Satie, Erik. (1866-1925)

"PARADE" - Autograph Musical Quotation

Very rare AMQS from one of the most revolutionary musical works of the twentieth century. Five measures, boldly penned on a 20.5 x 11.5 cm oblong sheet of manuscript paper, titled and signed "Erik Satie" in bold brown ink and with a trimmed original and apparently unpublished photograph of Satie mounted to the page below. The quotation is the most instantly identifiable motif of the work, the idée fixe which is regularly repeated over the course of the composition. The sheet somewhat wrinkled and toned and with some small stains, nicks and small tears around the edges, overall very good. Matted and set in a fine hand-gilted frame to 33 x 24.5 cm overall.

The circus-like Parade was composed for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, based on a scenario by Cocteau, with curtain, sets and costumes by Picasso and choreography by Leonide Massine. First performed at the Théâtre de Chatelet on May 18, 1917 and conducted by Ernest Ansermet, the program notes were by Apollinaire who described the work as "a kind of surrealism" ("une sorte de surréalisme"), thus coining the word three years before Surrealism emerged as an art movement in Paris. To no one's great surprise, the premiere was highlighted by boos, catcalls and a near-riot. "This epoch making ballet, whose unchanging pulse is that of the human heartbeat, put Satie into the forefront of the avant garde and from then on his primary aim was to make his music chic, Parisian and shocking." (Grove) (10698)

AMQS Classical Music