Salon music is definable by it's capacity to sound high-brow whilst
requiring only a modest effort on the part of the performer. In the
hands of a master it can sound divine (think of Robert Armbruster and
Erno Rapee), but even in the hands of a reasonable amateur all is not
lost.

Picture the late European 19th century music salon with guests seated
listening to a recital on a grand piano.  There are many old pictures
you may have seen depicting such scenes.  Occasionally the soloist was
professional or a composer - think of old pictures of Liszt playing
recitals in the music salons of rich benefactors.  Usually, performers
were amateurs.

The performed music was of an quasi-artistic nature as opposed to
popular music hall-type songs which were definitely not for raucous
rendition in a polite society soiree.  High-brow classics would have
been far too heavy for the salon recital environment but popular fare
would have been far too vulgar.  On such occasions the music was not
played for background purposes; to have simply chatted away through
such a recital would have been far too rude!  The music was geared
to the aspirations and abilities of those within the salon musical
environment.

The music was written so good amateurs could have a half-decent stab
at playing it and produce a satisfying and melodic performance.  It is
written lightly for the benefit of the audience, as much as for the
performer and often gives the impression of a piece requiring greater
ability than it actually demands.  Moskowski's "Liebeswalzer" and
Chaminade's "Pierette" are good examples.

Many serious composers, such as Tchaikovsky and Moskowski, wrote a
great deal of salon-type music for this market.  The music was also
advertised as being "salon music" at that time also.  Such works are
sadly neglected today as too light for the classical connoisseur but
too classical for lovers of popular music.

Salon music is also where the money was.  Heavy high-brow classics,
unplayable by most folk, were similarly never purchased by most folk
either.  Salon sheet music sold very well.  You only have to look at
any pile of old UK or European sheet music to observe this.

If you think of the social aspirations of folk back then it may
explain a lot.  In the early years you'd have been fairly well off to
afford a pianola and so owners would have purchased repertoire that
reflected their own personal aspirations and ideals.  It is for this
reason I suspect that much of the surviving UK 65-note repertoire
comprises salon music.  It's very rare to find pre-WW1 roll collections
with many racy popular tunes; middle-class England would have discreetly
disapproved.

Many lighter composers wrote works alluding to greater musical heights
than their main repertoire did and thus seeking to assert they could
write "serious" music too.  Ketelbey (mentioned by Rob Case) wrote a
few pieces of this nature, though I would not personally consider his
"Monastery Garden" as salon music.

Pieces were often orchestrated also.  Played by a small trio or similar
these pieces, along with longer arranged selections from light opera
and operettas, provided background music for smart hotels, restaurants
and the like.  It is this type of music the Salon Orchestrions which
Art Reblitz describes were primarily designed to replicate, as their
early European roll lists will testify.

This orchestral style became a style all of it's own.  A violin played
vibrato, accompanied by piano and cello, playing Fibich's "Poeme" or
Finck's "In The Shadows", would typify this musical style, in my
opinion.  This slightly later genre is known as "Palm Court" music by
some -- from the courts in large hotels where the musicians would play
no doubt surrounded by large potted palms beloved of Edwardian
interiors.

When tastes changed with the ragtime era around WW1, and then with
early jazz of post-WW1, the UK and European musicians played this new
music initially in the restrained old genteel styles.  Some folk think
they played it this way as they did not know any better.  In reality,
the musicians were simply making the new music dignified for the tastes
of their audience.  If you have ever wondered why Red Welte and Hupfeld
piano rolls of hot 1920's US jazz tunes sound so cold, well, now you
know why.  By the late 1920's UK and European bands had caught up, and
the salon music genre was unfashionable and effectively dead.

Adam Ramet

 [ Musicians and orchestrion sellers bow to the requirements of the
 [ the performance venue.  The boss at the 'Palm Court Cafe' demands,
 [ "Play quietly," so they play unobtrusive salon music.  Then a tipsy
 [ lady approaches the band stand and asks the musicians to play
 [ "Tiger Rag".  She hands them a nice tip, too.
 [
 [ So what can they do?  The same young and adaptable musicians also
 [ play at night in a rowdy saloon on the other side of town, but they
 [ aren't permitted to play like that in the high-society hotel cafe.
 [ So they play the notes of "Tiger Rag" in salon music style while
 [ the young folk in the restaurant snicker in amusement.  It's a tough
 [ life for musicians!  ;-)  -- Robbie