Gnossienne No. 1 · piano sheet music & MIDI file
Free MIDI of Satie's Gnossienne No. 1: the piano preview starts below, and the file and sheet music PDF download in one click.
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.
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.
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: notes fall toward the keyboard, each hand gets its color, and Wait mode is there if you're starting out.
Try Pianovera for freeDownload the Gnossienne No. 1 MIDI and sheet music
Two files are waiting for you: the Gnossienne No. 1 piano MIDI file (7 KB, opens in Pianovera or any MIDI player) and the Gnossienne No. 1 piano sheet music PDF (197 KB, printable). Both come from the same engraving: what you read on the score is exactly what you hear in the preview.
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.