Page 163 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 163
the visions of lithuanian musical education
stop, and if we succeed in engendering in society the aspirations for
better music.6
The last statement corresponds particularly to the main considerations
of the time, according to which,
a national musical language had to be based on the inflections of
‘authentic’ popular music. The folk song thus acquires the status of
a sacred national treasure, supposed to ensure the connection with
the distant past and to reflect the aspirations and the very soul of
the nation.7
Setting priorities for musical education
Thus, in 1918, when Lithuania became free, it already had this general cul-
tural ideological background, namely, entrenched ethnic nationalism,
which could serve as a basis for the conception of public musical educa-
tion. It had to replace a long tradition of private music schools, with vary-
ing levels, funded by the local nobility who, in addition, often financed the
studies of their best students abroad.
The initiator of professional music education was composer Juozas
Naujalis (1869–1934). He developed the teaching programme in 1917, and
implemented it in 1919. The conception of the first music school, founded in
Kaunas, the capital of the time, and which later (in 1933) became the State
Conservatory, depended on several factors:
‒ Identified needs and priorities,
‒ State aid (financing, premises, status),
‒ The personal vision of the successive directors.
Music education was founded mainly by Lithuanian composers who
completed their studies abroad. The geography was already great — from
St. Petersburg and Warsaw to Leipzig, Berlin, Paris and Prague. Those who
returned from St. Petersburg had fled the Russian Revolution; those who
returned from Western Europe and the United States were rather sensitive
to the ideas of national movement in their finally liberated country.
It is therefore the composers who best identified the need for Lithua-
nian music, because they also had a utilitarian approach: musical creation
had a need for local performers. Composer Kazimieras Viktoras Banaitis
6 Ibid., 298.
7 Bujic, “Nationalismes et traditions nationales,” 176.
161
stop, and if we succeed in engendering in society the aspirations for
better music.6
The last statement corresponds particularly to the main considerations
of the time, according to which,
a national musical language had to be based on the inflections of
‘authentic’ popular music. The folk song thus acquires the status of
a sacred national treasure, supposed to ensure the connection with
the distant past and to reflect the aspirations and the very soul of
the nation.7
Setting priorities for musical education
Thus, in 1918, when Lithuania became free, it already had this general cul-
tural ideological background, namely, entrenched ethnic nationalism,
which could serve as a basis for the conception of public musical educa-
tion. It had to replace a long tradition of private music schools, with vary-
ing levels, funded by the local nobility who, in addition, often financed the
studies of their best students abroad.
The initiator of professional music education was composer Juozas
Naujalis (1869–1934). He developed the teaching programme in 1917, and
implemented it in 1919. The conception of the first music school, founded in
Kaunas, the capital of the time, and which later (in 1933) became the State
Conservatory, depended on several factors:
‒ Identified needs and priorities,
‒ State aid (financing, premises, status),
‒ The personal vision of the successive directors.
Music education was founded mainly by Lithuanian composers who
completed their studies abroad. The geography was already great — from
St. Petersburg and Warsaw to Leipzig, Berlin, Paris and Prague. Those who
returned from St. Petersburg had fled the Russian Revolution; those who
returned from Western Europe and the United States were rather sensitive
to the ideas of national movement in their finally liberated country.
It is therefore the composers who best identified the need for Lithua-
nian music, because they also had a utilitarian approach: musical creation
had a need for local performers. Composer Kazimieras Viktoras Banaitis
6 Ibid., 298.
7 Bujic, “Nationalismes et traditions nationales,” 176.
161
