Satie's "surreal" premiere in wartime Paris

Synopsis

On today's date in 1917, at the height of World War One, Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes presented in Paris the premiere performance of a new ballet titled "Parade."

The sets and costumes were designed by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, the ballet scenario was devised by the French poet Jean Cocteau, and the music was provided by the eccentric Parisian composer, Erik Satie, whose score included parts for various noisemakers, including a typewriter and a revolver.

In reaction to the sensuous contemporary orchestrations of Debussy and Ravel, Satie's score was austere and cleverly direct. "Parade" proved to be a very influential work, especially on younger composers like Francis Poulenc. "I was conquered," wrote Poulenc, "With all the injustice of youth, and although I idolized Debussy, I agreed to disown him a little because I was so eager for the new inspirations Satie and Picasso were bringing us."

Others in the audience, including most of the critics, trashed the whole affair as a bad joke, and some resorted to the ultimate war-time insult, dubbing Picasso, Cocteau and Satie as no better than a bunch of Germans!

Cocteau later recalled: "After a performance of 'Parade,' with a fight going on in the audience, I heard a man say to a friend: 'If I knew it was so silly, I would have taken the children along.' This was the best tribute we could have received!"

Music Played in Today's Program

Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) Parade Yuji Takahashi and Alain Planes, piano four hands Denon 7487

On This Day

Births

• 1830 - Austro-Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark, in Keszthely, Hungary;

• 1901 - French composer Henri Sauguet, in Bordeaux;

Deaths

• 1733 - German composer and organist Georg Böhm, age 71, in Lüneburg;

• 1909 - Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, age 48, in Cambo-les-Bains;

• 1910 - French composer and opera singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia, age 88, in Paris;

• 1911 - Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, age 50, in Vienna;

• 1975 - American composer Leroy Anderson, age 66, in Woodburg, Conn.;

Premieres

• 1885 - Bruckner: String Quintet in F (final version), in Vienna, by the Hellmesberger Quartet with guest violist; 24 years earlier, Joseph Hellmesberger had asked Bruckner to write a quartet for his ensemble; A partial performance of this work (minus the Finale, and with its original Scherzo replaced by an Intermezzo movement) was arranged in Vienna on November 27, 1881, by Bruckner's pupil Franz Schalk;

• 1887 - Chabrier: "Le Roi malgre lui" (The King in Spite of Himself), in Paris at the Opera Comique;

• 1897 - Dukas: tone-poem "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in Paris, with the composer conducting;

• 1917 - Satie: ballet "Parade," in Paris by the Ballet Russe;

• 1922 - Stravinsky: opera, "Renard," at the Paris Opéra, with Ernest Anseremet conducting;

• 1939 - Douglas Moore: opera "The Devil and Daniel Webster," in New York City;

• 1940 - Luigi Dallapiccola: opera "Volo di Notte" (Night Flight), after the novel by Antoine Saint-Exupéry), in Florence;

• 1949 - Milhaud: "Sabbath Morning Service" at Temple Emanu-El, in San Francisco, composer conducting;

• 1950 - Lukas Foss: opera "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (after the short story by Mark Twain) in Bloomington, Ind.;

• 1978 - Cowell: "Quartet Romantic" for 2 flutes, violin and viola, at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, by Paul Dunkel and Susan Palma (flutes), Ralph Schulte (violin) and John Graham (viola); This music was composed in 1917;

• 1981 - Joan Tower: "Sequoia" in New York, with the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies;

• 1988 - Philip Glass: opera "The Fall of the House of Usher" (after Poe) in Cambridge, Mass., at the American Repertory Theater;

• 1990 - John Harbison: Viola Concerto, in Bridgewater, N.J., with soloist Jaime Laredo and the New Jersey Symphony, Hugh Wolff conducting;

• 1996 - Philip Glass: opera "Les Enfants Terrible" (Children of the Game based on the novel by Jean Cocteau), by the Philip Glass Ensemble at the Theatre Casino in Zug (Switzerland), Karen Kamensek conducting.