Friday Music: Satie's Gymnopediae

Paul Barton (born in Yorkshire, England, but living in Bangkok, Thailand) plays all three of French composer Erik Satie's Gymnopedies, written in 1888.

They are supposed to be played at a pace that sounds like "painful" (the first) or "sad" (second) or "grave" (the third). Satie was a very close friend of Claude Debussy, who orchestrated the first and third of these pieces. He felt that the second one wouldn't work.

I love these pieces for their simplicity and the tranquility they seem to embody. Enjoy.