In 1986 Branka Parlic began an intensive studying and working on Erik Satie's music. The same year the first recordings of Satie’s most popular piano pieces were made for Radio Novi Sad: Gnossiennes, Gymnopediés, Sarabandes, Avant - dernières pensées, Pièces froides...
Two years later in 1988, "M Production” Radio Novi Sad released the LP INITIÉS with these recordings, in a limited edition of 500 copies. It was the first ever LP with Erik Satie's music in Former Yugoslavia. As it was sold in a very short time, Belgrade music production company (PGP - Produkcija gramofonskih ploca) issued 500 more copies.
Branka Parlic spent the following years in collecting and studying literature about Erik Satie's life and work. The final result was a wide repertoire of Satie's pieces which can be divided into four sections:
1. Piano pieces
Gymnopedies 1-3, Gnossiennes 1-6, Avant dernières pensées, Pièces froides 1-3, Sarabandes 1-3, Descriptions Automatiques, Petite ouverture a dancer, Caresse, Je te veux, Poudre d’or, Rag-time parade, Le Piccadilly, La diva de l’Empire, Cinema, Allegro, Modere, Ogives 1-4, Sonneries de la Rose Croix, Prélude de la porte héroÏque du ciel, Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté, Esquisses & sketch montmartrois, Valse - ballet, Fantasie - valse, Trois morceaux en forme de poire (for 4 hands), Cinq grimaces, Le poisson rêveur, San Bernardo, Vexations …
The most famous piano pieces can be found on CD INITIÉS '88 - INITIÉS '99 (issued by Radio 021 1999). This is actually a revised edition of INITIÉS from 1988 with additional 30 minutes of new material. The CD booklet contains Erik Satie's essays Memoires d'un amnesique, published from 1912 to 1914 in the journal Societe internationale de musique.
2.Chansons, cabaret and café songs
Erik Satie's contribution to the new found way of entertainment - cabarets and music halls - was significant. He composed a great number of chansons and cafe songs during the period of 1886-1915. The most popular ones among them were Je te veux, Tendrement, La diva de l’ Empire, Trois melodies de 1886, Trois autres melodies, Trois melodies de 1916, Ludions, Trois melodies sans paroles, Allons-y Chochotte, Le veuf, Petit recueil des fêtes, Imperial - Oxford, J’avais un ami, L’Omnibus Automobile…
Concert’s version of these songs are played in following form: piano and voice (baritone or mezzo-soprano), piano and clarinet, piano and cello or piano and trombone.
3. Chamber music
Erik Satie established the first idea of 'ambient music' by composing Musique d'ameublement (Furniture Music) in 1920.
Hymne pour le Salut drapeau for the string quartet, voice and kettledrums,
Messe de Pouvres (Messe for the Poor) for small orchestra,
Regtime - Parade for string quartet, double-bass and percussion
Jack in the Box for piano, clarinet and movement
Choses vues à droite et à gauche for violin and piano
4. Film music
Piano piece Cinema, composed for the film Entr'acte (1924, 13 minutes, black & white, silent) was the first screen music written specially for a film. The film itself was a part of Satie's ballet Relache and was shown between the acts. The film was directed by René Clair and based on the script written by Francis Picabia.
Erik Satie, Francis Picabia, Marsel Duchamp, Man Ray, Jan Borling (Swedish ballet soloist) - they all appeared in the film.
The film is now shown independently with the piece Cinema – piano solo version.