There are a number of pieces of music that have attained mythical status. Cage’s 4’33” is the first to come to mind but Satie’s Vexations is another one of those musical legends. Consisting of an instantly forgettable piano motif that lasts about one minute, repeated 840 times, Vexations is a work of endurance for both the performer and the audience.
LTM
In his original instructions to this piece, Satie wrote: “In order to play this motif 840 times in succession, one should prepare oneself in advance by maintaining complete silence and keeping absolutely still.” In this performance there are only 40 repetitions so an intensive preparation for listening is not required. Vexationsis one of those pieces of music I had only read about. It sounded greaton paper but I was sceptical whether or not it translated into actualmusic. While I haven’t stuck the CD on repeat for 24 hours I do thinkit works fantastically. The music is written to be nearly impossible toremember, no matter how many times I listened to it I couldn’t find myplace in the motif.
Alan Marks has done a marvellous job here (well he did a marvellous job nearly 20 years ago, this is a reissue). Unfortunately the liner notes don’t mention whether he performed the full 840 repetitions or just enough to fill a CD. The “action” in this piece is hidden in the slight emphasis variations and changes in expression that the performer brings to it. Marks’ playing does subtly change throughout the 70 minutes. He seems comfortable with the piece whereas I feel most performers would feel like they were in a musical straightjacket. A problem with Vexations is the recording quality. I felt it was lacking a bit, there seems to be a fair amount of hiss in the background and the sound of the pedals on the piano is a little intrusive.
Alan Marks’ rendition of Vexations is a nice introduction to Satie’s infamous work. However given current technology I think it’s about time someone recorded the full 840 repetitions to hard disc and released it in that format.
samples:
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