Page 149 - 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. 149
from courses to a conservatoir e ...
think of another place after the ancient capital had been occupied by Poles.
Klaipėda seemed to be the most suitable city for him. Having settled there,
he opened a new music school in 1923 and called it a conservatoire.
A Music School or a Conservatoire?
It may seem strange why Šimkus did not settle in Kaunas where he was
involved in the activity of the Lithuanian Society of Art Creators and
for some time was even the leader of the Music Section. His decisions
was predetermined by several reasons: a) a different understanding of
a shortage of music professionals in Lithuania and b) the character of a
choleric and a desire to act independently. In Kaunas Music School, in the
first year of studies, the greatest attention was paid to the classes of piano,
violin, singing, and organ, while Šimkus believed it had to train musicians
for a symphony orchestra. The Opera House, established in Kaunas in 1920,
hired musicians for its orchestra from restaurants and even from abroad.
In the Opera House, the Russian and Yiddish languages predominated, and
not every Lithuanian managed to immediately make himself understood
in his native language. Šimkus thought it was a shame: the Opera House
was one of the most prestigious art institutions in the provisional capital.
Composer Vladas Jakubėnas wrote:
Everything in Lithuania was gray, ugly, and poor – still opera
emerged as good from the very beginning, [...] the Opera House
became a kind of a sanctuary, it was loved by all, and the funds
were flowing there.2
In the first year, the school which in German was called Memeler
Konservatorium für Music operated as a private institution, and the courses
were taught both in Lithuanian and in German. It offered a larger number of
courses than Kaunas Music School at the time: e. g., the String Department
had a cello class, and the Department of Wind Instruments, a clarinet
class; students could study composition, and the classes of solfeggio and
elementary music theory as well as the history of music were mandatory.
That was because the school director Šimkus intended to train musicians
for symphony orchestras and to get an official status of the conservatoire
for the school. To that end, he bought musical instruments, invited teachers
from abroad, and set up a dormitory for students. Due to the permanent
2 Vladas Jakubėnas, “Chorai, jų reikšmė ir organizacijos galimumai” [Choirs, their
Significance, and Possibilities of Organisation], Vairas, no. 7–8 (1935): 352.
147
think of another place after the ancient capital had been occupied by Poles.
Klaipėda seemed to be the most suitable city for him. Having settled there,
he opened a new music school in 1923 and called it a conservatoire.
A Music School or a Conservatoire?
It may seem strange why Šimkus did not settle in Kaunas where he was
involved in the activity of the Lithuanian Society of Art Creators and
for some time was even the leader of the Music Section. His decisions
was predetermined by several reasons: a) a different understanding of
a shortage of music professionals in Lithuania and b) the character of a
choleric and a desire to act independently. In Kaunas Music School, in the
first year of studies, the greatest attention was paid to the classes of piano,
violin, singing, and organ, while Šimkus believed it had to train musicians
for a symphony orchestra. The Opera House, established in Kaunas in 1920,
hired musicians for its orchestra from restaurants and even from abroad.
In the Opera House, the Russian and Yiddish languages predominated, and
not every Lithuanian managed to immediately make himself understood
in his native language. Šimkus thought it was a shame: the Opera House
was one of the most prestigious art institutions in the provisional capital.
Composer Vladas Jakubėnas wrote:
Everything in Lithuania was gray, ugly, and poor – still opera
emerged as good from the very beginning, [...] the Opera House
became a kind of a sanctuary, it was loved by all, and the funds
were flowing there.2
In the first year, the school which in German was called Memeler
Konservatorium für Music operated as a private institution, and the courses
were taught both in Lithuanian and in German. It offered a larger number of
courses than Kaunas Music School at the time: e. g., the String Department
had a cello class, and the Department of Wind Instruments, a clarinet
class; students could study composition, and the classes of solfeggio and
elementary music theory as well as the history of music were mandatory.
That was because the school director Šimkus intended to train musicians
for symphony orchestras and to get an official status of the conservatoire
for the school. To that end, he bought musical instruments, invited teachers
from abroad, and set up a dormitory for students. Due to the permanent
2 Vladas Jakubėnas, “Chorai, jų reikšmė ir organizacijos galimumai” [Choirs, their
Significance, and Possibilities of Organisation], Vairas, no. 7–8 (1935): 352.
147
