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The Music at Tippet Rise
ERIK SATIE (1866–1925)
Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté (Three Distinguished Waltzes of a Jaded Dandy)
harmony in the middle. Ses jambes is a splashy romp.
Each movement is also prefaced by a quote from Jean
de La Bruyère, Cicero, or Cato. Between text and music, there’s a lot going on—especially for a set of pieces just three minutes long.
It’s not safe to assume these pieces are actually about a jaded dandy—the connection between title, music, and meaning in Erik Satie’s work is always humorous and obscure. In fact, the three brief waltzes are barely waltzes at all: while a triple pulse or lilt is often present, the tempos vary and there is no formal meter.
Satie wrote Les trois valses in 1914, apparently one each day between July 21 and 23, according to the score. Each movement’s title refers to something belonging to the Dandy: Sa taille (his waist), Son binocle (his spectacles),
Ses jambes (his legs). What does it mean? A 1918 Vanity Fair profile of the Parisian composer noted:
His titles ordinarily seem to have nothing to do with the music, which is frequently exquisite, and never programmatic. True ironist that he is,
he conceals his diffidence under these fantastical titles. He ridicules his own emotion at just the point at which the auditor is about to discover it. He also protects himself against the pedants and the philistines by raising these titular and descriptive barriers.
Satie also laced eccentric instructions, or bits of narrative, into his scores. In the first waltz, for example, it is written: “He hums an air of the 15th century. . . . Then he addresses a most measured compliment. . . . Who dares to say he is not the most handsome? . . . Is his heart not tender? . . . He holds himself by the waist. . . . For him, it is a rapture. . . .” Sa taille contrasts impish fragments with brightly spun tunes and darker murmurings. Son binocle lies somewhere between elegy and lullaby with an unplaceable tune and a simple, but affecting, shift to the
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)
L’isle joyeuse
Claude Debussy is the composer most closely associated with Impressionism in music, but L’isle joyeuse is tied not to Impressionist art, but rather to earlier Rococo and Romantic paintings by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) and J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851).
Watteau’s L’Embarquement pour Cythère, found in the Louvre, was one inspiration for Debussy. The painting shows three couples and assorted partygoers departing from the island of Cythera, the traditional birthplace of Venus. Another inspiration was a gallery of Turner’s paintings, mostly landscapes and seascapes, which Debussy visited at the National Gallery in London in 1903.
L’isle joyeuse marked Debussy’s return to writing piano music after a period of success with larger works. In 1904, he had
a new publishing deal and was enjoying growing fame as he entered his 40s. It was also a time of transition: he would soon leave his wife, Lilly, for Emma Bardac, the wife of a banker. They eloped in Jersey (an island sometimes errone- ously identified as an inspiration for L’isle joyeuse) before they finalized their divorces in 1905.
Ten years later, when asked by a musician for advice on interpreting the piece, Debussy responded, rather dryly, “It seems to me that the title L’isle joyeuse can provide clues.” But listening closely yields something more specific: chaotic joy—coalescing and dissolving in raptures.