25 VASSILENA SERAFIMOVA ∙ QUATUOR ARDEO Erik Satie, who had a gift for quarrelling with his musician friends, was nevertheless marked by their influence, just as they were intrigued by the originality of his writing. He had once envisaged orchestrating his piano cycle Pièces froides, though this never came to fruition. Vassilena Serafimova is the author of the present transcription for solo marimba, which she describes as follows: “Alongside the works of Debussy and Pärt, I was looking for music that would take us beyond time, away from any precisely defined aesthetic, and whose hypnotic character would shatter our sense of the present moment.” The cycle comprises two collections of three pieces each (Airs à faire fuir and Danses de travers). It is the Danses de travers that have been arranged here. Completed in 1897, they are both narrative and dreamy, built upon a single musical idea. Anecdotally, Satie hesitated over the title of the first dance: En y regardant à deux fois – Regarde-le deux fois or Donne-lui un bon regard. These (undanceable) dances, less well known than other pieces by the composer, accentuate through the marimba not only the spirit of variation on a single theme, but also evoke travel and meditation. Some, including John Cage (1912 – 1992), perceived in them a premonition of minimalism.
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