Le poisson rêveur

Le poisson rêveur (The Dreamy Fish) is an unfinished tone poem for solo piano composed between 1900 and 1901 by Erik Satie, based on a tale by "Lord Cheminot" (alias J. P. Contamine de Latour).

Satie's apparent goal for Le poisson rêveur was to strike a balance between his "serious" and "popular" idioms in the course of one continuous symphonic movement, while trying to think harmonically along Debussyan lines.

Instead of his trademark motivic juxtapositions, Satie attempted through-composition in extended passages; the keyboard writing is orchestral rather than pianistic, with occasional indications for other instruments in the score (oboe, clarinet, flutes, strings).

Mosaic-like melodic fragments reminiscent of Satie's early music are followed by more conventional rounded phrases and jaunty dotted rhythms borrowed from Jack in the Box (1899).

In a letter dated August 17, 1903, Satie mentioned he had started composing the Trois morceaux, and then dropped Debussy a little reminder: "And this blasted dreamy fish?