Entertainment or national duty? : the role of music in the life of eastern Galician provincial towns 1867-1914

The author cites a number of examples of musical life in provincial towns of Eastern Galicia in the autonomy period (1867 – 1914). The centres promoting musical culture were music societies (mostly for Poles) and “Bojan” singing societies (organized by local Ruthenians/Ukrainians, promoting mostly their national music). In every town, there were a few, or even over a dozen, private music schools, and musical education – very popular before the First World War – followed the educational models for middle and upper classes, popular at the turn of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Although music was largely perceived as entertainment, musical life in Galician provinces showed clear gender divisions and some artistic initiatives were perceived as manifestations of national rivalry