Towards a common regional history of our nation building strategies.
Traveling directors, musicians
Visegrad Grants 2020–2021
About the project
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the process of nation-building took place, though shifted in time, with similar strategies in the countries of the region. The (musical) theater was one of the central institutions of nation-building; the research of its history brings us closer to the understanding of the complex cultural processes, characteristic of this multilingual region. The survey of the region’s source material from the period 1860–1920 has been already carried out in the framework of a previous V4 Grant by this group (Regional Source and Bibliographical Database). Continuing this pioneering work, the recent project focuses on personalities – theater directors, composers, and prominent singers; most of their careers connected a number of cities in East-Central Europe. Currently, these biographical studies are only partially or superficially available; moreover, there is no regional overview at all. The main purpose of this project is to make progresses in this respect and to present, as a result of our joint work, the regional network that promoted the creation of the nationally oriented music theatrical industry in the very period as the cosmopolitan genre of the opera got acclimatized in the major multilingual and multi-ethnic cities of East-Central Europe. This can only be imagined on a multidimensional map: in the same East-Central European geographic area, even in the same city, and at the same time we can witness the cultural nation building of several nations. In this context we must try to think about influences, patterns, and cultural transfers.
Past decades in the V4 countries were defined by national historiography, and national narratives did not include regional connections, nor the acknowledgment of the cultural and ethnic diversity of the region as a whole. Through biographical research on theater directors and musicians we can highlight international cultural transfers as well as the regional network that implemented nation building strategies. We wish to release our results on multiple levels and in different forms, targeting various types of audiences. Research results are primarily summarized in a biographical database (which will be accessible on the project’s website), studies will be published in the series Olmützer Studien, and lectures will be held, among others, at an international conference to be organized by our group (Budapest, February 2021) on regional (music)historiography. Wider audiences will be addressed by lecture recitals (Budapest, Bratislava, Olmütz, Krakow) featuring the region’s repertoire, further, 2 articles and radio presentations in each country. As far as the education is concerned, our results will be presented in the form of university lectures, addressed to broaden public with a special emphazis on High School students (from Dębica, Kraków, Rzeszów and Przemyśl will be organized in Krakow; an din 3 High Schools in Budapest).
The common history of our nation building processes also outlines a region. It may seem evident in cultural life, but, within humanities, the attempts to remove historiography out of national boundaries are still in an early stage. It was due to the international character of the music theatrical source materials that their thorough processing has been neglected by the nationally-biased research. Our project is pioneering in a narrow professional sense, too, but we are particularly keen to make our research results available for a wider audience. Our regional network researches, as well as the planned conference on regional historiography, can generate broader interest because they direct attention, in the wake of the Trianon-Centenary, toward our common values and tasks.
The research team’s previous V4 project laid the foundations for the research on the multilingual network of East-Central Europe’s musical theaters, and the collaboration confirmed our belief that our research ought and should be performed in a regional context. Members of the research team are university professors, full-time researchers, and young research assistants. Each of the participating institutions committed themselves to research and transfer of our cultural values. Regional cooperation is supported by all institutions, which are convinced that this is a vital issue for our professional development as well as for cultural education in general.
The participating institutions are prominent research facilities and universities. Hungarian, Slovakian, and Czech team members started their joint work 2017-2018 with a Visegrad Grant project (No. 21720187), one new colleague from the Polish partner institution (which already collaborated in a previous application) joined the group. The institutional infrastructure guarantees the background for the planned output. The applying institution in Budapest will host an international conference – these events are regular in the institution’s practice. Studies will be published in the English-language scientific journal of Olmütz University. We plan lecture recitals, workshops and university lectures at all four participating institutions and, similarly to the previous V4 grant, we will deliver papers, write articles, and give radio interviews on the project.
Project outputs
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No. 1.
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Website of the project
https://zti.hu/index.php/hu/mzt/projektek/visegrad-grant-2020
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No. 2.
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Project Brochure. Traveling Theatre Directors and Musicians. Agents of Nation-Building in the Multilingual Cities of East-Central Europe (1860–1920)
https://zti.hu/files/mzt/visegrad/v4_brochure_2022_web.pdf
Small booklet presenting the project, the planed outputs and the participants of the project with a selected biography of the publications of the project participant.
The brochure was an accompanying media material of the lecture recitals, public presentations, educational lectures, and also a media material for all formal and informal professional and public meetings.
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No. 3–5.
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1st lecture recital in Olomouc (Czech Republic), educational lecture and study trip
2-4 May, 2022, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
The main purpose of the study trip to Olomouc was first of all, to have a personal meeting with the project participants. The Olomouc partners (Lenka Křupková and Jiři Kopecký) organized a common educational lecture before the first lecture recital for the university students combined with a project presentation.
The lecture recital series consisted in presenting our research results to a wider target group, while the preliminary educational lecture intended to provide a scientific and methodological insight into the V4 group’s researches, databases and main goals.
The concert program was introduced by members of the research team.
The presentation of the Visegrad Grant project took place at the Palacký University Olomouc on May 3, 2022, starting at 15:30. The roundtable discussion for the PhD students of the Department with a project presentation was moderated by Jiři Kopecký. Representing Katalin Kim, Lili Veronika Békéssy, and Jana Laslavíková and Tomasz Pudłocki summarized the project’s past and former results, and the current objectives of the grant.
The first lecture recital of the Visegrad Grant project took place at the Božího Těla Chapel at the Palacký University Olomouc, on May 3, 2022 at 5 P.M. The repertoire of the lecture recital was performed by the Liszt Ferenc Prize winner soprano Ingrid Kertesi, and her current student in the Liszt Academy Budapest, the soprano singer Júlia Mária Kovács, with the participation of conductor Gergely Kaposi on the piano. The concert was complemented by short introductory lectures held by experts explaining the selected repertoire illustrating the musical theatrical traditions of each V4 nation. For the lecture recital, the experts (Jana Laslavíková, Tomasz Pudłocki, Kim Katalin, Lenka Křupková and Jiři Kopecký) selected arias that were the most characteristic representatives of the nation-building traditions of each nation under study in some of the countries' musical theaters. Thereby the audience could have an insight into the common strategies of our nation-building strategies in music.
2nd lecture recital, study trip. Nurturing international relations, presentation of the project (Event—Public), Bratislava (Slovakia)
4 May, 2022, Slovak National Theatre, Opera Salon, Bratislava, Slovakia
The second lecture recital of the Visegrad Grant project took place on May 4, 2022 at 5 pm in the Opera Chamber of the Slovak National Theater in Bratislava. In addition to the lecture recital, a volume presentation was held, too, in line with the theme of the project and in which several participants of the Grant had a publication, entitled Cultural and Artistic Transfers in Theater and Music: Past, Present, and Perspectives (Vydavateľstvo VEDA in ÚDFV CVU SAV, 2021).
https://www.sav.sk/?lang=en&doc=activity-monography-response-page&institute_no=22&monography_id=105&monography_chapter_id=109§ion=chapter_details
The repertoire of the lecture recital was performed by the Liszt Ferenc Prize winner soprano Ingrid Kertesi, and her current student in the Liszt Academy Budapest, the soprano singer Júlia Mária Kovács, with the participation of conductor Gergely Kaposi on the piano. The recital was complemented by the soloist mezzo-soprano of the Slovak National Theater Katarína Flórová with the participation by Branko Ladič on the piano.
3rd lecture recital in Krakow. Educational lecture and study trip
16-17 May 2022, Consulate General of Hungary, Krakow, Poland, Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU w Krakowie, Poland
The third lecture recital of the Visegrad Grant project entitled Towards a common regional history of our nation building strategies. Traveling directors, musicians took place at the Consulate General of Hungary in Krakow, on May 16, 2022 at 5 P.M. The concert was opened by Mr. Tibor Gerencsér Consul General, with consuls, professors and university students in the audience.
For the lecture recital, the experts (Jana Laslavíková, Tomasz Pudłocki, Kim Katalin, Lenka Křupková and Jiři Kopecký) selected arias that were the most characteristic representatives of the nation-building traditions of each nation under study in some of the countries' musical theaters. This time, instead of Jana Laslavíková, Tomasz Pudłocki, instead of Katalin Kim, Lili Veronika Békéssy PhD student, and instead of Lenka Křupková and Jiři Kopecký, Ali Yansori PhD student presented the lectures.
The consulate held a reception after the lecture recital, too, giving space to informal talks regarding nurturing international networks and possible future collaborations.
On 17 May, 2022 the guests visited a private archival show, in which the archivists gave introduction into the archive material regarding music history in Krakow during the 19th-20th century.
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No. 6.
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Towards a Common Regional History of Our Nation-Building Strategies. Traveling Directors, Musicians. An International Musicological Conference, 4th lecture recital, workshop
26-28 May, 2022, Institute for Musicology Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network
Workshop, May 26, 2022. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the administrative tasks related to the two programs, the conference and lecture recital: preparation of two round table discussions of the conference; discussion related to the new database of the project and a discussion on the two improved, expanded databases; consultation on the possible continuation of the project in the framework of an international grant with European support. The workshop was attended not only by researchers from the V4 group, but also by young staff who have joined the project in the meantime, as well as two guest speakers from the project, Tatjana Markovic and Christina Scuderi.
Conference. Most papers of this conference dealed with the music history of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This period was in the regions history of music the era of cultural nation-building. Although it is also true that the cultural nation-building was not the only process taking place in these decades: one should think of the institutionalization of the civic musical institutions, of the public sphere connected to music, and the transformations in the urban music life. In essence, these have been the driving forces of the gradual transformation of the everyday music life – with or without national aspirations. Moreover, we must not forget that the cities of the region (Hungary, but also those of today’s Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine – in these two days we had lectures on all these place – at that time were almost without exception multilingual and multi-ethnic localities. Having said that, it is not difficult to recognize the importance of such research projects that go beyond national historiography. Regional co-operation is particularly important on topics such as the 19th-century musical theater in the current Visegrad countries.
The majority of the attendees in this conference were participants in our Visegrad Grant project. However, we invited guest speaker at our conference on regional versus national music history/musical historiography, focused on the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The conference was held in a hybrid format.
4th lecture recital. The concert took place in front of a crowded audience. The program and the interprets were that of the previous three concerts. Music historical introductions were given by Jana Laslavikova, Lenka Krupková, Jiri Kopeczky, Katalin Kim and Tomas Pudloczki. A video recording of the highly successful event was made, we reported on the concert on Bartók Rádio
The unconcealed goal of this conference was to expand our research team and to launch a large-scale European project destined for conducting research into the process of cultural nation-building in a regional context.
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No. 7–9.
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Biographical Database. Personalities of the Regional Musical Theatre. Traveling Directors and Musicians 1860-1920
Source database. The regional database of the sources of musical theatre (1870–1920)
Bibliographical database. Music Theatrical Companies in East-Central Europe (1870–1920)
for more information please visit our database page.
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No. 10–13.
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Educational lectures by Lenka Křupková and Jiří Kopecký
12 October 2021; 25 October 2021, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
In autumn 2021, the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, University of Olomouc held two lectures in the framework of the Visegrad Grant Project. The first event was a lecture by Jiří Kopecký, PhDr., Ph.D., doc. on 12 October 2021, entitled Proměny operního repertoáru v dlouhém 19. století (Changes of opera repertoire in the long 19th century). The second lecture - Obraz publika Městského divadla v Olomouci (The Image of the Audience of the Municipal Theatre in Olomouc) - on 25 October 2021, was given by Lenka Křupková, PhDr.,Ph.D., doc.
Educational lectures by Tomasz Pudłocki
7, 11, 19, 22 October 2021, I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Króla Władysława Jagiełły w Dębicy (Dębica); II Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. col. Leopolda Lis-Kula (Rzeszów); V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Augusta Witkowskiego w Krakowie; Liceum Ogólnokształcącego im. J. Słowackiego, Poland
Professor Tomasz Pudłocki held four lectures at I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Króla Władysława Jagiełły w Dębicy (Dębica), at II Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. col. Leopolda Lis-Kula (Rzeszów), at V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Augusta Witkowskiego w Krakowie and at Liceum Ogólnokształcącego im. J. Słowackiego. The lectures were devoted to the role of artists in the life of nineteenth-century nations and their influence on independence aspirations and the sense of national identity.
Educational lectures by Jana Laslavíková
18 March 2021; 9 April 2021; 30 September 2021
Online; Comenius University, Prague, Czech Republic; Theatre Society and the Czech Theatre Studies Cabinet
The main goal for these educational lectures was to promote our project for the university students regarding our source processing, the databases and the presentation of the published book entitled Cultural and Artistic Transfers in Theatre and Music: Past, Present, and Perspectives.
Jana Laslavíková gave an online lecture at Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst "Music Culture/s in Central Europe. Lectures and Discussions" event in Vienna on March 18, 2021.
Educational lectures by Pál Horváth, Emese Tóth and Rudolf Gusztin
5 May 2022; 21 April 2022; 12 May 2022; 13 May 2022; 13 May 2022
Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Budapest; Music Department of the University of Debrecen, Debrecen; Hungarian Evangelical Brotherhood, Szeged; Béla Bartók Music Secondary School Budapest; Ötpacsirta Szalon of The Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library Music Collection, Budapest; Leó Weiner Catholic School of Music and Musical Arts Secondary School, Budapest
The strong point of this educational lectures was the embedding of the university’s profile and the students’ activity and visible interest.
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No. 14.
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Presentation of the Project and archival research Wien
23-25 May, 2022, ÖNB Heldenplatz, Musiksammlung; Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien
The archival research in Vienna, Austria was of primary importance in our project. The younger generation of researchers had to get to know the source material there, especially the research possibilities and methods of Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Heldenplatz and Musiksammlung.
The Hungarian and Slovak members of our research group and the guest lecturers of the project (Tatjana Markovič, Vienna, Institute for Art and Music History of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) processed archival research in Vienna with a public lecture presenting this project at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. The educational lecture introducing the project and its subtopics was held by Katalin Kim, Jana Laslavíková, Tatjana Marković and Tomasz Pudłocki. The event took place at the former university on 25 May, 2022, from 6 P.M.
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No. 15.
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Publication for the general public and scientific publication for Olmützer Studien
It was also important during our project to provide access to our research and the idea of our common values. Therefore the group members gave lectures for the general public personally, they gave radio interviews and made podcasts, there were bore book presentations and guided tours regarding exhibitions in connection to our topic.
We made a hybrid conference, too, and took part in national conferences.
The scientific papers will be published in Olmützer Studien, from the material of the international conference.
For more information please visit our events page.
The volume (Cultural and Artistic Transfers in Theatre and Music: Past, Present and Perspectives) publishes the draft papers of the V4 group members – Jana Laslavíková, Lenka Křupková, Jiří Kopecký, Tomasz Pudłocki –, and invited speakers – Tatjana Marković and Cristina Scuderi) that were to be presented at the conference organised for September 2020 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Slovak National Theatre, but cancelled due to the pandemic.
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No. 16–17.
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Study trip and presentation of the Project ROMANIA (Oradea, Arad, Timisoara)
14-16 March 2022, Oradea, Arad, Timisoara
The situation of historical music repositories across borders is critical in many cases. This is especially true for institutions that host musical-theatrical materials. The sheet music theaters of the 19th and early 20th centuries have survived partly in the theaters of the given cities, partly in urban public libraries, archives, or even in institutions whose musical theater does not belong to their profile. One such case is the Arad Museum of Fine Arts, which houses the Arad Historical Sheet Music Library.
Study trip and presentation of the project Przemyśl and Sanok, Poland (instead of Lviv, Ukraine)
19-21 May 2022, Przemyśl and Sanok, Poland
Due to the war in Ukraine and the closure of the Lviv archives Pudłocki made a trip to the Archives and Libraries in Przemyśl and Sanok. He was doing research on the materials connected with the cultural life of these two towns, browsing the materials connected with 1) Music Society in Przemyśl, 2) Przemyśl Latin and Greek Catholic cathedrals' musical events, 1867-1914, 3) music events organized by the Socol Gymnastic Societies in Przemyśl and Sanok, 4) Przemyśl and Sanok High School music events also in the examined period.
The main goal was to gain more information to the lecture entitled: “Province not quite deaf. Reminiscences of the great world of music in provincial cities of Eastern Galicia in the second half of the 19th century.”
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