Cinq Nocturnes [Five Nocturnes] (1919) // I - Doux et Calme [with score] Composed by Erik Satie (1866-1925) // Performed by Thomas Little (b. 1996) Erik Satie was one of the most eccentric characters in the history of music. A friend of Debussy with a long career of cabaret playing, his antics—both musical and extramusical—brought him significant amounts of both attention and derision. The whimsical nature of Satie's music is compounded by absurd interpretive directions (such as "like a nightingale with a toothache"). His Dadaist writings and legendary antics kept his legend alive, and his music—long derided—has come into its own. Satie's earliest forays into solo piano music utilized bar lines (such as the famous Gymnopédies), but for most of his career he eschewed them. They return in the introspective Nocturnes, his last solo piano compositions, which stand out for their serious nature; Satie's fondness for absurd musical directions are no longer to be found. They correspond to a time in his life of pessimism and illness; his moody nature had alienated all but a few of his friends. While the five complete Nocturnes are grouped as a set, Satie planned two more—the sixth was later found among his personal effects in the 1990s, nearly complete, while the seventh was merely a sketch. The Nocturnes, like many of the pieces Satie grouped together, share structure, mood, and time signature. The first Nocturne is dedicated to Marcelle Meyer. The score to the Nocturnes can be found on IMSLP: http://tinyurl.com/pg5jh5n