Gnossienne No. 1

Background

Erik Satie wrote his first three Gnossiennes around 1890, a couple of years after the Gymnopédies. The word was his own invention. It is often linked to Knossos, the ancient palace on Crete, and sometimes to gnosis, Greek for knowledge; Satie never explained it, and the vagueness seems deliberate. Many writers connect the pieces' unusual, faintly Eastern colour with the music from around the world that could be heard at the great Paris World's Fair of 1889. Three more Gnossiennes, unpublished in his lifetime, appeared in print long after his death.

Satie wrote No. 1 without time signatures or bar lines, so the melody seems to wander freely. Beyond a simple Lent (slow), instead of normal expression marks he scattered odd little instructions through the music, such as Très luisant ("very shiny") and Questionnez ("question"). They are not meant to be followed literally, but they suggest a mood: private, curious and slightly mysterious. The edition used here adds bars of four beats so the piece can be counted.

How to practise it

The left hand is very simple, and it never changes its pattern. On beat 1 it plays a low bass note; on beats 2 and 4 it plays a chord higher up.

Practise the leap until you can make it without looking, and keep the chords soft, like a quiet clock ticking under the melody. Once it is secure, you hardly need to think about it.

The melody is where the character lives. It moves in eighth and quarter notes, and many of its long notes are decorated with a very quick grace note just before them.

Notice the B natural in bar 2. Against the F minor harmony it sounds strange and ancient, and it is the heart of the piece's colour. Play the melody alone until its shape feels natural, then add the grace notes as quick flicks into the main note.

The piece is made of short blocks that return several times. Two others to learn: bars 19 and 20, where the harmony moves down to B flat minor, and bar 27, where the melody climbs a scale from C to a high B before falling back.

A plan:

1. Left hand alone at 60 beats a minute.
2. Melody alone, then with the grace notes.
3. Hands together at 60, then 80, then the full 96.
4. Find every block that repeats, and learn each one only once.

Change the pedal on every beat 1. Keep the whole piece quiet and unhurried, and let the melody bend and breathe a little once the notes are secure.

For more of Satie's slow, spare piano style, see Gymnopédie No. 1.