Vexations
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Vexations is a noted musical 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 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. the following day. Although, doubtlessly, John Cage was instrumental in creating some misconceptions about Erik Satie's work in general; nonetheless, Cage's 4' 33" composition could possibly 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. The piece was first printed in 1949 (in facsimile form, by John Cage in Contrepoints N°6). The assertion that the Vexations would be the second piece in a 3-part "Pages mystiques" appears uncertain, and not going back further than the 1969 edition of the work (by Max Eschig), a period when Erik Satie's editors seemed determined to publish any of his compositions in a three-part structure. 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 or Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage, 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", [Autograph] [Audio]), 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, see: [link]). 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 and/or Ravel. An intended reference to Rossini's piano pieces "Des tritons s’il vous plaït (Montée-descente)" (also exploring tritones) or "Un rien sur le mode enharmonique" is very unlikely, while not yet published at that time. A reference to Liszt's "Bagatelle ohne Tonart" ("bagatelles without a key", see: [link]), 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 its underlying "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 a 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 partly 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, but intense, 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 the 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 contains no indication that it should be played more than once; thus, when executed, it is (not quite, but effectively) infinitely shorter than the Vexations. Still, both compositions could be seen to have a mantra-like quality, one gay and the other arid (what remains, of course, is the question as to how Satie would (or would not) have appreciated the idea of a "mantra"). Regardless, it would not be all that surprising that Satie—being "vexé" ("angry", or even "spiteful") about being rejected by his "Biqui"—wanted to disenchant himself from what she had meant to him, by composing a piece that would help him forget all such frivolous feelings. Possibly he was relieving himself with a kind of musical curse (given the implications of "Devils" and the unlucky number "13" described in the previous paragraph).
- Maybe Satie was spoofing the Perpetuum mobile genre: many 19th century composers had composed such - then very popular - separate pieces with an 'indefinite' number of repeats, mostly leaning on enthralling virtuosity: references like "immobilities"; a DEFINITE (but out of proportion high) number of repeats; an unconventional harmony; "very slow", instead of the usual very rapid movement of a Perpetuum mobile; etc..., all might indicate that Satie was making a parody of this genre, trying to get even with the cheap effects of content-less virtuosity in an uninspired harmonical and rhytmical scheme, that his contemporaries would use to suggest "rapture" to their public (... by writing a contrasting intimistic piece that could induce mystical trance of another kind).
- The deeply rooted idea (from its first publication on) that the Vexations might have been intended by Satie as an experiment regarding boredom appears to find few support in ideas expressed by Satie himself (condemning composers that bored their public in any way). But this might be an explanation why Satie never publicised the Vexations.
- Other (not less cumbersome, because at least anachronistic) explanations involve Dadaism (which was only invented by the end the 2nd decade of the 20th century); Musique d'ameublement (also not before the end of the 2nd decade of the 20th century, at which time Satie described it as a novelty); conceptual art (not before 1960s); etc... - In other words: one could as well, and less anachronistic, call the Vexations a "typical" fin de siècle product.
Finally, considering the many questions that remain regarding the composition, it could be seen in a tradition of Riddle music, somewhere between the "riddle fugues" of Bach's Musikalische Opfer and Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Execution
There is no indication that Satie intended the Vexations for public performance (and certainly not as a "" 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, or not at all, 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 cadence 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 in between of 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" occurring in between of every half Vexation): "être d'usage" not really being an obligation. There is more to be said about this sign: modern executions and editions of the score usually interpret that for every Vexation the "thème de la Basse" is to be played twice, while the original manuscript of Satie indicates the "sign" for playing this theme three times: once preceding (and quite above) the "motif", and once after every half of the "motif", which seems to indicate that the "thème de la Basse" has to be played before the "motif" is played the first time (which is usually done), but also that it is the "thème de la Basse" concluding the complete cycle (and not the 840th pass of the second half of the motif, as it is usually interpreted). This would extend the total execution time with about half a minute.
- 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. Probably in most performances the imaginary natural is played, see for example [this online PDF version of the Vexations, having added the ♮]).
- 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, in a sort of "Etudes d'execution transcendente"-style - 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.
- While the bass-note ending the motif is a major third above the first bass-note of the motif, even an execution with a modulating progression for every repeat would not be unthinkable: Satie nowhere indicates that the "motif" (which is by definition a musical entity NOT tied to a particular key) or the "bass theme" is to be executed at the same pitch every time.
Ornella Volta (from the Archives Erik Satie in Paris) prepares a dossier with several studies regarding this work and its executions. This dossier, that as of July 2005 has not yet been published, will contain a full analysis and a facsimile reproduction of the original partition.
Downloadable MIDI files
From Wikipedia a ZIP-file containing, in MIDI format, [two different computer-generated versions of the Vexations] can be downloaded. The downloadable file contains also a readme regarding the parameters that were used for these interpretations or renderings of the Vexations. See also
for details.
External links
- [Description of the Vexations by Stephen Whittington, including a reduced image of the manuscript]
- [Serious Immobilities: On the centenary of Erik Satie's Vexations] by Stephen Whittington
- A short harmonic analysis of Vexations and a music sample (half a vexation) can be found on: http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/samples.html
- [Understanding Satie's 'Vexations' by Robert Orledge] - This article includes an elaborate analysis of the Vexations compositional system, a facsimile and transcription of the Bonjour Biqui composition, etc...
- [The Vexations recording homepage] containing, amongst other interesting topics, a life recorded MIDI-version of the Vexations, and the EEG of the pianist Armin Fuchs during the 28 hours he played them, leading to the conclusion that a trance can't be avoided when keeping scrupulously to Satie's instructions.
- [Vexations and its performers] by Gavin Bryars
- [web vex] web form that allows a user to generate arbitrary length realizations of vexations (between 16 and 9999 repetitions).
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