resolve the two decidedly dissimilar musical approaches we find in these two compositions.

As you listen to Cinema, track the many brief “episodes” that make up the piece. How many such
are there in the entire piece? Please count them. And listening to a few individual episodes,
determine how many even smaller musical “gestures” or units make up an “episode” (these are my terms,
you can use different ones if you wish). Give some sense of an average number of units that add up to
an episode. Remember that Satie called himself a “phonometrographer,” and I quote: “I enjoy measuring
a sound much more than hearing it.” Thus counting elements in his compositions is very much in his own
spirit. Also, counting can be approached as a conscious mode of observation, and you may find yourself
observing more than the number of repetitions as you count: instrumentation, harmony, smoothness, sharpness
of rhythm, etc.

As you listen to Socrate, you will encounter an entirely different sensibility. Satie himself described
Socrate as a “symphonic drama,” though one “without the least idea of conflict.” Would you describe this
music as being free of contrast, change, variety, dynamic? Or are these qualities present but on a different
scale than in Cinema? Could you even count elements in Socrate? Socrate has been described as expressing
restraint, austerity, evenness. How are these adjectives to be understood in musical terms? And if Socrate
functions on a plane of continuity and evenness, what effect does its duration have on you as listener? Does
the music guide your responses, or leave you free? And what sort of state of mind does this listening experience
engender? How does it compare to the experience of listening to Cinema?

Finally, can you detect a musical relationship between the content or narrative of the sung text and its
musical setting?

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