Avant-dernières pensées
The Avant-dernières pensées (Penultimate Thoughts) is a 1915 piano composition by Erik Satie. The last of his humoristic piano suites of the 1910s, it was premiered by the composer at the Galerie Thomas in Paris on May 30, 1916, and published that same year. A typical performance lasts 3–4 minutes. Background The outbreak of World War I in July 1914 was a setback for Satie just as he was gaining belated recognition as a composer. Although at age 48 he remained a civilian, wartime conditions seriously disrupted French musical life. Publishers ceased commissioning his music and the pending publication of his 1914 compositions was suspended for two years or more. As he had renounced playing piano in Paris cabarets – his primary source of income for many years – Satie had only the generosity of friends and occasional private teaching to subsist on. In August 1915 he appealed to composer Paul Dukas to help him get financial assistance from charitable organizations, remarking, "For me, this war is like a sort of Apocalypse, more idiotic than real." Some aid must have been forthcoming, for he was soon at work on the pensées. Description Originally entitled Étrange rumeurs (Strange Rumors), the three