Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist.
Although in later life he prided himself on publishing his work under his own name, in the late 19th century he appears to have used pseudonyms such as Virginie Lebeau and François de Paule in some of his published writings. ==Life== ===Early life=== Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866, the son of Alfred Satie and his wife Jane Leslie (née Anton), who was born in London to Scottish parents.
After his mother's death in 1872, he was sent (at age 6), together with his younger brother, Conrad, back to Honfleur to live with his paternal grandparents.
In 1878, when he was 12 years old, his grandmother died, and the two brothers were reunited in Paris with their father, who remarried (to a piano teacher) shortly afterwards.
From the early 1880s onwards, Satie started publishing salon compositions by his stepmother and himself, among others. In 1879, Satie entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he was labelled as lazy and unmotivated, but was still credited as a gifted pianist in his report cards.
From the early 1880s onwards, Satie started publishing salon compositions by his stepmother and himself, among others. In 1879, Satie entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he was labelled as lazy and unmotivated, but was still credited as a gifted pianist in his report cards.
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist.
After being sent home for two and a half years, he was readmitted to the Conservatoire at the end of 1885 (age 19), but was unable to make a more favourable impression on his teachers than he had before, and, as a result, resolved to take up military service a year later.
His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd, while his 1917 coinage "furniture music" would presage the development of background and ambient music. An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous works, the piano compositions Gymnopédies.
However, Satie's military career did not last very long; within a few months he was discharged after being accused of deliberately infecting himself with bronchitis. ===Montmartre=== Satie moved from his father's residence to lodgings in Montmartre in 1887, when he became 21.
He moved to a smaller room, still in Montmartre (rue Cortot Nº 6, now a museum), in 1890.
By 1891 he was the official composer and chapel-master of the Rosicrucian Order (Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique, du Temple et du Graal), led by "Sâr" Joséphin Péladan, which led to compositions such as Salut drapeau!, Le Fils des étoiles, and the Sonneries de la Rose+Croix.
Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds"), preferring this designation to that of "musician", after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911. In addition to his body of music, Satie left a set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications from the dadaist 391 to the American culture chronicle Vanity Fair.
His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd, while his 1917 coinage "furniture music" would presage the development of background and ambient music. An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous works, the piano compositions Gymnopédies.
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist.
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