Trois morceaux en forme de poire

A winding melody moves above a recurring bass note and chord. Satie called this opening “a way of beginning”, and the score identifies it as a Gnossienne taken from his music for Le Fils des étoiles.

The work has seven pieces under its title of three. Two introductory pieces come before the numbered I, II and III. After them come En plus and Redite, meaning an extra and a repetition.

Prolongation du même means “more of the same”. The marking is now Au pas, at walking pace, and the music is a march drawn from Satie’s unfinished cabaret song Le Roi soleil de plomb.

Piece I follows, marked Lentement. A long right-hand phrase runs over repeated chords, and loud chords break into the line.

Piece II brings back the march. Its outer sections borrow Impérial-⁠Napoléon; the slower middle uses Le Veuf, “The Widower”.

On 6 November 1903 Satie added “Recommendations” to the manuscript, in red ink after the music: “I am at a prestigious turning point in the History of My Life.” He signed them Erik Satie.

Piece III opens with the marking Brutal. Pairs of loud chords, separated by rests, alternate with a softer melody marked expressif. Both pianists change character within a few lines.

After the numbered pieces, Satie added En plus. It is marked Calme. The melody begins with a note held across three bars before it moves on.

Redite comes last. In the upper part a short three-beat figure repeats before a melody marked bien chanté, well sung. Near the end both parts make a crescendo to fortissimo, and the final chord is marked piano in the upper part and pianissimo in the lower.