ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the business strategies of three touring bands, namely: the Viennese Ladies’ Orchestra Portugal; the south Slavic folk costume band Granicar of long-necked tamburica lutes; and the Serbian Roma band of the folk violin virtuoso and singer Andolija as examples. A typical Viennese ladies’ salon orchestra, which often included non-German members from other parts of Austria-Hungary, concentrated on Viennese salon and popular music and Western classical music. The women musicians of Viennese ladies’ orchestras tended to dress uniformly in evening dress, often white, while the male members favoured a black suit. The business strategy of the Orchestra Portugal strived for maximal artistic specialization and maximal attraction of specific audiences, particularly educated classes and, to a lesser extent in the case of instrumental performances, German-speakers. The transnational Viennese Ladies’ Orchestra Portugal consisted of members from two distinctive ethnicities but made use of one mainstream representation – and they were supposed to perform exclusively in German.
