Page 107 - 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. 107
the significance of lithuanian societies for the development ...
Another important field of the Society’s activity was participation in
the concert life of the city. The participants included students and teachers
from Robman’s School, various choirs, military wind and Russian folk in-
struments orchestras, and also solo singers and instrumentalists. Concerts
were mostly held in boys’ and girls’ gymnasiums, the People’s House, and
also in the rented City Theatre Hall. The proceeds went mostly to charities
that cared for homeless babies, orphans, the disabled, and poor students. In
the 19th century, that was a tradition in Russia that emerged in the author-
itarian context of the regime: to take over part of the functions of an un-
derdeveloped bureaucratic apparatus.7 About 1904, the Society of Fine Arts
Lovers took the place of the disbanded Kaunas Music Society, which con-
tinued the work started by its predecessors not only in the field of music,
but also of drama, literature, and art. Through its efforts, before the First
World War, about 20 performances and music evenings per season used to
be held.8 Russian societies had nothing to do with Lithuanian culture or
the interests of Lithuanian people. Lithuanian audiences were not particu-
larly interested in their activities, either. Lithuanian listeners. First of all,
the city and rural life and people’s needs were very different, and secondly,
everything that was Russian seemed alien to Lithuanians. Therefore they,
following the example of foreign nationals, began to form their own nation-
al societies; however, the conditions for their existence were very difficult.
Lithuanian societies in Lithuania Major
After the authorities of Tsarist Russia had disbanded Vilnius University
in 1832 and had banned the press in Latin letters after the uprising of 1863,
the establishment of Lithuanian societies became complicated. Neverthe-
less, Lithuanians resisted: they organised secret schools, published prayer
books, newspapers, sheet notes, and books in their native language abroad
and transported them to Lithuania across the border. Book smugglers were
much in demand; the organisations of book smugglers and their sponsors
emerged and accelerated the development of the national movement. Rep-
resentatives of Lithuanian intelligentsia – doctors Vincas Kudirka and Jo-
nas Basanavičius – became the initiators and publishers of the first illegal
newspapers (Aušra [The Dawn] and Varpas [The Bell]), and the first illegal
7 Ibid., 76.
8 Laima Kiauleikytė, “Kauno muzikos draugija ir lietuvių muzikinės kultūros kon-
tekstas” [Kaunas Music Society and the Context of Lithuanian Musical Culture],
Menotyra 17, no. 3 (2010): 200.
105
Another important field of the Society’s activity was participation in
the concert life of the city. The participants included students and teachers
from Robman’s School, various choirs, military wind and Russian folk in-
struments orchestras, and also solo singers and instrumentalists. Concerts
were mostly held in boys’ and girls’ gymnasiums, the People’s House, and
also in the rented City Theatre Hall. The proceeds went mostly to charities
that cared for homeless babies, orphans, the disabled, and poor students. In
the 19th century, that was a tradition in Russia that emerged in the author-
itarian context of the regime: to take over part of the functions of an un-
derdeveloped bureaucratic apparatus.7 About 1904, the Society of Fine Arts
Lovers took the place of the disbanded Kaunas Music Society, which con-
tinued the work started by its predecessors not only in the field of music,
but also of drama, literature, and art. Through its efforts, before the First
World War, about 20 performances and music evenings per season used to
be held.8 Russian societies had nothing to do with Lithuanian culture or
the interests of Lithuanian people. Lithuanian audiences were not particu-
larly interested in their activities, either. Lithuanian listeners. First of all,
the city and rural life and people’s needs were very different, and secondly,
everything that was Russian seemed alien to Lithuanians. Therefore they,
following the example of foreign nationals, began to form their own nation-
al societies; however, the conditions for their existence were very difficult.
Lithuanian societies in Lithuania Major
After the authorities of Tsarist Russia had disbanded Vilnius University
in 1832 and had banned the press in Latin letters after the uprising of 1863,
the establishment of Lithuanian societies became complicated. Neverthe-
less, Lithuanians resisted: they organised secret schools, published prayer
books, newspapers, sheet notes, and books in their native language abroad
and transported them to Lithuania across the border. Book smugglers were
much in demand; the organisations of book smugglers and their sponsors
emerged and accelerated the development of the national movement. Rep-
resentatives of Lithuanian intelligentsia – doctors Vincas Kudirka and Jo-
nas Basanavičius – became the initiators and publishers of the first illegal
newspapers (Aušra [The Dawn] and Varpas [The Bell]), and the first illegal
7 Ibid., 76.
8 Laima Kiauleikytė, “Kauno muzikos draugija ir lietuvių muzikinės kultūros kon-
tekstas” [Kaunas Music Society and the Context of Lithuanian Musical Culture],
Menotyra 17, no. 3 (2010): 200.
105
