Page 180 - 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
of a joint-stock company (1851), and a set of society statutes was drafted.
However, at that stage, the musical component had not yet been integrat-
62
ed into the theatre’s institutional framework. Toward the end of the 1850s,
several revisions of the society’s statutes were undertaken, but it was only
in 1860–1861, when the state formally assumed control over the theatre, that
the musical dimension gained equal footing: The Act on the South Slav-
ic Theatre of the Triune Kingdom (1861), Article 9, stipulated state funding
for the acquisition of two national operas by Vatroslav Lisinski from Albert
Štriga, at the cost of 1,700 forints. Furthermore, the Theatre Statute of 1863
(Article 26) included provisions for the appointment of a permanent or-
chestra director. 63
From the 1860s onward, musical activity in Croatia is most visibly
manifested in the establishment of numerous choral societies. The pre-
cursors to these societies can be found in the associations founded during
the Illyrian movement – namely, the Narodno ilirsko skladnoglasja društvo
and the Prvo ilirsko glazbeno društvo [The First Illyrian Music Society] –
the former affiliated with the seminary, the latter with the Royal Academy.
During the tenure of Ban Josip Šokčević, and up to the Croatian-Hungar-
ian Settlement (1868), choral societies across continental Croatia submit-
ted their statutes for official approval. These were first received by the re-
spective city administrations and then forwarded to the Royal Lieutenancy
Council. In that period singing societies were established in Karlovac (Nar-
odno pjevačko društvo u Karlovcu [National Singing Society in Karlovac] /
Družtvo karlovačkih pjevačah [Karlovac Singer’s Society] (later Prvo hrvat-
sko pjevačko društvo “Zora” [The First Croatian Singing Society “Zora”] in
1861), Požega (Požega Singing Society, developed from the Požega Lieder-
64

62 “The purpose of the Society is to establish […] a national theatre institute in Zagreb as
a seedbed of national dramatic art and dramatic literature.” Ibid.
63 For more on the history of the Croatian National Theatre, see Nikola Batušić, ed.,
Hrvatsko narodno kazalište u Zagrebu: 1840-1860-1992 (Zagreb: Hrvatsko narodno
kazalište, Školska knjiga, 1992). For more on the context of the founding of the na-
tional theatre, and particularly on the role of music within it – specifically “an over-
view of the characteristics, challenges, and incentives surrounding the formation of
the opera department of the national theatre” – see: Vjera Katalinić, “Aspirations and
Obstacles in the Institutionalization of the National Opera in Zagreb in the 1860s,”
in Music in Society. The Collection of Papers. No. 11: Music – Nation – Identity, eds.
Amra Bosnić, Naida Hukić, and Nerma Hodžić-Mulabegović (Sarajevo: Academy of
Music, University of Sarajevo, Musicological Society of the Federation of BiH, 2020),
391–426 [in Croatian and English].
64 The statutes of the Karlovac Singing Society were approved on 9 July 1861. However,
Abel Lukšić reported in his newspaper Glasonoša that the society had already exist-

180