Light music

Salon music is an expression of easily understood, often particularly virtuosic or sentimental music.

In addition to the literary salon there was also the musical salon, which was very important from the beginning of the 19th century. In the " Salon" There was a private, mostly upper-class society, the musical performances - in contrast to the concert - rather superficially followed. In a way, salon music is the continuation of the Civil Chamber Music of the nobility in the 17th/18th. Century.

The salon music as a genre is mainly composed of arrangements of opera and operetta arias, as well as social dances. Furthermore, it consists of " poetic " instrumental pieces to tell a story or create an atmosphere. Franz Schubert wrote music for the Biedermeier salon in Vienna, which is still accepted as concert music. With the increasing commercialization of house music from the mid-19th century a genre of salon music, which was not taken seriously and attacked by critics such as Robert Schumann and Adolf Bernhard Marx and called kitsch originated.

Epitomes of the Salon piece are the once beloved by many piano students Maiden's Prayer (1856 ) Tekla Bądarzewska Charles François Gounod or Méditation sur le 1er prelude de Bach (1852 ). In addition to the musical dilettante, who assumed the salon pieces, there was professional, chiefly artistic salon music: the composer Jacques Offenbach began about his career in the salons of Paris as a virtuoso on the cello. Franz Liszt excelled as a virtuoso pianist in the salons.

Since the end of the 19th century salon music and petty bourgeois public was and was heard in many cafes and hotel lobbies. In addition to dance bands emerged salon orchestra in a special occupation. The piano maintained its dominant position. With the development of radio and gramophone, the salon music increasingly disappeared and made newer versions of the popular music course.

Since about 1980, the historic salon music is upgraded and numerous ensembles such as the Hamburg Stadtmusikatzen, the Bremen Cafe Orchestra, the Leipzig Salonorchester cappuccino, salon music Saitensprünge, the Salzburg I Salonieri, the Salon Orchestra Coelln, the Salon Ensemble Lundi Soir and I Salonisti from Bern been played back. Musicians such as the Palast Orchestra, Andre Rieu and Richard Clayderman present modern variants of salon music.