Musicales, Soirées and Matinées
Invitations to a Musicale are simply written on “At Home” cards, thus:
Mrs. P.V. VanVechton,
At Home,
Tuesday, April second.
Music at half-past three.
Or: Mrs. P.V. VanVechton, At Home, Tuesday afternoon, April second, from half-past three to five o’clock. Matinée Musicale.
If the Musicale is to be an evening affair, and dancing is to follow the music, the following form of invitation may be used: Mrs. Herbert Hughes, At Home, Friday evening, January tenth, at eight o’clock. 200 Winchester Avenue. Music. Dancing at ten.
Precisely the same form is to be used in giving out invitations for a soirée, save that the word “soirée” is substituted for that of “Musicale” or “matinée musicale.” It may be farther added that the term “matinée” applies exclusively to entertainments given in the morning, or at any time before dinner, a distinction to which our custom of late dinners gives a wide latitude, so that any entertainment up to eight o’clock in the evening may receive the name of matinée, notwithstanding the fact that drawn curtains and gas-lighted rooms may give all the semblance of night-time. “Soirée,” however, is used only where an evening party of a semi-informal character is denoted.