What's a music salon?

Obviously it is this exciting new blog about music! You want some history?

The salon was a gathering, originating in Italy, but flourishing particularly in France during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was "a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" ("aut delectare aut prodesse est"). Salons, commonly associated with French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th century and 18th centuries, were carried on until quite recently, in urban settings, among like-minded people." [Wikipedia]

Actually, it is a tradition that still exists today, at least it did in Montreal when I lived there. Dinner parties were popular and wide-ranging discussions lasted until three in the morning.

So here you go: a salon, mostly about music, for the social media of the 21st century.

Discuss away...