Liz Nguyen

5/12/09

MUSIC 524

Musique d'ameublement: A Study in Musical Stasis

Abstract

In Modernism and Music, Albright writes about a new trend at the fin-de-siecle of music heard, but not
listened to. Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, and Olivier Messiaen were among the first Modernist
composers to “try to undo the concept of development in music in order to make hard-edged collages of
sound, or to allude to the eternity that exists on time's far side, or simply to thumb their noses at
bourgeois notions of musical satisfaction—or bourgeois notions of progress.”1 By asserting these
beliefs, the composers experimented with new ways of listening and experiencing music. One such
experiment was Satie's composition and concept of Musique d'ameublement. Musique d'ameublement,
unlike other music of the early nineteenth-century, seeks no narrative, motion, or climax. This analysis
will consider three compositional elements as it relates to the three-movement work Musique
d'ameublement: lack of tonality, cadence, and development. The paper will evaluate if Satie achieves
musical stasis, how he achieves it, and if it is effective. Musique d'ameublement eventually lays the
groundwork for the development of the Minimalist style, which comes thirty years after Satie's death.

Key Sources

Gillmore, Alan. Erik Satie.

Definitive Biography
Gillmore “Erik Satie and the Concept of the Avant-Garde.” PhD diss., Harvard University

Detailed dissertation that traces the stages of Satie's compositions

Trigger, Dylan. “Furniture Music, Hotel Lobbies, and Banality”. Space and Culture

Excellent Article on Ambient Music

1Daniel Albright, Modernism and Music, 68.