The client aims to be rich in features, but still lightweight enough to have constantly running on low end hardware.
fmui is a terminal user interface created with fzf and mpc.Practical Music Search is another ncurses client with a Vim-like interface.
It is not a full-featured music player program such as Amarok, but its clients can serve such role.
Client programs communicate with MPD to manipulate playback, the playlist, and the database. MPD simply runs in the background playing music from its playlist.