Gnossiennes

The etymology of the word gnossienne is contentious, but the word existed in French literature before Satie's usage, and is in the 1865 Larousse Dictionary, referring to the ritual labyrinth dance created by Theseus to celebrate his victory over the Minotaur, first described in the "Hymn to Delos" by Callimachus.

Satie was involved in gnostic sects and movements at the time that he began to compose the Gnossiennes.

The Gnossiennes were composed by Satie in the decade following the composition of the Sarabandes (1887) and the Trois Gymnopédies (1888).

The musical vocabulary of the Gnossiennes is a continuation of that of the Gymnopédies (a development that had started with the 1886 Ogives and the Sarabandes) later leading to more harmonic experimentation in compositions like the Danses gothiques (1893).

A year after Gnosticism had been re-established in 1890, Satie was introduced to the Rosicrucian sect by his friend Joséphin Péladan.

A revision prior to publication in 1893 is not unlikely; the 2nd Gnossienne may even have been composed in that year (it has "April 1893" as date on the manuscript).

A sketch containing only two incomplete bars, dated around 1890, shows Satie beginning to orchestrate the 3rd Gnossienne.

Dated 8 July 1889, this was probably Satie's first composition after the 1888 Gymnopédies: in any case it predates all other known Gnossiennes (including the three published in 1893).

The work is somewhat uncharacteristic of the other Gnossiennes not only in its upbeat style, rhythms and less exotic chordal structures but also in its use of time signatures and bar divisions.

The Le Fils des étoiles ("The son of the stars") incidental music (composed 1891) contains a Gnossienne in the first act.