Erik Satie ~1891~ Le Fils des Étoiles - 1. Prélude du 1er Acte : La vocation

"Le Fils des Étoiles" is the main work of the Rosicrucian period, written to accompany the eponymous esoteric theatre piece of Joseph Péladan. It is somehow "incidental music".

The preludes were first composed for harps and flutes and this is the version which will be used during the three representations of "Le Fils des Étoiles" in March 1892 at the Soirées Rose+Croix. These three preludes are better known than the three acts, which are rarely played and were barely recorded.

Contemplative and early "spiritual" furnishing music, it innovates harmonically in two ways. First, Satie uses dissonant quarts, whose employment will spread around 1910, particularly by Scriabin, Bartok, Debussy or Stravinsky. On the other hand, the composer also uses tonal overlays which will be systematized by Milhaud, Ravel and Roussel.

piano: Alexei Lubimov