Erik Satie was one of the most iconoclastic classical composers of the 20th century, an eccentric oddball who described himself as a “phonometrographer” rather than a musician. On the centenary of his death, Albert Ehrnrooth explores the life and music of the composer once described by John Cage as “indispensable”.

A painted portrait of Erik Satie, with his hand on his chin in front of sheet music.
A portrait of Erik Satie by Antoine de la Rochefoucauld, 1894. Image: Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo

Erik Satie was a precursor of French modernism and a trailblazer for musical movements that emerged long after his death 100 years ago this month. He broke sharply with Wagnerian Romanticism and characteristic Austro-German motivic development, instead redefining basic melodic building blocks through repetition, fragmentation and manipulation of musical time...