Gnossiennes: Erik Satie’s love for making up words

We know that Mr. Erik Satie was a great fan of inventing new words for his compositions. As an anecdote goes, he once presented himself as “gymnopaedist” not quite knowing himself what this word actually meant and if it existed at all. That’s when his famous “Gymnopedies” appeared. Among other words coined by Satie were the ‘vexations’ or ‘croquis et agaceries’, all meaning a separate type of a music composition.

“Gnossiennes” also was a new name by the inventive composer. Although a non-existing word too, it was attempted to find explanations to. There are versions that ‘gnossienne’ might derive from the name of either ‘ogive’, an architectural element, or ‘gnosis’, as in ‘gnosic sect’ Satie was involved in.  Others think that it might have the root in ‘gnossus’ and relate to the myths about Theseus, Minotaur and Ariadne, taking into account that at the time of the composition there were several interesting archaeological excavations made.

Minotaur

All in all, there are 6 ‘obvious‘ Gnossiennes. But there is also a seventh music piece – “Le Fils des étoiles” – that contains a music form of a Gnossienne according to Satie himself, as he wrote while corresponding with his publisher. All the 7 are charming anyway and can be rather compared with “dances”. Their easy listening character was the reason for all the Gnossiennes to be frequently used in numerous films and shows. It's most often for piano (vid.), but here, enjoy a lovely guitar arrangement of “Gnossienne No.1” from G. Pylarinos.