"By Means of Singing to the Heart, by Means of Heart to the Homeland": Choral Societies and the Nationalist Mobilization of Czechs in the Nineteenth Century
2015
Abstract
In this paper we argue that the social and economic background and the performative and musical context of the Czech choral movement were shaped by its role in the framework of national mobilization. In the 1860s this role involved bottom-up funding strategies, the participation of the intelligentsia, an explicitly patriotic repertoire, and the occupation of public space.
In later decades this central role declined gradually, which for choral societies meant a diversification of their social status and financial background, transformation of the repertoire towards more thematic variety, and a retreat from nationwide performative situations to more closed and traditional musical and cultural contexts.