뤼디옹 (Ludions)

The Ludions is a song cycle for voice and piano (or organ) by Erik Satie, composed in 1923 to five absurdist poems by Léon-Paul Fargue. It was the last of his vocal compositions. The songs are brief and a performance of the set usually lasts less than five minutes. Songwriting occupied Satie sporadically throughout his life. He produced popular hits for the music hall (Je te veux, La Diva de l'Empire) as well as mélodies (French art songs) for more discriminating audiences. In the Ludions he fused both genres with the irreverent spirit characteristic of his later music. Biographer Pierre-Daniel Templier called the cycle "one of Satie's most successful works, due to the perfect correlation between the inspiration of the poet and that of the musician. The familiar playfulness of Fargue's poems, their childish rhythms, their humorous nostalgia, are all delicately rendered by Satie...the irony shines through very clearly."