Salon music was a popular

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during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or emotional expression of a sentimental character. Common subgenres of salon music are the operatic paraphrase or fantasia, in which multiple themes from a popular opera are the basis of the composition, and the musical character-piece, which portrays in music a particular situation or narrative.

Salon composers

Many popular composers wrote at least a few pieces which fall into the category of salon music. Some pianists composed only salon music, but many of these specialists have become highly obscure. The following is a list of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century composers in whose work salon music was predominant. *

Franz Behr Franz Behr (22 July 1837 – 15 February 1898) was a prolific, but minor, and now almost forgotten, German composer of songs and salon pieces for piano. Behr was popular at one time, and many of his works were published (his opus numbers reach ...

Carl Bohm Carl Bohm (also known as Henry Cooper seudonymand Karl Bohm) (11 September 1844 – 4 April 1920) w:de:Carl Bohm was a German pianist and composer. Bohm is regarded as one of the leading German songwriters of the 19th century, and wrote such w ...

Mélanie Bonis Mélanie Hélène Bonis, known as Mel Bonis (21 January 1858 – 18 March 1937), was a prolific French late-Romantic composer. She wrote more than 300 pieces, including works for piano solo and four hands, organ pieces, chamber music, ''mélodies' ...

Georges Boulanger (violinist) George Pantazi (18 April 1893 – 3 June 1958), better known by his stage name Georges Boulanger, was a Romanian violinist, conductor and composer. Biography Georges Boulanger was born in Tulcea, Romania, from a Romani (Gypsy) family wit ...

Teresa Carreño María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García (December 22, 1853June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso pia ...

Ignacio Cervantes Ignacio Cervantes Kawanag (Havana, 31 July 1847 – Havana, 29 April 1905) was a Cuban pianist and composer. He was influential in the creolization of Cuban music. A child prodigy, he was taught by pianist Juan Miguel Joval, later by compose ...

Emmanuel Chabrier Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier (; 18 January 184113 September 1894) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and pianist. His Bourgeoisie, bourgeois family did not approve of a musical career for him, and he studied law in Paris and then worked ...

Cécile Chaminade Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (8 August 1857 – 13 April 1944) was a French composer and pianist. In 1913, she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, a first for a female composer. Ambroise Thomas said, "This is not a woman who composes, but a ...

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

* Charles Delioux * Benjamin Godard *

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and car ...

* Alphonse Hasselmans *

Henri Herz Henri Herz (6 January 1803 – 5 January 1888) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and piano manufacturer, Austrian by birth and French by nationality and domicile. He was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire for more than thirty years. Among his ...

* Jean-Chrisostome Hess * Rudolph G. KoppCopyright entry 1 August 1925: ''Uila: Valse Francaise'', Rudolph G. Kopp (Palma Music Publishers, Chicago, Illinois). * Théodore Lack * Georges Lamothe *

Gustav Lange Gustav Lange (13 August 1830 – 20 July 1889) was a German composer known mainly for his melodious salon music for the piano. Life Lange was born in Schwerstedt, near Erfurt, Prussian Saxony, in 1830. He received initial musical training ...

Désiré Magnus Désiré Magnus (né Magnus Deutz; 13 June 1828 – 17 December 1883) was a Belgian concert pianist, teacher and composer of salon music who published under the pseudonym D. Magnus. Biography Magnus was born in Brussels and studied piano with G ...

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...

Fanny Mendelssohn Fanny Mendelssohn (14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847) was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era who was also known as Fanny (Cäcilie) Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, after her marriage, Fanny Hensel (as well as Fanny Mendelssohn He ...

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano at the ...

Moritz Moszkowski Moritz Moszkowski (23 August 18544 March 1925) was a German Confederation, German composer, pianist, and teacher of History of Jews in Poland, Polish-Jewish descent.

Charles Oberthür Charles Oberthür (14 September 1845 – 1 June 1924) was a French amateur entomologist specializing in lepidoptera. Biography Charles Oberthür was born in Rennes, the son of the printer François-Charles Oberthür and Marie Hamelin, and brot ...

Joseph O'Kelly Joseph O'Kelly (29 January 1828 – 9 January 1885), composer, pianist and choral conductor, was the most prominent member of a family of Irish musicians in 19th- and early 20th-century France. He wrote nine operas, four cantatas, numerous piano ...

Georges Pfeiffer Georges Jean Pfeiffer (12 December 1835 – 14 February 1908) was a French composer, pianist, and music critic. He was a much sought-after chamber music partner in the second half of the nineteenth century in Paris. Life Pfeiffer was born in Ver ...

Auguste Pilati Auguste Pilati (actual name "Auguste Pilate") (29 September 1810 – 1 August 1877) was a prolific French composer, opera conductor and occasional singer. He employed several pseudonyms including "Auguste Pilati Juliano", "A. P. Juliano", "Ate. P. ...

Juventino Rosas José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 18689 July 1894) was a Mexican composer and violinist. Life and career Rosas was born in Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, later renamed Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato, and still later into Santa Cru ...

* Julius Schulhoff *

Martinus Sieveking Martinus Sieveking (March 24, 1867 – November 26, 1950) was a Dutch virtuoso pianist, composer, teacher and inventor born in Amsterdam. Also known as Martin Sieveking, he performed as a soloist around Europe and the United States during ...

* Sidney Smith *

Maria Szymanowska Maria Szymanowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born Marianna Agata Wołowska; Warsaw, 14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She tour ...

Sigismond Thalberg Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Family He was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. According to his own account, h ...

Francis Thomé Francis Thomé (18 October 1850 – 16 November 1909), was a French pianist and composer. He was born in Port Louis, Mauritius, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Jules Duprato and Ambroise Thomas. After leaving the Conservatoire, he bec ...

Francesco Paolo Tosti Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti KCVO (9 April 1846, Ortona, Abruzzo2 December 1916, Rome) was an Italian composer and music teacher. Life Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native Ortona, Italy, as well as the c ...

Paul Wachs Paul Étienne Victor Wachs (19 September 1851 – 6 July 1915) was a French composer, organist and pianist. He is most remembered for his salon compositions for piano. Biography Born in Paris, Wachs was the son of the French composer Frédéric ...

Ethelbert Nevin Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin (November 25, 1862February 17, 1901) was an American pianist and composer. Early life Nevin was born on November 25, 1862, at Vineacre, on the banks of the Ohio River, in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania.Mulkearn, Lois, p. 62 ...

Well known performers

Adolf Busch Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch (8 August 1891 – 9 June 1952) was a German–Swiss violinist, conductor, and composer. Life and career Busch was born in Siegen in Westphalia. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory with Willy Hess and Bram Elderin ...

Fritz Busch Fritz Busch (13 March 1890 – 14 September 1951) was a German conductor. Busch was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to a musical family, and studied at the Cologne Conservatory. After army service in the First World War, he was appointed to senior p ...

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals,

Emanuel Feuermann Emanuel Feuermann (November 22, 1902 – May 25, 1942) was an internationally celebrated cellist in the first half of the 20th century. Life Feuermann was born in 1902 in Kolomyja, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kolomyia, Ukraine) to ...

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...

Pablo Sarasate Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908), commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate, was a Spanish (Navarrese) violin virtuoso, composer and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include ...

Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in t ...

Jacques Thibaud Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French violinist. Biography Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won th ...

References

{{Authority control 19th-century music genres Classical music styles