Danses gothiques [SEP] instrumentation
Danses gothiques
The Danses gothiques ("Gothic Dances") is an 1893 piano composition by Erik Satie, one of the works of his "Rosicrucian" or "mystic" period. It was published posthumously in 1929. A performance lasts around 12 minutes.
Background.
The "Danses gothiques" was composed in the middle of Satie's six-month love affair (January to June, 1893) with the painter Suzanne Valadon, when he was torn between his religious preoccupations of the period and more earthly matters
obscure. Originally entitled "Grande Messe de l'Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art", it was his most ambitious work to date, although there was no evident prospect of having it performed. Satie authorities Ornella Volta and Robert Orledge believe he conceived the mass to occupy his mind following his recent breakup with the painter Suzanne Valadon, which had left him emotionally devastated. At the midpoint of their turbulent six-month affair in March 1893, Satie had composed his "Danses gothiques" as a "Novena for the great calm and profound tranquility of