This thesis examines the history of the performance and dissemination of chamber music in Melbourne during the period 1877 to 1901. It explores the role and development of chamber music in concerts held by Melbourne’s leading musical societies and public subscription series, and various concerts featuring local and touring performers. Discussion is placed within an international context and the thesis asks whether local musicians were influenced by contemporary developments in Europe and if so, was the primary influence English or German? / The bulk of the thesis explores the history of some of Melbourne’s musical societies and public concerts and focuses in particular on the repertoire that was performed, methods of program construction, the perceived ‘educational’ value of chamber music and performances within educational institutions. It demonstrates that performances of chamber music flourished during Melbourne’s economic boom of the 1880s, and that although performances declined during the following depression of the 1890s, standards of performance had improved, audiences were better educated and informed about chamber music, and Melbourne was relatively quick to introduce contemporary chamber repertoire. The first chamber works by local musicians and composers were also composed and performed in Melbourne during this period. / The availability of competent musicians was a significant factor and played a role in determining the type of repertoire that was performed. With large numbers of competent pianists and string players, and very few wind players, present in Melbourne during this period, for example, the repertory tended to focus on works for piano and/or strings. The contribution of local and international performers, particularly English and German-born and/or trained instrumentalists, is also considered. English and German musicians not only had an impact on the shaping of the repertory, but also influenced the way that concerts were organized. These influences, however, often overlapped and were not always clearly defined.

This thesis examines the history of the performance and dissemination of chamber music in Melbourne during the period 1877 to 1901. It explores the role and development of chamber music in concerts held by Melbourne’s leading musical societies and public subscription series, and various concerts featuring local and touring performers. Discussion is placed within an international context and the thesis asks whether local musicians were influenced by contemporary developments in Europe and if so, was the primary influence English or German? / The bulk of the thesis explores the history of some of Melbourne’s musical societies and public concerts and focuses in particular on the repertoire that was performed, methods of program construction, the perceived ‘educational’ value of chamber music and performances within educational institutions. It demonstrates that performances of chamber music flourished during Melbourne’s economic boom of the 1880s, and that although performances declined during the following depression of the 1890s, standards of performance had improved, audiences were better educated and informed about chamber music, and Melbourne was relatively quick to introduce contemporary chamber repertoire. The first chamber works by local musicians and composers were also composed and performed in Melbourne during this period. / The availability of competent musicians was a significant factor and played a role in determining the type of repertoire that was performed. With large numbers of competent pianists and string players, and very few wind players, present in Melbourne during this period, for example, the repertory tended to focus on works for piano and/or strings. The contribution of local and international performers, particularly English and German-born and/or trained instrumentalists, is also considered. English and German musicians not only had an impact on the shaping of the repertory, but also influenced the way that concerts were organized. These influences, however, often overlapped and were not always clearly defined.

XIX century turned to be significant for formation of concert life of Kharkov; that was caused by variety of stimulus among which was the opening of the University (1804), short functioning of the first branch of the Imperial Russian Music Society (IRMS, 1864–1866) and socially-educational activity of Ilya Slatin (1845–1931), the head of a new branch of the IRMS (1871–1918).

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ANOTATION: The thesis discusses the outstanding Prague music society Cäcilien-Verein. Primarily on the basis of the so far unstudied and partially also unknown source material concerning the relevant issue that is deposited in the Prague conservatoire archive, the thesis presents a survey of establishment, organizational structure and membership background of the institu- tion. The period cultural and social context deals with the repertoire of primarily artistic concerts of the ensemble, and, in general features, also with other types of colourful social events in which the group participated. A separate chapter is devoted to the biography of the group founder and manager, Anton Apt. The final part of the thesis presents the edition of Apt's draft of manuscript statutes for the association, as well as photographs of selected valuable archival documents. Key words: concert life, Prague, 19th century, music societies, Cäcilien-Verein, Anton Apt, sources, repertoire

This dissertation investigates how German-language critics articulated and publicly negotiated ideas about music and expressionism in the first five years after World War I. A close reading of largely unexplored primary sources reveals that "musical expressionism" was originally conceived as an intrinsically musical matter rather than as a stylistic analog to expressionism in other art forms, and thus as especially relevant to purely instrumental rather than vocal and stage genres. By focusing on critical reception of an unlikely group of instrumental chamber works, I elucidate how the acts of performing, listening to, and evaluating "expressionist" music were enmeshed in the complexities of a politicized public concert life in the immediate postwar period. The opening chapters establish broad music-aesthetic and sociopolitical contexts for critics' postwar discussions of "musical expressionism." After the first, introductory chapter, Chapter 2 traces how art and literary critics came to position music as the most expressionist of the arts based on nineteenth-century ideas about the apparently unique ontology of music. Chapter 3 considers how this conception of expressionism led progressive-minded music critics to interpret expressionist music as the next step in the historical development of absolute music. These critics strategically—and controversially—portrayed Schoenberg's "atonal" polyphony as a legitimate revival of "linear" polyphony in fugues by Bach and late Beethoven. Chapter 4 then situates critical debates about the musical and cultural value of expressionism within broader struggles to construct narratives that would explain Germany's traumatic defeat in the Great War and abrupt restructuring as a fragile democratic republic. Against this backdrop, the later chapters explore critics' responses to public performances of specific "expressionist" chamber works. Chapter 5 traces reactions to a provocative performance of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, op. 9 (1906) at the Berlin Volksbühne in February 1920. Chapter 6 examines the interplay of musical-aesthetic and sociopolitical issues in critical reception of several postwar concerts that juxtaposed Schoenberg's "expressionist" Chamber Symphony with Franz Schreker's "impressionist" Chamber Symphony (1916). Chapter 7 considers how critics situated performances of Alexander Zemlinsky's Second String Quartet, op. 15 (1916) in relation to ideas about "expressionism" in music. Finally, Chapter 8 considers critical reception of performances of Béla Bartók's Second String Quartet, op. 17 (1917) in the context of two concert series sponsored by "expressionist" journals: the Anbruch-Abende in Vienna (1918) and the Melos-Abende in Berlin (1922 and 1923). Each of these final chapters uses contemporary criticism as a vehicle for a close reading of the relevant musical work, resulting in a portrait of "expressionist" music that is both contextually and musically nuanced.

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.