Strange Mr. Satie: Composer of the Absurd

By M.T. Anderson

Book Overview

In a brilliant performance worthy of the composer, M. T. Anderson and Petra Mathers present a picture-book biography of the singular Erik Satie. Throughout his life, Erik Satie wanted to make a new kind of music, a kind of music both very young and very old, very bold and very shy, that followed no rules but its own. At first glance, Erik Satie looked as normal as anyone else in Paris one hundred years ago. Beyond his shy smile, however, was a mind like no other. When Satie sat down at the piano to compose or play music, his tunes were strange and dreamlike, his melodies topsy-turvy and discordant. Many people hated his music. Few understood it. But to Erik Satie there was sense in nonsense, and the vibrant, surreal compositions of this eccentric man-child would go on to influence many artists.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0763687758
• ISBN13: 9780763687755
• Release Date: August 1970
• Publisher: Candlewick Press
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.4" x 10.4"
• Age Range: 7 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 5

Customer Reviews

A Composer Children Can Love

I read this beautiful book to my daughter (not quite 4 years old) for the first time while listening to Satie's music, and she was entranced. She frequently requests repeated readings, and makes me stop periodically to just listen to the music. The pictures and words are a perfect compliment to this odd man and his enchanting music, without sugar-coating the difficulties that so often accompany genius. I will seek out more books by this writer and artist.

This is an excellent book

This is an excellent book. My son wondered why Mr. Satie was referred to as "strange," and his question was soon answered. M.T. Anderson gives some amusing anecdotes about this composer who was relatively unknown and quite poor during his lifetime. One example is that Mr. Satie did not take baths, but rather rubbed himself with a stone to get clean. How clean we wondered? The book creates an interest to hear Satie's music and is educational.