Page 179 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Between Music and Politics: The Role of Composers in Musical Societies …
esangverein in Varaždin (1857), the Essegger Liedertafel in Osijek (1858),
the Liedertafel in Zagreb (1857), and the Požeganer Liedertafel in Požega
(1859). These ensembles are commonly perceived as foreign or Germanic,
and thus as rival entities to the national or domestic musical societies. The
case of the Zagreb Liedertafel, founded at the Zagreb Gymnasium by Jo-
hann Stohl, reveals several significant dynamics: (1) the importance of mu-
sical societies as a form of civic engagement, (2) the mechanisms of insti-
tutional control over such societies, and (3) the complexity and sensitivity
of decisions related to financing and the viability of their continued opera-
tion. In 1860, Johann Stohl was appointed as the educational supervisor of
the Music Institute’s school after his Liedertafel ensemble was swiftly incor-
porated into the Institute. While on the one hand, this appointment can be
interpreted as a political move aimed at monitoring the Society’s activities,
on the other it was, as Blažeković and Ries note, a strategically intelligent
decision by the Institute’s leadership. It ensured ongoing financial support
and prevented potentially damaging outcomes, such as member defection
to a competing society or the withdrawal of patrons from the Institute. 59
The return of constitutional governance in 1860 marked a significant
resurgence in civic musical organisation. In the words of Iskra Iveljić, this
period witnessed “the release of long-suppressed cultural energy.” Among
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the earlier musical societies, only the Zagreb Music Institute survived, and
in 1861 it was granted regular financial support by the Croatian Parliament.
However, the proposal to elevate the Institute to the status of a national
conservatory was rejected for financial reasons. Also in 1860, the Nation-
al Theatre was established, and in 1861 the Theatre Law was passed. It is
worth noting that the first initiative for the establishment of the National
Theatre was introduced during the 1840s, and in the 1850s there was an in-
itiative to found a National Theatre in Zagreb “under the patronage of Ban
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Baron Josip Jelačić as its principal instigator”. This initiative took the form

59 Cf. Zdravko Blažeković, “Narodni zemaljski glazbeni zavod (1860–1880) [National
Land Music Institute],” in Glazba osjenjena politikom. Studije o hrvatskoj glazbi iz-
među 17. i 19. stoljeća (Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, 2002), 176–7; Sara Ries, “Musikvere-
in u Zagrebu i njegova škola u prijelomnoj 1860 [The Croatian Music Institute and its
School in the Crucial Year 1860),” Arti musices 50, no. 1–2 (2019): 214. Cf. also Šaban,
150 godina Hrvatskog glazbenog zavoda, 81–2.
60 Iveljić, “Kulturna politika u Banskoj Hrvatskoj 19. stoljeća,” 353.
61 Rules of the Joint-Stock Company for the Establishment of the National Theatre in
Zagreb, 13 December 1851, Archive of the Department for History of Croatian The-
atre, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Materials for Theatre History Collec-
tion, Year 1851.

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