Description
Le Piccadilly is a ragtime march by the French composer, Erik Satie (1866–1925). It was written at the height of the Parisian Belle Époque, when ragtime was also at the peak of its popularity. The piece pre-dates the Golliwog’s Cake Walk – another ragtime-inspired piano piece by Satie’s good friend, Debussy.
When Satie wrote Le Piccadilly in 1904 he was struggling to make ends meet: he’d twice failed to graduate from the Paris Conservatoire on account, his tutors remarked, of his laziness and lack of talent. Satie resorted to arranging, playing and composing for the cabaret at ‘Le Chat Noir’ nightclub. Although his output at that time couldn’t be described as ambitious, it was engaging and popular – and it kept the money coming in. In later life Satie rejected all of his music from this period as being vile and contrary to his true nature.
Although known as a piano solo Le Piccadilly was initially penned as a song entitled La Transatlantique – a term given to wealthy American heiresses who came to Paris ‘shopping’ for penniless, aristocratic husbands so that they might buy social status.
