Page 304 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 304
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
ty was constructed as an educational, pedagogical, and ideological ensem-
ble (he still adhered to the ideas of socialism that he had picked up in 1905).
When he arrived in a town where a large Lithuanian community lived, he
first assembled members of the community and organised a large choir,
then he set up a school of music which he called a ‘conservatory’, to allow
choristers to perfect their musical theory and learn to play an instrument,
and subsequently he would produce musical performances, focusing exclu-
sively on his own operettas. This pattern was transported from one Ameri-
can city to another, adapting to the situation, the needs of local immigrants
and the possibilities of the place.
This push for a ‘collective’ culture also defined the level of operettas.
Their extreme simplicity can be explained by the fact that they had educa-
tional and non-commercial purposes, and often the shows were unprofita-
ble. The vocal parts of Petrauskas’s operettas are written in such a way that
they can easily be interpreted by amateurs who cannot read music and do
not have suitable voices. That is probably why it was sometimes difficult for
the composer to find the right balance between the simplicity and poverty
of the musical language _ or, as Adorno said using Willy Haas’ expression,
to write “bad music of good quality.”27
In worker communities the operetta was intended, first, to interest and
attract workers to their own culture, to bring them closer to their language,
to their roots, by offering them an art comprehensible, simple, reusable,
and multiplied at will and by minimal means.
My wish, when I arrived in the United States – said the composer
– was and is always to attract as many people as possible into mu
sic, so that when I leave here, they can conduct choirs and small or
chestras by themselves ... 28
In this sense, his work was very important. In a local Lithuanian news-
paper, we read:
The faces of the listeners reflected these extraordinary feelings, hear
ing everything that was waking up in front of them [...]. These sim
ple but dear melodies captured the Lithuanian spirit and carried it
into the sky of a distant homeland, where similar voices are heard.29
27 Theodor W. Adorno, Théorie esthétique (Paris: Klincksieck, 1989), 396.
28 Burokaitė, Mikas Petrauskas, 296.
29 Petrauskaitė, Lietuvių muzikinė kultūra, 291.
302
ty was constructed as an educational, pedagogical, and ideological ensem-
ble (he still adhered to the ideas of socialism that he had picked up in 1905).
When he arrived in a town where a large Lithuanian community lived, he
first assembled members of the community and organised a large choir,
then he set up a school of music which he called a ‘conservatory’, to allow
choristers to perfect their musical theory and learn to play an instrument,
and subsequently he would produce musical performances, focusing exclu-
sively on his own operettas. This pattern was transported from one Ameri-
can city to another, adapting to the situation, the needs of local immigrants
and the possibilities of the place.
This push for a ‘collective’ culture also defined the level of operettas.
Their extreme simplicity can be explained by the fact that they had educa-
tional and non-commercial purposes, and often the shows were unprofita-
ble. The vocal parts of Petrauskas’s operettas are written in such a way that
they can easily be interpreted by amateurs who cannot read music and do
not have suitable voices. That is probably why it was sometimes difficult for
the composer to find the right balance between the simplicity and poverty
of the musical language _ or, as Adorno said using Willy Haas’ expression,
to write “bad music of good quality.”27
In worker communities the operetta was intended, first, to interest and
attract workers to their own culture, to bring them closer to their language,
to their roots, by offering them an art comprehensible, simple, reusable,
and multiplied at will and by minimal means.
My wish, when I arrived in the United States – said the composer
– was and is always to attract as many people as possible into mu
sic, so that when I leave here, they can conduct choirs and small or
chestras by themselves ... 28
In this sense, his work was very important. In a local Lithuanian news-
paper, we read:
The faces of the listeners reflected these extraordinary feelings, hear
ing everything that was waking up in front of them [...]. These sim
ple but dear melodies captured the Lithuanian spirit and carried it
into the sky of a distant homeland, where similar voices are heard.29
27 Theodor W. Adorno, Théorie esthétique (Paris: Klincksieck, 1989), 396.
28 Burokaitė, Mikas Petrauskas, 296.
29 Petrauskaitė, Lietuvių muzikinė kultūra, 291.
302
