The Gymnopédie, performed by the Netherlands Chamber Choir, is one of the first choral arrangements of this iconic work by Erik Satie, arranged by William Knight after an idea by Tido Visser. The arrangement makes use of Les Antiques, a poem by the poet J.P. Contamine de Latour, who was a friend of Satie’s and is likely to have inspired the famous composition for piano. Satie, Contamine de Latour and Van Gogh were all living in Montmartre around the same time, although no conclusive evidence has been uncovered yet that they have met, it is likely they would have visited the same cafes, bars and shared a social circle.
The poem, referring to the “gymnopédie”, talks about “atomes d’ambre a feu” and “flots d’or” (atoms of amber and gusts of gold)–elements which come back in the Netherlands Chamber Choir’s version with video in the artwork by the Italian studio fuse*, where one can almost see Van Gogh’s sunflowers appear in a whirlwind of golden brushstrokes.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention