I having trouble activity listening to music, but I remember as a teen listening to it with a freind and laughing together at its musical wit. Both of us were deep into punk at the time (the Clash), and we had stumbled across this by accident. Rarely have I felt such empathy with a composer…. At once sad, funny and erudite.

> It’s funny because apparently he expected his work to be listened to passively in the background

I think this mostly applies to his "furniture music".) Works like "Socrate" or "Sports et Divertissements" are certainly not background music.

) In these concerts, he actually told the audience members not to listen :)