Before the Parade Passes By:
Erik Satie and Musical Modernism
1:00 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

On 18 May 1917, during the darkest days of World War I for the French, Satie’s modernist ballet, Parade, premiered in Paris. With a scenario by Cocteau, sets and costumes by Picasso, choreography by Massine, and music by Satie, the work provoked the second Parisian musical scandal of the decade and established Satie’s reputation as the leader of the musical avant garde in France. Apollinaire declared that Satie’s score was “so clear and simple that one will recognize the marvelously lucid spirit of France herself.” In addition, this work brought together the many currents that shaped musical modernism in France in the first three decades of the twentieth century — rejection of the romantic language of Wagner and even that of Debussy, while embracing the new crowd of American tourists and exalting bourgeois lifestyles and values. The work assaults the audience through a new language that unites several artistic media in a unified expression that presented a vision of the future. This lecture placed the work in its historical context and examined the influences and styles that shaped it.

Dr. George Keck is a professor of music, chair of the Department of Music History and Literature, and director of the honors program at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. He was awarded a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Iowa and completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard University and Princeton University. Dr. Keck is the author of Francis Poulenc: A Bio-Bibliography and a frequent lecturer on French music, the composer Francis Poulenc, and 19th century American music.