"Satie's "Entr'acte

No consideration of film music can afford to overlook the unique contribution of that eccentric genius of the twenties, Erik Satie. Simple, flowing, sometimes ingratiating, his music lends itself well to film, particularly to collage films in experimental cinema.2 Never has the cinematic affinity of Satie's music been better demonstrated than in the score he wrote to accompany Rene Clair's film interlude for Francis Picabia's Dadaist ballet, Reldche (1924).3 It an inventive score without peer, at once durable and distinguished, says Virgil Thomson. Its excellence is due to Satie's having understood correctly the limitations and possibilities of a photographic narrative as subject matter for music.4 Satie's score provides a useful model for today's composers and film makers, especially because it anticipated over 50 years ago some of the structural concepts now in vogue in the arts.5

Art · Art history · Ballet · Dance · Genius · Literature · Movie theater · Narrative · Performance art · The arts · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History