Satie and the Art of Dedication

Author(s): Robert Orledge

Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 73, No. 4 (Nov., 1992), pp. 551-564
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 SATIE AND THE ART OF DEDICATION
By ROBERT ORLEDGE
FOR a born iconoclast who delighted in flauntinghis Bolshevismin high societyin
his later years, Satie's dedications on his published music seem relativelyconven-
tional on the surface. But the list of close friendsand patrons contains some sur-
prises and hitherto unknown quantities; the dedicatees range from a mythical
religiousorder (the Danses gothiques of 1893) to the modernizerof the musical saw
(the Premier menuet of 1920) and even include Satie himself.' Perhaps the biggest
surpriseis that there are almost as many published pieces withoutdedications (73)
as with (91); including the many titled worksunpublished during Satie's lifetime,
undedicated pieces are in the majorityby far. Among the undedicated publications
are importantpieces such as the Trois morceaux en forme de poire and Sports et
divertissements, and as withso many other aspects of Satie, one can search almost in
vain for a prevailing logic in this matter. Why, for instance, are the firsttwo
Sarabandes and Gnossiennes dedicated while the third is not? Why is a relatively
obscure waltz like Poudre d'or dedicated while 'Je te veux', which became very
popular through its performances by Paulette Darty (the 'Queen of the Slow
Waltz'), bears no dedication? And whydid Satie, who usually dedicated each piece
in his setsof threeseparately,decide to dedicate the Piecesfroides (1897) as two sets
of threepieces when theyare published by Rouart-Lerolle in 1912? In thislast case,
one is tempted to thinkthat the Airs a&fairefuireand the Danses de traverswere so
closelyinterrelatedmusicallyas to be inseparable,2 but then the three famous Gym-
nopedies of 1888 also use the same formulathroughoutand theyare each dedicated
separately. In fact, the only conclusion about Satie the composer that can be drawn
fromhis dedications with any certaintyis that he was so unsure of his way forward
afterhis move fromMontmartreto Arcueil in 1898 that he dedicated onlytwoof the
many new pieces he wrotebetween then and early 1913. His 'discovery'by Ravel in
1911, it is true, prompted a flurryof publications in 1911-12, but these were all
earlier works which were then dedicated (or rededicated) when they were issued.
Even the Veritablespreludesflasques of 1912, throughwhich Satie finallyfound his
path to the future,are headed only by a quotation fromthe pianist Ricardo Vinies
('Tres "neuf heures du matin" '), and it was not until the sets of humorous piano
pieces began appearing in relative profusion in 1913 that Satie returned to the
regular dedications of his early Montmartreyears.
During thisfirstperiod several interestingtraitsemerge. The firstis that while he
lived with his father(Alfred Satie, 1842-1903) and his stepmother(Eugenie Satie-

' Satie was evidentlyso pleased with his Pr6lude de La Porte heroique du ciel in 1894 that he headed it 'Jeme
dedie cette oeuvre. E.S.' Among the shorterRose-Croix pieces, this prelude to an esoteric play byJules Bois has the
greatest number of motifs(eighteen), the greatest metrical variety(through its motivicjuxtapositions) and perhaps
the most satisfyingformal proportions (through its recurring cadential motifs).
2 This attribute is shared by the Trois poemes d'amour, dedicated as a set in 1914. They also follow the same

formatin each piece, and in this case were probably too short (eight bars) to be separately dedicated. The three sets
of Enfantines for piano are a similar case.

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Barnetche, 1832-1916) in 1885-7, he followed their practice of dedicating pieces
withinthe familycircle. Both Alfredand Eugenie were prolific,if veryminor, salon
composers: Alfred specialized in songs in the music-hall genre while Eugenie
favouredmorceaux de salon forpiano of the sortpopularized by Cecile Chaminade.
There is even one instance of Erik and Alfred dedicating pieces to the same lady:
Erik dedicated his Valse-ballet (1885) and the thirdof his Ogives of 1886 to Mme
Cle'mentLe Breton, who is also the dedicatee of Alfred'spolka-mazurka forpiano
entitled Connubial Bliss (Op. 35).3 It is, of course, possible that the plump, simper-
ing cherubs transportinga garland of flowersand ribbons on the cover reflected
Alfred'sidyllicrelationshipwithhis second wife,but Satie resentedher and her con-
ventional ambitions. It seems likelythat it was Eugenie who galvanized Alfred(an
insurance underwriter)into additional action as a music publisher soon aftertheir
marriage in 1879, probably so that she could get her own works published more
easily. As a formerpiano teacher withsocial aspirations,she probably triedto create
her own salon, encouraging Alfred's slender compositional talents in the process.
Erik seems at firstto have tried to fitinto this familycircle, withhis salon pieces of
1885 (the Valse-ballet and Fantaisie-valse for piano), but to be fair to Alfred, he
did publish Satie's fiveearly songs of 1886-7 under his own imprint,and he prob-
ably arranged forthe 1885 pieces to appear in La Musique desfamilles in 1887 and
introducedErik to his own printer,Dupre, at 26 rue du Delta, Paris 9, who perhaps
gave him favourable rates when h.- brought out the third Gymnopedie privatelyin
1888. Alfred probably encouraged his son far more than Eugenie did, but it is
highlyunlikelythat he understood what he was tryingto achieve fromthe Ogives
onwards. So these pieces too had to be published privatelyby Dupre (in 1889), and
Satie left the nest as soon as he could (reputedly in the wake of an affairwith a
familymaid at 66 Boulevard Magenta late in 1887).
The second aspect implied by the early dedications is that Satie was particularly
close to his brotherConrad and to Charles-Gaston Levade (a budding composer in
the styleof Massenet who claims to have taught Satie harmonyduring thisperiod4),
each of whom received three separate dedications, the most Satie ever awarded.
Levade was given the song 'Les Anges' (see Ex. lb, below), the second Ogive (both
1886) and the third Gymnope'die;5while Conrad received the fourthOgive, the first
Sarabande6 and the second Gymnopedie (when it was published privatelyin 1895).
The fact that the Sarabande dedication was withdrawnwhen it was published in
1911, and that no dedication to Conrad exists afterthe move to Arcueil, confirms
that theirrelationscooled during the 1900s. Although theyrecoveredtheirVincent
and Theo van Gogh relationshipafter1911, it was neverquite as close on Erik'spart

3 Published under his own imprint in 1890 (A.S. 112). The familywere then living at 66 Boulevard Magenta,
Paris 9, having moved there (to larger premises?) from No. 26 in late 1886. The typical ornamental cover of Con-
nubial Bliss, predominantly in red, was designed by L. Denis.
4 In an enquiry in 1932, Levade maintained that 'It was I who corrected his firstsongs,
which resembled plea-
sant creations by Massenet. I gave him harmony lessons; not for long, however, forhe quickly felta need to develop
his own imagination . . . "It was you who encouraged me to compose", Satie told me.' (From Marius Richard: 'Une
controverse musicale: Claude Debussy et Erik Satie', La LibertJ (13 January 1932), 2.)
5 The manuscript of the third Gymnopedie (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS 8537 (3))
reveals that this piece
was originally dedicated (in pencil, crossed out in ink) 'A Monsieur Georges Mathias', probably in 1888. This is
most surprisinggiven Satie's earlier experiences in Mathias's piano classes at the Paris Conservatoire in 1885 -6, and
it suggeststhat Satie held the teacher, both of himselfand his stepmother, in higher esteem than has generally been
realized.
6 Bibliotheque Nationale MS 14457, p. 1. The title-page also carries an extract from Contamine
de Latour's
vividlyapocalyptic poem 'La Perdition' (in his hand), which bears no relation to the calm and hieratic Sarabande.

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once he achieved recognitionand a much wider circle of friends.Incidentally,the
only otherrelativeto receive a dedication was his youngersisterOlga (with the song
'Sylvie' in 1886).7 Satic's poetic friendJ. P. Contamine de Latour, who wrote the
words of all these early songs, had the Fantaisie-valse and firstOgive dedicated to
him but none of the songs-Satie never dedicated a collaborative piece to a co-
author. Even the fact that he and Contamine de Latour continued to worktogether
until at least 1905 brought no furtherdedications.
The third interestingtrait among Satie's early dedicatees is that several of them
were composers. Levade also set poems by Contamine de Latour in the same period,
some of which were published by AlfredSatie,8 but therewas no question of musical
inter-influence.Levade (as a pupil of Massenet) went on to win the Prix de Rome in
1899 withhis cantata Callirhoe, an accolade that Satie thoroughlydetested,and Ex.
la, an extractfromLevade's settingof Contamine de Latour's poem 'Sonnet', shows
this conventional, purely nineteenth-centurystyle in the making. Ex. lb, from
Satie's Contamine de Latour song 'Les Anges', appears at firstsightto be farless ac-
complished chromatically,and it is easy to see whyLevade mighthave thoughtthat
Satie needed lessons in 1886. But a closer inspection of the undulating seventh
chords and the vocal line (based predominantlyon perfectfourthsand fifths)reveals
that the detached, non-functional,quasi-religious styleof Satie's early period was
already present in embryonic form. As in the Gymnopedies, the solo line floats
above the chords which pursue their own static path with internal repetitionsand
the expected cadences obscured by flattened leading notes (bar 8). Soon, Satie
would dispense with phrase-markingsalmost entirelyin the Rose-Croix works,but
the beginningsof this can be seen in the way that bar 8 in Ex. lb leads withouta
break into bar 9, and the vocal phrasing again worksin counterpointwith the ac-
companiment in bars 9-10, creating a seamless web. But Satie certainlyneeded en-
couragement to compose, and it was this support rather than Levade's technical
superioritythat undoubtedly accounts for the close bond between the two young
composers in the later 1880s.
Mlle Celeste Le Predour (the dedicatee of the Contamine de Latour song 'Elegie'
(1886), was also a minorcomposerwho made Mendcelssohniansettingsof well-known
poets such as Charles d'Orleans, Victor Hugo and Sully-Prud'hommein the 1880s,
some of which were published by Choudens.9 She had a penchant foracciaccaturas,
which can be seen in the introductionto her settingof Victor Hugo's 'Chanson
d'autrefois' (Ex. 2). I have not been able to ascertain whether Mme Clement Le
Breton was the Francine Le Breton who published a polka entitled Coeur de rubis
(dedicated to Mme Judith Gauthier) in 1888, but as this has a cover design by H.
Viollet, who also designed the cover of Alfred Satie's polka Souvenir de Honfleur
(Op. 28), she mayhave been.
The most fascinatingof the early composer-dedicatees is ArthurDodement, who
has the unique distinctionof having two pieces dedicated to him in Satie's original
manuscripts,both of which were rededicated to others on publication. Perhaps he
fell spectacularly from grace in the 1890s? But whatever the reason, the second

' Two years later Alfred Satie followed suit with Olga (Op. 29), a waltz dedicated to his daughter.
Eugenie
Satie-Barnetche never dedicated anything to her husband or to her acquired children, as far as I know.
8 For instance, 'Sonnet', published in 1888. Levade also set 'A Myrtille' and 'Derniers reproches'
in 1889
(published by A. Quinzard); here again it seems that Satie set the pattern that others followed.
9 For example, 'Le Vase brise' (Sully-Prud'homme), published by Choudens in 1881, and the setting
of Charles
d'Orleans's 'Rondel' ('1440'), published in 1890.

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Ex. 1
(a) Charles Levade, 'Sonnet' (publishedby AlfredSatie, 1888), p. 2. Words byJ. P.
Contamine de Latour.

Moderato (J= 68)

it-
#PLL( I 1 11 J 1' I i i
Vous qui m'a-vez con - nu plon- ge dans la tris- tes - se, (D'oii)

LL 4 444 &P 4 40 4. v a Ao*,

6): IIA 4 #r
- ir Tr ? #r #
iI

(b) Satie, 'Les Anges' (publishedby AlfredSatie, 1887, as Op. 20 no. 1), bars 5-10.
Words byJ. P. Contamine de Latour. Dedicated 'a Charles Levade'.
Lent (J 54)
A 9i PP 7L
Ti 'Li I Io( Ij ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~I P

Ve-tus de blanc_ dans l'a-zurclair, Lais - sant d&-ploy-er

leurslongs

voi-les,__ Les an-ges pla-nent dans l'e- ther

8 ri VMi
ir
,r

Ex. 2 Celeste Le Predour, 'Chanson d'autrefois'(1883), introduction

A.4 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 5
Allegett
.4 5 . . <

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Gymnopediewas rededicated to Conrad Satie and the second Sarabande to Ravel in
1911 (as a rewardforintroducingit, and Satie, to a widerpublic throughthe Societe
Musicale Independante). This also shows that it was only in these early years that
Satie dedicated his pieces at the manuscriptstage-with the single exception of the
unfinishedviolin and piano barcarolle L"Embarquement pour Cythere',which was
dedicated to the violinistHeleneJourdan-Morhange while stillat the sketchstage in
March 1917. Like Eugenie Satie-Barnetche, ArthurDodement was a prolificsalon
composer, though one of wider abilities and horizons. He lived at 86 rue Monge in
the Latin Quarter of Paris, and wrotea good deal of chamber music in a functional
Romantic stylewhich, at its best, could pass forinferiorMassenet or Pierne. His ex-
tant publications preservedin the Bibliotheque Nationale (most were issued by 0.
Bornemann or A. Peregally et Parvy fils) cover the period 1893-1910, so one can
assume that he was a slightlyyounger contemporaryof Satie's; he also turned his
hand to religiousmusic (including a Mass) and to operetta.' Since Satie is knownto
have writtena Marche antique pour la Rose-Croix in the early 1890s, Dodement's
own Marche antique of 1893 would seem to be a real find. But apart fromproviding
the informationthat he was a laureat of the Paris Conservatoire (perhaps this is
where he and Satie met), the music is disappointinglypedestrian and foursquare,
despite the odd touches of modalityin the main theme (Ex. 3). Thereafter,withthe
exceptions of Roland-Manuel and Claude Duboscq, Satie was careful to dedicate
pieces only to major composers such as Debussy, Dukas, Roussel and Stravinsky,
though only in the case of the 'Elegie' forDebussy (1920) does he come close to ex-
pressing his innermostfeelings in music; this brief, anguished song is a personal
ratherthan a stylisticreminiscence,a lament for'an admiring and pleasant friend-
ship of thirtyyears' (see Ex. 5a, below).

Ex. 3 ArthurDodement, Marcheantique(1893), main theme,bars 1-8

Moderato marziale

)9;; j 1 j F * *F;77 gifi j~~IF O

A I ~ ~ . .

6.~~~~'
' See, for example, La Basse, an 'operette bouffe en 1 acte' (lyrics by J. Vetez &J. Patrigeon), published by C.
Joubert in 1906. This makes it contemporary with Satie's operetta Pousse lamour.

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 The only dedicatee to bridge the gap after the move to Arcueil was Ricardo
Vifies:he was the dedicatee of the firstset of Piecesfroides, which, as we have seen,
date from 1897 but were published, with the dedication, only in 1912."1 So the
award for the longest friendshipacknowledged through dedications must go to
Paulette Darty, the recipient of the delightfulmusic-hall song 'La Diva de l"'Em-
pire" '12 (1904) and Sur un casque fromthe Descrzitions automatiques of 1913. As
usual, there is no obvious link between title and recipient, though Darty, by now
married to the wealthylace manufacturer 1douard Dreyfus,had assumed rather
ample proportionssince abandoning her successfulstage career. One notable omis-
sion fromthis interimperiod was Satie's friend and benefactor Louis Lemonnier,
also a native of Honfleur. Satie gave him professionaladvice when he purchased an
upright Erard piano around the turn of the century,and it is known that he used
thispiano when composing 'La Diva de l"'Empire" ' and his other cafe-concert songs
around 1904-5.'" Less is known about the only other dedicatee of this time, Mlle
Stephanie Nantas (Poudre d'or, 1901), but Santiago Rusifiolpainted a portraitof
'Seiiorita Nantas', so presumablyshe was a societylady withSpanish connections.
Satie's dedications after 1913 are numerous and are best discussed by category.
The first,and probably the mostimportantto the impecunious Satie, were those ad-
dressed to his patronesses. How importanttheywere can be deduced fromthe fact
that he actually used the telephone (an instrumenthe abhorred"4)to contact the
Comtesse de Beaumont on urgent occasions. She received the dedication of the
ballet Mercure in 1924, even though her husband, Comte Etienne de Beaumont,
had paid forit and its production, and also the beautiful fourthNocturne of 1919.
Socrate went to the Princesse Edmond de Polignac, whose important commission
gave Satie one of his fewperiods of financial independence early in 1917 an ideal
state that lefthim freesimplyto compose fora shorttime beforehe had squandered
the moneyon umbrellas and the other paraphernalia he loved to hoard in his dingy
room in Arcueil. The much married Mimi Godebska, whom he came to loathe for
her eternal machinations, put up the finance for the Ballets Russes production of
Parade and hence received its dedication (as Mme Edwards) in its original piano-
duet versionin 1917. " The only other name in this categoryis Mrs Eugene Meyer
(Junior)who commissioned a piece of 'furnituremusic' in 1923 for exclusive use in

" Satie even asked Viniesin a letter(on 30 March 1912) whetherhe would allow this dedication. As this was such
a rare event, one can only assume that Satie arranged most of his dedications by word of mouth. As he explained to
Vifnes(about the Pizcesfroides and about this transitional period in his life):
I should be happy if you would accept this frail homage rendered to an artist who has done so much for
modern music.
Don't imagine that my work is music. That's not my line. I do, to the best of my ability, phonometry. Nothing
else. Am I anything else than an acoustician without great knowledge?
Cited from Ornella Volta, Satze Seen through his Letters, trans. Michael Bullock, London & New York, 1989,
p. 131.
2 Born Pauline Combes, she became Mme de Bidard and then Mme Edouard Dreyfus. Beginning with 'Je te

veux' (1897), she introduced Satie's popular songs to her extensivepublic, and even visited Arcueil to performsome
there in 1909. She introduced Satie to Maurice de Feraudy, with whom he collaborated on Pousse 1'amour, first
produced in 1907.
3 This informationwas kindly supplied to me by Ornella Volta, to whom I am also grateful
forother assistance
in the preparation of this article.
4 He even detached the receiver when visiting the houses of friends, so as to
ensure their undivided attention.
'5 She was born Marie Sophie Olga Zenafde Godebska, and her firsthusband
was the owner of La Revue
blanche, Thadee Natanson. She then married the wealthy Alfred Edwards, owner of Le Matin, and finally, in
August 1920, the painter Jose-Maria Sert. She introduced Satie to Diaghilev in June 1914, though Satie later
referredto her disparagingly in private as 'Tante Trufaldin' or 'Tante Brutus'.

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her Washington home on Connecticut Avenue. Satie responded withtwelvebars of
music for small orchestra (to be repeated endlessly) entitled Tenture de cabinet
prefectoral('Wall-hanging for a prefectorialoffice') and wished that he could find
more such easy commissions.
The second category in order of importance to Satie comprised the artistswho
presented his new compositions to the public. As he told the writerHenri-Pierre
Roche in December 1918 when outlining his proposals for an American tour,
'female pianists are decidedlymore intelligentthan men', especially as 'accomplices'
in the performanceof duets, and the predominance of women among his dedicatees
suggeststhat he preferredtheircompany too. He also told Roche, when considering
the performanceof his solo piano worksin the United States: 'Find me one female
virtuosowitha terrificsense of malice'. 16 It is not surprising,therefore,to findmore
of these worksdedicated to women than to men. While Ricardo Vinieswas entrusted
withmany of his premieresin 1913-20, it was Marcelle Meyer(the wifeof the actor
Pierre Bertin) who gave his later firstperformances,for example those of Sports et
divertissements and the Premier menuet in 1922. She received the dedication of the
firstNocturne in 1919, while Jane Mortier (who gave that piece its premiere in
March 1920) had earlier received the dedication of the last of the Embryons
desseches. According to a letterfromSatie to Paul Viardot in May 1915, Mme Mor-
tiergave the firstperformanceof this piano set, though the exact place and date of
this concert (in late 1913) has yet to be discovered. Although she did not introduce
any of his worksto the public, Marguerite Long was the dedicatee of the three Pec-
cadilles importuneswhen theywere published in 1914, and JulietteMeerovitch,who
gave the firstduet performanceof parts of Parade with Satie in November 1916,
received the dedication of the neo-Classical Sonatine bureaucratique in 1917 in
recompense. The only male pianist other than Viniesto receive a dedication was
Andre'Salomon (Second Nocturne, 1919), who was to accompanyJane Bathori and
Suzanne Balguerie in the firstpublic performanceof Socrate in February 1920.
Jane Bathori was the only female singer besides Paulette Darty to be honoured
with a dedication, in this case 'La Statue de bronze', the firstof the three songs of
1916, of which she gave the premiere with Satie in May 1916 in a Satie-Granados
concert at the home of Mme Germaine Bongard, when the programme was il-
lustratedby Matisse and Picasso. Jane Bathori, incidentally,firstheard of Satie and
his music throughSatie's classmateJeanne de Bret, the dedicatee of the firstGym-
nopedie (in its private 1895 printing), and Jeanne's sister, Valentine, was the
dedicatee of the early Contamine de Latour setting 'Chanson' in 1888. Jane
Bathori's husband, the tenor Emile Engel, received the dedication of 'Dapheneo'
(from the same set of songs), whose amusing poem was by none other than Mimi
Godebska. Henri Fabert, the dedicatee of the Trois poemes d'amour, was a tenorat
the Paris opera who also performedthese minuscule workswith Satie for the first
time in April 1916.
The third main categoryof dedicatees consisted of familygroups who extended
hospitalityand friendshipto Satie during his daily trips into Paris. Predominant
among these was the familyof the composer Roland-Manuel. Satie met him chez
Paulette Darty in 1911 and betweenthen and 1920 (when theyparted company over
Roland-Manuel's dislike of Socrate) theyremained bosom friends.Roland-Manuel

16 These extracts come from

the firstpage of this important letter and are cited by kind permission of Carlton
Lake and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the Universityof Texas, Austin.

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became the firstbiographer (and a pupil) of Ravel, to whom Satie had introduced
him, and he is sometimesconsidered as the seventhmember of Les Six, although his
music is neverperformednowadays. Like Satie (and on his advice) he also studied at
the Schola Cantorum, and the firstof the Gnossienneswas dedicated to him in its
1913 edition, as well as Sa taille, the firstof the Trois valses distingueesdu precieux
de'goute.Afterhis father(Paul Levy) died, his mothermarriedthe businessmanFer-
nand Dreyfus,and it was at their salon at 1 rue de Chazelles that the private pre-
miere of Satie's surrealistplay Le Piege de Meduse took place in late 1913 or early
1914. The part of Baron Meduse's foster-daughterFrisettewas played by Suzanne
Roux, a talented musician and designer whom Roland-Manuel was to marryvery
shortlyafterwards,and Satie accompanied his seven intersperseddances forJonah
the monkeyon a 'prepared' piano (surelythe firstuse of such an instrument).7 Be-
tweenthem (and Roland-Manuel's brotherRobert) the familyaccount forno fewer
than six of Satie's dedications: the firstof the Descriptionsautomatiques (Mme Fer-
nand Dreyfus); the firsttwo of the Chapitres tournes en tous sens (Robert Manuel
and M. Fernand Dreyfus);the firstof the Embryonsdesseches(Mlle Suzanne Roux);
plus the two pieces dedicated to Roland-Manuel. Mme Femand Dreyfus was
nominated by Ravel as his wartime correspondent('Marraine de guerre') while on
active service,and we find a furtherlink between the two familiesin Satie's dedica-
tion of the second of the Descriptions automatiques to Ravel's mother.
Perhaps Satie's most importantmusical 'family',with whom he dined regularly,
was that of Debussy. Althoughtheirrelationshipcooled somewhat after1911, when
DebussyoffendedSatie by being surprisedat the sudden public success of his music,
Satie still dedicated Regrets des enferme'sto Mme Debussy, Espanana to Debussy's
daughterChouchou, and Idylle, the firstof the Avant-dernzieres pensees, to Debussy
himself in 1915. Debussy respected Ricardo Vinies's technique and enthusiastic
approach to new music almost as much as Satie did, and we findthe firsttwo of the
Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois dedicated to membersof his family
in 1913, notably Mlle Elvira and M. Hernando ViniesSoto. The last familygroup
Satie honoured comprised the poet Rene Chalupt and his sisterLinette (a pianist,
who died shortlyafterwardsat the end of the FirstWorld War). They received the
second and thirdof the Trois valses distingueesin 1914, and in 1952 Chalupt sug-
gested that, foronce, there mightpossiblybe a positivelink between his dance (Ses
jambes) and its dedicatee. 'Did he [Satie] know that I earnestlypractised dancing
and polished numerous extensive floors each night with tangos and bostons', he
asked, 'while he adorned these pages with the followingannotations-They only
dance selected dances- At nighttheyare clothed in black . .. . ?18 Given his record
elsewhereit is extremelydoubtful if Satie did indeed make any such associations,
and it was far more importantto him to have found in Chalupt a poet and kindred
spiritwhom he could trustimplicitly.He set his poem 'Le Chapelier', based on the
Mad Hatter's Tea PartyfromAlice in Wonderland, as a parody of Gounod in 1916,
and in 1918 he entrustedhim (ratherthanJean Cocteau) withthe task of writingthe
preface to Socrate, which he rightlyregarded as a watershedin his career. As Satie
told Chalupt, he wanted it to be
Shortand to the point . . . A clear summingup of what Socrateexpresses.Its
in the art of music,itsnewness.
significance
' Satie slid sheets of paper between the stringsand the dampers beforehand to give a muted, mechanistic effect.
is Rene Chalupt, 'Quelques souvenirs sur Erik Satie', La Revue musicale (1952), No. 214, p. 41.

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 I'm askingof yourfriendship
a piece of writingthatis an expressionof pride.
Statewithauthority,withoutargument. 19
This Chalupt did, and his perceptive and up-to-date article 'Gabriel Faure et les
poetes'20shows how rightSatie was to trustin his critical abilities.
Anotherveryclose friendin this period was the young designerValentine Gross,
to whom Satie dedicated the three Menus propos enfantinsin 1913 and (as Mme
Jean Hugo) the third Nocturne in 1919. Her importance to Satie, especially during
the composition of Parade, can be judged from the fact that he was unusually
pleased with this nocturne, as the followingletterto Valentine on 24 August 1919
indicates:
I am comingto theend ofmyThirdNocturne.I am dedicatingit to you.The threeof
themare not at all bad. The firstservesas a prelude; the secondis shorterand very
tender-verynocturnal:thethird,yours,is a morerapid and dramaticnocturne,a little
longerthanthefirst.Betweenthethreeof themtheyforma wholewithwhichI am very
pleased-though the firstis the least good.2'
The fourthcategoryof Satie's dedicatees consisted of composers, some of whom
have been mentioned above in other contexts. On one occasion, Satie identifieda
complete set of pieces, the Avant-dernzierespensees of 1915, withthreecomposersto
whom he owed a great deal: Debussy, Roussel (who taught him counterpointat the
Schola Cantorum between 1905 and 1908) and Dukas (who helped him financially
during the war years). To 'the great Stravinsky',whose visionand orchestralmastery
he so much admired, he dedicated his settingof Chalupt's 'Le Chapelier'. But sur-
prisinglythere are no dedications to any members of Les Six or to the other young
composers he sponsored in 1923, known as the Ecole d'Arcueil. The most notable
omission is Darius Milhaud, one of the few people with whom he never broke off
friendshipat any stage, but others include Auric, Poulenc and the teacher of the
young membersof the Ecole d'Arcueil, Charles Koechlin. Perhaps Satie considered
that he had already done enough forhis youngprotegesbyhelping to establishthem
on the musical map between 1917 and 1923.
More surprisingis the absence of authors (other than Chalupt) and of col-
laborators (other than Contamine de Latour). There is no work dedicated to
Cocteau, for instance, though Satie did dedicate his fifthNocturne to his mother
(Mme Georges Cocteau) in 1920. Although we know that Satie came in the end to
detestCocteau's constantegotisticalintriguesand loose morals (and his influenceon
Satie was overall far from beneficial), we cannot read anythinginto this question
from the absence of a dedication. For Satie, who often maintained that he was
closer to artiststhan musicians (and also preferredtheircompany), forsome reason
never dedicated anythingto an artist after 1893, even though he included such
famousnames as Picasso, Braque, Derain, Leger, Brancusi and Man Ray among his
immediate circle of friendsin the 1920s.22Perhaps there was a certain trepidation

'9 Cited from Volta, Satie Seen through his Letters, p. 155.
20 La Revue musicale, iii/11 (1922) [special Faure issue], pp. 28-33.
21 Letter made
available by Ornella Volta from the archives of the Fondation Satie, Paris. In a letter to Valen-
tine Hugo on 6 February 1920 (at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Universityof Texas, Austin),
Satie told her that the firstNocturne gained frombeing placed alongside the two others. He worked especially hard
on the third Nocturne to make its central section balance the others to his satisfaction.
22 The 'Prelude du Rideau Rouge' in Parade is marked 'Hommage a Picasso' in
Bibliotheque Nationale MS
9603(1), p. 2, at the stage in 1917 when it began the ballet. This dedication did not, however, survive into any
published edition.

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on his part in publicly associating his music with those whom he perceptively
recognized were destined to be masters in other fields, though in later life as his
quest fornoveltyintensifiedSatie was not known forhis modesty,and knew that he
was paving the way forwardforothersto follow. For the only household names we
find among his dedications are those of composerssuch as Debussy and Ravel; one
suspects here that, despite his lesser technical expertise, Satie knew that his own
simple yet strikingstatementswould mean at least as much to the development of
music in the twentiethcentury.
One or two furthercuriositiesremain among Satie's dedications. Although he
detestedcriticsand most writerson music, he included Michel-DimitriCalvocoressi
and Emile Vuillermoz in the list, while omittinghis close companion Henri-Pierre
Roche (the author ofJules etJim) and his editor friendMarcel Raval (the recipient
of some of the most revealingof his later letters). Calvocoressi, it is true, received a
deliberately banal piece, the Danse cuirassee, but he was probably honoured
because he published one of the firstperceptivearticleson Satie (in Musica in April
1911), and Vuillermoz had helped to organize concerts including Satie's music in
the difficultyears around the turn of the centurywhen few others showed any in-
terestin it.23Jules Ecorcheville,on the other hand, who also wroteenthusiastically
in Satie's supportin 1911,24never received a dedication. Instead, Satie followedthe
acceptable alternativecourse of dedicating his threeDanses de traversto Mme Ecor-
cheville when theywere published by Rouart-Lerolle the followingyear.
One of Satie's last and most interestingdedications was 'to Claude Dubosq [sic]'
in the Premier menuet of 1920. The wealthyDuboscq (1897-1938), a pianist and
composer who came fromBordeaux, was both a great admirerof Satie's music and
the man who developed the musical saw into a sophisticatedinstrumentcapable of
serious public performances.His interestin the lame sonore was taken up by his
brother-in-lawJacquesKeller, who published a manual on the instrumentin 1950.25
As Duboscq's widow, Marie-Philippe Kergall, pointed out in her introductionto it,
the aim was both to develop a fully controllable modern instrument and to
dissociate it from its earlier sentimental connotations. Duboscq saw its primary
outlets as churches and the theatre, but the accompanying tributesto his work by
Koechlin, Honegger and Sauguet (and the pieces they composed for the lame
sonore) show that theyregarded it as opening up a whole new sound-worldby its use
in an orchestralcontext.WhetherDuboscq had begun his workat the timeof his ac-
quaintance withSatie or not, Satie would certainlyhave approved of any sortof new
departure that enhanced the resources available to a composer, and among
Duboscq's transcriptionsfor musical saw and organ that Keller included we find-
appropriately- Satie's second and third Gymnopedies.
Duboscq's own worksconsistmostlyof songs, piano music and religiouscomposi-
tions. Althoughthe poetryhe wroteto set is mostlylike second-rateLeconte de Lisle
with a strongCatholic bias and his music is functionalwith frequentmodal inflec-

23 For instance, Vuillermoz helped organize a concert featuring 'Les Danses d'Erik Satie' at the Thetre des
Bouffes-Parisiens(featuring Paulette Darty) on 8 April 1905. This information was kindly supplied from the ar-
chives of the Fondation Satie.
24 'Erik Satie', Revue musicale S.I.M., vii (1911), 15 March, pp. 29-40. Ecorcheville was the editor of thisjour-

nal, and Satie may have helped him write parts of this article, given the accuracy of the material on pages 29-32.
The article was followed by extracts from the Trois morceaux enforme de poire (Nos. 1, complete, and 2, bars
1-32) and the Danses gothiques (No. 1), all in their firstprinting (pp. 35-40).
25 La Lame sonore: son etude methodique, Paris, 1950, with a preface by Koechlin.

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tions, it has greater originalityand merit than that of the other minor composers
Satie dedicated works to. Duboscq was, for instance, far more interested in
rhythmicexperimentationthan Satie was, and among the pieces published during
Satie's lifetimethe Matines, sarabandes et galliardes forpiano stand out. From the
'Avertissement'which introduces the 1923 Senart edition, it is easy to see why
Duboscq and Satie got on so well together.The prevailingaestheticis stronglyanti-
Germanic, the pieces utterlyreject any idea of thematic development in favourof
concision and clarity,and theyrespect the spiritof Gregorian chant. In addition,
theyhave no key-signatures(though theyare barred), and in so far as theycan be
performedin other than their published order, Duboscq goes a stage furtherthan
Satie in the freedomallowed to his performers.As Duboscq explained, these twelve
pieces are the French equivalents of the nocturnes, mazurkas and polonaises [of
Chopin].

Whythisbrevity, thislaconicism,theseabridgements? Because the 'development'of

inspiredideas, beingGermanic,cannotknowhow to be French.
Whyso muchprecision,clarityand light?So as to dispersefora momentthesmother-
ingcloudsofthe'Outre-Rhin'. . . Tempo and dynamicindicationsare rare;becausethe
author wishesthat each of his interpreters can freelydiscoverin this occasionally
liturgicalwork,as in a Gregorianchant,the simplestformof personalexpression. . .
There is no dangerin theirbeingperformed bymen, evenby the mostvirileones.

The extensiveuse of parallel fourthsand fifthsin pieces like Galliarde II and the
involved counterpoint in Matine I are closer musically to Satie's contemporary
Koechlin, but in the strikingcrossingof parts at the startof Sarabande I (Ex. 4) and
in the meticulous attention to voice-leading generally one can see Satiean traits,
even if the overall sound is rarelyeven remotelysimilar. For Satie's irresistiblesense
of humour and whimsicalityDuboscq substitutescross-rhythms,and for all its
spareness and metrical fluidityhis music remains stronglydirectional. One in-
terestingparallel, however, comes in Duboscq's short cantata Saint Michel, Ar-
change, which is dedicated 'to the memoryof Claude Debussy and to Jane Bathori'
as 'French musicians'. It begins with a quotation fromAct III scene 1 of Pelleas et
Melisande ('Saint Daniel et Saint Michel', bars 26-27), but the shortmotifwhich
dominates the main body of the piece shows some resemblances to the fifth-based
idea that controls Satie's own 'Elegie' for Debussy of September 1920. Although
Duboscq's manuscriptis undated, it may have come first,in 1918 or 1919, as a more
immediate tributeto Debussy. Satie's undulating three-barfigure(Ex. 5a) with its
linear combination of E minor and F major is obviouslyfar subtlerthan Duboscq's
simple start (Ex. 5b), but the basic key is the same and so is the ambitus of the
slightlyawkward vocal line in bars 1-2 and the rhythmicstructurein bar 1.

Ex. 4 Claude Duboscq, SarabandeI (authentique)

(1923), bars 1-4
Un peu lent
A

/2foiS:
is:
lPfo r.r

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Ex. 5
melodies,No. 1: 'Elegie' (1920), bars 1-3. Words by Lamartine.
(a) Satie, Quatrepetites
Declame
Da L L h |h
pi hJzJ r tg
r ") I J
Que me fontces val - Ions, ces pa-lais, ces chau-mie-res,
Lent -

p__

(Bibliotheque Nationale MS 20330, p. 1), bars

(b) Duboscq, SaintMichel,Archange
5-7. Words by Duboscq.
Modere
A f IL L

D K0,' II lot m
e~~~ e ~~~~~
r
Quand est me-na-ce Dieu, tu le ven-ges, Et tu lan- (ces)

SD olv I I . .
JI lol I
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~etc.

Lastly, apart from the Danses gothiques26all Satie's unusual dedications date
from1914, when he seems to have been at his most whimsical and surrealistic.We
find quotations fromLa Bruyere,Cicero and Cato at the heads of the Trois valses
distingue'esthat seem to be totallyunrelated to the little waltzes that follow. The
Trois poemes d'amour were originallycovered with amusing commentaries(which
Satie withdrewon publication), such as the inscriptionbefore No. 3: 'The poet
[Satie], seized by dizziness,seems madly in love. His heart burstsin his breast; his
eyelidsflutterlike leaves.' But onlyin the Heures seculaires & instantaneesare a sur-
realistic commentaryand musical jokes (like the clock strikingthirteen and the
ridiculousenharmonicnotation of simple passages in No. 3) paralleled by a strange
dedication of the sortone mighthave expected fromthe iconoclastic Satie. As Satie
says: 'To sir William Grant-PlumotI sincerelydedicate this collection. Until now,
two charactershave amazed me: Louis XI and sir William: the firstby the oddness

26 'A novena forthe greatest possible calm and tranquillityof my Soul', writtenon 21-23 March 1893 during his

stormyrelationship with Suzanne Valadon. These 'Cultifiementset coadunations choristiques' are dedicated 'to the
Transcendant, Solemn and Representative Ecstasy of Saint Benoit, Preparatory and Methodical of the Very Power-
ful Order of the Benedictines' (Bibliotheque Nationale MS 10048, ff. 2', 3).

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of his good nature; the second by his perpetual immobility.For me it is an honour to
pronounce, here, the names of Louis XI & of sir William Grant-Plumot.' Predic-
tably, neither character features in the commentaries that accompany the pieces
that follow, but there is always method in Satie's apparent madness. As an en-
thusiasticamateur historian,it is easy to see whyhe should have been fascinatedby
the character of Louis XI (1461-83), who was a singularlyuglyman but a visionary
statesmanwitha highlydeveloped sense of ironical humour and considerable acting
abilities. Like Satie, he took his work more seriouslythan he took himselfand was
renowned forhis eccentricity.Sir William Grant-Plumot,on the other hand, seems
to have been a figmentof Satie's fertileimagination, a typicallyinactive member of
the English aristocracy. Omella Volta has suggested that Satie may have had
Shakespeare (the 'Great Penholder') in mind here,27 though Shakespeare was hardly
renowned forhis 'immobility',other than in termsof the consistencyof his reputa-
tion across the centuries.
Above all, Satie's dedications show how his horizons broadened as he became
surerof his path towardsthe futureafter1913 and emerged fromobscurityinto the
limelight among the Parisian social and artisticelite. He began with his family
circle, and the only well-knownnames which occur in the 1890s are those of his
Rosicrucian associates, the self-styled Sar Josephin Peladan (Leit-motiv du
'Panthee', 1891), the wealthydilettanteComte Antoine de La Rochefoucauld (the
second Gnossienne, 1893) and the painter Suzanne Valadon, his only known
mistress ('Bonjour Biqui, bonjourl', 1893). Thereafter, with the exceptions of
Paulette Darty and Stephanie Nantas, thereis a long gap in the yearsof uncertainty
until Satie's earlier worksbegan to be published in the wake of Ravel's 'discovery'of
him in 1911. From 1913 onwards, most pieces are dedicated individually (with
notable exceptions like the undedicated 'serious fantasy'La Belle Excentrique and
the song cycle Ludions), though the concentration is still on close friends,
patronesses and performersrather than on the great names in contemporaryart.
The only person whose linkswithSatie I have yetto discoveranythingabout is Mme
Leon Verneuil, the dedicatee of the three Enfantillages pittoresques in 1914.
Perhaps M. Verneuil was one of the many wealthymen who helped Satie financially
in these difficultyears and this was Satie's way of sayingthank you? And, as usual,
the dedication would have followed the generating act quite closely.
As we have seen, there are veryfew links between the music Satie wrote and any
dedicatee; he remained too fiercelyindependent forany sortof artisticcompromise.
On the whole, his dedicatory practices follow those of his contemporaries (who
also respectfullydedicated numerous pieces to him), and it is the omissionsthat are
more remarkable than the names included. Why Satie dedicated some pieces and
not othersremains a mystery,forit seems to have littleto do with artisticquality or
with Satie's sense of satisfactionwith a particular piece. Obviously, most of the
pieces he decided not to publish bear no dedications, and as the number of non-
dedicated pieces exceeds those dedicated he would seem to have bypassed many op-
portunitiesto honour friendsand colleagues that one would have expected (such as
Auric, Poulenc, Sauguet, Diaghilev or his close compatriot Andre Derain). The
gaps furtherstresshis independence, and confirmthat he was not prepared to curry
favour with anyone. For all his unpredictable rages and his delight in shockinghis

27 Volta, Satie Seen through his Letters, p. 104.

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high-societyfriends,he remained a rigorouslymoral man for whom composition
was the main purpose of life. His dedications show thathis worldwas entirelyfocused
on Paris, and as he neared the end of his lifehis object became increasinglyto make
his music chic, Parisian and surprising,in the true spirit of the post-war esprit
nouveau. But as his music grew more radical and he moved furtherto the left,he
was forced to pay more attention to patronesses and benefactors, and so, ironi-
cally, his artisticrevolutionwas increasinglysupported through the gentle art of
dedication.

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