erik satie
rosicrucian music (1891-1894)



For a short and stormy period Satie was appointed official composer and chapel-master for the esoteric Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique du Temple et du Graal, founded in Paris by the flamboyant writer and mystic 'Sar' Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918).

An esoteric fraternal sect, the Rosicrucian Order seems to have emerged first in the 17th Century, with the anonymous publication of three manifestoes: Fama Fraternitatis (1614), Confessio Fraternitatis (1615) and the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616). During the late 19th and early 20th Century various mystic and religious groups styled themselves as Rosicrucian, and most claimed to be authentic heirs to a long historical tradition. Self-styled 'Grand Master' Péladan founded his order in Paris in 1890 and sought to reconcile Rosicrucianism with Catholicism, as well as adding a large measure of Wagnerian Holy Grail mythology. Péladan was also the author of Le vice suprême, a classic of decadent literature.

The first Salon de la Rose-Croix was held at the fashionable Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris on 10 March 1892, at which Satie's solemn Trois Sonneries de la Rose + Croix were performed for the first time. The previous year Satie had composed incidental music for Péladan's play Le Fils des étoiles (Son of the Stars), which was rejected by every major theatre in Paris. In June 1892 Satie also wrote two preludes for an esoteric chivalric play by Henri Mazel, Le Nazaréen.

Satie eventually tired of the implication that he was merely a disciple of Péladan, and broke from the Rose-Croix order in August 1892. The following year Satie became the founder (and sole member) of the Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur, a position more in keeping with his highly personal religious convictions. Despite the split, however, Satie's so-called 'Rosicrucian adventure' produced some of the composer's most enigmatic and extraordinary works.

disc one

TROIS SONNERIES DE LA ROSE + CROIX (1892)
Three fanfares for trumpets and harps written by Satie circa February 1892, and possibly also scored for orchestra. All three Sonneries were premiered at the inauguration of the first Salon de la Rose-Croix at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, on 10 March 1892, amidst Symbolist painting by Alexandre Séon, Carlos Schwabe and others. The trio were repeated at the first Rose + Croix Soirée on 22 March, when the Air du Grand Prieur appeared as Sonnerie de l'Archonte. The titular Grand Maitre of No. 2 was Joséphin Péladan, and the Grand Prieur of No. 3 Le Comte Antoine de la Rochefoucauld. The Air de l'Ordre represents a rare experiment by Satie with elements of sonata form, together with proportional symmetry based on the principle of the Golden Section.

PREMIERE PENSEE ROSE + CROIX (1891)
Brief march written for piano in January 1891, and possibly the Marche antique pour la Rose-Croix by Bihn Grallon (aka Erik Satie) performed at the fourth of Péladan's Rosicrucian soirées in late March 1892.

[1er] PRELUDE DU NAZAREEN (1892)
[2e] PRELUDE DU NAZAREEN (1892)
Two preludes written in June 1892 as incidental music for Le Nazaréen, an esoteric chivalric play in three acts by Henri Mazel. Like Les Fils des étoiles, both serve as immobile sound décor, and bear little or no relation to their theatrical context. Indeed Satie appears to have turned to literature for inspiration, constructing musical 'prose' from a series of motifs which are articulated at irregular intervals by a distinctive punctuation phrase.

PRELUDE DE LA PORTE HEROIQUE DU CIEL (1894)
Incidental music for an esoteric drama in one act by Jules Bois, written circa February 1894, which premiered on 29 May and concerned a poet sent forth by Christ on a hazardous mission to supplant the Virgin Mary by the cult of Isis. Satie also contributed to a journal edited by Bois, Le Couer. The prelude is regarded as one of the finest works from Satie's Rosicrucian period, warmer and less aloof than most, yet still remarkably self-contained. Indeed Satie liked this miniature so much that he dedicated it to himself.

PRIERE (1893)
Untitled composition for piano, published as part of the Pages Mystiques by Editions Eschig in 1969.

VEXATIONS (extract) (1893)
Seemingly written by Satie in the middle of 1893, the extraordinary score for Vexations is just three lines long, yet a complete performance (of 840 repetitions) may last for anything between 14 and 28 hours. First performed by John Cage in September 1963, this radical work remained unpublished until 1969 (within Pages Mystiques) but is now recognised as a milestone in the development of the musical avant-garde generally, and minimalism in particular.

HARMONIES (undated)

Three untitled compositions for piano, published as part of the Pages Mystiques by Editions Eschig in 1969.

disc two

LE FILS DES ETOILES (1891)
Three preludes written circa December 1981 as incidental music (or 'static sound décor') for a play of the same title by Joséphin Péladan, set in Chaldea in 3500 BC, and rejected by every large theatre in Paris. The title translates as Son of the Stars. The material was eventually premiered at a public dress rehearsal for the first Soirée Rose + Croix at the Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, on 19 March 1892. The programme announced that: "Monsieur Erik Satie has composed three preludes for harps and flutes, of an admirably Oriental character, which, before each act, prepare the impatient spectator for the tableau he will see." It is said that this music passed above the heads of many in the (impatient) audience, and met with stony silence.

USPUD ('Ballet chrétien') (1892)
Satie's three act 'christian ballet' was completed on 17 November 1892, with text by the Spanish-born poet José-Maria Patricio Manuel Contamine, aka Contamine de Latour. A second version was prepared overnight on 16-17 December 1892 for the benefit of Eugene Bertrand, director of the Paris Opéra. Uspud apparently took 72 days to complete, and may have been intended for the shadow theatre at the Auberge du Clou, the cabaret where Satie was then employed as a pianist. It was premiered only in 1979, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Although ultimately a work of serious intent, Uspud was meant in part to shock and ridicule the Parisian musical establishment. Ever theatrical, Satie challenged Bertrand to a duel in order to gain the work a hearing (the director declined), although their subsequent peaceable meeting allowed Satie to claim that the work had been 'presented' (if not actually performed) at the Paris Opéra. Uspud can perhaps be viewed as an early experiment in the theatre of the absurd, the text of which was published entirely in lower case lettering.

Having split with Péladan's mystic order in August 1892, Satie began work on the 'sacred music' for Uspud with de Latour just a few weeks later. The story evolves around a single character, Uspud, described as a young, rich and handsome pagan, who experiences various visions during the first two acts, including demons, deformed creatures and the Christian church. In the third, a procession of saints summon him to martyrdom, but he is torn to pieces by demons before angels convey his body towards heaven. The action onstage is thus at odds with the calm and serenity of Satie's music.


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