The first time I heard his [Erik Satie] Socrate, at a séance where he played it for a few of his friends, he turned around at the end and said, like the proprietor of a café or a store, ‘Voilà, messieurs, dames.’ I was deeply moved by the gravitas and dignity of his music for Socrates’ death, though the piece as a whole is rhythmically monotonous. I don’t think he knew much about instruments; I prefer Socrate as he played it on the piano to the orchestra score.