Page 162 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
a narrow stratum of bourgeoisie in the towns. The bourgeoisie grew stronger
throughout this period and became the prime bearer of the national move-
7
ment in the 1830s and 1840s. However, due to their political and economic
strength, members of the elites were still invaluable as maecenae and sup-
porters of various cultural endeavours in this period. Their support was of-
ten concrete and material, but was equally often charismatic, thus falling in
the domain of moral support (such as the cases of members of the aristoc-
racy that joined the national movement, thus confirming and strengthen-
ing its legitimacy). One of the most important maecenas of the period was
the bishop of Zagreb Maksimilijan Vrhovac, but it was not unusual in gen-
8
eral for the dignitaries of the time to be patrons and supporters of cultural
institutions. Even though the initiative for the foundation of these institu-
tions usually came from future members themselves (e.g. Georg Karl Wis-
ner von Morgenstern and Ivan Padovec in the case of the Zagreb Musikv-
erein), the support of the elite, such as the royals, Bans (viceroys) and high
aristocracy, was indispensable for institutions in this period. For example,
the patrons of the Zagreb Musikverein were Bishops Maksimilijan Vrho-
vac and Aleksandar Alagović, Archbishop, Cardinal and locumtenens ba-
nalis Juraj Haulik, Bans Ignjat Gyulay and Koloman Bedeković, as well as
the aristocrats Sofija Jelačić and Sidonija Rubido Erdödy; Bishop Mirko von
Ožegović was patron of the Senj Musikverein, and the abdicated King Fer-
dinand V, Dowager Queen Karolina Augusta, and Bans Josip Jelačić and Jo-
sip Šokčević were patrons of the Petrinja Musikverein.
These enlightening activities and cultural endeavours of prominent
individuals from the first half of the century, when paired with the nation-
al element, gave the first impetus for the development of the Croatian na-
tional revival movement (1830–1848). This political and cultural movement
had two primary objectives: national-linguistic integration of the entire
population of the historic Croatian lands, and the territorial integration

7 Arijana Kolak Bošnjak, “Društvene strukture hrvatskih zemalja od 1790. do 1848.,”
in Temelji moderne Hrvatske. Hrvatske zemlje u dugom 19. stoljeću, eds. Jasna Tur-
kalj and Vlasta Švoger (Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, 2016), 134–6.
8 He called on priests in the diocese of Zagreb to collect “national treasure” (mean-
ing various aspects of national heritage, folk songs and tales, proverbs, characteristic
expressions, manuscripts, books etc.), bequeathed thousands of books from his per-
sonal library to Zagreb’s University Library, and founded a number of charitable and
health institutions. Furthermore, Vrhovac was an ardent defender of Croatian state
rights, advocated territorial unification of Croatian historical lands, and opposed
Hungarian hegemonistic tendencies. “Vrhovac, Maksimilijan,” in Hrvatska enciklo-
pedija, online edition, https://www.enciklopedija.hr/clanak/vrhovac-maksimilijan.

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