You might not recognize the name Erik Satie, but chances are you’ve heard his music. Among the most famous works by this French composer are the GymnopŽdies and the Gnossiennes (Gnossienne No. 4 can be heard on the soundtrack of About Schmidt).
Born in 1866, Satie was an original, both in habits and work. As M.T. Anderson explains in the author’s note to his wonderful new tribute to the composer, “Satie was a genius and a crank, a magician and a child, a fool and a visionary, a gentle man with a violent temper, a medieval composer on the cutting edge of modernity.” In other words, the perfect subject for a biography for children.
Strange Mr. Satie is full of simply presented details, yet Anderson doesn’t oversimplify his subject’s life. Nor does he make his subject heroic. Anderson explains that Satie often yelled, had tantrums, even threw his girlfriend out the window! There are many glorious details here. Readers learn how Satie dropped out of school early on, only to return at age 39. How he gave his compositions names like “Real Flabby Preludes (for a Dog),” and how his musical instructions included phrases like “From the end of the eyes.” How he, Picasso and others put on a wild ballet called Parade, with dancers wearing models of buildings. Petra Mathers’ illustrations are the perfect complement to the text, capturing old-fashioned France along with facial expressions and actions befitting Satie’s whimsical nature. The book’s endpapers include text from Satie’s Memoirs of an Amnesiac, with notes like “I start lunch at 12:11 and leave the table at 12:14,” and “I go to bed regularly at 22:37. Once a week, I wake up with a start at 3:19. That’s on Tuesday.” Strange indeed, but bewitching. The only thing missing from the splendid Strange Mr. Satie is a CD full of the composer’s music. Be sure to pick one up along with this book.
