ABSTRACT
Music was deeply tied to the women’s emancipation movement in the Czech lands. The Americký klub dam (American Woman’s Club, or “AKD”), founded in Prague in 1865 and named for its inspiration from the women’s emancipation movement in the USA, regularly performed choral works from their self-published songbook. Similarly, Vesna, originally founded as a women’s choir in Brno in 1870, organised their advocacy specifically around musical activities, including regular “musical evenings” with composers and the occasional commission of new works for female chorus. This chapter examines the musical activities and compositions of these women’s organisations—as well as the musical writings of some of their most prominent members like Eliška Krásnohorská—to illuminate the ways music operated not just as a platform for women’s voices during the era, but also as a unique tool for sounding their complexities. Ultimately, such an examination reveals the unique roles of sound within a movement uniquely dependent upon sound, giving voice to constructions of a supposed “ideal woman” as well as illuminating the movement’s economic impacts.
