# Dinner music



## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Hi y'all.

I want to compile a play list of classical music what would go well with a dinner party. Basically nothing too intrusive to the concious ear. Could I have some suggestions because the majority of my music is offensive to a relaxed environment. Your suggestions don't have to be limited to classical music.

Thanks a lot,

Eddy Elgar


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## Boccherini (Mar 29, 2010)

An atheist desires the inexistent.

Odd.


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Glenn Gould's Haydn, maybe.


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Boccherini said:


> An atheist desires the inexistent.
> 
> Odd.


Oooh!  Keep it in the relevant thread please! 

I'm sure there must be some classical music that fits the bill.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Tell them all to listen to what's happening in their snouts while they eat. It's strange feeling. Unsually people don't pay attention but when you want to focus your hearing on something you often get strange feeling, it's pretty freak when you are aware of this, it's better than lucid dreaming.


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## Boccherini (Mar 29, 2010)

Edward Elgar said:


> I'm sure there must be some classical music that fits the bill.


I think not.

The phenomenon of listening to music as a background to other activities is being a meaningful factor in the reciprocity between the music and the listener.

First of all, arousing an unjustified nostalgia to the subject is a manner that should be avoided - the use of music as a background was existed in many generations: The French and Italian operas in the 18th c. were existed mainly to entertain, as part of the social life of those who could afford that. Many novels and romances that devoted to that era describe the earls, noblemen and barons at the middle of sprightly and wakeful discussions in their cabin at the opera house. Additionally, we should not assume that the music of orchestras in palaces wasn't accompanied by conversations, food, etc.

However, the quality of tuned and aimed listening was immensely increased over time, and yet, I dare say, the "potential" of background listening got worsen as a result of the fact that music became more accessible because of the invention of portable recordings. Now, like any technical and objective phenomenon, we shouldn't judge recordings for good or bad. Nevertheless, the absence of exertion, after all, _can_ be negative: someone who goes to a concert and bothers himself to pay a lot of money, prepare himself to a full evening (or morning etc.) with fine clothes, I believe, won't dare to read a newspaper or start a noisy conversation with someone in the middle of the concert. However, nothing would avoid him to do so when he listens to a recording in his house wearing his dressing gown.

Psychology, while clearly distinguishes between active and passive listening, proved that the process of dividing an attention between primary actions simultaneously is nearly impossible. Someone who's listening to music and reading a book simultaneously, transfers his (main) attention from the book to the music to the book, back and forth. When someone turns music into background music - their brain receive general impressions from the piece. From a perfect artwork, the piece is deteriorating to the level of sensory stimulation with sightly tones. Identical, the person whom listens to music during a feast, to the person whom hangs paints of Rembrandt in the bathroom...
In the case that someone seperates his attention between eating or reading and listening to music, he puts himself in the place of the _gormandizer_, who swallows a ration after a ration without feeling its taste. The musical creation - in most cases - is based on a modal development, constant and complicated; In this case, the listener receives only a few parts from this development.

The danger of that kind of listening is not restricted to falsification of the role of music only: it also detracts the listener's absorption/comprehension ability. Any artistic creation requires an effort to absorb it: it's not being comprehended by itself. Watching a play by Shakespeare; reading a poem by Milton; or listening to a fugue by Bach requires much more efforts than, say, watching a thrillier by Hitchcock; reading a book by Fleming; or listening to a measly Pop song. And, actually, this effort is being an integral part of the real artistic experience. A listener whom habituates his senses to listen without paying attention, after a period of time, might encounter a great difficulty in focusing on the music during a live concert: his senses are trained to do additional activities during he listens, and now he feels - unconsciously - its lack. These typical listeners are very familiar to the average person who goes to live concert. These people tend to study thoroughly the program back and forth, without forgetting the smallest and less important details in every advertisement; they tend to stare at other people; they endlessly whisper; dozing once in a while, and sometimes they "forget" to return to the hall after the interval (!). Identical, the one whom does that, to the drinker that burned his gullet with pure alchohol, and now he can not distinguish between the delicate flavour of the fine wines.


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

Satie's Gymnopédies would fit the bill nicely for a dinner party.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Edward Elgar said:


> Hi y'all.
> 
> I want to compile a play list of classical music what would go well with a dinner party. Basically nothing too intrusive to the concious ear. Could I have some suggestions because the majority of my music is offensive to a relaxed environment. Your suggestions don't have to be limited to classical music.
> 
> ...


Georg Philipp Telemann publish a collection of music etitled _Tafelmusik_ / _Musique de Table _(German literal meaning is table-music), which was a relatively large (for publication purposes) collection of chamber-ish size orchestral suites, concertos, quartets, trios, solos in three parts. Whether or not he literally intended it as banquet music is probably anyone's guess, although one could say with certainty that many similar collections were also published under that marketing banner of _Tafelmusik_. Regardless, it was quite popular in its day, subscribed all over Europe. (In England, it found only one subscription going to Telemann's personal friend, Mr Handel).

So, if your dinner guests are quite interested in a bit of music history and fond of Baroque music, then this might be possible!


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## Jules141 (Nov 20, 2009)

Ligeti's Cello Concerto would go down quite well. Or maybe ... Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I'll second the Tafelmusik suggestion. Really almost anything baroque or pre-Beethoven classical era would do.


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## CageFan (Dec 2, 2010)

Though I am so tired of Fur Elise..I have to admit this is still the best background music. :-( but I would rather listen to Dvorak's Humoresque when dining with an interesting friend.


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## CageFan (Dec 2, 2010)

...which my music professor hated most when she has to use the word "background music".


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## CageFan (Dec 2, 2010)

Jules141 said:


> Ligeti's Cello Concerto would go down quite well. Or maybe ... Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto.


Hi..Julie..Proko's 2nd would definitely scare away the glutton Americans!:lol:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

CageFan said:


> Hi..Julie..Proko's 2nd would definitely scare away the glutton Americans!:lol:


Not me! Although I don't know that concerto in particular so well.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Edward Elgar said:


> Hi y'all.
> 
> I want to compile a play list of classical music what would go well with a dinner party. Basically nothing too intrusive to the concious ear. Could I have some suggestions because the majority of my music is offensive to a relaxed environment. Your suggestions don't have to be limited to classical music.
> 
> ...


I believe that jazz, especially when it's purely instrumental, downtempo, and with predominance of bass sounds, is close to ideal background music.


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## Serge (Mar 25, 2010)

Baroque music and Bach in particular should be very fine. For one thing, loudness can easily be adjusted to a desirable level and will not levitate much. I’ve learned this by going through a natural selection of music for a nap. This is also how I know that Bach is sublime. If you need specific recommendations, go for Trio Sonatas or Wind Concertos.


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## CageFan (Dec 2, 2010)

Oho, I woud love to have Mendelssohn's Spring Song(Song without words Op.62-6) as whatever music you call it-background or not. Who needs food when you hear such beauty?


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Absolutely anything by Bach. Always dull, never distracting.


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Or Brahms.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Brahms would be good if you want everyone to fall into their seats in silent awe!


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Polednice said:


> Brahms would be good if you want everyone to fall into their seats in silent awe!


The B Minor Mass isn't _by_ Brahms, Polednice.


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## KJohnson (Dec 31, 2010)

For this purpose, pop/rock music is better. Clapton, G & R, Def Leopard...


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