A UTA Musician's Day -- at home

Plenty of social media influencers and business productivity journalists report on their daily schedule. A well-ordered schedule both demystifies a very productive person’s method and makes it seem all the more special. We all have the same 24 hours in our day, yet some people are able to squeeze more out of them. The schedule above comes from a satirical essay by Erik Satie, "A Musician's Day".

Students in Dr. Sarno’s Spring 2020 Music History II course read this essay not to understand how Satie spent his time but rather how he existed outside of mainstream culture. The schedule is a joke, but understanding the joke requires some insight into who Satie was and how he worked. He writes, for example, of “a ride on my horse, for my health’s sake, at the rear of my estate,” even though he had neither a horse nor an estate. He lists his diet: “eggs, sugar, ground bone, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coconuts, chicken boiled in white water, fruit mold, rice, turnips, bleached pudding, dough, cheese (white), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish (without skin).” All of these are white foods, an absurd restriction unknown to nutritionists. Satie was a counter-culture hero, his music simplified to the barest materials and incorporating influences from popular dance halls, American contemporary idioms, and inside jokes. The schedule reflects his music’s quirkiness.

At UTA, we’re trying to make music as part of the culture, connecting with our diverse, urban setting. Our faculty and staff contribute actively to the community rather than standing out as pariahs who don’t fit in. Many of us see music as part of a happy and healthy life. We’d like to share some of our daily schedules with you, to help you get to know us better and also give you some inspiration and a sense of belonging during this summer without camps. This will be a multi-part series, so stay tuned for future installments!