Arti musices, Vol. 39 No. 2, 2008.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
Playing the Zither in Zagreb from the 1860s to 1918: on the Basis of Milan Stahuljak's Legacy kept in the Archives of the Croatian Music Institute
Ana Boltužić
orcid.org/0000-0002-3835-7932
; Koncertna dvorana Vatroslava Lisinskog, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
One of the most popular domestic instruments in Zagreb at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century was the zither. Although it was typical of the Bavarian and Austrian mountain-regions, its presence in the Zagreb music life of the time was under the evident influence of Austrian-German culture, because Zagreb was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Thanks to Milan Stahuljak and to all the available sources, the article illuminates a forgotten history of the zither, and informs about its protagonists and about their performances' context.
The basic core of zither life in Zagreb was made up both of artists born in Croatia, such as Marija Štern, Antun Kramer, Filip Klepper, Joseph Sorg, and of those who, though bornabroad, spent almost all their lives in Zagreb; for example, Gašpar Zamečnik, Ferdinand Griendl, Joseph Kühnel and Fani Vizjak. Apart from them, a significant contribution to maintaining the zither scene in Zagreb was made by zither players of Austrian-German-Czech origin who occasionally played in Zagreb: Franz Wagner, Josef Omuletz, Jozefina (Josephina) Jurik, Fr. Mayer, Carl Ignaz Umlauf and Rudolf Heppe. The zither artists played at Zagreb catering establishments (the Pruckner, Liebald and K caru austrijanskom hotels, and the Lovački rog, K janjetu inns, etc.), and at the events of cultural and singing societies (for example, Hrvatski katolički kasino [Croatian Catholic Casino], Hrvatsko tipografsko pjevačko društvo Sloga [the Sloga Croatian Typographic Singing Society], etc.). Due to newspaper articles in Agramer Zeitung, Narodne novine and Wiener Zither Zeitung, some of the performances were recorded in music history. The Prvi zagrebački citraški klub (I. Agramer Zither Klub [the First Zagreb Zither Club]), which was modelled after the Vienna club and was founded on 2 August 1883, and the private zither sextet Krizantema [Chrysanthemum], probably founded in 1909, also testify to the zither's popularity.
Since the zither was more a domestic and less a concert instrument, music teaching was a very important segment of zither-playing. As semi-amateurs engaged in teaching to augment their incomes, it was sporadic, unfortunately, and often of low-quality. Unlike other zither players, who were mostly orientated toward the field of musical reproduction, Fani Vizjak was strictly orientated to pedagogic work. Joseph Kühnel's zither school, which functioned from 1897-1904, and the Girls' Teacher-Training School of the Sisters of Mercy, where the zither was a course, also speak of the importance of the zither as a domestic instrument. The domestic zither players, Joseph Sorg and Milan Stahuljak, were the authors of the zither schools, that is, instructions for zither-playing. The better part of the music repertoire of the zither scene consisted of arrangements for the zither of Chopin's, Schubert's, and other composers' works, original zither works by Austrian-German authors, and compositions and arrangements by domestic zither players. With the collapse of the Monarchy in 1918, interest in the zither rapidly declined.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
31430
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.12.2008.
Posjeta: 3.669 *