Noctave
The piece
The word gymnopédie refers to a festival in ancient Greece where young men danced naked; Satie used it as the title of three piano pieces. The first is marked Lent et douloureux (slow and sorrowful). Four bars of introduction rock between two chords, G major with a major seventh and D major with a major seventh, before a very simple melody settles on top. Debussy later orchestrated the first and third Gymnopédies.
The left hand does almost everything: a bass note on beat one, then a chord on beat two, held to the end of the bar. The move between them is wide but slow; do not rush it, because it gives the piece its sway. In the middle section some left-hand chords span more than an octave, up to fifteen semitones: if your hand cannot cover them, roll them quickly from bottom to top. The pedal, changed with each bass note, links everything, and the melody stays pianissimo, with no accents. The real work is stamina of mood: a little over three minutes of the same calm.