Tag: Wiltshire

Erik Satie

Eccentric French composer the subject of this evening’s presentation

April 2026

If you said ‘strange’ or ‘eccentric’ in the context of a composer, like as not you would settle on the name of Erik Satie the subject of the penultimate presentation in the 2025/26 programme. Presented by Society member Tim Rowe with able assistance from Alan Doel, we heard a range of music from this composer.

Born Eric Satie in Honfleur northern France, his mother was English and his father French. He went to the Conservatoire in Paris but left without a diploma it was said because he was the ‘laziest student’ there. The first two tracks Tim played were extracts from the Gnossiennes numbers 1 and 5. Some of this music was incorporated into one of Peter Seller’s last films Being There. These pieces are very much in the Satie style.

Similarly the most famous and recognisable of his compositions Gymnopédie No 1, a solemn, sad and thoughtful piece instantly recognised as a Satie composition. First was the original piano version but then we heard an arrangement for trumpet and orchestra which ‘worked’ and gave it a different dimension. It is probably a reflection of the sparse style the composer had adopted that a different arrangement could be a success.

Satie was never it seemed what we would today call ‘worldly wise’ and lived most of his live in poor surroundings. Friends were never invited to his home. He was however a success as a cabaret performer which should have yielded a good income but spent his money as it came into his hands.

He had a second go at a musical education by entering the Schola Cantorum as a mature student and studied under Vincent D’Indy. He was influential in the musical circle which became known as Les Six which included fellow composers such a Poulenc and Milhaud. They were a reaction to the romanticism and adopted a more sparse style of composition.

Some of his compositions were extreme, one being Vexations an endless repeated theme which can last many hours, over 9 in fact. It is controversial to this day over a century after its composition. We heard just a few moments. Other unusual pieces included Musique d’Ameublement designed not to be listened to. Was Satie the inventor of musak, the curse of so many restaurants and cafes?

We watched a brief extract from a ballet Parade which premiered in 1917 in Paris. Conceived by Jean Cocteau and sets designed by Pablo Picasso, it resulted in audience uproar and has not had many performances since.

Satie was influential and paved the way for composers we now refer to as modernist. He seem to fall out with most of his friends at some point in his life. Clearly eccentric he never listened to the radio and never used a phone. We saw a brief extract from a silent in which he appears.

Tim (pictured) expanded our knowledge of this composer playing pieces which are seldom heard today. A fine evening in the tradition of the Society to inform its members about composers, in this case certainly not forgotten, but to an extent overlooked.

Peter Curbishley

The Playlist:

  1. Gnossienne No.1      Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm, Piano
  2. Ogive No.1, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
  3. Ogive No.4. Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
  4. Gymnopedie No.1, Khatia Buniatishvili  piano
  5. Gymnopedie No.3 Alison Balsam, trumpet, with instrumental ensemble
  6. Le Fils d’Etoiles incidental music – Prelude – Alexei Lubimov, piano
  7. Modéré (1893) – Christina Agnano, piano
  8. Prière (1895) Reinbert de Leeuw, piano
  9. Pièces Froides Nos. 1 – 3 – Reinbert De Leeuw, piano
  10. Je Te Veux. Chanson – Patricia Petibon, soprano; Susan Manoff, piano
  11. Vexations 1893 (excerpt – live recording) Alexei Lubimov, piano
  12. Messe des Pauvres- (Mass for the Poor) for piano, chorus & organ (1892-1895) – Kyrie Eleison:  Choeur René Duclos conducted by Jean Laforge, with Gaston Litaize, organ
  13. Désespoir Agréable – Pleasant Despair – Jean Yves Thibaudet, piano
  14. Petite Sonata – Sladjana Gajić, piano
  15. Parade – ballet (excerpt) – Europa Danse
  16. Socrate, Symphonic Drama – Part 1 – Julia Cavallaro and Charles Blandy, piano
  17. Furnishing Music (Musique d’ameublement) – Unknown ensemble
  18. Nocturnes 2 and 3, from 5 Nocturnes – Pascal Rogé, piano
  19. Tendrement – sung by Régine Crespin, with Philippe Entremont, piano

Our final meeting takes place on 11 May and will focus on Iberian music and we are pleased to be welcoming back Simon Coombs to present.

Tonight!

April 2026

Tonight, Monday 27th April, we will now have, postponed from February, Tim Rowe and Alan Doel will present:  “Eric Satie: Gymnopediste!” 7:30 start as usual.

Erik Satie was born May 17, 1866, Honfleur, Calvados, France and died July 1, 1925, Paris). He was a French composer whose spare, unconventional, often witty style exerted a major influence on 20th-century music, particularly in France.

Suzanne Valadon: Portrait of Erik Satie
Suzanne Valadon: Portrait of Erik SatiePortrait of Erik Satie, oil on canvas by Suzanne Valadon, 1892; in the National Museum of Modern Art, Paris.

Satie studied at the Paris Conservatory, dropped out, and later worked as a café pianist. From 1898 he lived alone in Arcueil, a Paris suburb.

Free if it’s your first visit.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will tomorrow Monday 13th April when Rosemary Pemberton will present, with slides, a talk entitled ‘Black Musicians in Scenes of English Life, 1500-1850’.  Jeremy Barlow will provide the music, with commentary.

Unfortunately our next scheduled speaker is unwell, so we will be amending the rest of this season’s programme as follows: 

On Monday 27th April, we will now have, postponed from February, Tim Rowe and Alan Doel will present:  “Eric Satie: Gymnopediste!” 

Then our final session this season, on  11th May, we will welcome  Simon Coombs who will present: “Music from the Iberian Peninsula” 

We hope you had a good Easter break and that we shall see you at one or preferably more, of these evenings. 

Next meeting

An evening focusing on women composers

March 2026

We are delighted to welcome the ‘cellist Catherine Wilmers to the next meeting on Monday 23 March starting at 7:30 as usual. Catherine is a professional musician and played for many years with the LPO. You can read about her on her extensive website which will also give you a flavour of the evening’s presentation.

She will focus on female composers who all too rarely appear on programmes

and in performances. It seems that Dr Johnson’s disparaging comment is still true when told about a woman preaching at a Quaker event: ‘Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog walking in his hind legs. It is not done well but one is surprised to see it done at all’ (Boswell).

She will focus on works for the ‘cello and piano by women composers. No doubt she will show it can be done well.

Free if it is your first visit then £5 if you come again. The next meeting is on 13 April. We are at the rear of St Ann St in the Guides Centre with free parking. Access from Carmalite Way. We finish at 9:30.

PC

Photograph from her website.

Next meeting

CANCELLED

We regret to announce that we are cancelling tonight’s meeting because of the forecast bad weather.

February 2026

The next meeting takes place on Monday 9 February starting at 7:30 as usual and aims to finish at 9:30 with a break in the middle. It will be presentation by two of our members on the French composer, Eric Satie. Born in Honfleur in 1866 he had a French father and English mother. He went to the Conservatoire and left without qualifying spending much of his early life playing in Paris cafes.

He is famous for a narrow range of compositions but, as a member of Les Six he was influential particularly with Ravel, Debussy and Poulenc. It will be interesting to hear a range of his pieces in a concentrated programme.

Non members are welcome and the first visit is free and £5 thereafter. Parking is on the doorstep and there is reasonable access for people with limited mobility. Satnav SP1 2HB.

Full programme.

PC

Second half restarts Monday

Second half of the season starts 26th January

January 2026

Our first meeting in 2026 will be on Monday 26th January at 7.30 when Ed Tinline will be presenting “With few strings attached” – a programme of music for wind ensemble.

At the following meeting on 9th February 2026, Tim Rowe and Alan Doel will be presenting “Erik Satie – Gymnopediste!”

Look forward to seeing you there. For non-members it is £5 but the first visit is free. Happy New Year to you all.

PC

Previous posts:

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

Classical themes to TV and radio programmes

December 2025

You cannot say we do not ring the changes with our presentations: the final meeting of the autumn season was no exception.  Called ‘Are you sitting comfortably?’ David Davies played a range of theme tunes to favourite TV and radio programmes.

Most were familiar although trying to match the music to the programme was not always easy especially those which are no longer broadcast.  Fauré for example provided the music to ‘Listen with Mother’ (and the title for the presentation) and the programme lasted from 1950 to 1982.

William Walton provided the theme for Cat & Dog and another English composer, Elgar’s Chanson de Matin for Norman and Henry Bones which ran for around 20 years on Children’s Hour and starred Charles Hawtry.

Bach was featured on another popular radio classic ‘Animal, Vegetable or Mineral’ on the radio. Surprisingly, it didn’t run for that long, only 7 years, but one of its starts was Mortimer Wheeler who did a lot to bring archaeology into the limelight.

Many may remember ‘Top of the Form’ which ran for many years. Initially, only between boys’ schools but girls came later. Sign of the times eh. Several themes were used including one by Debussy.

An extremely memorable theme, played on trumpets, is that for the Open University which introduced many lectures in the early years. Few might know it was composed by Leonard Salzedo who despite his name is another English composer albeit of Spanish descent. For those of us who were OU students at that time, it is an extremely evocative and a reminder of watching a lecture on physics say at 1 o’clock in the morning. A reminder.

Other extremely popular and familiar themes include those for the Eurovision Song Contest – in the news recently concerning Israel’s entry into the contest. Few will be able to name the composer who is in fact Charpentier and it is an extract from one of his settings of Te Deum.

Mozart provided the theme for the Horse of the Year Show another long-running favourite starting in 1949 no less. Talking of sport, ‘Nessum Dorma’ was much in evidence in the 1990 World Cup of course.

Most programmes seem to use existing music but from time to time new works are commissioned. An example is the music for Pride and Prejudice.  Howard Goodall was mentioned who has a long range of credit to his name including ‘Mr Bean’ and ‘Not the Nine O’clock News’. 

It is noteworthy that many themes were composed by established classical composers and it is difficult to think of much popular music used in this way.  Sopranos is an exception as are some of the themes to Scandi Noir series like ‘The Bridge’.

It is almost certainly true to say that many people’s first experience of classical music is through theme tunes. Producers have gone to some trouble to select something that matches the drama and which is memorable to the viewers. Unfortunately, if you want to know who the composer was, the credits often will not mention the actual composer but whoever it was who arranged it or added incidental music. The music for ‘Tom and Jerry’ cat and mouse capers for example were heavily influenced by Bartok and Schoenberg but their names never appeared on the credits, rather Scott Bradley.

An entertaining evening and the last of the first half of our programme.  We resume on 26 January 2026.

Peter Curbishley

Next meeting

Last meeting before Christmas

November 2025

TONIGHT

Our final meeting in 2025 will be on 1st December when David Davies will be asking “Are you sitting comfortably?” and presenting some Classical Music Signature Tunes. 

In the new year we will resume on Monday 26th January 2026 when Ed Tinline will present: “With few strings attached”,  music for wind ensembles.

We hope you will be able to join us on Monday.

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Tonight’s meeting

November 2025

Tonight’s programme (Monday, 17th) features the work of Gordon Jacob another of those composers who despite a prolific output, largely remains in the shadows. He composed over 900 works and was a significant figure in the music world.

Presented by Geoff Orgram, it starts at 7:30 as usual. If you have never been before and want to give it a try, then your visit will be free. You can see details of our other evenings on this site.

Next meeting

October 2025

Our next meeting will be at 7.30pm on Monday 3rd November 2025.
It will commence with a short Annual General Meeting followed by our Members’ Evening.  For this Robin now has almost sufficient pieces for what should be a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Any last minute ideas for possible inclusion if there is time to Robin please.

Following this on 17th November we will have a presentation entitled: “Seventh Son”  An appreciation of the work of Gordon Jacob. Written and presented by Geoff Ogram 

On 1st December at our final session before Christmas, David Davies will  present some Classical Music Signature Tunes.  To help him prepare for this, David has asked me to forward the following to members:

“The meeting on December 1 is entitled ‘Are you sitting comfortably? These words began Listen with Mother at 1.45 every weekday on the BBC Light Programme from January 1950 and on into the 60s. And every programme ended with the Berceuse from Faure’s Le Jardin de Dolly suite for piano duet. The words and the tune are still remembered fondly by a whole generation.

“But what else in radio and television (including adverts) has used classical music as a signature tune? We shall have a not-too-serious discussion on this topic, and I would appreciate your letting me know your suggestions.

You can email me at davidracheld@gmail.com
Thank you.  David Davies“

We hope you will be able to join us at these sessions.