312 - SATIE (Erik), 1866–1925.

SATIE (Erik), 1866–1925. Autograph letter signed “Erik Satie,” Arcueil-Cachan, November 7, 1920, 2 pp., in-8 format, in brown ink on brown paper, to pianist Marguerite Long (according to the enclosed passport). Satie asks the influential pianist and teacher to support two young musicians. He first warmly thanks her for what she has already done for Mlle Henriquet before recommending a young Norwegian woman who has come to France to study and who is to be introduced to her by her uncle, Mr. Halvorsen: “Would you be kind enough to guide her? I ask this as a favor.” In a postscript, he returns to the subject of Mlle Henriquet and expresses his satisfaction with the progress she has made thanks to the pianist’s “valuable advice”: “I, too, was—must I say it?—certain of this result.” A beautiful testament to Satie’s ties with Marguerite Long and the pedagogical authority she already enjoyed, and a fine example of the composer’s highly recognizable handwriting, with its carefully spaced letters, its airy layout, and the very distinct punctuation that gives the whole a highly calligraphic appearance. Includes its original cultural property export certificate from the Ministry of Culture.