Vexations

Satie This ironic sketch for a bust of Satie, signed by himself, bears the inscription “I came into the world very young in a very old time”.

Vexations is a simple theme with two variations to be repeated 840 times, for a duration that can range from 12 to 28 hours, depending on the chosen tempo. (The only metronome indication is "Très lent").

Obviously, this piece, composed perhaps in 1893, remained unperformed for a long time until 1963, when John Cage organized a public performance with a team of pianists: Cage himself, 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 critic who had come to review and was put to work), and Joshua Rifkin. The performance began at 6:00 PM and ended at 12:40 PM the next day, for a total duration of approximately 18 hours and 40 minutes.

Since then, several other performances have taken place (some even in Italy). In June of this year, a Pianoless Vexations was organized in New York, an eight-hour performance featuring often unrecognizable elaborations of this short score, performed, however, without a piano. Various parts of it can be heard on this UbuWeb page.

Here you can listen to a piano version lasting about 12 hours.

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