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Between Music and Politics: The Role of Composers in Musical Societies …
stitutes, using the example of the Zagreb Music Institute. These categories,
which may also be applied to similar institutions, include: the aesthetic
(refinement of taste), the psychological (cultivation of feeling and the ev-
ocation of mood), the ethical (moral ennoblement), and the practical cat-
egory (acquisition of canonical works of European art music and their
47
precise performance). In addition to these determinants, which are em-
bedded in the statutes of the society itself – and which, at the time of seek-
ing Imperial and Royal Hungarian Lieutenancy Council approval, served
as the basis for evaluating the institution’s aim and purpose – the official
document granting permission to operate (dated 8 May 1827) lists two fur-
ther motivations: one aesthetic and one practical. These are described as
“the flourishing of the beauty of secular music for public enjoyment” and
“the attraction of a larger audience”, that is, the strengthening of the mu-
sical public.
Given that the contents of this document are presented for the first
time in this study, a more extensive excerpt is provided below:

Since this institution and its accompanying statute are aimed at cul-
tural activity and the promotion of music, the request for the statute’s
approval is fully aligned with that purpose and contains nothing that
would be contrary to proper order, good practice, or public peace and
order. Furthermore, as similar institutions have also been approved in
other major cities – among which the city of Zagreb is to be counted –
there is no reason why the beauty of secular [vulgari] music should not
flourish daily for the public’s enjoyment. Moreover, the management of
the local theatre has not only raised no objections to the establishment
of this Society but even regards it as a collaborator in attracting a larg-
er audience, and anticipates that it will greatly contribute to the desired
return of the listeners [...] 48
A similar formulation of purpose can be found in the statutes of the
music institutes in Varaždin and Osijek. On the one hand, the significance

47 Stanislav Tuksar, “Erhöhte Bildung des Gefühls ... Verfeinerung des Geschmacks ...
moralische Veredlung: društveno-idejne i glazbeno-estetičke odrednice prvih statu-
ta glazbenih društava u civilnoj Hrvatskoj 1820-ih godina [Socio-Ideological and
Music-Aesthetical Determinants of the First Statutes of Music Societies in Civil Cro-
atia in the 1820s],” in The Collection of Papers. 13th International Symposium “Music
in Society”, Sarajevo, 7–10/12/2022, ed. Lana Šehović (Sarajevo: Musicological Socie-
ty of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, University of Sarajevo, Academy of
Music, 2025), 162–4.
48 National Archive of Hungary, Budapest, HU-MNL-OL-C51, Fons 5, pos. 20, Docu-
ment 12130, 8 May 1827.

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