Page 122 - 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. 122
glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo
been an honorary member of both associations. Ludwig Bösendorfer and
Johann Nepomuk Batka, as representatives of these associations were pre-
paring Liszt’s concerts both in Bratislava and Vienna even after the Liszt’s
death. Between 1880 and 1890, when Hans Richter worked as a concert con-
ductor of Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, he was also in contact with Bat-
ka.10 In their correspondence, one can find information that Richter was
personally interested in the successor of Thiard-Laforest in the function of
the Kapellmeister after the latter’s death in 1897. 11
At the turn of the 19th century, a temporary crisis occurred in the ac-
tivities of the association. A close cooperation between professional musi-
cians and music lovers started to cause problems resulting from the edu-
cation and performance disproportion between professional and amateur
orchestral players. The further orientation of the association was also put
in question in relation to the reform of church music and motu proprio is-
sued by Pope Pius X accenting vocal music and the Gregorian chant as gen-
uine church music and the tradition of vocal/orchestral masses of the asso-
ciation was thus eclipsed.
Vocal associations of townspeople were developing intensively in the
last third of the 19th century. Along with the cultivation of artistic singing
and music, they were also working as concert institutions and as a medi-
um of spending one’s spare time in a cultivated and meaningful manner.
They had thus several functions: social, representation, educational, and
artistic. Members of such associations were lovers of choral singing and
music, and the choirmaster function was held by an educated musician.
The official approval of statutes as a decisive moment for the official activi-
ty of an association was usually preceded by informal singing meetings or
public performances. The events like consecrations of a flag of the associa-
tion or singing festivals had a representative character. Other invited sing-
ing associations were also participating on both types of events. Annual
concert (Stiftungskonzert) with the appropriate representative programme
contents was considered the most important artistic event in the year struc-
ture of the associations. The social function of the associations was associ-
ated with the formats of entertainment events and parties where rather less
10 Jana Lengová, “Hans Richter v listoch Jánovi Batkovi,” Hudobný život 36, no. 1
(2004): 35–7.
11 Alexandra Taubnerová and Jarmila B. Martinková, Johann Nepomuk Batka. Aus
wahl aus der Korrespondenz (Bratislava: Slovenské národné múzeum – Hudobné
múzeum, 1999), 38.
120
been an honorary member of both associations. Ludwig Bösendorfer and
Johann Nepomuk Batka, as representatives of these associations were pre-
paring Liszt’s concerts both in Bratislava and Vienna even after the Liszt’s
death. Between 1880 and 1890, when Hans Richter worked as a concert con-
ductor of Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, he was also in contact with Bat-
ka.10 In their correspondence, one can find information that Richter was
personally interested in the successor of Thiard-Laforest in the function of
the Kapellmeister after the latter’s death in 1897. 11
At the turn of the 19th century, a temporary crisis occurred in the ac-
tivities of the association. A close cooperation between professional musi-
cians and music lovers started to cause problems resulting from the edu-
cation and performance disproportion between professional and amateur
orchestral players. The further orientation of the association was also put
in question in relation to the reform of church music and motu proprio is-
sued by Pope Pius X accenting vocal music and the Gregorian chant as gen-
uine church music and the tradition of vocal/orchestral masses of the asso-
ciation was thus eclipsed.
Vocal associations of townspeople were developing intensively in the
last third of the 19th century. Along with the cultivation of artistic singing
and music, they were also working as concert institutions and as a medi-
um of spending one’s spare time in a cultivated and meaningful manner.
They had thus several functions: social, representation, educational, and
artistic. Members of such associations were lovers of choral singing and
music, and the choirmaster function was held by an educated musician.
The official approval of statutes as a decisive moment for the official activi-
ty of an association was usually preceded by informal singing meetings or
public performances. The events like consecrations of a flag of the associa-
tion or singing festivals had a representative character. Other invited sing-
ing associations were also participating on both types of events. Annual
concert (Stiftungskonzert) with the appropriate representative programme
contents was considered the most important artistic event in the year struc-
ture of the associations. The social function of the associations was associ-
ated with the formats of entertainment events and parties where rather less
10 Jana Lengová, “Hans Richter v listoch Jánovi Batkovi,” Hudobný život 36, no. 1
(2004): 35–7.
11 Alexandra Taubnerová and Jarmila B. Martinková, Johann Nepomuk Batka. Aus
wahl aus der Korrespondenz (Bratislava: Slovenské národné múzeum – Hudobné
múzeum, 1999), 38.
120
