Erik Satie – Sheet Music & Scores

“The more musicians there are, the crazier there are!”

The French piano virtuoso and composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) is best known for his magnificent piano pieces, including Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore all his works today.

Satie’s Music – Simple, beautiful and a little crazy

Everyone knows Satie’s showpiece, the simple yet haunting Gymnopédie No. 1, and it was Erik Satie’s unique style that influenced such artists as John Cage and was also considered the birth of “minimalism”. Satie himself described his music as “furnishing music”, which should not stress the listener unnecessarily (with the exception of his “Vexations”), and he was a role model for the modern Easy Listening artists like Ludovico Einaudi.

Friendships with Claude Debussy and Pablo Picasso, who designed the costumes, sets and curtain for his ballet Parade, established him as an important figure of the Parisian avant-garde. Although he did not enjoy the same fame as Claude Debussy, he had his own following, and was considered a mentor by the composer group “Les Six”, which comprised of Georges Auric , Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre.

His unusual and extravagant performance instructions, such as “like a nightingale with a toothache”, “serious and heavy, sullen and scratchy, hypocritical, May 15th, sober in the morning” or the instruction to repeat his “vexations” 840 times, are a little insight into genius, and the madness of Erik Satie.

Some approachable piano links for Erik Satie & others

• Piano Works by Erik Satie
• Famous Works for Piano
• Sheet Music Downloads by Erik Satie
• Easy Pieces for Piano
• Easy Listening for Piano
• Sheet Music Downloads for Piano