Autograph Postcard with Surrealist Message about "Parade"

An amusing autograph postcard from the important French composer, jokingly asking to have a thousand copies of his ballet "Parade" sent to the Parisian bus company, and continuing with a commedia-dell'arte-themed pun on "my friend Paul Ichinelle" [Polichinelle, or Pulcinella]. Addressed to Robert Cortet; undated [ca. 1917]. The verso of the postcard features a caricature of Satie by Alfred Frueh. Translated from the French: "Would you please have delivered to the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus one thousand copies of "Parade." If my friend Paul Ichinell asks, I have gone to be shaved by Labarbe, the critic."

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) (14764)

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Signed Photograph

Autograph Letter

Classical Music

$6,500.00

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