Le porteur de grosses pierres

History

The second of Satie's Chapitres depicts a man struggling to carry a stone supposedly a hundred times larger than himself, then reveals that it is only pumice. The score's very slow pace and instruction to play 'with much difficulty' make the physical joke part of the performance.

Sources

• mutopiaproject.org/piece-info.cgi
• mutopiaproject.org/Le_porteur-a4.pdf
• imslp.org

What to listen for

1. 1

   Two different layers begin together

   Paired upper pitches and higher replies move against close lower pairs at a steadier spacing. Hear the contrasting layers rather than making every attack equally prominent.

2. 2

   A short rising burst changes the pace

   A later upper burst rises through several pitches before a wider attack and descending replies. Keep that brief acceleration shaped as one gesture over the slower lower notes.

How to practise it

1. Play the upper paired pitches and high replies alone, then the steadier lower pairs alone. Combine the layers with the upper replies gently more prominent, keeping the lower spacing unchanged.
2. Practise the rising upper burst through its wider arrival, stopping there as a temporary exercise. Add the descending reply, then the slower lower notes, keeping the source attack sequence intact.

How hard is it

About this piece

Collection

French piano colors

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

Source

mutopiaproject.org

Credit

“Le porteur de grosses pierres” by E. Satie (1866 to 1925). Mutopia edition maintained by Knute Snortum. Source: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=2026. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Changes to the supplied file: none; any later conversion or edit must be disclosed separately.

More by Erik Satie

1. 1Gymnopédie No. 3Level 4, estimatedWith Maestro
2. 2Gymnopédie No. 1Level 4, estimatedOpen to everyone
3. 3Gnossienne No. 2Level 5, estimatedWith Maestro