Page 172 - 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. 172
glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo
Zagreb to erect a memorial to a musician – it was a memorial-plaque to the
composer Vatroslav Lisinski, erected in 1919. Other memorials followed,
as well as tombstones at Zagreb Mirogoj cemetery. The Glasbena matica
did the same in Slovenia, but with one exceptional memorial: it erected the
monument named the “Illirian Column”, in honour to Napoleon.
Finally, it has to be stressed that only the Glasbena matica had an insti-
tute within its organisation – the Folklore Institute, founded in 1934, with
the aim of collecting and studying folk music heritage.
Members
The members of all the three societies were both amateurs and profession-
als, important people of cultural life, patriots and music lovers from all
over the country. It should be emphasized that the Zagreb societies, both
the “Kolo” and the Croatian Music Institute, became one of the first exter-
nal members of Glasbena matica Ljubljana in the first decade of its exist-
ence. Of course, all the three societies did not have many members at the
beginning of their activity. Interestingly, Glasbena matica today has about
130 members, almost as many as it had 150 years ago. The situation in the
Croatian Music Institute since 2020 has been critical, and as of September
2022, it has only 245 members, twice as much as in 1827. In the time of the
global crisis for the majority of members it is hard to pay their membership
fee; and when the CMI building is closed and there is almost no activity at
all, the only reason for a member to continue supporting the CMI is the ap-
preciation of the heritage and tradition ... But it was different in the past: for
example, in 1898 the Matica had more than 800 members, but only some
300 of them were from Ljubljana. We could compare numbers in another
way: the “Kolo” had 623 members in 1883, that was about 1.5 % of the popu-
lation of Zagreb. Transferred to today’s proportions, a music society in Za-
greb would have more than 12,000 members or in Ljubljana around 4,200
members.
Patrons
The members of bourgeois class who gathered in Zagreb to make music
were still without their rightful place on the political scene, marked by feu-
dalism in Croatia (until 1848). The young music society in Zagreb need-
ed patrons at its beginning, and they chose them wisely – a combination
of influential people from political, military, church, aristocratic and ma-
170
Zagreb to erect a memorial to a musician – it was a memorial-plaque to the
composer Vatroslav Lisinski, erected in 1919. Other memorials followed,
as well as tombstones at Zagreb Mirogoj cemetery. The Glasbena matica
did the same in Slovenia, but with one exceptional memorial: it erected the
monument named the “Illirian Column”, in honour to Napoleon.
Finally, it has to be stressed that only the Glasbena matica had an insti-
tute within its organisation – the Folklore Institute, founded in 1934, with
the aim of collecting and studying folk music heritage.
Members
The members of all the three societies were both amateurs and profession-
als, important people of cultural life, patriots and music lovers from all
over the country. It should be emphasized that the Zagreb societies, both
the “Kolo” and the Croatian Music Institute, became one of the first exter-
nal members of Glasbena matica Ljubljana in the first decade of its exist-
ence. Of course, all the three societies did not have many members at the
beginning of their activity. Interestingly, Glasbena matica today has about
130 members, almost as many as it had 150 years ago. The situation in the
Croatian Music Institute since 2020 has been critical, and as of September
2022, it has only 245 members, twice as much as in 1827. In the time of the
global crisis for the majority of members it is hard to pay their membership
fee; and when the CMI building is closed and there is almost no activity at
all, the only reason for a member to continue supporting the CMI is the ap-
preciation of the heritage and tradition ... But it was different in the past: for
example, in 1898 the Matica had more than 800 members, but only some
300 of them were from Ljubljana. We could compare numbers in another
way: the “Kolo” had 623 members in 1883, that was about 1.5 % of the popu-
lation of Zagreb. Transferred to today’s proportions, a music society in Za-
greb would have more than 12,000 members or in Ljubljana around 4,200
members.
Patrons
The members of bourgeois class who gathered in Zagreb to make music
were still without their rightful place on the political scene, marked by feu-
dalism in Croatia (until 1848). The young music society in Zagreb need-
ed patrons at its beginning, and they chose them wisely – a combination
of influential people from political, military, church, aristocratic and ma-
170
