Satie Seen Through His Letters

At the age of 13, Erik Satie went to Paris, where he attended the Paris Conservatory. He soon, however, relinquished his formal and systematic study of music. Early in his career, he played in cabarets in Montmartre. In 1892 he began to produce short piano pieces with eccentric titles, intended to ridicule proponents of both modern and classical music. He was 40 years old when he decided to learn about the techniques of composition. Although he was dismissed as a serious musician by his contemporaries, Satie greatly influenced French musicians of a younger generation. He became well known as an innovator in the modern idiom after his death.