With no Netflix, video games, or television series, seventeenth-century entertainments were much different than ours today. Operas, ballets, horse ballets (yes, seriously!), cards, and banquets were but a few entertainment options. Much of the Baroque music we think of as high art was used as background music or was regarded as “popular” music. Handel’s famous Water Music acted as Apple Music for King George I’s summer trip down the River Thames in 1717. Telemann’s Tafelmusik accompanied the dinner course at a patron’s banquet.
Now considered great musical treasures, Handel’s Sinfonia in B-flat, his cantata Apollo e Dafne, and Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.1, were examples of entertainment for many common people. These selections will also feature baroque flute, baroque oboes, and baroque bassoon.