Enlarge Image Satie, Erik - Sports et Divertissements. Musique de Erik Satie /

Satie, Erik (1866-1925)

Name: Satie, Erik - Sports et Divertissements. Musique de Erik Satie /
SKU: MUS-16614
Price: 650.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Sports et Divertissements. Musique de Erik Satie / Dessins de Charles Martin.

Lucien Vogel: Paris, 1923. From the 1923 edition of 900. Although the colophon states that the edition is numbered 226-900, this copy is unnumbered. However, someone has pencilled in the number 301. Large horizontal folio (1'4" h x c. 1'6" w / 400 x 440 mm). 46 pp, unsewn as issued. Decorative pink paper boards, all glassine wrapped, with a large printed label on the cover with lettering and a drawing in brown by Charles Martin. A bit of chipping to front cover and a small hole in back cover where a ribbon had been. Most pages with the remains of linen tabs because the former owner had them framed on a wall (see scans). Otherwise, this is a fine copy in excellent condition.

One of 900 with an original pochoir print by Charles Martin.

There were three runs of the first edition of this delightful work, all published in 1923: a reserved edition of 10 with 20 plates of Charles Martin, a similar edition of 225 and this one of 900 issued with one original plate of Charles Martin. This particular copy contains Martin's plate of the song "Comedie Italianne", dated April 29, 1914 by Satie. The plate is a colored copper engraving, printed "au pochoir" by J. Saudé. Au pochoir prints were at the time a new intricate technique using stencils in order to achieve detailed vibrant images.

Martin has also illustrated the title of each piece with a large vignette. The 21 pieces, for piano with lyrics, follow a preface and are titled: Choral inappétissant, Balançoire, La chasse, La comédie italienne, Le réveil de la mariée, Colin-maillard, La pêche, Le yachting, Le bain de mer, Le carnaval, Le golf, La pieuvre, Les courses, Les quatre-coins, Le pique-nique, Le water-chute, Le tango, Le traîneau, Le flirt, Le feu d'artifice, Le tennis. They are all reproduced in Satie's own superb calligraphy.

Satie wrote these humoristic piano pieces in 1914, depicting various sports and leisure activities and with accompanying amusing text. Sports et Divertissement is considered to be one of his finest works. Although often stated that the first edition was published in 1914, because of World War I, they were not published until 1923 and it was at that time that the fashionable Parisian magazine publisher Lucien Vogel commissioned Charles Martin to add the pochoir prints and create the high value collector's album we now know. Satie, always the eccentric, had written his own preface, stating that For the Dried Up & Stultified I have written a Chorale which is serious & respectable, dedicating it to "those people who don't love me". Throughout the music he interjects humorous instructions such as “Moderately & with great boredom”.

According to James Harding, in his biography of Satie (London, 1975): "The story of how they [the pieces in Sports et Divertissements] originated is both odd and typical. Toward the beginning of 1914 Vogel, publisher of such chic art magazines as the 'Gazette du Bon Ton', asked Igor Stravinsky to compose some short piano pieces to accompany drawings by Charles Martin, one of the most fashionable illustrators of the time. Stravinsky asked for a fee that was considered excessive, whereas the less worldly Satie agreed to accept a much-reduced fee although the fee of 3,000 francs was in fact by far the largest sum he had earned from his music up to that point.

The eminent very sought after French artist and illustrator Charles Martin (1884–1934) was particularly known for his book illustrations and especially for this collaboration with Erik Satie.

MUS-16614$650