Satie’s First Gymnopédie --  Unbent
 

Like most of Satie’s music, Satie’s first Gymnopédie is like a toy which was slightly bent during shipping. It can easily be be bent back into something easier to listen to.

Here’s how  to do it.

   1. Instead of the odd, floating, quarter-note+half-note left hand, put in a nice oom-pah-pah waltz accompaniment.

   2. Major seventh chords are dissonant. Get rid of them.  

   3. Get rid of the 3^rd-inversion minor-seventh chords by moving the bass up a step.

   4. Non-harmonic tones have normal ways of resolving. There are a lot of non-non-harmonic tones in this piece. Get rid of them even though that means you have to change the melody a bit.

    5. There’s no real reason for the left hand to play while the right hand isn’t playing. Cut out a few measures.

   6. The last half of the piece is in the Dorian mode. With a few accidentals you cab change it into major, or preferably minor. The two big cadences should be changed to dominant seventh -->  tonic minor.

   7.  About five chords lack thirds. Put them in so the listener doesn’t get confused or upset.

   8. The melody should start either on the downbeat or else on a third-beat pickup note. As it is, the left hand and the right hand seem disconnected, and the melody doesn’t know where it’s supposed to be going. People humming this piece will often spontaneously change a quarter note into a half note to make things line up right, thus correcting Satie’s error.

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Original materials copyright John J Emerson

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