Erik Satie ~1915~ Avant-Dernières Pensées

This set (“Next-to-last Thoughts“) was originally called “Étranges rumeurs“ and contains sincere, almost minimalistic pieces dedicated to the three composer friends who had helped Satie the most: Debussy artistically; Paul Dukas financially; and Albert Roussel contrapuntally. The guitar- (or mandoline-) playing old poet in no 2 (Morning Serenade) is Satie himself, and the Beauty is probably Valentine Gross, whom he had met at the private premiere of “Le Piège de Méduse“ in 1914, and who became a close and