Perhaps because their piano music was so different, Erik Satie and Calude Debussy were close friends from the time of the Gymnopédies onwards and whereas Satie’s titles here look back to ancient Greek civilization, Debussy derived the individual preludes in his first collection from more contemporary literature, art or nature.
But, like Satie, Debussy wanted to make them look different in publication and placed their titles at the end, although he must have realized that once played, their titles would never be forgotten.
Fazıl Say was born in 1970. He was a child prodigy, who was able to do basic arithmetic with 4-digit numbers at the age of two. His father, having found out that he was playing the melody of “Daha Dün Annemizin” on a makeshift flute with no prior training, enlisted the help of Ali Kemal Kaya, an oboe artist and a family friend. At the age of three, Say started his piano lessons under the coaching of pianist Mithat Fenmen.
Here is Mr. Say in nusic by Satie:
