress during his Montmartre period (1904-12) later wrote: "The only person that I heard argue clearly and simply about Cubism was Erik Satie. I believe that he alone, if he had written on Cubism, could have made it easily comprehensible. But he would doubtless have done it in such a manner that the painters concerned would have disowned it. It would have been too clear!"

For Picasso, Parade offered an opportunity to marry Cubist style and figurative representation in a novel way, particularly the striking costumes of the French and American Managers. Both figures stood three metres tall, and were constructed from wood, cloth, metal and papier maché. The motifs - skyscrapers, boulevard features - suggest the managers' countries of origin, and stomping robotically across the stage, the figures were the formal idiom of Cubism in motion, personifications of the mechanization and inhumanity of modern life.

Just as early Futurist serata between 1909 and 1914 triggered disturbances in theatres in Milan, Genoa and London, so too the gala premiere of Parade at the Théâtre Châtelet on 18 May 1917 provoked hostility and outrage. The scandalous production saw Satie, Picasso and Cocteau pilloried by the press as enemy boches (or Huns), just as British Vorticists in London had found their work condemned as Teutonic.

One particularly vitriolic review wounded Satie so deeply that he mailed several insulting postcards to the critic in question, Jean Poueigh. As a result Poueigh successfully sued for libel ("famous blockhead", "leader of all cretins" and "arse without music" were among Satie's insults), and the composer only narrowly escaped a short prison sentence. These fractious postcards may be interpreted as Dada in spirit, although in the light of subsequent factional squabbles in Paris it is ironic that in May 1917 the poet Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term surrealism (sur-réalisme) with specific reference to Parade.

Satie dedicated the closing Prélude du Rideau rouge (Red Curtain) to Picasso, and continued to follow his career closely, although the pair would not collaborate again for almost six years. In the meantime Satie's works included some nocturnes, furniture music and the Cubist-informed symphonic drama Socrate (1918), as well as a period of Dada activity during 1922/23 when he composed little or no new music. Inspired by his theatrical debut with Parade, Picasso went on to work on seven further ballet or drama productions between 1917 and 1924, including El Sombrero de tres picos (1919), Pulcinella, Cuadro Flamenco (both 1920), Antigone (1922), Le Train Bleu and Mercure (both 1924).

The pair were reunited professionally in 1923, again by Jean Cocteau. In December 1922 the wealthy society patron Comte Etienne de Beaumont asked Cocteau to arrange a short 'diversion' during a masked ball, to be held at the grand Paris Hotel on 30 May 1923. The divertissement would be performed by guests, and centered upon the newly-restored 18th Century organ in the Comte's music salon. Cocteau chose to reunite the production team employed for Parade six years earlier: Satie would compose the brief organ piece, and Picasso the sets and costumes, while Léonide Massine was recruited as choreographer, and to perform the role of Mercure. The other dancers included Olga Khokhlova, Picasso's wife, who had left the Ballets Russes for the artist following Parade.

Satie's stately Divertissement (La Statue retrouvée) consists of 53 bars of music for organ, with a closing trumpet solo in C. Each of the chords in the score was numbered to correspond with individual steps in the quest for the lost statue. In addition to The Statue Found, Satie's comic song cycle Ludions was also premiered at this event. But Cocteau was unhappy over the choice of instrumentation for La Statue retrouvée. In a letter to Comtesse Edith de Beaumont dated 26 December 1922, Satie declared: "I'm very surprised to see that Jean shares the prejudice of the masses against the organ… Odd, isn't it? I very much hope to win him over to our cause - our good cause. Yes. The organ isn't necessarily religious and funereal, good old instrument that it is. Just remember the lovely, gilded merry-go-round at the fair." However the relationship had now grown awkward, and the organ Divertissement would be the last collaboration between Satie and Cocteau.

The final collaboration between Satie and Picasso came in 1924 and was more substantial. Again a commission from Etienne de Beaumont, Mercure (aka Les Aventures de Mercure or Mercure: Poses plastiques) was a short modern ballet created for his ambitious Soirées de Paris season, an ill-fated attempt to upstage Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. There was no plot, and the ballet instead took the form of three tableaux vivants, choreographed by Massine. Picasso now assumed responsibility for devising the scenario as well as costumes and decor. As with Parade, the artist took the opportunity to try out techniques explored in his paintings onstage, principally the projection of flat images and calligraphic designs onto the curves of the dancers and sculptures on the stage. This concept of poses plastiques has been compared the earlier 'plastic complexes' of the Italian Futurist, Giacomo Balla, but in fact Picasso was simply updating an established form of entertainment tableaux.

Satie composed a score for small orchestra between February and May 1924, writing 13 parts and in the process doubling the length of Picasso's tripartite piece from eight minutes to about fifteen. Tellingly, the closing Final: Rapt de Proserpine was marked 'Cubisme' by Satie on the score. The composer later claimed that he was hurried by choreographers Léonide Massine and Jean Borlin into completing his ballet scores, but unlike his music for Francis Picabia's Relâche he avoided quoting from popular songs in order to extend the running time. Certainly Satie enjoyed working with Picasso, and in an interview in the Paris-Journal of 30 May 1924 he told writer/journalist Pierre de Massot:

"Though it has a subject, this ballet has no plot. It is a purely decorative spectacle and you can imagine the marvelous contribution of Picasso which I have attempted to translate musically. My aim has been to make my music an integral part, so to speak, with the actions and gestures of the people who move about in this simple exercise. You can see poses like them in any fairground. The spectacle is related quite simply to the music-hall, without stylization, or any rapport with things artistic. In other respects, I always return to the sub-title 'Poses plastiques', which I find magnificent."

The premiere of Mercure took place at the Théâtre de la Cigale in Montmartre on 15 June 1924. Like Parade seven years earlier, and Relâche seven months later, the performance triggered tumult and scandal, the background to which was factional infighting within the Paris Dada movement. Although Picasso avoided taking sides, Satie was a declared supporter of Tristan Tzara, and so came into conflict with the proto-Surrealist faction lead by Andre Breton. This internecine warfare had already flared in February 1922, when Satie presided over the 'trial' of Breton at the Closerie des Lilas restaurant, and again in the violent disruption of Tzara's Soirée du Coeur à barbe at the Théâtre Michel on 6 July 1923. There Breton was provoked by an apparent reference to the demise of Cubism ('Picasso dead on the field of battle') and leapt onstage. During the ensuing meleé he struck Pierre de Massot with his cane, breaking his arm.

Satie, who performed Trois Morceaux en forme de poire on the night, afterwards dismissed Breton and his entourage as 'faux Dadas.' He would also endorse an essay by Paul Dermée titled Pour en finir avec le Surréalisme (To have done with Surrealism once and for all).

The first performance of Mercure at La Cigale on 15 June was disrupted by Aragon, Breton and others, who repeatedly shouted 'Long live Picasso! Down with Satie!' Others - including Pierre de Massot - supported Satie. So great was the chaos that the performance had to be cut short halfway through. A first-hand account of the disturbance is contained in a letter written the following day by the dancer Lydia Lopokova to her husband, Maynard Keynes: "Oh what a demonstration last night. Mercure being the last of the programme I went into the promenoir to look steadily at the ballet and have a firm opinion about it. First tableau began with cries 'Vive Picasso' the other party replies 'Vive Erik Satie'… 'En bas Erik Satie et vive Picasso'. After the second tableau pro-Picasso-ists became enormous and shouted 'Vive Picasso seul. En bas E. de Beaumont les garcons, et toutes Soirées de Paris'. I was only a few steps away from the young man who proclaimed this. Then the policeman rushed to him and arrested him. The anti-Picasso group ran to his box and shouted 'En bas Picasso'."

Also on 16 June, Pierre de Massot wrote to Francis Picabia to report: "A scandal provoked by Aragon who, pursued by the cops, broke away from them and jumped on the stage yelling: 'Bravo Picasso, down with Satie'. And at the back, Breton and his companions were yelling…. I roared: "Bravo Satie'. The performance was broken off. The police got them out in spite of the courage of Aragon (it must be said), who kept shouting: 'Nom de Dieu, down with the cops'. I must tell you that [Georges] Auric had been plotting with Aragon and Breton long before the performance."

Satie, for his part, left the performance early in order to catch the train home to the distant suburb of Arcueil. The politics of the Mercure disturbance were complex. Breton approved of Picasso alone, this underlined by the riotous Soirée du Coeur à barbe the previous year, and published a glowing 'Hommage à Picasso' in the Paris-Journal to coincide with the Soirées de Paris. Furthermore the Surrealist faction was encouraged to disrupt the premiere of Mercure by composer Georges Auric, one of Les Six, who had recently broken with Satie. Breton also disliked the ludic, mannered aspects of Satie's character and music, although this betrays ignorance of his canon, since Vexations (1893) is surely one of the most surreal compositions of all time. Three decades later Breton had the good grace to admit his error, and that Satie's talents were exceptional. Meanwhile delays in scenery changes also contributed to the general unrest, while Etienne de Beaumont may have welcomed the publicity generated by yet another Parisian art riot.

In addition to the Surrealist meleé, Mercure received mixed reviews from the critics ('the last spasms of sickly Cubism' according to Le courier musical) and the general public stayed away. As a result just five performances of Mercure were staged at La Cigale. Indeed de Beaumont's ambitious but disorganized Soirées de Paris were largely a failure, and the following year he reverted to hosting masked balls. For Relâche, staged in December, Picabia and Satie invited heckling, and even made whistles available, but the Surrealists stayed away.

During this volatile period, Satie wrote at length to the painter Moise Kisling about his work on ballets such as Parade, Mercure and Relâche: "The importance lies in beginning things where they ought to begin and not being troubled by what should be the final goal! Thus I maintain that one should first see the characters dance before writing the music that should illustrate their movements. The choreographer cares only for himself; the female dancer cares only for spectacular effects that will bring applause. And who cares about the composer - about his sensibilities, indeed, about his message? No-one! People usurp it, or cast it aside, and in the end the only one who has something to say and who knows the reasons behind his works, finds himself again keeping them to himself, when he cannot tell a lie. What a drama! But we who know the music contained in each movement should be able to make our art like a machine - since it seems that no-one seeks more from it than that - and, all things being equal - I would prefer what I have imposed to what others try to impose upon me."

In addition to the two major Satie/Picasso collaborations in 1917 and 1924, the symphonic drama Socrate from 1918 also boasts a Cubist connection. Satie wrote that he owed his 'return to classical simplicity' in Socrate to his 'Cubist friends' Picasso and Georges Braque, while Constantin Brancusi was inspired to create three sculptures by this piece (Plato, Socrates and Socrates' Cup). The acclaimed 1989 recording of Socrate by Music Projects London and conductor Richard Bernas is available from LTM.

Two years after Satie's death in 1925, Mercure was briefly revived by the Ballets Russes. However Diaghilev presented it only once in Paris, at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt on 2 June, and then at the Princes's Theatre in London on 11 June. Adolph Bolm also staged a version in Chicago in 1926. In addition to Parade and Mercure, the present CD also offers three shorter works which further illuminate the composer's links with Cubism and associated forms. Divertissement (La Statue retrouvée) has already been described, and is joined by:

Les Pantins dansent (The Puppets are Dancing) was written in November 1913 for Valentine de Saint-Point, the dancer, poet and author of the Manifeste de la Femme Futuriste (1912), a response to F.T. Marinetti. The piece accompanied a dance by Saint-Point and a reading of her rather maudlin poem about death, and was premiered on 18 December 1913 at her Festival de la Métachorie, staged at the Salle Léon-Poirier. However Satie was far less interested in Futurism than in Cubism, having joked in the Revue musicale SIM (1914) of a municipal waterworks concerto for "two obligatory taps and orchestra."

Trois Valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté may be freely translated either as 'Three Disgustingly Precious Waltzes' or 'Three Elegant Waltzes by a Revolting Dandy', and were intended as a barbed swipe at Maurice Ravel. Elsewhere Satie described Ravel (1875-1937) as 'a little doddering dandy', and took exception to the fact that the younger composer described his 1910 piece Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête (Ma mère l'oye) as 'the fourth Gymnopédie'. The triptych was composed by Satie in July 1914 and are titled individually Sa taille (His Waist), Son binocle (His Pince-Nez) and Ses jambes (His Legs). They were premiered on 19 November 1916 at the Société Lyre et Palette at 6 rue Huyghens, Paris, at an exhibition of paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Ortiz de Zarate and Kisling.

James Hayward
February 2007

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