Galician Music Society and the question of national identity

Abstract

With the intensification of national independence movements after the Spring of Nations of 1848, which induced stateless peoples to fight for independence, and protests against assimilation by the powers to which they belonged, nation-building processes in Galicia intensified, transforming various ethnic communities into self-conscious political and cultural organisms. The peculiarity of the nation-building processes and the formation of a modern Polish and Ukrainian national identity in Galicia in the nineteenth century lay in the fact that they were primarily the result of the deliberate activity of nationally conscious Polish and Ukrainian elites, the so-called awakening’ of the national spirit. They consciously not only shaped national identity, but also acted as organisers of socio-cultural life, using various means, methods and forms to implement a nation-building ideology in their own communities, allowing for national affirmation despite political non-existence. The active actions of various socio-cultural institutions, often headed by these “awakeners” of the national spirit, including musical societies, contributed to this. Music, musical culture, through musical societies, became an important stimulus for the formation of national identity, intensifying patriotic feelings and promoting national pro-state ideas. The national priorities of the stateless communities are reflected in the statutes of the music societies, manifested in the introduction of the native language into official use within the society, the more extensive representation of the national legacy and, at the same time, the inspiration of original contemporary creativity that would reflect the different modalities of national feelings. In this context, the Galician Music Society based in Lviv played a particularly important role. In the activities of the GMS, these national trends and strategies shaping the attitude of national identity acquired extraordinary expression and significance. In the first period of its activity until 1848, i.e. the “Spring of Nations”, the GMS followed the principles set by Western European societies, above all the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. It carried out intensive concert, pedagogical and educational activities, caring for the aesthetic education of the public, constantly following contemporary trends and not using any national distinctions in its activities. However, this model of activity, after the landmark year 1848 for many nations in the Austrian Empire and Europe and the proclamation of Galician autonomy in 1867, was modified due to the intensification of nation-building processes. The external expression of the nationbuilding processes taking place at the GMS was the introduction of Polish as the official language of communication at the GMS, the consolidation of the Polish national orientation of development and support of native culture in a number of GTM documents, the national orientation of the repertoire combined with „Chopinocentrism” as a concentrated expression of Polish national consciousness in music, and the growing presence of a broad representation of Polish elites in the GMS management.