Watch Gymnopedies

Lawrence Jordan took not only the music but the title from Erik Satie. These three pieces are probably the most famous of Satie's musical series. The precise sense of the word "gymnopédies" is unknown. Etymologically it denotes the goings on of named (gymno) children (paidos); yet here the word might also connote the gymnastics or even, in its zoological sense, the affairs of infant birds. Just how much Jordan has researched the title is unknown. Perhaps he takes the word, as it has surely become, as a sign for Satie, whose spirit permeates the film; a spirit both wistful and Rosicrucian.