#gnossienne

I haven’t seen a lot of discourse on it so thought I’d give it a go!

Gnossienne no. 5 is the sweet melody that plays whenever Stede and Ed share a soft moment. I’ve also read other interpretations of it, such as times when Ed feels good about himself because of Stede, or when Ed is being vulnerable with Stede, etc. Point is, the song plays when they have a Moment: when they share breakfast together the morning after being a lighthouse, still in each other’s clothes; the Moonlight “you wear fine things well” scene; a very quiet bit of it when Ed is crying in the bathtub and Stede comforts him; and of course, the “what makes Ed happy is you” kiss. The slow build up, the leitmotif, the incredibly soft and subtle moments, all culminating into canon romantic love between two middle aged men - this is fanfiction. This all reads as fanfiction, and I love it so much, and my heart hurts from that last episode. But I digress.

Gnossienne is a made up term invented by its composer, Erik Satie, to call a new type of composition he created: characterized by “free (lacking time signatures or bar divisions) and highly experimental with form, rhythm and chordal structure” (wikipedia). It is also often regarded as a dance, and no. 5, quite apart from the other Gnossiennes in the series, distinguishes itself with its relatively upbeat style, which to me sounds almost tentative and hopeful. It is soft, new, simple, gentle, with time signatures up for interpretation. And I believe this complements Ed and Stede’s love perfectly.

Stede and Ed’s relationship, to me, is one of first love: neither really certain of the feeling they have, as neither ever really experienced true romantic love before (my interpretation), so they are slow and uncertain - much like how Gnossienne no. 5 balances between hope and joy, with an undercurrent of wistfulness, sadness(?) that suggests it could easily tilt into melancholic territory. They develop slowly from a friendship (the tentativeness), and is something both incredibly new to them, in the show, and to us (the audience), who gets queerbaited all the time. This natural development of a queer couple who are also the two protagonists complete with their own backstories and character arcs and personality is an unfortunately novel phenomenon in media. And it’s just so SOFT. Much like how Gnossienne was new and experimental and free form, so is Ed and Stede’s relationship, and everything is so soft and lovely and believable and is everything queer representation could be. 

Oh and one more thing - Erik Satie was reportedly influenced by Gnosticism at the time, which “emphasised personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institution”. You know. Queerness over heteronormativity, hegemonic oppression, etc.