In the summer of 1913 Satie once more poked fun at himself and the world of music with a set of parodic piano pieces on various marine animals, giving it the grotesque title 'Embryons desséchés (Dessicated Embryos)(BA 10811). The atmospheric cycle 'Avant-dernières Pensées (Next-to-last Thoughts) (BA 10849) of 1915, with its underlaid words, likewise belongs to Satie's 'story pieces'. The notation without barlines, the 'stories' beneath the music and the spoofsof well-known pieces of music, most strikingly the Funeral March from Chopin's Piano Sonata in B minor, make the work a barrel of musical fun. The curious performance instructions in these three miniatures, all based on ostinato figures, amusingly lampoon the ideal of Romantic expressiveness. These two Urtext editions faithfully adhere to the sources and reflect the latest findings of Satie scholarship. They contain translations of all of Satie's French texts, practical page-turns, notes on performance practice by Satie specialist Steffen Schleiermacher and informative Forewords. The pieces range from an easy to moderate level of difficulty and provide an ideal additional varied repertoire for teaching purposes. / Piano
