Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1

[michelle]

Can someone help me with measures 9-12 (and other similar occurances) of Gymnopedie No. 1? The RH F-sharp is shown as tied through all of these measures (a total of 12 beats), yet this same F-sharp is shown as being played in the LH chords in each measure. (or am I mistaken regarding which hand should play those chords?  Perhaps it is RH, although LH seems to make more sense.)  So do I actually replay the F sharps with each chord, or hold it as the tie would indicate? This seems very contradictory to me, but there is probably some simple explanation I'm not thinking of. Thank you!!!

[88keys]

I don't have the sheet music in front of me, but I remember that Satie's Gymnopedies are usually played with much pedal.

The long notes, as far as I remember, are usually held with the pedal rather than the fingers.

So it seems to me, that you should, indeed, play the F# twice: The first long one should be sustained with the pedal, while the second one should be played "over" the sound of the first.

Of-course, if it is technically possible to keep your fingers on the keys of the sustained chord, by all means do so. In this case, just let go of the F# a split second before you need to play it again (and make sure the pedal is down at this moment!)