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