Erik Satie was a French composer and pianist born in 1866. He was, to put it lightly, eccentric. He started his musical career playing in cabaret-cafes in Montmartre in Paris, and did not complete his ...

Composer Erik Satie was both eccentric and original. Dances from Knossos on Crete inspired his set of Gnossiennes. But unlike traditional dances, Satie's Gnossiennes are written without bar lines.

Satie would, without doubt, come top of any list of eccentric composers. After all, can you imagine anyone else writing a set of Flabby Preludes for a Dog or Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear? His ...