In 1903, Satie composed his famous cycle for piano duet with the provocative and ambiguous title “3 Morceaux en forme de Poire”. (In French, “poire” means “pear” but also “dimwit”). It is a detached and ironic commentary on the constraints of musical form.

Now this cycle is being published in a scholarly-critical Urtext edition for the first time. Convenient page turns, a score format, translations of the French expression and tempo markings, Satie’s enigmatic introduction, performance sugges...