Vexed by Music

Music insomniacs can use to induce nightmares

Erik Satie wrote his Vexations probably between 1893 and 1894. He didn’t publish the piece. It is unknown whether he performed it. A performance of this piece introduced me to this eccentric composer. It lasted two days and it took 48 pianists to make it to the end.

This post was inspired by a comment by Steven Hale that made my mind wander towards the performance of Vexations. He linked to a post in his series of Songs for Insomniacs. The festival I attended was called ‘De Slapeloze Nacht’ (The Sleepless Night), which hosted a variety of genres ranging from classical to breakbeat to rock to folk music. I bought a ticket for the lineup in pop and rock. Only years later I started to value Satie’s works, though. I talk about his influence on pop music in this article.

In pop music, it is rare to have an album that stretches for over an hour. Tommy by The Who comes to mind. It's only 74 minutes. Then, it’s even rarer to have a single song that spans over 10 minutes. I immediately think of The Doors and Pink Floyd, but I can’t find any track that is over 30 minutes. What is going on with this classical piece? And should we want this in modern music?

The sheet music to Vexations will take a few minutes to play at most, yet many performances last for over 10 hours. Along with his ‘Très Lent’ (very slow), Satie put the following cryptical line above the sheet music:

Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses.

To play this 840 times successively, it would be good for one to prepare oneself, preferably in the deepest silence, [for some serious moments of stillness/by serious immobilities].

This text is interpreted mostly as that the piece is to be played 840 times. I struggled to find a translation. The wiki page doesn’t even provide a translation. How was this piece intended?

The sheet music doesn’t follow a lot of conventions. There is no time signature. Flats are used when you expect a sharp, and vice versa. There is no repeat sign and the first music to be played is at the end, stating “A ce signe il sera d’usage de présenter le thème de la Bassa” (At this sign customarily the theme of the Bass will be presented). Some argue that the piece was not meant to be played. Give it a listen:

Satie went through a difficult period when he wrote it, dealing with his breakup. Satie only had one relationship in his life. After spending one night together, he proposed to her. She left him after six months. He reported he was left with “nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness”.

Performers of the piece have reported losing their minds, having hallucinations, but also losing all sense of time, and having highly meditative experiences. Accounts that describe playing the piece for hours as vexing are easier found than positive descriptions.

As I am writing, I have experienced about one hour of the music. The first 10 minutes were vexing. I could not concentrate on anything else and I disliked the music. I use the youtube-link above to listen: “In order to listen to the piece 840 times, listen to this 48 times”.

After it stopped the first time, I pressed play almost immediately. I missed the slightly atonal music. I can’t think of a lot of pop songs that I will play again after one listen. Gotye’s Somebody that I used to know was the last I couldn’t get enough of. Funny that the lyrics to this song are appropriate to Vexations.

I once attended a 24-hour recital of the piece. It included 48 pianists. And, thankfully, it was at a festival (lasting 24 hours), where the audience was allowed to come and go as they pleased. I checked in a couple of times. I listened to the music. I was fascinated. But mostly, I did what other audience members did: I sat down to relax after dancing to breakbeat, I had some food, a drink, and maybe a quick nap. It’s supposedly the same at other performances. Makes sense if the piece takes over 10 hours.

Erik Satie managed to influence later artists more than his contemporaries. I am fond of classical music, but it’s rare to have it blasting from my speakers. In case you missed my earlier post, check out his direct influence there. Or enjoy this track by Janet Jackson. A little before the 1-minute mark, you can distinctly hear Satie’s Gnossienne no. 1. It is repeated a few times later. Janet has great bangers, but some only manage to vex me. This is one of them. Sorry, I needed to stay with the theme here.

There are reports of listeners waking as a new person the day after a 10-hour session. I, for one, am glad that I can still hold on to my sanity after little than an hour.

Vexations was first played by a team of pianists, led by John Cage in 1963. The Velvet Underground’s John Cale was one of the piano players. Check him perform one round of the music at this quiz show. He is accompanied by the only audience member that managed to stay awake for the entire performance.

At the 1963 performance, after playing 840 times had taken 18 hours and 20 minutes, someone in the audience yelled ‘Encore’!

Some people just don’t know when to stop.

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