Gymnopedie No. 1

The three Gymnopedies were complete in manuscript by April 2, 1888. No. 1 is marked lent et douloureux, slow and painful, in 3/4 in D major, No. 2 lent et triste, and No. 3 lent et grave; each lasts about three minutes. The opening alternates two major-seventh chords, on G and on D, and a piano teacher's analysis notes an F sharp held as a pedal across both and a long melody of sustained quarter notes. IMSLP lists recordings of No. 1 at 3:11 for Baiocchi on piano, 3:05 for Simpson in an orchestral version and 3:12 for De Bra on accordions.

The name comes from the Greek gymnopaedia, a festival of youths dancing naked or unarmed, often rendered Three Nude Dances. Satie and Alexis Roland-Manuel said it came from Flaubert's Salammbo, while others point to J. P. Contamine de Latour's poem "Les Antiques", printed with the first Gymnopedie in La Musique des familles in the summer of 1888, or to Peter Lichtenthal's Dictionnaire de Musique (1839); Puvis de Chavannes's paintings may have shaped the mood. Publication is disputed: Wikipedia says Nos. 1 and 3 appeared in 1888 and No. 2 in 1895, while IMSLP says the undated first edition is from 1888 to 1895, that No. 1 is really the second edition deposited in 1895 with No. 2, and that No. 3 was deposited in November 1888. The holograph is at the Bibliotheque nationale de France (MS-8537).

Debussy orchestrated Nos. 3 and 1 in February 1897, published two years later with the numbering reversed. Pianistmusings says the pieces did not succeed until about twenty years after they were written. Blood, Sweat and Tears recorded Dick Halligan's arrangement of Nos. 1 and 2 as "Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie" (1968, Grammy 1969), Gary Numan put "Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement)" on the B-side of "We Are Glass" (1980), and Janet Jackson's "Someone to Call My Lover" (2001) samples No. 1 and reached number three on the Hot 100. It is heard in Man on Wire, The Royal Tenenbaums, Another Woman (1988) and My Dinner with Andre (1981). The performer of our upload is not identified.