Happy Birthday, Erik Satie!

My friends, today is 17 May 2008. Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866. This makes today his 152nd birthday, so again, Happy 152nd Birthday, Erik Satie! Let us conclude with Darius Milhaud's memory of visiting Satie's apartment after his death in July 1925:

A narrow corridor, with a washbin in it, led to the bedroom into which Satie had never allowed anyone, not even his concierge, to penetrate. It was with a feeling akin to awe that we approached it now. What a shock we had on opening the door! It seemed impossible that Satie had lived in such poverty. This man, whose faultlessly clean and correct dress made him look rather like a model civil servant, had literally nothing worth a shilling to his name: a wretched bed, a table covered with the most unlikely objects, one chair and a half-empty wardrobe in which there were a dozen old-fashioned corduroy suits, brand-new and absolutely identical. In each corner of the room there were piles of old newspapers, old hats and walking sticks. On the ancient, broken-down piano with its pedals tied up with string, there was a parcel whose postmark proved that it had been delivered several years before: he had merely torn a corner of the paper to see what it contained - a little picture, some New Year's present no doubt. On the piano we found gifts bearing witness to a precious friendship, the edition de luxe of Debussy's Poemes de Baudelaire, and Estampes and Images, with affectionate dedications like: 'To Erik Satie, the gentle medieval musician' or 'To the famous contrapuntist Erik Satie'...