Vexations [1893]

Date Fri 26 July at 12 midnight, running continuously until about 6pm on Saturday 27th July (With an eye on the Guinness book of records…)
Venue Turbine Hall
Duration 18 hours approx
FREE EVENT

Marathon Performances by Multiple Pianists

“To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.”

This enigmatic instruction, on a single page of music bearing the title Vexations, has turned the strange piano piece into a legend in the annals of experimental music.

The work emerged from obscurity in 1949 when the composer Henri Sauguet, a friend of Satie’s in his last years, drew it to the attention of John Cage. At first, Cage found it interesting as a concept but dismissed the notion of a performance. Nevertheless, in September 1963, Cage organised the first ‘complete’ performance of Vexations at the Pocket Theatre in New York, from 6pm on September 9 through to 11.00am the next morning. Twelve pianists, including Viola Farber, John Cale, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, Philip Corner and John Cage himself, played the entire score in continuous 20 minute relays. As one pianist would finish, another would slide along the piano stool to continue playing the 180-note passage over its 840 specified reiterations.

Cage played it 75 times, then retired to sleep soundly on a foam-rubber pad in the basement. He later commented :

"The effect of this going on and on was quite extraordinary. Ordinarily, one would assume there was no need to have such an experience, since if you hear something said ten times, why should you hear it any more? But the funny thing was that it was never the same twice. The musicians were always slightly different in their versions – their strengths fluctuated. I was surprised that something was put into motion that changed me. I wasn’t the same after that performance as I was before. A moment of enlightenment came for each one of us, and at different times."

John Cage, quoted by Jean Stein and George Plimpton, p. 235 Edie, an American Biography, New York, Alfred A Knopf, 1982

The repetitive nature of the piece raises fundamental aesthetic questions, in particular about the function of boredom in art. “Boredom was mysterious and profound” for Satie. But it was also an effective way of mystifying and irritating the bourgeoisie.

There are many interpretations of Vexations. The author Alan M.Gillmor says it “may be one of Satie’s greatest leg-pulls” whereas Gavin Bryars describes it as “a sort of Ring des Nibelungen des pauvres”.

It was written sometime between January and June 1893, during an eventful period in Satie’s long life [1866-1925], when he was deeply involved in esoteric religion and a passionate affair with the painter Suzanne Valadon

In a number of ways, it is a direct antecedent of his later musique d’ameublement [“furniture music”], articles of sonic décor, not meant to be listened to, ‘objects’ for use rather than ‘works’ for interpretation.

The statis, undramatic nature of Vexations, reinforced by repetition, gives it the character of an objet sonore [‘sound object’], while the ‘flatness’ of the music suggests a two-dimensional surface. The immobility which the performer is advised to adopt is the immobility of the music itself, which becomes an ‘immobile’ sound object to be ‘viewed’ by the listener. The performer and the audience become the figures; the ‘dramatic action’ is the transformation of consciousness effected by the music.

Adapted from web notes by Stephen Whittington

Special thanks to all participants, especially to the Piano Faculty and Students of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.

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