The sun is shining, the weather is warm and it's time to get outside — and we've got the perfect piece to celebrate: Erik Satie's "Sports et Divertissements"
Satie was a French composer born in 1866.
He was good friends with Claude Debussy, but Satie's music was much different than Debussy's impressionist-style work.
Satie's music is often called Surrealist or Dadaist, words that describe artistic movements centered around strange, unconventional or seemingly meaningless subjects (visual artists Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí are great examples).
Satie started his career as a cafe and cabaret pianist after dropping out of the Paris Conservatory, but when he was in his 50s, he went back to music school.
The music he ended up writing rarely followed traditional classical structures, but it did become very famous!
That's where "Sports et Divertissements" comes in — the piece has 20 movements, one page or less, that are all dedicated to a different sport or activity.
Visual artist Charles Martin also created an illustration to accompany each movement.
Listen to the episode to learn more and hear Satie's sporty music!
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Classical Sprouts is produced by Emily Duncan Wilson. Kacie Brown is the digital content manager.
