Avant-dernières Pensées

Description

In a typically humorous manner Satie countered the myth of the great master’s last thought with his Next-to-last thoughts (Avant-dernières Pensées). As was usual with his piano works from 1912 onwards, each of the three highly distinctive pieces with their sound sensitive piano settings contained a short whimiscal story printed in the musical text as a subtext, which is more or less closely connected with the music. Satie dedicated his Next-to-last thoughts to prominent contemporaries: Claude Debussy (for no. 1 Idylle), with whom he was close friends; Paul Dukas (no. 2 Aubade, in English Dawn Serenade), whose music he greatly admired; and Albert Roussel (no. 3 Méditation), his former teacher of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.