Which one is your favorite? - IX -

I wasn't planning to post in this series classical (such a wrong definition) music pieces but I have come across some beautiful covers (more like interpretations) in this genre too. This week I am picking a piece that I really love and find rather interesting. I hope you will share my enthusiasm in choosing this piece and send me your comments on the versions you like.

Please keep your requests and comments coming...

And our choice for this week is;

"Gnossienne No.1"

The Gnossiennes  are several piano compositions written by the French composer Erik Satie in the late 19th century. The works are for the most part in free time (lacking time signatures or bar divisions) and highly experimental with form, rhythm and chordal structure. The form as well as the term was invented by Satie.

Satie's coining of the word gnossienne was one of the rare occasions when a composer used a new term to indicate a new "type" of composition. Satie used many novel names for his compositions (vexations, croquis et agaceries and so on). Ogive, for example, is the name of an architectural element which was used by Satie as the name for a composition, the Ogives. Gnossienne, however, was a word that did not exist before Satie used it as a title for a composition. The word appears to derive from gnosis. Satie was involved in gnostic sects and movements at the time that he began to compose the Gnossiennes. However, some published versions claim that the word derives from Cretan "knossos" or "gnossus"; this interpretation supports the theory linking the Gnossiennes to the myth of Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur. Several archeological sites relating to that theme were famously excavated around the time that Satie composed the Gnossiennes.

It is possible that Satie may have drawn inspiration for the title of these compositions from a passage in John Dryden's 1697 translation of the Aeneid, in which it is thought the word first appeared:

Let us the land which Heav'n appoints, explore;

Appease the winds, and seek the Gnossian shore

The Three Gnossiennes were composed around 1890 and first published in 1893. A revision prior to publication in 1893 is not unlikely; the 2nd Gnossienne may even have been composed in that year (it has "April 1893" as date on the manuscript). The piano solo versions of the first three Gnossiennes are without time signatures or bar lines, which is known as free time.

And here are the 3 versions I chose for you;

• Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano & Jan Lundgren - "Gnossienne No.1"

• Erkan Oğur - "Gnossienne No.1"

• Quartet Cinderella - "Gnossienne No.1"

Here is another one for bonus this week coming from "Lost Unicorns". 

Keep in mind that it is out of competition...

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers...