Proposal for five short, animated videos depicting scenes from Erik Satie’s Sports et divertissements

Erik Satie was one of the most creative minds of the 20th century. He rejected grandiose expression in favor of clarity, wit, and economy of means. Less than a year after the 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s epic and terrifying ballet, The Rite of Spring, Satie responded with 21 tiny musical vignettes depicting various sports and leisure activities of the day, entitled Sports and Divertissements. Both works were composed in Paris on the eve of World War I, and both have been regarded as artistic responses to the societal tensions of the time, albeit with highly contrasting approaches.

Satie’s short, unpretentious scenes were published in the composer’s own hand with his humorous prose describing each musical phrase. The vignettes are accompanied by illustrations by Charles Martin, though Satie likely didn’t see the illustrations until after composing the music.

I’ve selected and recorded five of Satie’s scenes, detailed below, each 30-45 seconds long. I’m hoping to work with animators to brings Satie’s ideas to life in the form of animated vertical reels (1080 pixels wide x 1920 pixels tall) for posting on social media channels — Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Facebook Reels.

Note: while I’ve posted the original illustrations below, the animations need not reference them. Instead, animators should draw inspiration from Satie’s whimsical, stream-of-consciousness texts and their connection to the music and performance.

7 La Pêche (Fishing)

Satie’s prose:

• Murmurs of water in a riverbed.

• Arrival of a fish, of another, of two others.

• “What is it?”

• “It’s a fisherman, a poor fisherman.”

• “Thank you.”

• Everyone goes home, even the fisherman.

• Murmurs of water in a riverbed.

8 Le Yachting (Yachting)

Satie’s prose:

• What weather! The wind is blowing like a sea lion.

• The yacht is dancing.

• It acts like a giddy little thing.

• The sea is raging.

• I hope it doesn’t break on a rock.

• No one can calm it down.

• “I don’t want to stay here,” says the pretty passenger.

• “It’s not an entertaining place.

• “I’d prefer to do something else.

• “Go get me a car.”

11 Le Golf (Golf)

Satie’s prose:

• The colonel is dressed in Scotch tweed of a violent green.

• He will be victorious.

• His caddie follows with the bags.

• The clouds are astonished.

• The holes are shaking with fright.

• The colonel is here!

• Now he makes a fine swing:

• His club bursts into pieces!

12 La Pieuvre (The Octopus)

Satie’s prose:

• The octopus is in his cave.

• It plays with a crab.

• It pursues it [the crab].

• It swallows the crab, but the crab goes down the wrong way.

• Haggard, it steps on its own feet.

• It drinks a glass of salt water to recover.

• This drink does it a lot of good and puts it in a wonderful mood.

16. Le Water-chute (The Water Slide)

Satie’s prose:

• If you have a strong stomach, you won't feel too sick.

• It will seem like you’re falling off scaffolding.

• You’ll see how peculiar it is.

• Here it comes!

• [slide]

• Don’t turn all colors.

• I feel awful.

• That proves you needed to have some fun.