Music Migrations from the Bohemian Lands to Trieste and the National Awakening of the Southern Slavs

Abstract

After obtaining the status of free port under the Austrian administration (1719), Trieste was transformed into a rich cosmopolitan town of the Adriatic sea, in which conveyed German and Slavic peoples, and then some groups from the Mediterranean countries. Among them, the Czechs played a key role in spreading the classical style at the end of the eighteenth century, as testified by the individual migration of composers to the nearby cities of Gorizia and Ljubljana (František Josef Dusík, Vaclav Vratny, Jan Kejha, Johannes Schreiber). Equally important, in the second part of the nineteenth century, was the creation of the modern violin school thanks to the contribution of Friedrich Pixis’s pupils, namely the violinists Otakar Ševčik and Petr Téply (known as Pietro Caldo, sic). At that time, in particular after the March revolution, many families of Bohemian middle-class settled in Trieste for trading (about 2.000 people in the first decade of the twenty century). They cooperated with Slovenes and Croats in establishing some societies, in order to preserve their national identity. The aim of the meetings of these societies, created on the model of Czech’s besedý, was to support the idea of national awakening of the South Slavic people, as well as the development of a different kind of Pan-Slavism, the so-called Austro-Slavism against the aggressive Pan-Germanism. The beginning of the official Slovene activity in the North Adriatic area must be traced back to 1848, when the Slavjansko društvo was founded in Trieste. This society not only enclosed Slovenes, Czechs and Croats, but also Serbs and Poles. Afterwards, in 1861 arose the Slavjanska narodna čitalnica (Slavic National Reading Room), which attempted to unify the Slavic communities of the city. The main activities of the čitalnice was focused on choral music, Lieder and national anthems written by Czech musicians, such as the choirmaster and patriot Jan Lego. Later, within the same cultural frame, the opera Bartered Bride of Bedřich Smetana was staged in the theatre annexed to the Narodni Dom, in which also the instrumental music of Antonín Dvořák was performed.