Furniture Music

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Furniture Music - a term coined by Satie in 1917

From the University of Illinois Press:

Satie's pieces of furniture music are each fundamentally based on a short musical fragment, to be repeated ad lib (at one's pleasure). As such, they are intrinsically monotonous and can retain the attention of the active listener for only a short span before boredom inevitably sets in. Vexations (1893), for instance, is a short piece consisting of four repetitive phrases to be repeated 840 times. Strictly speaking, three sets of furniture music by Satie exist. The first set, from 1917, is composed for flute, clarinet, and strings, plus a trumpet for the first piece. The second set, from 1920 and labeled Sons industriels [Industrial sounds], was performed at the Galerie Barbazanges. The last piece of furniture music for small orchestra from 1923, was commissioned by Mrs. Eugène Meyer Jr. of Washington, D.C. Tenture de cabinet préfectoral (approximately: Upholstery for a Governor's Office) was delivered by Satie to furnish the library of her residence.

Roger and Brian and Harold Budd followed by John Foxx and David Sylvian et alia are modern innovators of this great genre

For me the boredom never sets in but there are a few prog goons that are not fans - but what about others...?

Here are some nice examples:









So views on furniture music....?





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[Lord Rother]

An effective form of torture.

[Tom Waits For No One]

A chance to play this

[Darkness_Fish]

Silly post:

[Darkness_Fish]

Sensible post:

What separates furniture music from minimalism or drone, or would you say it's all in the same ballpark? For instance, I once saw Charlemagne Palestine playing something similar to this, I think it was introduced as a three-note symphony:



I mean, that's quite sprightly and energetic, I guess, but it does sound within the bounds of the Satie pieces described above.

Quite often when I'm reading alone late at night, I'll throw on something like Alvin Lucier's Music On a Long Thin Wire, or a Pauline Oliveros album, that kind of thing. They can be quite chaotic, but I think of this as perfect background music:

[C]

What separates furniture music from minimalism or drone, or would you say it's all in the same ballpark?

A good question

I would say furniture music was definitely minimalist and only sometimes drone.

I am not an expert on drone but Spacemen 3 for example, who I love, are drone but hardly minimalist and certainly not furniture. Probably Apex Twin too

Hawkwind have been described as drone at times and they are far from the other two elements!

However, there must exist a number of bands that fit in the intersection of all three circles on a Venn diagram!

"Your mission, should you accept it...."




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