Like the "Gymnopédies", the "Gnossiennes" also allude to ancient Greek traditions. Perhaps inspired by the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, Satie made use of oriental ornamentation. With his subtle intuition for musical tendencies that were "en vogue", he combined exotic elements with influences from cabaret music and, of course, his own ideas to create something very new. Several of the "Gnossiennes" take one by surprise on account of puzzling fragments of text between the lines of music. According to Satie they were not supposed to be read aloud but to create a secret link between composer and player - a creative challenge, which we are passing on to present-day musicians in our Urtext edition.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
