The world of Erik Satie

Dr Simon Perry steps outside his usual research beat and explores a composer who is well-known for his graceful and hypnotic Gymnopédies but perhaps not so much else. But without Erik Satie, the music of composers as diverse as Claude Debussy and John Cage would not have taken the form it did.  Few, if any, rattled the cage of music as strongly as Satie, whose reputation for pranks and puns seriously undermines the profound challenge he laid to an art form he found to be in danger of losing its edge.