Erik Satie - Vexations

To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable
to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.



From the audience point of view, Dick Higgins observed, "the music first becomes so familiar that it seems extremely offensive and objectionable. But after that the mind slowly becomes incapable of taking further offence, and a very strange euphoric acceptance and enjoyment begin to set in... Is it boring? Only at first. After a while the euphoria... begins to intensify. By the time the piece is over, the silence is absolutely numbing, so much of an environment has the piece become."17 In Cage's famous aphorism, "In Zen they say: If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it's not boring at all but very interesting." 18 In a poetic sense, Vexations never finishes - the 840 repetitions are themselves but an instant in the eternal present in which the music exists like some Platonic form, obliterating memory, eluding analysis. In the words of an ancient Indian saying, "The music continues; it is we who walk away."


Stephen Whittington
Elder School of Music, University of Adelaide, Australia
1993, revised 2003.


John Cale helped play Vexations for its full intended duration in 1963.
listen and watch.