Description
Manuscript signed by André Breton and dated 16 June 1955.
June 1955. In reference to Satie, for whom he confesses his admiration, Breton takes the opportunity to slip in a few words about his relationship with instrumental music (with which he says he was 'born estranged'), which in fact emphasises the primarily plastic dimension of his foremost artistic affinities. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Signed autograph manuscript, Paris, 16 June 1955.
1/2 page in-12 handwritten, dated and signed by André Breton in ink, with erasures and corrections:
"Satie was generous enough to say that the piano ‘like money, is pleasurable only if you can get your hands on it’. Given I was born estranged to instrumental music, this makes me feel at ease. I regret all the more having understood too late, after his death, what an exceptional person he was and that a curtain of thorns - his malice, his studied (sic) – veiled him from me.” [Sale Catalogue, 2003]
Text written at the request of Robert Caby for the magazine Arts, which did not publish it. [Pascale Butel (rev.), Inventaire des Archives Erik Satie, IMEC, April 2016, p. 197]
Bibliography
André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Erik Satie », Inédits, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 1139-1140, notice p. 1471-1472.
Pascale Butel (rév.), Inventaire des Archives Erik Satie, IMEC, avril 2016, p. 197
1 Comment
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Longtemps inédit, ce manuscrit souligne la cohérence des écrits du musicien Erik Satie. Il apporte la preuve que Breton jugeait à propos l'oeuvre du compositeur, et ce en dépit de la brouille entre les deux hommes entérinée par l'affaire du Congrès de Paris en 1922. Il s'agit du second musicien, avec l'Italien Alberto Savinio, que Breton place aux sources du "mythe moderne". Voilà de quoi bouleverser bien des représentations à propos d'un auteur que l'on présenta comme sourd à la musique.
