# What to play when the guests arrive?



## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Some friends of long-standing come for dinner maybe once every month or so and I routinely play "Classical" music throughout the evening - particularly after the meal. Because I have a quite extensive collection on CD and LP there is no lack of choice, but the issue is to select items that will appeal. arguably also mildly extending their musical interests that tend to be "mainstream." 

Bach organ music, Rachmaninov, Dvorak, Faure and even some Bruckner are "safe" choices for them. Villa Lobos, Rimsky and Elgar have been successful too. I have. however, attempted to introduce the delights of Mahler. Brahms Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and early Schoenberg with a conspicuous lack of success. Ditto Wagner that both claim to actively detest, despite my selections of only melodic and approachable examples. 

I guess I am not really looking for advice here but am actually inviting the views of others who may have had similar experiences with visitors/guests.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Baroque music, the great Georg Philip Telemann's _Tafelmusik_, which is essentially a large collection of orchestral and chamber music:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

If the need is for tasteful, pleasant, and actually memorable music that forms a sonic background to conversation without either overpowering the interactions yet will have people asking: "what is that nice music?", you could try Respighi's _Ancient Airs and Dances_. If it is a case of everyone sitting down to listen to the host's favorite selection of the evening, try something else.


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

A local coffee shop is starting up here in a small rural town . I suggest to them a baby grand piano
should be at the center of the room and the first thing their guests consider .


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Background music for a dinner party is a different purpose than concert music for listening.

Yes, Baroque music. Small ensembles, Bach lute music, Bach orchestral suites. Vivaldi. Boccherini. Harpsichord music.

You know, like they listened to at dinner 400 years ago.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I don't even try anymore. Not classical anyway. I just have a bunch of disks of Jobin and several of Latin American percussion groups (lots of marimba) and some Piazzola. I won't ever put on current pop/rock/jazz: I wouldn't even know where to begin. And I won't try to educate my guests with my musical tastes. I'll even put on some classic country from time to time.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Well go Hollywood and stand around with champagne glasses with Eine kleine Nachtmusik in the background.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

If you only interested in classical music, I'd suggest some Haydn divertimenti, or trio sonatas. Also, the lute music of Dowland, and others, including Bach. Maybe some other classical guitar, there are plenty recordings of Villa-Lobos preludes and guitar concerto, the Rodrigo _Concierto de Aranjuez_, which reminds me of the Ravel _Piano Concerto in G_. Solo piano would seem to be good, maybe Mompou or Satie.


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## EnescuCvartet (Dec 16, 2016)

Tikoo Tuba said:


> A local coffee shop is starting up here in a small rural town . I suggest to them a baby grand piano
> should be at the center of the room and the first thing their guests consider .


How about a butterfly grand. Super cute! Also, one of those would fit just about anywhere.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Wish we could have friends over, music is the least of worries, so: Live dangerously. :cheers:


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I think Schubert's string quartets would be a good thing to play. Brilliant Classics has a set in exquisite sound for about 12 bucks.






Generally, I think symphonic stuff from Beethoven onward is a bit too cerebral to make any sense accompanying a conversation. Haydn and Mozart might do.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

Play bagpipes and accordion.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Schubert or Dvorak string quartets would be my recommendation.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

They're your guests, so play the music you think they'd like to hear.

You wouldn't give them food they didn't like.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Depends whether it's my guests, or my wife's. In the case of the latter, in order to expedite carriages, it's John Williams, John Rutter and Fleetwood Mac.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

no music. Guests come for conversations, talk, and music distracts from that.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Bland CM is an insult to the guests. Good CM as background is an insult to the music. 
Some Errol Garner, maybe, or George Shearing?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Bland CM is an insult to the guests. Good CM as background is an insult to the music.
> Some Errol Garner, maybe, or George Shearing?


Are you familiar with the term tafelmusik? And divertimenti: "The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted (as a result of being played at social functions) and it is generally composed for a small ensemble. The term is used to describe a wide variety of secular (non-religious) instrumental works for soloist or chamber ensemble. It is usually a kind of music entertainment, although it could also be applied to a more serious genre. After 1780, the term generally designated works that were informal or light. "

Who's being insulted?


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

david johnson said:


> Play bagpipes and accordion.


This reminds me of a great Gary Larson cartoon. There are two doors, one going to heaven and the other to hell. Outside the heavenly door an angel is handing out harps. Outside the other one a devil is handing out accordions.

Perfect pitch is the ability to throw an accordion into a dumpster from twenty feet without it touching the sides!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

And when it's time--and past time--for your guests to make their departure, the Jimmy Carroll Percussion Group's _Music to Speed the Parting Guest: The Hot-Tempered Clavichord_ is just the ticket to ease them out the door. Here is just one of several examples from YouTube:


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

For pleasant, non-obnoxious background music for a mixed audience I put on: The Respighi Ancient Airs . . . as already mentioned by Strange Magic, the flute concerti and concerto grossos misattributed for years to Pergolesi, Spohr's E-flat piano/wind quintet, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin/viola, or Symphony No. 29, one of the R. Strauss wind serenades (or Dvorak's), an oboe concerto by LeClaire from a Heinz Holliger collection, Bach's Brandenburg No. 4, and an old Nonesuch compilation called "The Tango Project."


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Interesting responses thank you. Of course I have played Haydn, Dvorak, Schubert, Vivaldi and many others on the occasions when this pair visited. but many of you have missed the point of my little rant, which is the desire to get just slightly out of their comfort zone - not too far out though and one might have thought that Brahms, early Schoenberg etc would not be too challenging.

Last night was an example of getting it wrong. Early on, I played Beethoven string trios that proved to be acceptable, then the Sibelius violin concerto - so far so good. However, after dinner I put on the Scriabin third symphony and Poem - surely very melodic, highly approachable and for me at least, lovely pieces of music.

An observer might have thought I had pissed in the woman's wine! She let forth a series of complaints that translated as "that is *****" I added to the level of angst by questioning how she claimed to enjoy Ligetti and Philip Glass. 

The blood should dry on the carpet any time soon!


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

"Perfect pitch is the ability to throw an accordion into a dumpster from twenty feet without it touching the sides!"

Love it! Works with Bagpipes too


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Jacck said:


> no music. Guests come for conversations, talk, and music distracts from that.


When one guest gets drunk, one can listen to the music and avoid the conversation. Far more rewarding!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I find music that feature the clarinet works well for your purpose. This could be a clarinet chamber work such as trios and quartets or complete concertos.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Strange Magic said:


> And when it's time--and past time--for your guests to make their departure, the Jimmy Carroll Percussion Group's _Music to Speed the Parting Guest: The Hot-Tempered Clavichord_ is just the ticket to ease them out the door. Here is just one of several examples from YouTube:


The percussion is a bit aggressive, but it has an identifiable melody. I like this significantly better than Carl Orff's *De temporum fine comoedia*. That would be my go-to if I wanted people to leave. It made me want to leave my own house.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Jacck said:


> no music. Guests come for conversations, talk, and music distracts from that.


*4′33″* .......................


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak, in practically any genre. I personally would avoid Bruckner, and probably Mahler.


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Just to add to the scenario, the husband is a former violinist and I am a former cellist so music is a regular subject of discussion, also the reason we play recorded music when he and his wife visit. (hence some of your comments are inappropriate). 

The wife, conversely, is an expert on all subjects and the more she drinks, the more expert she becomes. I refrain from voicing my opinion that her professed musical tastes are little more than the attempt to consolidate her superiority.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

Jacck said:


> no music. Guests come for conversations, talk, and music distracts from that.


I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought that way. When guests come, there probably is going to be a lot of conversation. Music makes it difficult to converse, at one point it's guaranteed that everyone will start screaming to make themselves heard. Furthermore, I despise playing music when I have guests over because I think it's disrespectful to the art.


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## skim1124 (Mar 6, 2019)

Strange Magic said:


> If the need is for tasteful, pleasant, and actually memorable music that forms a sonic background to conversation without either overpowering the interactions yet will have people asking: "what is that nice music?", you could try Respighi's _Ancient Airs and Dances_. If it is a case of everyone sitting down to listen to the host's favorite selection of the evening, try something else.


You mentioned it first and then later @MarkW seconded it, and so I listened to some of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances for the first time (I'd never even heard of it before) and enjoyed it quite a bit. Not once did I think about stopping the music, so that passed my initial test. And since I was just listening to it alone and paying pretty close attention, it's perhaps even better than just nice background music. Anyway, thanks for broadening my knowledge (if I can call it that) of music.


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