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Vexations is a noted work by Erik Satie. It
consists of a short chordal passage, and is intended to be
repeated 840 times.
On the score, it is written that "Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et
dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses" - "In order to play this motif 840 times consecutively to
oneself, it will be useful to prepare oneself beforehand, and in utter silence, by grave immobilities."
First public performance
The work was first played in public the requisite 840 times, by a team of pianists: John Cage, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, Philip Corner, Viola Farber, Robert Wood, MacRae Cook, John
Cale, David Del
Tredici, James Tenney, Howard Klein (the New York Times reviewer, who
coincidentally was asked to play in the course of the event) and Joshua Rifkin, with two reserves, on September 9, 1963, from 6 pm to 12.40 pm the following day. Although,
doubtlessly, John Cage was instrumental for some misconceptions about Erik Satie's work in general, nonetheless his 4' 33" composition could maybe be seen as
the perfect "prelude" to Erik Satie's Vexations - how otherwise to execute the
prescribed "immobilités sérieuses"?
Meaning
The piece's title was not explained by Satie. Some (e.g. Claude
Coppens) even doubt whether it was really Satie that gave the piece it's name: the title "Vexations" appears to have
originated around the time of the first (facsimile) edition of the work in
1949 (in Contrepoints N°6). Likewise, the assertion that the Vexations would be the second piece in a 3-part
"Pages mystiques" appears rather dodgy, and not going back further than the 2nd edition of the work (Eschig, 1969),
a period when Erik Satie's editors seemed obsessed to force any of his compositions in
a three-part structure (long after Satie had ridiculed such ideas in his 7-part Trois
morceaux en forme de poire). Anyway, conjectures regarding the meaning of the Vexations (and their title) were construed
long after Satie's death (in most cases supported by not more than minute indications), amongst others:
- The notation of the chords makes liberal use of enharmonic equivalents, making it difficult to immediately read.
- The Vexations could be interpreted as Satie's coming to terms with Wagnerism, which was riding high in musical
life of those days: Satie definitely loathed all kinds of "Germanic" music (so not only Richard Wagner's, but also the music of Wagner's German antipodes). He loathed even more the French contemporary composers emulating what he
experienced as Wagner-like romanticism (e.g. Camille Saint-Saëns, César Franck,...). In this interpretation the Vexations would be Satie's (ironic?) defiance that he could outdo music as lengthy and intense as e.g. Wagner's Ring, using only the limited (one would be tempted to say
"minimalist", but that would be an anachronism) resources that were compatible with his own views on the true nature of French music -
and/or, corresponding to his then more than modest means. Note that it is all but clear that his ideas about the limpid nature of
French music had fully developed in this early stage. Whatsoever, the Vexations can be seen as an attack on - or a parodic emulation of - what in Wagnerian music
is known as "unendliche Melodie" (never-ending melody), which is a melody supported by a sheer endless progression of complex chords - which harmonically doesn't exactly lead anywhere. In mood and compositional technique this brings the Vexations near to
the - certainly mocking - "Choral inappétissant" ("unsavoury Choral"), the first (introductory) piece of "Sports et
divertissements", which he composed more than 20 years later, after he had studied conventional harmony for several years.
- The Vexations were written in a period that Satie's approach to harmony was at least exotic, rather related to a modal line of thought than to conventional harmony. In order to understand what follows it should be appreciated that, in those days, the only two established
harmonic systems in western
music were either the (older) modal system - which was up for some kind of
revival, by e.g. Gabriel Fauré -, at the one side, and the conventional
harmonic system of tonal music, firmly
instored since late baroque era, on the other (the - Germanic - twelve tone system being still more than a decade away, while also
Claude Debussy - much nearer to Satie - appears not to have questioned
classic tonality till shortly after the Vexations were written). Harmonically the Vexations appear to be an exercise in
non-resolving tritones, one of the anathemata of conventional harmony (i.e.: in conventional harmony tritones
are not forbidden as such, but they should be immediately resolved in the next chord, what doesn't happen in the Vexations). In historical modal music tritones were cursed as
such, known as Devils in music (and thus totally anathema). It is not certain whether the various sects and cults frequented by Satie in those days would have had theological
objections and/or sympathies towards these particular "Devils", and/or to the fact that the "motif" is subdivided in parts of
13 beats. Maybe
Satie's intent was nothing more than to prove that any harmonic and rhytmic system was only a matter of habit for
the hearer (and not resulting from innate or divine preconception, as his contemporaries would think): so that after listening
840 times to a chordal
system that is at odds with any habitual one, and set in an odd metre, one would possibly start to
experience this new system to be as natural as any other - an experiment he was likely to have taken serious, and maybe directly
or indirectly influenced Debussy. A reference to Liszt's "Bagatelle ohne Tonart" ("bagatelles without a key"), written a decade earlier, is
maybe possible, but, apart from being uncertain that Satie ever heard about this music (and equally that he would have had more
than incidental knowledge of it's underlaying "Zukunftsharmoniesystem" theory, which was rather the idea of making tonality wane by means of
excessive consecutive modulations, extending the Wagnerian style), arguably the Vexations - lacking any form of conventional modulation - are written in the key of C (which would be something like "C tritonal", while neither Minor nor Major, nor any Modal key),
I, V and IV being the bass-notes starting respectively 3 groups of 4 quarter-note
beats from the start of every measure on, moving towards an unresolved III in the
13nd and final beat. Note that this clash of the Vexations with any prior harmonic system is rarely discussed, not even in public
concert reviews: maybe after all Satie was right, habituation to some atonality
would settle in one day or another - although it has to be said that a decade after composing the Vexations Satie would give
himself considerable effort to conform to the tonal system (but that could have
been intended as a reductio ad absurdum).
- Although the date of composition is uncertain (supposedly mid 1893), the Vexations appear to have been composed shortly after
a brief flirtatious relation with Suzanne Valadon, the nearest Erik
Satie ever got to a relation with a woman. One of the testimonies of this relation is, apart from pictures they drew of each
other, Satie's optimistic composition "Bonjour Biqui" (April 1893), Biqui being a nick-name for his beloved, and the composition
being an echo of how Satie was customary to greet her. This composition takes, on paper, almost as much room as the Vexations,
but no indication that it should be played more than once, so, when executed, it is infinitely shorter than the Vexations. Still,
both compositions could be seen to have a mantra-like quality, one gay - the other arid
(remains the question how Satie would have appreciated the idea of a "mantra").
Whatsoever, it would not be all that surprising that Satie being "vexé" (angry, even: spiteful) for being rejected by
his "Biqui", wanted to disenchant himself from what she had meant to him, by composing a piece that would help forget all
frivolous feelings.
- Other (not less troublesome, because at least anachronistic) explanations
involve Dadaism (which was only invented in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, Satie having at most a sideway involvement); Musique d'ameublement (which
was composed by Satie only from 1920 on, at which time he described it as a novelty);
etc...
Why Satie chose 840 as the number of repetitions also has been subject to conjecture: no conclusive argument showed up why he
would have preferred this number to any other. The fact that 840 is the product of the numbers from 4 to 7 does not shed much additional light on the meaning that the number
840 might have had to Satie, though it has to be noted that some of the
sects or cults Satie was involved in before the end
of the nineteenth century - including some of which he was the
only member - were acquainted with numerology.
Execution
There is no indication that Satie intended the Vexations for public performance (and certainly not as a "tour de force" of endurance to impress
- or bore to death - a public) - the introductory text he wrote, as quoted above, rather indicating it was intended as a
one-person experience (e.g. as a restrained way to work off anger, or, in order to get one's ears tuned to an unconventional
harmonic system and
metre). Satie did no effort to get either "Vexations" or "Bonjour
Biqui" published during his life, scarcely communicating about their existence (there were more of his compositions sharing this
fate).
As to the total duration of the work, and whether it is to be played loud or silent, it is hard to ascertain what Satie's
intentions were:
- No metronomical tempo indication: the
score mentions "Très lent" (very slow), which could mean anything while the composition has not a melody that could be
experienced as falling in one or another "natural" cadence - at least not at first sight: some (e.g. the pianist Armin Fuchs, who executed the work in its
entirety several times) argue there is a natural candence nonetheless (26 quarter-note beats per minute in Fuchs' case, which
extends total execution to 28 hours).
- It is not clear whether Satie intended the bass-line (equal to both halves of the composition) to be repeated before EVERY
half vexation: his precise instruction is "À ce signe il sera d'usage de présenter le thème de la Basse" - "At this sign
customarily the theme of the Bass will be presented" (the "sign" occuring twice, before each half of the composition): "être
d'usage" not really being an obligation.
- Even the 840 repeats have been questioned, for several reasons: in a "Mantra" or
"habituation" approach there is not much sense in counting exactly how many times one repeats the "motif" to oneself. Also the
indication Satie gives does not implicate it is mandatory to repeat 840 times: it is only a remark about the kind of preparation
that is needed in the event that one wants to play it 840 times consecutively to oneself. There is no certainty Satie ever played
the Vexations (or knew them executed), either with or without repeats (probably neither, because in the course of such action it
probably would have emerged that the A on the 6th beat of the second half of the motif needs an accidental one way or another: either a pitch-changing accidental, like for the A's immediately before - beat 2
- or after - beat 8 - this A, either a natural, to make the middle melody of the second half of the motif identical to the
high-pitch melody of the first half - I suppose in present-day executions generally the imaginary natural is played, see e.g.
[1] ).
- No indication whatsoever regarding at what volume it has to be played.
- It is not clear whether exactly the same speed and volume for every repetition is advisory: in the "vexation"-anger
comparison mentioned above, it would not be impossible to imagine moods (expressed by tempo and volume, and additional expression
by means of arpeggio, rubato, and the
like) swinging from "rage" to "dejection", and everything in between, all along the same sitting - while obviously the standard
interpretation, which is a monotonous execution (keeping to the same tempo and volume)
throughout, maximally avoiding romantic implication, is more than
arguably correct too.
Although, formally, there is no unambiguous indication either that the Vexations should be played on the piano, there is however little doubt that this is the intended instrument, an execution
on another keyboard instrument - like e.g. the then popular
harmonium - not being impossible.
Downloadable MIDI-files
From Wikipedia a ZIP-file containing, in MIDI-format, two different computer-generated versions of the Vexations can
be downloaded, by clicking this link: two different computer-generated versions of the Vexations. The
downloadable file contains also a readme regarding the parameters that were used for
these interpretations or renderings of the Vexations.
External links
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