Satie’s day

Satie wrote that “An artist must organise his life.” In 1913, he set said out a schedule in which he stated he would be inspired between 10:23 and 11:47am, and 3:12 to 4:10pm. The timetable allowed for daily house riding, and various other activities such as fencing, reflection, immobility, visits, contemplation, swimming, etc. The day would end with symphonic readings (out loud) from 8:09 to 9:59pm. Curiously, he only allowed three minutes for lunch (12:11 to 12:14pm) and four minutes for dinner (7:16 to 7:20pm), in which he would only eat white foodstuffs: “eggs, sugar, scraped bones, fat from dead animals, veal, salt, coconut, chicken cooked in white water; mouldy fruit, rice, turnips; camphorated sausage, things like spaghetti, cheese (white), cotton salad and certain fish (minus their skins).”

The full text of “The musicians day” is found in Oliver Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History, volume 7, The Twentieth Century, New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1998, p.216.

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