Page 217 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2017. Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti - Musical Migrations: Crossroads of European Musical Diversity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 1
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tambur itza music in the musical cultur e of viennese slavs ...
From the autumn of 1883 Majer studied at the University of Vienna
(among other things, harmony and counterpoint with Anton Bruckner),
giving impetus to the development of tamburitza music also in this city. He
was at the genesis of several tamburitza societies, which was followed by the
performance of tamburitza players at the World Exhibition in Vienna (1888).
Vienna was a sort of “transit hub” of tamburitza music on the way
from the Balkans to the Czech lands. This topic is certainly interesting, but
beyond the scope of this text. Perhaps, as an example, we can mention a
Czech “beseda” that took place in late 1878 in Leoben, Styria. The local Bo-
hemian-Slavic academic society Prokop included in the programme a per-
formance of Croatian tamburitza players led by the further unspecified
bandleader Sládeček.
The development of Czech-Viennese tamburitza societies has never
been the subject of detailed research by Austrian, Croatian or Slovenian mu-
sicology (they have only focused on the past and present of the tamburitza
scene in Burgenland), and it has not been studied by Czech musicology ei-
ther. The dictionary entry “tamburitza players” in the Slovník české hudeb-
ní kultury (A Dictionary of Czech Musical Culture) only mentions the
Czech-Viennese composer Konstantin Alois Jahoda-Křtinský (1828–1895),
who only modified compositions and composed for tamburitza ensembles.1
However, the entry ignores the role and importance of Czech-Viennese tam-
buritza societies, even though the development in Slavic Vienna might have
had a major influence also on the development of tamburitza music in Bo-
hemia and Moravia – the confirmation of this hypothesis is one of the pres-
ent tasks. Although my research into this issue has not been completed yet,
some conclusions can be made. Perhaps my contribution will help open up
new horizons of knowledge of the Czech-Viennese (Slavic) tamburitza scene.
Based on the knowledge of the issue, the Slavic tamburitza ensembles
in Vienna can be classified according to different criteria:
1. Activity in a given district.
2. Date of formation.
3. Nationality (significantly mixed Slavic character was only dis-
played by the societies Slovanská beseda and Slovanský zpěvácký
spolek, but their tamburitza ensembles were short-lived).
1 Jiří Fukač, “Tamburaši [Tamburitza Players],” in Slovník české hudební kultury, ed.
by Petr Macek (Praha: Editio Supraphon, 1997), 914.
215
From the autumn of 1883 Majer studied at the University of Vienna
(among other things, harmony and counterpoint with Anton Bruckner),
giving impetus to the development of tamburitza music also in this city. He
was at the genesis of several tamburitza societies, which was followed by the
performance of tamburitza players at the World Exhibition in Vienna (1888).
Vienna was a sort of “transit hub” of tamburitza music on the way
from the Balkans to the Czech lands. This topic is certainly interesting, but
beyond the scope of this text. Perhaps, as an example, we can mention a
Czech “beseda” that took place in late 1878 in Leoben, Styria. The local Bo-
hemian-Slavic academic society Prokop included in the programme a per-
formance of Croatian tamburitza players led by the further unspecified
bandleader Sládeček.
The development of Czech-Viennese tamburitza societies has never
been the subject of detailed research by Austrian, Croatian or Slovenian mu-
sicology (they have only focused on the past and present of the tamburitza
scene in Burgenland), and it has not been studied by Czech musicology ei-
ther. The dictionary entry “tamburitza players” in the Slovník české hudeb-
ní kultury (A Dictionary of Czech Musical Culture) only mentions the
Czech-Viennese composer Konstantin Alois Jahoda-Křtinský (1828–1895),
who only modified compositions and composed for tamburitza ensembles.1
However, the entry ignores the role and importance of Czech-Viennese tam-
buritza societies, even though the development in Slavic Vienna might have
had a major influence also on the development of tamburitza music in Bo-
hemia and Moravia – the confirmation of this hypothesis is one of the pres-
ent tasks. Although my research into this issue has not been completed yet,
some conclusions can be made. Perhaps my contribution will help open up
new horizons of knowledge of the Czech-Viennese (Slavic) tamburitza scene.
Based on the knowledge of the issue, the Slavic tamburitza ensembles
in Vienna can be classified according to different criteria:
1. Activity in a given district.
2. Date of formation.
3. Nationality (significantly mixed Slavic character was only dis-
played by the societies Slovanská beseda and Slovanský zpěvácký
spolek, but their tamburitza ensembles were short-lived).
1 Jiří Fukač, “Tamburaši [Tamburitza Players],” in Slovník české hudební kultury, ed.
by Petr Macek (Praha: Editio Supraphon, 1997), 914.
215
