The score of Satie’s Vexations prompts speculative associations to Beethoven’s “Prometheus” Variations and to the verbal stunts of cabaret poets like Charles Cros. Satie’s instructions for the performer at the segno “to take up the thème de la Basse, to wit [and the bass theme is notated]” are confusing, leading to the question of how one should perform the work with texts that may not be read to the audience. Satie’s art lies in its suggestion of multiple significances of which one was to parody Beethoven through musical borrowing, bringing to mind his Embryons desséchés and its parody of the ending of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8. Satie’s experience in the cabaret sphere influenced his artistic tendencies and compositional technique. One such influence pertains to the multiple parodic associations in Satie’s music, and his Vexations shares affinities with some verbal games cultivated at the Chat Noir, the successor to a group of bohemian poets and musicians. Satie also shares the same aesthetic aims of economy and minimalism with Santiago Rusiñol and Cros. The 840-fold repetition of the “ce motif” in Vexations demonstrates an attempt to imitate the holorhymic verses of the French poetry. While it sounds almost identical, Satie subjects the musical material to various transpositions and voicings, resulting in a work where every musical phrase completely rhymes with every other. Therefore, he is essentially composing a monumental parody of Beethoven’s “Prometheus” Variations by reducing the musical idea to the eternal sameness of a musical holorhyme.

Works: Satie: Vexations (313), Embryons desséchés(313).

Sources: Beethoven: “Prometheus” Variations, Op. 35 (313), Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (313).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Jingyi Zhang