Page 106 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2023. Glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo ▪︎ Music societies in the long 19th century: Between amateur and professional culture. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 6
P. 106
glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo
year, and thus attracted a lot of the city’s intelligentsia.2 The musical life of
the city was also diversified by a group of musicians formed in 1893 under
the Railwaymen’s Club, which had existed for more than two decades. It
was a kind of society seeking to meet the needs of people in one profession.
In their club hall, the members of the group held concerts and charity mu-
sic evenings. The local press complained: “We have so many musical eve
nings in Vilnius that it is really impossible to describe them all.”3
Kaunas refused to be inferior to Vilnius. In 1870, a circle of nine mu-
sic lovers – a semi-amateur community – began to organise concerts of vo-
cal-instrumental music. Its activities, which had ceased for several years,
were resumed on 15 March 1882, after the circle had been taken over by the
officially registered Kaunas Music Society.4 Its emergence in 1873, like the
emergence of an analogous society in Vilnius in 1873, was directly related
to the IRMS, which pursued two goals: to expand the network of music ed-
ucation throughout the country and to intensify concert life.
Until 1904, Kaunas Music Society was headed by Aleksandr Savinski,
landowner, amateur violinist, and self-taught composer who worked as an
employee in administrative institutions. He loved chamber music, some-
times assembled an orchestra, and sincerely fulfilled the undertaken com-
mitments. One of them was establishing a music school, headed by B. Rob-
man, on 6 February 1884. It had classes of singing, piano, violin, choral
singing, music theory, and playing other instruments,5 and the teachers ar-
rived from St. Petersburg and other Russian cities. Although education in
the school was paid for, it was short of funds for its activities, and therefore
Kaunas Music Society had to sponsor it. In 1900, the Society had about 600
registered members paying an annual fee, the amount of which depended
on the member’s category.6 The raised funds were used to purchase musical
instruments, to accumulate musical literature for the school library, and to
fund the choir and balalaika orchestra established under the society.
2 Dana Palionytė-Banevičienė, ed., Lietuvos muzikos istorija. I knyga. Tautinio atgimi
mo metai [A History of Lithuanian Music, Book 1. The Years of National Revival]
(Vilnius: Lietuvos muzikos akademija, Kultūros, filosofijos ir meno institutas, 2002),
32.
3 З-iй. “Отголоски,” Виленский вестник [Vilnius Bulletin], no. 79 (1897): 2.
4 Diana Raudonytė, “Kauno muzikos draugija XIX a. antroje pusėje” [Kaunas Mu-
sic Society in the Second Half of the 19th century], Kauno istorijos metraštis, no. 11
(2011): 77.
5 Ibid., 79.
6 Ibid., 77, 80.
104
year, and thus attracted a lot of the city’s intelligentsia.2 The musical life of
the city was also diversified by a group of musicians formed in 1893 under
the Railwaymen’s Club, which had existed for more than two decades. It
was a kind of society seeking to meet the needs of people in one profession.
In their club hall, the members of the group held concerts and charity mu-
sic evenings. The local press complained: “We have so many musical eve
nings in Vilnius that it is really impossible to describe them all.”3
Kaunas refused to be inferior to Vilnius. In 1870, a circle of nine mu-
sic lovers – a semi-amateur community – began to organise concerts of vo-
cal-instrumental music. Its activities, which had ceased for several years,
were resumed on 15 March 1882, after the circle had been taken over by the
officially registered Kaunas Music Society.4 Its emergence in 1873, like the
emergence of an analogous society in Vilnius in 1873, was directly related
to the IRMS, which pursued two goals: to expand the network of music ed-
ucation throughout the country and to intensify concert life.
Until 1904, Kaunas Music Society was headed by Aleksandr Savinski,
landowner, amateur violinist, and self-taught composer who worked as an
employee in administrative institutions. He loved chamber music, some-
times assembled an orchestra, and sincerely fulfilled the undertaken com-
mitments. One of them was establishing a music school, headed by B. Rob-
man, on 6 February 1884. It had classes of singing, piano, violin, choral
singing, music theory, and playing other instruments,5 and the teachers ar-
rived from St. Petersburg and other Russian cities. Although education in
the school was paid for, it was short of funds for its activities, and therefore
Kaunas Music Society had to sponsor it. In 1900, the Society had about 600
registered members paying an annual fee, the amount of which depended
on the member’s category.6 The raised funds were used to purchase musical
instruments, to accumulate musical literature for the school library, and to
fund the choir and balalaika orchestra established under the society.
2 Dana Palionytė-Banevičienė, ed., Lietuvos muzikos istorija. I knyga. Tautinio atgimi
mo metai [A History of Lithuanian Music, Book 1. The Years of National Revival]
(Vilnius: Lietuvos muzikos akademija, Kultūros, filosofijos ir meno institutas, 2002),
32.
3 З-iй. “Отголоски,” Виленский вестник [Vilnius Bulletin], no. 79 (1897): 2.
4 Diana Raudonytė, “Kauno muzikos draugija XIX a. antroje pusėje” [Kaunas Mu-
sic Society in the Second Half of the 19th century], Kauno istorijos metraštis, no. 11
(2011): 77.
5 Ibid., 79.
6 Ibid., 77, 80.
104
