The German word tafelmusik literally means table music just as tafelwein is German for table wine. Tafelmusik was originally intended to be performed during a banquet or feast while the guests dined. Although a popular musical genre in the eighteenth century the word is not recorded in English until the late nineteenth century. The word tafelmusik can also refer to sheet music that has one singer’s part printed upside down so that two singers can sit across from one another at a table and read from the same page.