Editing Socrate (section)

==The music==
The piece is written for voice and orchestra, but also exists in a version for voice and piano. This [[reduction (music)|reduction]] had been produced by Satie, concurrently with the orchestral version.

Each speaker in the various sections is meant to be represented by a different singer ([[Alcibiades]], Socrates, Phaedrus, Phaedo), according to Satie's indication two of these voices [[soprano]], the two other [[mezzo-soprano]]s.

Nonetheless all parts are more or less in the same range, and the work can easily be sung by a single voice, and has often been performed and recorded by a single vocalist, female as well as male. Such single vocalist performances diminish however the effect of [[dialogue]] (at least in the two first parts of the symphonic drama – in the third part there is only Phaedo telling the story of Socrates' death).

The music is characterised by simple repetitive rhythms, parallel [[cadence (music)|cadences]], and long [[ostinati]].