Vexations

Vexations is a musical work by Erik Satie. Apparently conceived for keyboard (although the single page of manuscript does not specify an instrument), it consists of a short theme in the bass whose four presentations are heard alternatingly unaccompanied and played with chords above. The theme and its accompanying chords are written using strikingly eccentric and impractical enharmonic notation. The piece is undated, but scholars usually assign a date around 1893–1894 on the basis of musical and biographical evidence.

The piece bears the inscription "In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities" (Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses). From the 1960s onward, this text has mostly been interpreted as an instruction that the page of music should be played 840 times, although this may not have been Satie's intention.

Satie did not publish the work in his lifetime, and is not known ever to have performed or mentioned it. The piece was first printed in 1949 (in facsimile form, by John Cage in Contrepoints No. 6). The first American publication of the piece was in Art News Annual, vol. 27 (1958), again in facsimile. The first British publication was as an engraved example in an article by Peter Dickinson in Music Review, vol. 28 (1967). In 1969 the publisher Éditions Max Eschig produced the first commercial edition of the work, placing it second in a collection of three so-called Pages mystiques. Since there is no musicological evidence linking Vexations to the other works in the volume, its appearance in that context indicates nothing more than an editor's desire to publish Satie's uncollected compositions in three-part assemblages such as the Gymnopedies, Gnossiennes, etc.

Vexations appears to have had no performance history before the idea gained ground that the piece was required to be played 840 times. The first of the marathon performances of the work in this way was produced by John Cage and Lewis Lloyd at the Pocket Theatre in Manhattan by the Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team, organized by Cage. Pianists included: John Cage, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, Philip Corner, Viola Farber, Robert Wood, MacRae Cook, John Cale, David Del Tredici, James Tenney, Howard Klein (the New York Times reviewer, who coincidentally was asked to play in the course of the event) and Joshua Rifkin, with two reserves, on September 9, 1963. Cage set the admission price at $5 and had a time clock installed in the lobby of the theatre. Each patron checked in with the clock and when leaving the concert, checked out again and received a refund of a nickel for each 20 minutes attended. "In this way," he told Lloyd, "People will understand that the more art you consume, the less it should cost." But Cage had underestimated the length of time the concert would take. It lasted over 18 hours. One person, an actor with The Living Theater, Karl Schenzer, was present for the entire performance.

According to the 1971 edition of the Guinness Book of Records: The New York Times critic fell asleep at 4 a.m. and the audience dwindled to six. At the conclusion, one of them shouted "Encore!"

Satie never explained the piece's title. Conjectures regarding the meaning of Vexations (and its title) were construed long after Satie's death (in most cases supported by little evidence.)

Finally, considering the many questions that remain regarding the composition, it could be seen in a tradition of riddle music, somewhere between the "riddle canons" of Bach's Musikalische Opfer and Elgar's Enigma Variations.

There is no indication that Satie intended the Vexations for public performance – the introductory text he wrote, as quoted above, rather indicating it was intended as a one-person experience (e.g. as a restrained way to work off anger, or in order to get one's ears tuned to an unconventional harmonic system and metre). Satie made no effort to get either "Vexations" or "Bonjour Biqui" published during his life, scarcely, or not at all, communicating about their existence (there were more of his compositions sharing this fate).

As to the total duration of the work, and whether it is to be played loud or silent, it is hard to ascertain what Satie's intentions were:

Cage's own intervallic analysis made for the first performance is in Lloyd's collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University along with the performer's time keeper sheets from that concert.

Although, formally, there is no unambiguous indication either that the Vexations should be played on the piano, there is however little doubt that this is the intended instrument, an execution on another keyboard instrument – like e.g. the then popular harmonium – not being impossible.

Ornella Volta (from the Archives Erik Satie in Paris) has been preparing a dossier with several studies regarding this work and its executions. This dossier, which has not been published, is intended to contain a full analysis and a facsimile reproduction of the original score.

The team at MakerBot Industries has programmed one of their robots to perform Vexations. It was performed for the public for the first time at a 2010 New York City Maker Faire. The performance was based on the one by Armin Fuchs in Dresden in the year 2000.

On 12 December 2012, French pianist Nicolas Horvath performed in the Palais de Tokyo a non-stop solo version lasting 35 hours. It is known to be the longest non-stop solo piano version ever.

In September 2016, during the three days of the sci-tech Trieste Next festival, the pianist and multimedia artist Adriano Castaldini performed an open-air solo of the entire Vexations, conceiving a very new way of interpreting the piece, i.e. making audible the psycho-physical experience of vexation by connecting his body to the live electronic processing of the piano sound: during the performance, the pianist wore a sensor system (EEG, EMG, GSR and temperature sensors) not simply for medical feedback, but to process medical data in real time using a software (coded by Castaldini himself) that turned data into control values for the piano sound live processing (the sound was captured by seven microphones inside the piano).

On December 2, 2017, alt-classical concert series ChamberLab hosted a marathon performance of Vexations as a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union, and raised $16,731.85 in pledges and donations. The event was open to all musicians, and 34 participated throughout the day at the Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona.

On May 30, 2020, Igor Levit performed all 840 repetitions of Vexations at the B-sharp Studio, Berlin. The performance streamed on Periscope, Twitter and other platforms, including on The New Yorker's website. Levit said the recital was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, his reaction to which he characterised as a "silent scream" ("stumme Schrei"). The 840 sheets of music were to be auctioned off to assist out-of-work musicians.

On February 3, 2021, 12 musicians and composers performed at the Hall of Halls, The music box museum in Kiyosato at the southern foot of the Yatsugatake Mountains, Japan. The performers were Mana Fukui, Wataru Iwata, Masakazu Yamamoto, KaoLi, Taro Yoshihara, Keitaro Yamaguchi, Kazuya Saegusa, Sachiko Kawano, Mamoru Yamamoto, Chika Yokoyama, Shunichi Komatsubara, and Ayumi Satake. Instruments used were piano, french horn, trumpet, cello, double bass, key harmonica, voice, organetta (street organ), organite (hand-cranked music box).