Gymnopédie no. 1 by Erik Satie

Satie instructs us to play this piece Lent et douloureux (slowly and painfully), an appropriate mood for those of us disoriented by the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. Composed in 1888, this Gymnopédie is a perennial favorite, perhaps due to its long melodic lines and hypnotic repetitive harmonies or its melancholy atmosphere. It ends with the opposite of a Picardy Third, in d minor instead of D Major.

Although I could not find a ballet that used this music, there is one set to Satie's Trois Gnossiennes, so perhaps the Gymnopédies will be next! The composer occasionally adds or subtracts a measure from the conventional eight-bar phrase, so dancers would need to count carefully.

Gymnopédie no. 1 is dedicated to Mademoiselle Jeanne de Bret, believed to be a classmate of the composer at some point in his life.