Green notes: right hand, blue notes: left hand. Preview played right in your browser with the app's real piano (lightweight version). Inside Pianovera: full multi-layer sound, fingering display and Wait mode.
← Swipe the image to read the score →Beginning of the score, engraved by the Mutopia Project.View the whole score (PDF) →
Satie invented the word "gnossienne" out of thin air, and he wrote the music to match: no bar lines, no standard markings, instructions like "from the tip of the thought" scribbled where a tempo should be. The first Gnossienne, here as a faithful MIDI, is the Gymnopédies' darker, more oriental cousin.
Technically it stays within a motivated beginner's reach. The left hand rocks through the same pattern from start to finish while the right unrolls a melody decorated with quick little turns. Those ornaments are the only real obstacle, and they're a gift in disguise: the perfect place to learn playing them light, ahead of the beat instead of on top of it.
Gnossienne No. 1: the first notes
Right hand, in letter names (C4 = middle C): C5 D#5 D5 C5 C5 B4 F4 C5 B4 F4 C5 D#5 D5 C5 E5 F5 F4 E5 F5 F4 C5 D#5 D5 C5… The rest scrolls in the preview above, with the fingering, and the sheet music PDF has the whole piece.
Play Gnossienne No. 1 on the virtual piano
Here are the Gnossienne No. 1 virtual piano notes, in computer keyboard letters: the first 8 bars of the melody. One key per note, read left to right; dark keys are the sharps, and a thin line marks each bar.
Letters for a QWERTY keyboardYour keyboard: 33 notes
I0OIIUIU
I0OIP[P[
I0OIIU6TR
TRT6TTRR
▶ Play on the virtual pianoThe piano opens with this piece loaded: the key to play lights up and waits for you.
What you'll be working on
The hypnotic left-hand sway, identical all the way through
Mordents and grace notes that don't get crushed
A free-floating melody over a strict pulse
The mood: dark, detached, never sentimental
Playing Gnossienne No. 1 on piano with Pianovera
Since the left hand barely changes, automate it in three passes in Pianovera, then focus on the right in Wait mode. The ornaments read clearly in the falling notes: little tight clusters landing just before the beat.
Open Gnossienne No. 1 in Pianovera: the notes fall toward an 88-key virtual piano keyboard, each hand gets its color, and Wait mode is there if you're starting out. On a PC, it's falling notes piano software for Windows, with video export up to 4K.
Free, with no time limit and no ads: 30 pieces (10 in full, 20 in a simplified version), the first 10 lessons and 10 minutes of 3D hands (then 15 seconds per piece). Premium opens all 651 pieces.
Download the Gnossienne No. 1 MIDI and sheet music
The work itself is in the public domain. This MIDI engraving comes from the Mutopia Project, typeset by Knute Snortum, under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license (free reuse with attribution, commercial included).
About this piece
Is Gnossienne No. 1 hard to play on piano?
We rate it beginner: 832 notes over 3:17, spanning A#1 to B5. The first thing to work on: the hypnotic left-hand sway, identical all the way through.
Where can I get the sheet music for Gnossienne No. 1?
Right on this page: the "View the sheet music" button opens the PDF (197 KB), engraved by the Mutopia Project from the same source as the MIDI file, CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. View it, print it, keep it.
Is the Gnossienne No. 1 MIDI file really free?
Yes. Erik Satie died more than 70 years ago, so the work (1890) is public domain. This MIDI engraving is under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license: free to use, commercially included, with credit to Knute Snortum.
