Le porteur de grosses pierres – The Carrier of Large Stones (Chapitres tournés en tous sens, No. 2)

Erik Satie · Level 3 (Late beginner) · Impressionist · Piano

The second piece of Chapitres tournés en tous sens (1913): a man struggles to lift a huge stone… which is in fact only a pumice stone. Weighty chords alternate with short repeated figures, in Satie’s deadpan humour. A piece by Erik Satie, pioneer of musical simplicity and humour. C major, 2/4, 32 bars (about one minute), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• The “weighty” chords are a joke: play them with weight but never harshly, at a slow, steady tempo. Soft, even tone and an unchanging pulse: the beauty comes from simplicity. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together. Start hands separately in Wait mode, then put hands together at a slow tempo before speeding up gradually.

More pieces by Erik Satie

• Celle qui parle trop – The Woman Who Talks Too Much (Chapitres tournés en tous sens, No. 1)
• Regrets des enfermés – Regrets of the Prisoners (Chapitres tournés en tous sens, No. 3)
• Sa Taille (Three Distinguished Waltzes of a Jaded Dandy)
• Danse maigre (Croquis et agaceries)
• Tyrolienne turque
• Españaña (Croquis et agaceries)
• Ses Jambes (Three Distinguished Waltzes of a Jaded Dandy)
• Son Binocle

Source : Mutopia Project · CC BY-SA 4.0