English edit

Etymology edit

Calque of French musique d’ameublement (literally furnishing music), coined by Erik Satie in 1917.

Noun edit

furniture music (uncountable)

  1. (music) Background music originally played by live performers.
    • 2018, John T. Lysaker, Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 84:
      Furniture music is thus more like a chair than a painting in a gallery. One sits in rather than contemplates the chair. So too furniture music: “it creates vibration; it has no other purpose; it fills the same role as light, warmth and comfort in all its forms.”

See also edit

Further reading edit