Gymnopedie No. 1

About This Song

Gymnopedie sheet music for guitar: Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (1866 –1925) was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colorful figure in the early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. An eccentric Satie was introduced as a “gymnopedist” in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies.

The Gymnopédies, published in Paris starting in 1888, are three piano compositions written as atmospheric pieces in 3/4 time with each sharing a common theme and structure. Collectively, the Gymnopédies are regarded as an important precursor to modern ambient music— gentle yet somewhat eccentric pieces which, when composed, defied the classical tradition. For instance, the first few bars of the original Gymnopédie No. 1 consist of an alternating progression of two major seventh chords, the first on the subdominant, G, and the second on the tonic, D. This arrangement by Stevan Pasero is transposed to the key of E major and incorporates subtle harmonic dissonances which produce a wraithlike, melancholy effect.

Gymnopedie sheet music for guitar: Other similar transcriptions for the classical guitar repertoire.

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About The Arranger:

Stevan Pasero is recognized as a important contributor to the guitar repertoire over the past three decades. He has transcribed numerous symphonic works and composed, arranged and produced records for solo, duo and various ensembles. He has recorded 50 albums of music and his works appear on over 1000 other albums. Pasero studied classical guitar, then continued his studies in jazz and flamenco. He attended San Francisco State University where he studied musical analysis, harmony and composition, which led to some post-graduate work in transcription and orchestration. Mr. Pasero is owner and principal of four publishing and distribution music industry companies.