Verset laïque et somptueux(Secular and Sumptuous Verse) is apièce d'occasion for piano composed in 1900 byErik Satie. With it he bid an ironic farewell to the style of his "Rosicrucian" or "mystic" period, which he ultimately dismissed as "musique à genoux" ("music on its knees").[1] It was written for an ephemeral publication and never performed in Satie's lifetime.[2]
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TheVerset laïque et somptueux was one of two little works Satie produced in connection with the1900 Paris Exposition. MusicologistCharles Malherbe, acting in his position as chief librarian of theParis Opera, chose to commemorate the event by compiling theAutographes de Musiciens Contemporains 1900, a special collection of composers' manuscripts representing current French music. Satie was invited to contribute something to this anthology which, considering the source, he must have accepted with a feeling of vindication. His previous dealings with the Paris Opera (in 1892) were to force directorEugène Bertrand to look at one of his scores by challenging him to a duel.[3] Things went more smoothly this time and Satie's one-page manuscript facsimile duly appeared in theAutographes de Musiciens, topped by a drawing of Paris and the Seine and the score itself bordered with laurel leaves.[4] A copy of this book can still be found in the Paris Opera Library.[5]
Formally dated "Arcueil, Seine, 5 August 1900", theVerset laïque et somptueux was the only piece in the old Rose + Croix style (1891-1895) that Satie composed at his new home inArcueil, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Paris, where he had moved in October 1898.[6] This period saw him reexamining his creative past (theGnossiennes), either out of nostalgia for his early Montmartre days or searching for clues to a new stylistic beginning. The minute-longVerset has the characteristics of the "religious mystic" music: slow reflective tempo, expansive chordal writing, harmonic modality. It is built of seven phrases of unequal length, unified by transpositions of the opening three chords. With its pseudo-Gothic calligraphy thelook of Satie's autograph score is also period correct, and for the last time he signed his name with the emblem of his defunct church, theMetropolitan Church of Art of Jesus the Conductor - aGreek cross and Latin cross linked together.[7] The irony of this personal adieu surfaces mostly in the minimal text and hints at deeper things. "Secular and Sumptuous Verse" may be an incongruous title here but is an apt reference to Satie's career in 1900, when he was miserable as a jobbing cabaret songwriter - quite the comedown from his self-styled role as leader (and sole member) of his own religious sect. The work's three playing directions,Réfléchir,Autrement andSoi-même, can roughly be translated together as "Think differently of yourself". And in the penultimate phrase (after theAutrement) the music gets in the final dig by hinting at theAirs à faire fuir from thePièces froides (1897) - "Tunes to Make You Run Away".
Irony also figures in Satie's second (purely literary) contribution to the Paris Expo, "The Musicians of Montmartre" (1900), his idea of apuff piece for a tourist's guide to The Butte. Although he was closely involved with the subject, Satie spends most of the article making elaborate excuses for why he can't write the article, and simply invites readers to experience Montmartre's cabarets for themselves. He concludes, "The fact that music gives no pleasure to the deaf, even those who are mute, is no reason for ignoring it".[8]
Robert Orledge edited a performing edition of theVerset laïque et somptueux, published by Salabert in 1995.
Jean-Pierre Armengaud (Le Chant Du Monde, 1986),Aldo Ciccolini (EMI, 1988), Cristina Ariagno (Brilliant Classics, 1994), Bojan Gorišek (Audiophile, 1994), Olof Höjer (Swedish Society Discofil, 1996),Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Decca, 2003),Steffen Schleiermacher (MDG, 2003), Alessandro Simonetto (Aevea, 2016, 2021), Dunanduan Hao (Naxos, 2018),Nicolas Horvath (Grand Piano, 2019).
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