Page 145 - 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. 145
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-7055-86-3.143-158
From courses to a conservatoire:
Issues of musical education
Institutionalisation in Lithuania
(1919 to 1949)
Danutė Petrauskaitė
Litovska akademija za glasbo in gledališče
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
A Historical Review
The musical culture of each country is always closely related to the political,
economic, and social life. In terms of musical education in Lithuania, it
should be emphasised that the first half of the 20th century was the period
of gaining Lithuania’s independence (1918), its consolidation (1919–1939),
and loss (1940–1949). The state of Lithuania regularly faced the issue of
its integrity: that was primarily because of Vilnius and its region which
in the interwar years only episodicaly belonged to Lithuania; therefore,
for almost two decades, the centre of the political and cultural life of the
country was Kaunas, formerly a fortified city of Russia. Klaipėda Region
was also specific, as for 700 years it was part of the state of Prussia, and
since the late 19th century, of the German Empire. Since the annexation
of the Klaipėda Region to Lithuania in 1923 until the Anschluss of 1939, it
enjoyed autonomy and preserved quite a few features of German culture,
however, simultaneously it fostered Lithuanian traditions.
After surviving 120 years as part of Russia, including four decades of
the Lithuanian press ban and the national culture suppression policy, in
the 19th century Lithuania was erased from the map of Europe and called
by the tsarist administration the northwest region of the Russian Empire.
It inherited both backward economy (thus, e. g., before 1924, Kaunas had
no water or sewerage systems, and its main means of transport before 1929
was a horse-drawn tram, konkė) and a Russian system of education as well
143
From courses to a conservatoire:
Issues of musical education
Institutionalisation in Lithuania
(1919 to 1949)
Danutė Petrauskaitė
Litovska akademija za glasbo in gledališče
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
A Historical Review
The musical culture of each country is always closely related to the political,
economic, and social life. In terms of musical education in Lithuania, it
should be emphasised that the first half of the 20th century was the period
of gaining Lithuania’s independence (1918), its consolidation (1919–1939),
and loss (1940–1949). The state of Lithuania regularly faced the issue of
its integrity: that was primarily because of Vilnius and its region which
in the interwar years only episodicaly belonged to Lithuania; therefore,
for almost two decades, the centre of the political and cultural life of the
country was Kaunas, formerly a fortified city of Russia. Klaipėda Region
was also specific, as for 700 years it was part of the state of Prussia, and
since the late 19th century, of the German Empire. Since the annexation
of the Klaipėda Region to Lithuania in 1923 until the Anschluss of 1939, it
enjoyed autonomy and preserved quite a few features of German culture,
however, simultaneously it fostered Lithuanian traditions.
After surviving 120 years as part of Russia, including four decades of
the Lithuanian press ban and the national culture suppression policy, in
the 19th century Lithuania was erased from the map of Europe and called
by the tsarist administration the northwest region of the Russian Empire.
It inherited both backward economy (thus, e. g., before 1924, Kaunas had
no water or sewerage systems, and its main means of transport before 1929
was a horse-drawn tram, konkė) and a Russian system of education as well
143
