Erik Satie - Gnossiennes 1-6 (1889-1897)

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“Gnossiennes” are a group of works by the French composer Erik Satie, who coined the title and invented the works’ form. A “gnossienne” is generally situated in free time and lacks barlines, but nevertheless, retains a rather danceable rhythm. The word is generally accepted as being derived from the Greek word “gnosis”, considering how during the time Satie composed the pieces, he involved himself in gnostic sects, like that of the Rosicrucian Order. Some sources speculate that the word “gnossienne” is, instead, derived from the Cretan archaeological site at Knossos.

Satie wrote a total of seven Gnossiennes, with the last generally classified as part of another “opus” (the incidental music for “The Son of the Stars”, of which the gnossienne section was reused in his “3 Pieces in the Shape of a Pear”), distinct from the other six. Out of those six Gnossiennes, the first three were published together to form a set. The remaining three, unlike the aforementioned “Trois Gnossiennes”, were neither published during Satie’s lifetime nor explicitly named by him as “gnossiennes”. Their eventual publication in 1968 and identification as gnossiennes were innovations by his friend Robert Caby. Caby’s sequencing of those final Gnossiennes were not in chronological order, considering that the fifth Gnossienne was composed in 1889, which predates all the others. Satie originally intended to dedicate the second Gnossienne to Antoine de La Rochefoucauld, who belonged to the Rosicrucian Order of which Satie was also a part. The dedication to de La Rochefoucauld was removed in the 1913 reprint, since by that time, Satie had already abandoned his Rosicrucian membership and started his own church.


Date: between 1889 and 1897
Order and Dedicatees:
No. 1 - Lent (for Alexis Roland-Manuel): 0:08
No. 2 - Avec étonnement: 3:52
No. 3 - Lent: 6:24
No. 4 - Lent: 9:35
No. 3 - Modéré: 13:07
No. 4 - Avec conviction et avec une tristesse rigoureuse: 17:12

Performer: Pascal Rogé on piano


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