'Le voeu du faisan' Rijksmuseum SK-A-4212

Tafelmusik (German: literally, "table-music") is a term used since the mid-16th century for music played at feasts and

banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

s. Table music could be either instrumental, vocal, or both. As might be expected, it was often of a somewhat lighter character than music for other occasions. In solemn banquets, starting with wedding dinners, the presence of singers and instrumentalists is customary and almost obligatory.

Origin

The custom of accompanying banquets and symposia with music has been attested by ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek and the Romans in

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of Ro ...

s. The term was often used as a title for collections of music, some of which were intended to be used at banquets as a musical background, or during outdoor events. The tradition lasts in the Middle Ages and takes on new vigor in the 15th century. The short compositions of Gioachino Rossini, a composer who also gained fame as a gourmet, titles "antipasto" and "dessert" are recognized as related to "table music".

Practice

At solemn meals, beginning with wedding banquets, the presence of singers and musicians was common and almost obligatory: the same happened at the official banquets of the court and municipal magistracies. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially in Germany and France, the style seduced composers until it was characterized as a true musical genre, in the form of a dance suite. For example, the lutenist and

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...

of the

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

Concert in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

is assigned the “task of charming, with delicate instrumental dances, the ears of illustrious guests during lunch” and dinner. Table music was displaced in the late 18th century by the

divertimento ''Divertimento'' (; from the Italian '' divertire'' "to amuse") is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the ''divertimento'' is most often lighthearted (as a result of being played at social functions) and ...

, and its importance soon diminished, but it was revived and partially restored in the vocal genre of the ''Liedertafel'' by

Carl Friedrich Zelter Carl Friedrich Zelter (11 December 1758 15 May 1832)Grove/Fuller-Datei:Carl-Friedrich-Zelter.jpegMaitland, 1910. The Zelter entry takes up parts of pages 593-595 of Volume V. was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music. Working in his ...

beginning in 1809, and male-voice choral societies describing themselves by this name continued the practice until the mid-20th century.

Composers

Some of the most significant composers of table music included

Johann Hermann Schein Johann Hermann Schein (20 January 1586 – 19 November 1630) was a German composer of the early Baroque era. He was Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1615 to 1630. He was one of the first to import the early Italian stylistic innovations into Germa ...

, whose ''Banchetto musicale'' of 1617 acquired considerable fame, and

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...

, who wrote about the phenomenon of ''Tafelmusik'' in his ''Syntagma musicum'' of 1619. Music from Schein's collection is still performed by early music ensembles with some regularity. The ''

Tafelmusik Tafelmusik (German: literally, "table-music") is a term used since the mid-16th century for music played at feasts and banquets. Table music could be either instrumental, vocal, or both. As might be expected, it was often of a somewhat lighter c ...

'' or ''Musique de Table'' by

Georg Philipp Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesh ...

is among his celebrated music collections.It was voted #76 in the

Classic 100 Baroque and Before (ABC) In 2014, the Australian radio station ABC Classic FM held the Classic 100 Baroque and Before countdown. The selection of works available in the survey was determined between 11 April and 22 April (with the public being able to add works to the l ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tafelmusik (Musical Term) German music history European court festivities