Page 188 - 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
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stitute. He was also an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society in
Ljubljana (from 1824), as well as those in Bratislava, Eisenstadt, and Sopron.
Wisner served as a music teacher at the Institute’s school, conductor of the
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Institute’s orchestra, and director of the school. His compositional output
includes approximately 30 to 40 works, predominantly sacred music, but also
orchestral and chamber music, and works for soloists or choir with orchestra.
He is also believed to have authored or contributed to the drafting of the In-
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stitute’s first statute. Wisner played a particularly important role during the
financial crisis of the Zagreb Music Institute in 1848/49. As Šaban notes:
The dedicated instructors Wisner-Morgenstern, Polišanski, and
Schnaidtinger generously declared themselves willing to forgo their
contractual salaries and instead be satisfied with receiving equal por-
tions of whatever funds remained in the treasury each month after es-
sential expenses had been paid – even if that meant working without
pay – so that the school would not be disbanded and the efforts of so
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many years would not be lost.
Wisner was also instrumental in initiating the establishment of
a Music Institute in Petrinja, following the model of the Zagreb Insti-
tute’s regulations, and recommended Wilhelm Weiss as the music teach-
er there.
Alongside Wisner Morgenstern, a significant role in the founding of
the Music Institute in Zagreb was played by the flautist and composer Fra-
njo Ksaver Čačković Vrhovinski (1789–1865). A judge by profession, he re-
ceived private musical instruction from a teacher known only as Marindl.
His compositions, influenced and inspired by the Croatian National Re-
vival, are based on patriotic Croatian melodies. From the outset, he was
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active in the Music Institute as a member of the governing board and an

80 Nada Bezić proposes the hypothesis that one of the possible motivations for Morgen-
stern’s initiative to establish the Music Institute as a “more permanent post” was the
fact that, in 1827, he was dismissed from his position as cathedral chorister due to
complaints. Bezić, “Prilozi za biografiju Georga (Jurja) Karla Wisnera von Morgen-
sterna,” 53.
81 Among others, his students included the composers Ivan Padovec, Franjo Pokorni,
Mijo Hajko, Fortunat Pintarić, Josip Juratović, and Vatroslav Lisinski.
82 Cf. Bezić, “Prilozi za biografiju Georga (Jurja) Karla Wisnera von Morgensterna,” 57;
Tuksar, “Erhöhte Bildung des Gefühls,” 161–2.
83 Šaban, 150 godina Hrvatskog glazbenog zavoda, 73.
84 Ladislav Šaban, “Čačković Vrhovinski, Franjo Ksaver,” in Hrvatski biografski lek-
sikon, online edition, 1993, https://hbl.lzmk.hr/clanak/cackovic-vrhovinski-franjo
-ksaver.

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