Remember my search for the perfect lamp shades? No? A quick recap. I had to purchase new table lamps. I splurged on two lamps with hammered copper bases. The lamps came with shades and the shades were too long. I had to tip the lamps to their sides in order to turn the lamps on or off when I was seated on my sofa. I didn’t want to return the lamps, but I couldn’t find shorter shades that looked attractive with the copper bases.
I finally found new shades!
One lamps sits on my entertainment center. The other lamp is on the end table by my sofa.
Wait a minute….what are those glowing orbs by the lamp?
It’s Jasper! “Look at me! Look at me! I’m much cuter than a silly old lamp!”
Filed under: Music
I love the piano music of Erik Satie (1866-1925). I was first introduced to his music as a young piano student when I worked on his three Gymnopedies. These are whimsical little pieces with a poignant right-hand melody fluttering here and there over left-hand chords. It is almost as though Satie were doodling on the keyboard when he composed the Gymnopedies like an artist might doodle on a napkin while enjoying a cup of coffee in a Paris bistro. I later found that Satie did indeed compose many of his piano pieces while working as a pianist in two Parisian clubs; Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat) and L’auberge du Clou (Inn of the Nail).
Satie was an interesting fellow. He entered the Paris conservatory at age thirteen and even though he studied there for eight years, he was not an extremely successful student. He was somewhat of an enigma and, by all accounts, a fiercely independent musician. He prefaced some of his works with the following words: “Those who will not understand are requested to observe the most respectful silence and to have a submissive attitude and inferiority.” It is not known if he was making fun or being serious with his preface.
Many of his piano pieces have quite outrageous titles such as “cold pieces”; “three melodies that make you flee”; and “three crooked dances”. The performers are given instructions such as “hostile and belligerent”, “with hypocrisy”, “moderated and very bored”, and “run”. Again, music historians are uncertain as to whether Satie was having fun or being serious. He was an enigma.
One of my favorite Satie quotes refers to the influence of the great German composer, Wagner. Satie, speaking to a fellow French composer, said, “We must have a music that is ours, without sauerkraut if possible.”
Musical scholars question as to whether Satie was a bitter cynic or a modest, unsatisfied creator of music. Perhaps he was a bit of both. I like to think of Satie giving an enigmatic wink as he scrawled the title Musique d’ameublement destiniee a etre ignoree (Furniture Music Destined to be Ignored) at the top of a page. Maybe he simply didn’t take himself too seriously as he doodled at the piano in those dark Paris clubs. Perhaps his only desire was to create beautiful, original music for the enjoyment of the performer rather than for the appreciation of the critics. Music fresh and whimsical like droplets on leaves after the rain.
