法国作曲家萨蒂是一位玩世不恭的音乐怪杰。他虽然未采用巴洛克的风格写作，但以率直质朴的音乐风格著称，其音乐观点对现代音乐有举足轻重的影响，是新古典主义的先驱。萨蒂反对浪漫主义，也反对印象主义。他对 19 世纪末一直延续到第一次世界大战之际的后期浪漫主义及表现主义的夸张形式十分反感，说“ 不是出自真诚的音符 , 我一个也不写 ！”这种简约主义的风格确实为新古典主义乐派奠定了基础。他还认为德彪西的音乐是近视眼中看到的景象，是粉饰太平的海市屋楼，同时他也不喜欢德彪西那种过于华丽繁复精细的音乐语言，而提倡简单自然、朴实无华的表达。萨蒂喜欢表现怪诞的形象和狂悖的思想。他的全部创中，钢琴作品所占的比例最高，并多为小品。 在萨蒂的钢琴音乐中既没有庞大的气势，也没有浓重的激情，只有简洁而平静的“白话”，然而他的钢琴作品却常冠以奇特或有讽刺意味的标题，如《几百年和一刹那》、《中午的晨曦》、《脱水后的胎儿》、《害牙疼的猫头鹰》等等。他那玩世不恭、辛辣怪诞的作风恰恰与印象主义的艺术风格大相径庭 , 萨蒂最具代表性的钢琴曲《3首梨形小品》就是为了答复德彪西那句 “萨蒂的音乐缺乏形式” 的批评而作的。意即他的作品形式就是梨形①。《3首吉姆诺培迪》也是萨蒂的代表佳作。乐曲由单纯的旋律构成逐次反复的乐节，而在低声部支持旋律的仅为一些简单的节奏和单一的调式化和弦。整首曲子的音乐进行纯朴明净、色彩淡雅、毫无虚饰。 萨蒂对法国六人团有着直接的影响。六人团中的普朗克（1899—1963）对钢琴音乐的贡献最大，一生写下数十首钢琴曲，大部分为名符其实的即兴小品。还有双钢琴的奏鸣曲与双钢琴协奏曲，以及《钢琴协奏曲》、《主题与变奏曲》等。普朗克深受拉威尔和萨蒂的影响。纯朴明晰和幽默讽刺兼而有之。他早期追摹法国古键盘音乐风格并赋予其新意，旋律自然流畅、和声抚媚动听。by Blue Gene TyrannySatie's music, in sound and aesthetics, was fundamentally different from the prevailing 19th-century German school that prized ideals of continuity and development. It is music as sound per se (Musique d'ameublement, i.e., "Furniture Music" or "Music for Furnishing", 1920). In Musiques intimes et secretes ("Intimate and Secret Music") and the famous "Vexations" (from Pages mystiques, 1892-1895), Satie describes the conceptual nature of human mental activity and then requires the performers to experience and scrutinize, simultaneously, the exact moments of shifting psychological states. "Vexations" is a short musical passage of neutral feeling (augmented and diminished chords) repeated 840 times very slowly. Satie emphasizes natural and spontaneous mentation apart from "ideas" in The Dreaming Fish, Heures séculaires et instantanées ("Ordinary and Snapshot Times"), and Véritables préludes flasquers - pour un chien ("Authentic Flabby Preludes - for a Dog"). Ironic titles and commentaries poke fun at pomposity, as in Le duc de Connaught et le President aux manoeuvers ("The Duke of Connaught and the President on Manouvers") and Enfantines ("Infantile Pieces," 1913 which go by such titles as "The Bean-King's War Chant"; "Importune Peccadillos, I"; "Being Jealous of His Comrade with the Big Head, II"; "Him Eat His Cookie, III"; and "Taking Advantage of His Corns to Steal His Hoop"). Satie's religious feeling was of a mystical, pre-clerical kind, expressed in works such as Première pensée Rose + Croix ("First Rosey Thought + Cross," 1891, French word play on "Rosicrucians"); the beautiful and compassionate Messe des Pauvres ("Mass for the Poor," 1893-1895); and the moving Socrate (1918) on the death of Socrates and based on texts by Plato. Satie invented many musical techniques -- the use of whole-tone scales, chords built in fourths, pattern melodies, unresolved "dissonances" used for their value as sounds, "open" large forms without contrasting or developing sections, and others. Perhaps more important, he was the first conceptual composer.