Gymnopédie by JoeJarrah
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Description
The three Gymnopédies of Erik Satie are amongst the most recognised and enigmatic compositions for piano; No.1 also happens to be my favourite piano piece of all time. They are considered an important precursor to many modern instrumental genres, with thier combination of simplicity, slight eccentricity and delibrate use of mild dissonance to generate an ethereal mood.
The inspiration for thier title is much debated; it proibably dreives at least in part from the Greek "gymnopaidia", an annual festival in ancient Sparta. In its original form, the gymnopaidia was danced by young men, but in in more recent time the word has lost some of that association. It was defined in both Rousseau's and Mondo's "Dictionnaire de Musique" as dance and song by youthful Spartan maidens. This, and a poem "Les Antiques" by Satie's friend the Spanish Poet Jose Contamine (better known as J.P. Contamine de Latour) may have served as the inspiration. Satie himself mentions Flaubert's novel "Salammbô", set in ancient Carthage, but rather strangely that actually contains no mention of anything resmbling the Gymnopaidia... It is rather fitting that the source of the name remains as enigmatic as the music itself!
For this image, I shall be less enigmatic than Monsieur Satie, and go back to the words of the redoubtable José Maria Vicente Ferrer Francisco de Paola Patricio Manuel Contamine...
"Oblique et coupant l'ombre un torrent éclatant
Ruisselait en flots d'or sur la dalle polie
Où les atomes d'ambre au feu se miroitant
Mêlaient leur sarabande à la gymnopédie"
My own approximate translation; I rely on Gaius, Alain, Marco or another Francophone soul to correct it - There is a translation on wikipedia but I suspect it was done by machine and is rather excessively literal and has the poetry of an Ikea manual!
Oblique and cutting through the shadows a bright torrent
Streaming in flows of gold over the polished flagstone
Where the amber atoms shimmering in the fire
Mingled their sarabande with the gymnopaidia
Comments (7)
eekdog Online Now!
superior beauty.
Paulienchen
Ein sehr schöner Render
3DClassics123456
Γυμνοπαιδία / Gumnopaidía in Sparta? Superb image, but I am not sure that she listens the music I play with my band.
3DClassics123456
You love Erih Satie's Gymnopédies and you're right! This diletante and creative composer is not enough known. But it's not no wonder that a so cultured man like you knows his music.
gaius
I told you lately that Satie's Gymnopédies were among my favorite pieces, particularly n°1...like you. But now I have another reason to love this music ; I'll listen to it with your magnificent image before my (humid !) eyes As to the translation, it's more than correct even if I think a professional translator would propose something a bit different.Will your next image titled "Gnossienne" ? or "Morceaux en forme de poire" ???
JoeJarrah Online Now!
I had toyed briefly with the idea of "Le poisson rêveur" ; so many of his titles conjure up intriguing possibilities! I may return fo the Gnoissennes, but Messrs Handel, Bach, Richter et al await their turns first! :)
PhthaloBlue
Beautiful scene!
RodS
Oh man... It's been so long since I've chilled to some wonderful Satie. I need to dig through my collection - I'm pretty sure I have a CD or two. And I can so imagine this beauty dancing, entranced by his music.
This is really gorgeous, Joe!