The influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc

The purpose of this document was to show the influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Erik Satie (1866-1925) and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). These two prolific and inventive composers incorporated a wide range of popular styles into their writing, from Parisian cafe-concert, music-hall, and cabaret songs, to the popular chanson and music for the circus. Both composers frequented popular establishments throughout their lives and introduced characteristic aesthetic principles such as diversity, parody, banality, and nostalgia into their piano writing, features all founded in Parisian popular entertainment. A myriad of books has been written on Parisian entertainments but the focus of these studies has not been Satie or Poulenc. The objective of the present study was to pull together all of these seemingly disparate constituents. Chapter I focuses on the motivations for a popular sensibility in fin-de-siecle Paris, Satie and Poulenc's ties to Parisian popular entertainment, and the personal relationship between the two composers. Chapter II comprises a brief history of the popular institutions that flourished in Paris at the turn of the century.;Satie's piano writing not only exemplifies characteristics from popular sources but employs quotations and transcriptions from popular music composed for various Parisian establishments. For a number of years Satie supported himself not only by composing popular music but also by playing the piano in the cabarets of Montmartre. Throughout Poulenc's career a popular-influenced vein can be traced, from the early Mouvements perpetuels (1918) through his last composition for solo piano, the Hommage a Edith Piaf (1959). The core of this paper, chapters III and IV, deals most specifically with the influence of popular entertainment on the piano works of Satie and Poulenc. Each composer had his own personal relationship with popular entertainment. Satie was an insider, a composer of popular music and a cabaret performer. Poulenc was simply a spectator with a passion for the popular entertainments of Paris. Chapter V summarizes and draws conclusions that show the influence of popular Parisian entertainment on the piano music of these two composers.;I was in Europe for three and a half weeks during May and June, 1993, including a week in Paris. While in Paris, I was able to search for materials related to this project first-hand at various locations. I visited two music-halls, a cabaret, various museums, and the distributor for France's most important music publishers. Later I examined musical scores, recordings, and literary sources and arrived at conclusions that illuminate the influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Satie and Poulenc. This study revealed features common to both the piano music of Satie and Poulenc and the music heard in institutions of popular entertainment in Paris.