Jean Catoire’s Opus 520

The final volume in Nicolas Horvath’s project to record the complete piano works of French composer Jean Catoire is the only volume that compromises that adjective “complete.” The volume is devoted entirely to Opus 520, and its duration accounts for a little less than four and a quarter hours. Perhaps because of the duration, this volume does not appear to have a presence on Amazon.com. However, it is available for both streaming and download from a Bandcamp Web page.

The good news is that, as is the case for all of their releases, Bandcamp allows the recording artist to provide commentary on the Web page for the album. This is where Horvath explains why this particular album is not complete. It accounts for eight individual tracks, the shortest of which are less than thirteen minutes in duration, while the last exceeds 50 minutes. However, each track serves as a basic form that contributes to a longer composition, whose overall duration is 25 hours. Horvath then explains that music of that duration is impossible to post on Bandcamp, and he is preparing to create a YouTube account of the work in its entirety.

At this point it is likely that many readers will think about “Vexations,” a composition that Erik Satie wrote on a single sheet of paper and then added an inscription whose English translation is “In order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.” This music was not printed until 1949 (almost a quarter century after Satie’s death); and it was not performed until 1963, which John Cage organized the Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team of twelve pianists (including Cage himself), who would realize Satie’s score by smoothly “passing the baton” from one pianist to another. The performance itself exceeded eighteen hours in duration.

There is no date on Satie’s manuscript. However, it is worth noting that Catoire was born a little less that two years before Satie’s death. Since Catoire died in November of 2005, it is likely he knew about “Vexations,” if not as Cage had arranged its performance then by some other approach, probably involving multiple pianists. Deciding whether Opus 520 is a “response” to the “call” of “Vexations” will be left as an exercise for the reader.

What is probably most important is that Opus 520 does not reflect the strict repetition that one encounters in “Vexations.” Rather, the score consists of a relatively small number of “building blocks.” These are then deployed in sequences that involve different approaches to permutation and repetition.

To some extent, those sequences serve as reflections on Opus 420, which I had previously suggested could be entitled “Variations on a Tolling Bell.” More importantly, while Satie may have intended to be deliberately vexing, compositions like Opus 420 remind me of how Gita Sarabhai had said that “the purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.” Nevertheless, one has to wonder whether a mind enduring eighteen hours of uninterrupted music will emerge either sober or quiet!