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Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2026. Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes: preplet stanovskega in nacionalnega | Composers’ Societies Past and Present: Combining the Professional and the National
Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-555-9.159-201
© 2026 Petra Babić, Lucija Konfic

Between Music and Politics: The Role
of Composers in Musical Societies
in Continental Croatia in the 19 Century 1
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Petra Babić
Hrvaška katoliška univerza, Zagreb
Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb
Lucija Konfic
Hrvaška akademija znanosti in umetnosti Zagreb
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb

Croatian 19 -century composers functioned in a complex surroundings
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determined by political, cultural and musical circumstances. They were ac-
tive both in larger towns and smaller provincial centres, and were very of-
ten key figures of their town’s cultural life as teachers, organists and Kapell-
meisters, while composing was often not perceived as their primary social
function. Furthermore, the cultural scene developed tremendously through
the course of the 19th century with only four musical institutions existing
at the beginning of the century in all Croatian lands, and more than 200
2
newly founded societies by 1914. For that reason, and in order to provide
an adequate context of the circumstances in which Croatian composers op-
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erated in the 19 century, we will first provide a general historiographical
context of 19 -century Croatia, then offer various models of relationship
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between music and politics that existed in the 19th century, with special at-
tention being paid to the most important musical associations of the time,
before focusing on the question of composers’ role in these associations and
their perception in society at large.

1 The research for this paper was financed by the Croatian Science Foundation with
project IP-2020-02-4277 “Institutionalization of modern bourgeois musical culture
in the 19th century in civil Croatia and Military Border (MusInst19)”.
2 Stanislav Tuksar, keynote lecture “Advancing Scintillation of Music Societies in Civ-
il Croatia in the Long 19 Century,” presented at the conference From Private to Pub-
th
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lic: The Institutionalization of Bourgeois Music Culture in the Long 19 Century, Za-
greb, 14–17 May 2025.

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