La Diva de l'Empire

"La Diva de l'Empire" (The Diva of the Empire) is a French popular song with music by Erik Satie and lyrics by and , composed in 1904. Along with "Je te veux" (1903) it is probably the best-known example of Satie's cabaret or "café-concert" idiom. It was premiered by singer , dubbed the "Queen of the Slow Waltz", in the musical revue Dévidons la bobine in Paris on July 26, 1904, and published that same year. Description The song is a cakewalk and an early attempt by a European composer to tackle nascent American jazz. John Philip Sousa and his band had introduced the cakewalk to France during their appearance at the 1900 Paris Exposition, but it gained little notoriety there until a danced version was performed in the revue (The Happy Negroes) at the Nouveau Cirque in October 1902. The show ran for over a year and sparked a national craze. Satie was intrigued with the new style and, as Darty's occasional accompanist and songwriter, prepared to capitalize on it. On May 20, 1904, he registered a piano piece called "Stand-Walk" with SACEM that was virtually identical with the keyboard part of "La Diva de l'Empire" except for its key. Satie, Bonnaud and Blès adapted it into a song for Darty, who was delighted with it. The refrain is in G major, with a syncopated ragtime melody strutting above an accompaniment in moderate march tempo. The two stanzas are in D major. The lyrics – with their references to Piccadilly and smattering of English words – identify the "Empire" of the title as the Empire Theatre, a famous music hall on Leicester Square in London. Its indoor promenades were hotbeds of vice where high-class prostitutes, nicknamed "Daughters of the Empire" by the British press, plied their trade, and were the target of a much-publicized 1894 attempt by social reformers to shut them down. For Parisian listeners in the know this provided a salacious backdrop for the otherwise mildly "naughty" text. The Diva is an unnamed star performer at the theatre, who dresses like a little girl (complete with a "big Greenaway hat") and acts like one until she coyly lifts her skirts to reveal her "quivering" legs. Her loyal following of "snobs" and "dandies" throw bouquets of flowers onto the stage while she expresses contempt for them with mocking laughter. The verse concludes, "It is all very very innocent and very very exciting."