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2 works by Erik Satie

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:58 pm
by steltz
I am looking for scores to 2 works by Erik Satie: Sonneries de la Rose Croix and Les Fils des Etoiles. We have the piano transcription for the first work, but I need the original instrumentation.

In both cases, I just need to have a look at the original scoring to help me tag it, but apart from that I'm not going to be using it, so if someone can help with the numbers, that would also be sufficient. Here's the problem:

Sonneries was originally for trumpets and harps, but no source that discusses the piece says how many of each. Our tagging system works best if the number of trumpets and the number of harps are specified. The generic "tpt hp" will come out as "for 2 players".

There is a similar problem with Les Fils des Etoiles: the instruction was "flutes, harps". At least one scholar feels this was an instruction for which stops to use on a harmonium, so perhaps flutes and harps weren't really intended at all.

Does anyone have access to these scores?

Re: 2 works by Erik Satie

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:08 pm
by daphnis
I spent a lot of time scrounging around and gathering his works, and basically the deal is if you don't see it here, it isn't public domain in Canada.

Re: 2 works by Erik Satie

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:19 pm
by steltz
In that case, if anyone has access to these Satie scores in whatever music libraries they are associated with, would he or she be so kind as to look in the scores and check how many separate trumpet parts or harp parts there are? Thanks.

Re: 2 works by Erik Satie

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:52 pm
by jsnfmn
I just did some digging out of my own curiosity as a trumpet player. The book The Documented image: visions in art history
By Gabriel P. Weisberg:
http://books.google.com/books?id=KHxTqU ... rp&f=false

seems to imply that it is just trumpet and harp through use of the singular. It seems like it would be not to terribly difficult to perform them this way, the octave doubled lines perhaps only trumpet, the chords in harp, and when they are combined the melody is probably down an octave where it is too high for trumpet, but elsewhere at pitch. Everyone seems to get the plural from New Grove, but I can't access it at the moment so can't check if it has any more detail.