A pleasant and accessible crossword from Hob. Apart from one or two little things that I don’t quite understand, all seems to be fairly straightforward.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
The theme is based on Erik Satie, who by coincidence (?) happens to be This Week’s Composer at midday on Radio 3. He wrote some 1acs and 28acs for the 23dn and appears at 6dn. Probably more, too (23ac seems to be familiar: I think he wrote a piece with this title; 7dn is vaguely connected). I don’t know all that much about Satie and no doubt he had something to do with 25/27.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GNOSSIENNE | Composition of nine songs changing key (10) |
| (nine songs)* E | ||
| 7 | MOVE | Go plum over fences (4) |
| Hidden in pluM OVEr | ||
| 9 | PREMISES | 23D gets negligent, going round European building site (8) |
| 23D being PIANO, this is p remis(E)s | ||
| 10 | ICE AXE | Climber’s aid caught by current after originally falling in river (3,3) |
| I c E(a)xe, the a being from ‘after originally’ — the current is the River Exe | ||
| 11 | BALLET | Inform sailor about dance 23A? (6) |
| (tell AB)rev. – 23A is parade so dance parade? is ballet | ||
| 12 | BUSHTITS | Those flying over USA, encrypted thus within digital data (8) |
| (thus)* in bits — American birds | ||
| 13 | ECLAIR | College lost broadcast by English comedian (6) |
| E c l air, ref Jenny Eclair | ||
| 16 | GET RID OF | Eliminate misuse of “Frog” with edit (3,3,2) |
| (frog edit)* | ||
| 17 | ABORTIVE | Backing musical about Sting, in vain (8) |
| (Evit(rob)a)rev. | ||
| 20 | ELAPSE | After falling asleep, pass away (6) |
| (asleep)* | ||
| 22 | CLINCHER | Decisive argument sees king escape jail in France, dear (8) |
| clin(k) cher (which in France is dear — at least it isn’t, it’s cher, but you will know what I mean) | ||
| 23 | PARADE | Show a diaper needs changing after letting one go (6) |
| (a diaper – i)* | ||
| 25/27 | LE CHAT NOIR | The Clarion rent Paris venue? C’est bonne chance, peut-être (2,4,4) |
| (The Clarion)* – that bit in French means nothing to me. Hope someone can explain. | ||
| 26 | TEARDROP | One might show a little joy, if rent to fall (8) |
| tear [= rent] drop [= fall] — weeping with joy, except that a teardrop is the expression of weeping with joy: it doesn’t itself show a little joy: is this being too Zoilist, or am I missing something? | ||
| 27 | See 25 | |
| 28 | GYMNOPEDIE | Work that’s needed to turn up one’s toes after PE? On the contrary! (10) |
| Gym [= PE] no PE die [= turn up one’s toes] — the ‘On the contrary!’ is the ‘no’ in the first sentence. I think. Can’t quite see any &lit. connection here. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | NORMA | Standard alpha female (5) |
| norm a | ||
| 3 | SOMALIA | Boxer in book about African country (7) |
| Ali in (Amos)rev. | ||
| 4 | INSET | Extra small picture of some poinsettias (5) |
| Hidden in poINSETtias | ||
| 5 | NOSEBAG | Horse has eaten nothing – surely eyes bulge initially, seeing this? (7) |
| N(0 s(urely} e{yes} b{ulge})ag | ||
| 6 | ERIK SATIE | Barman taking up current job in the Republic of Ireland (4,5) |
| (E(I task)ire)rev. – Erik Satie was a composer and so could have been called a bar-man | ||
| 7 | MAESTRI | Me, a stripper? Not half – with a little jiggle for the best barmen! (7) |
| Me a stri{pper} with the e and the a swapped [a little jiggle] — we have bar-men again | ||
| 8 | VEXATIONS | Sex? No ta, I’ve endless “nasty headaches” (9) |
| (Sex no ta I’v{e})* | ||
| 14 | CABALLERO | Taxi to go across the Pyrenees, at first only for Spanish gent (9) |
| cab [= taxi] aller [= to go in French, ie across the Pyrenees] o{nly} | ||
| 15 | REICHSTAG | A house in Germany ordered the cigars (9) |
| (the cigars)* | ||
| 18 | RANCHER | Film with female actor as cowboy? (7) |
| ran Cher — OK the singer Cher is (I think) the female actor but I’m afraid I can’t see how ran = film. | ||
| 19 | ERRATUM | Mistake made by traitor beset by hesitancies (7) |
| rat [= traitor] in (er um) | ||
| 21 | ABRIDGE | A game that’s cut short (7) |
| a bridge | ||
| 23 | PIANO | Architect coming up from Verona, I presume (5) |
| Hidden reversed in VerONA, I Presume – ref Renzo Piano | ||
| 24 | DHOTI | Girl hiding stolen garment (5) |
| D(hot)i | ||
*anagram
Thanks John. I don’t know how Hob managed to get so many references in. Quite something.
8 down is Satie’s as well, and 23 was an 11 by him.
Le Chat Noir was a Montmartre cabaret frequented by him.
I stood outside the great man’s house in Honfleur once and offered up a silent prayer of thanks for the fact of his existence.
The ‘bit in French’ at 25/27 means ‘that’s good luck isn’t it’, which is what black cats are supposed to bring.
I still don’t understand how 13A works. Can anyone shed any more light? At 25/27, Le Clarion is an anagram of the answer.
Sorry, I see I was answering the wrong question!
At 18D, there is a famous film called “Ran” by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Makes a change from ET, anyway!
Thanks, John.
Today is the 150th anniversary of Satie’s birth.
Unlike Conrad, I was familiar only with his 28ac but found out a lot of interesting things about him, notably here: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/304597%2Cfive-things-you-didn-t-know-about-erik-satie.aspx.
A very clever and inventive puzzle – many thanks to Hob.
Re Jason @2, ‘The Clarion’ rent is the anagram fodder.
Sorry Jason, the definition at 13ac is ‘comedian’, not ‘English comedian’. Silly mistake, corrected now.
Oh, I see. Never heard of the comedian, but managed to biff her anyway (so to speak).
Managed to complete this without anything going pear-shaped!
Thanks, Hob and John.
Nice one, Allan!
I picked up some of the references to Erik Satie, but thanks to Conrad Cork @1 and Eileen @5 for the extra information. I’m with Jason @2, as I can’t see how 13a works. I’m sure I’m being thick, but does ‘College lost…’ give CL and if so, is it just C for ‘College’ plus L for ‘lost’ (plus E for ‘English’)? I was flummoxed by the ‘bit in French’ in 25/27 as I had always associated a black cat with bad, rather than good, luck, but looking it up I see it can be either – v. interesting.
Thank you to Hob and John.
Don’t think this will go down as one of my all time favourites. I gave up on 1 and 28 – never heard of either word. Not keen on anagrams as clues to obscure words, as it makes getting the answer largely guesswork. 28 I still can’t really understand, as it seems very convoluted.
28ac – I can’t claim to have parsed it while solving, never having heard of it or 1ac, but maybe the ‘no pe’ bit is ‘on the contrary’ to ‘gym’, all before the toes turning up.
This is how I parsed 28ac:
GYMNOPEDIE
Work that’s needed to turn up one’s toes after PE? On the contrary! (10)
Work = gymnopedie
Turn up one’s toes = DIE… coming after…
PE? = gym
ON the contrary = nope
So it’s GYM+NOPE+DIE
That’s better, thanks. Didn’t think about nope
Yes, that makes more sense – the unfortunate presence of both PE and gym caused some confusion. Also, “on the contrary” usually indicates a switch around of the wordplay rather than just a straight definition of a word.
Paul A@13: Some time back, an answer to a clue here was Unchained Melody and I said I’d never heard it. Others here pointed out I almost certainly had and gave me a URL. Turned out I had heard it, just didn’t know what it was called.
Similarly, you almost certainly will have heard one of Gymnopedies, as it is used as background music in all manor of places. I have heard that the title refers to naked runners on the frieze of a Grecian temple.
I knew it was Satie’s birthday today and soon spotted the theme. About thirty years ago I went to a performance of his Vexations. It’s actually a short piano piece but a note on the score seems to suggest that Satie wanted it to be repeated 840 times, which would take about 24 hours. I stayed for the first six hours and as I was walking home, I realised I couldn’t remember a note of the piece within minutes of leaving the concert hall. It takes real talent to write a piece like that.