This work takes as its central "conceit" a specific cultural site, namely a small town choir-- The Emu Park and District Amateur Choral Society Inc., which operates in Central Queensland, circa 1965. A discontinuous narrative of interconnected short stories of one chapter each, highlight significant and often highly traumatic aspects of the interconnected lives of selected choir members. The narrative lampoons the English choral tradition against the setting of a society which does not deal with the political and social negativities of Queensland in the sixties. It is a culture in denial. The comedy deals with the often banal, though always good natured, behaviours of the choir members in dealing with often black-edged lives. An Overture introduces all characters, while Acts I, II & III deal with individual's stories. The Finale deals with the outcome of rehearsals in a culminating performance of the Emu Park and District Amateur Choral Society Incorporated. The short stories, one to a chapter, concern individual choir member's life stories and form discreet, fully finished pieces of work in their own right. Background action throughout the stories involves a series of rehearsals which structurally tie all the narratives to the final chapter. Lyrics of popular songs of the 1900's through to early 1960's are mentioned within the text. For copyright reasons the texts are not reproduced in full. However, these lyrics do comment tangentially on some aspect of the character's story.

This study examines two of the smaller American choral societies that together existed for just over 30 years, 1888 to 1919: The Gounod and New Haven Oratorio Societies of New Haven, Connecticut. These societies are important because, especially in the case of the New Haven Society, they were closely related to Yale University and the work of Horatio Parker. One must assume from the onset that the two choral groups examined in the following pages did not have the prominence of the many larger New England choral societies. However a more detailed knowledge about the struggles, successes, influence and leadership of two smaller societies illuminates a field of research in the history of American choral music that has been largely ignored.

The objective of my work is to describe associational life in the town of Louny since 1861 to 1914. The years correspond with the year of "October Diploma" issue (1861), resp. the outbreak of World War I. (1914). In the first passages I tried to show the development of the town in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century from the urbanistic, demographical, industrial and political point of view. All these aspects influenced the associational life there. After the outline of the development of the associational life within the monarchy I aimed at it in Louny. I introduced various types of active notable local personalities in the profiles of Josef Havránek, the representative of the beginning of associational life; long-standing mayor Dr. Petr Hilbert, the owner of the local spa Josef Krýzl and extraordinary socially active woman Mrs Kristýna Ehrlichová. Then I aimed at associational activities in the town. I divided many of the societies into subchapters according to the prevailing orientation: choral dramatic and educational societies, walking and hiking, sport, womens' groups, Jewish associations and amusement societies. Associational life in Louny was influenced by its geographical position, at the Czech-German linguistic border. The town became the hub of...

The years 1815 to 1867 marked the first protracted period of peace in Nova Scotia’s colonial history. While the immediate effects of peace were nearly disastrous, these years ultimately marked a formative period for the province. By the eve of Confederation, various social, cultural, political, economic, and technological developments had enabled Nova Scotia to become a mature province with a distinct identity. One of the manifestations of this era of community formation was the emergence of a cosmopolitan-oriented music culture. Although Atlantic trade routes ensured that Nova Scotia was never isolated, the colonial progress of the pre-Confederation era reinforced and entrenched Nova Scotia’s membership within the Atlantic World. The same trade routes that brought imported goods to the province also introduced Nova Scotians to British and American culture. Immigration, importation, and developments to transportation and communication systems strengthened Nova Scotia’s connections to its cultural arbiters – and made possible the importation and naturalization of metropolitan music practices. This dissertation examines the processes of cultural exchange operating between Nova Scotia and the rest of the Atlantic World, and the resultant musical life to which they gave rise. The topic of music-making in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia has seldom been addressed, so one of the immediate aims of my research is to document an important but little-known aspect of the province’s cultural history. In doing so, I situate Nova Scotia’s musical life within a transatlantic context and provide a lens through which to view Nova Scotia’s connectivity to a vast network of culture and ideas. After establishing and contextualizing the musical practices introduced to Nova Scotia by a diverse group of musicians and entrepreneurs, I explore how this imported music culture was both a response to and an agent of the formative developments of the pre-Confederation era. I argue that, as Nova Scotia joined the Victorian march of progress, its musicians, music institutions, and music-making were among the many socio-cultural forces that helped to transform a colonial backwater into the civilized province that on 1 July 1867 joined the new nation of Canada.

The years 1815 to 1867 marked the first protracted period of peace in Nova Scotia’s colonial history. While the immediate effects of peace were nearly disastrous, these years ultimately marked a formative period for the province. By the eve of Confederation, various social, cultural, political, economic, and technological developments had enabled Nova Scotia to become a mature province with a distinct identity. One of the manifestations of this era of community formation was the emergence of a cosmopolitan-oriented music culture. Although Atlantic trade routes ensured that Nova Scotia was never isolated, the colonial progress of the pre-Confederation era reinforced and entrenched Nova Scotia’s membership within the Atlantic World. The same trade routes that brought imported goods to the province also introduced Nova Scotians to British and American culture. Immigration, importation, and developments to transportation and communication systems strengthened Nova Scotia’s connections to its cultural arbiters – and made possible the importation and naturalization of metropolitan music practices. This dissertation examines the processes of cultural exchange operating between Nova Scotia and the rest of the Atlantic World, and the resultant musical life to which they gave rise. The topic of music-making in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia has seldom been addressed, so one of the immediate aims of my research is to document an important but little-known aspect of the province’s cultural history. In doing so, I situate Nova Scotia’s musical life within a transatlantic context and provide a lens through which to view Nova Scotia’s connectivity to a vast network of culture and ideas. After establishing and contextualizing the musical practices introduced to Nova Scotia by a diverse group of musicians and entrepreneurs, I explore how this imported music culture was both a response to and an agent of the formative developments of the pre-Confederation era. I argue that, as Nova Scotia joined the Victorian march of progress, its musicians, music institutions, and music-making were among the many socio-cultural forces that helped to transform a colonial backwater into the civilized province that on 1 July 1867 joined the new nation of Canada.