furniture music
“I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly.” – Erik Satie
French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) coined the phrase “furniture music” in 1917 to describe background music played by live performers. His pieces of furniture music were very short works with an indefinite number of repeats.
Satie developed his minimalist music in radical response to the excesses of 19th-century German Romanticism. His Gymnopédies (1888) are often regarded as a precursor to modern ambient music. Satie’s last residence was a threadbare room that never saw a visitor during the 27 years that he lived there.
In thinking about Satie, I am also reflecting on solitude, memory, imagination, the philosophy of time, mortality, and the nature of cycles.
furniture music
“I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly.” – Erik Satie
French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) coined the phrase “furniture music” in 1917 to describe background music played by live performers. His pieces of furniture music were very short works with an indefinite number of repeats.
Satie developed his minimalist music in radical response to the excesses of 19th-century German Romanticism. His Gymnopédies (1888) are often regarded as a precursor to modern ambient music. Satie’s last residence was a threadbare room that never saw a visitor during the 27 years that he lived there.
In thinking about Satie, I am also reflecting on solitude, memory, imagination, the philosophy of time, mortality, and the nature of cycles.