Erik Satie's (1866-1925)
The word gymnopédies was derived from a festival of ancient Sparta at which young men danced and competed against each other unencumbered by clothing, and the name was a (presumably) droll reference to Satie's gentle, dreamy, and far-from-strenuous piano exercises.
The first thing to understand about Gymnopédie No. 1 is that its simplicity is intentional, and that's where the beauty comes from. The melody is a single, flowing line of quarter notes, raising and lowering like ocean waves. The rhythms are long and sustained, creating a sense of floating through time.
