ABSTRACT
The musical culture of the Viennese Slavs during the long nineteenth century has not previously been researched in depth. Owing to the geographical proximity between Vienna and the Czech lands, the majority of Viennese Slavs were Czechs: in around 1900, approximately 300,000 Czechs lived in Vienna. Only recently have attempts been made at examining particular individuals, institutions, repertoire, event mechanisms, and development contexts. Czech musicology seems to take a stronger interest in such research, although both former Habsburg states share a ‘Slavic’ common cultural heritage in nineteenth-century Vienna. To date, gender-sensitive examinations of this music-cultural phenomenon have not been conducted. This chapter addresses this research lacuna by offering a first overview of musical women—especially performers—within this context. It is focused on the second half of the nineteenth century and utilises such sources as newspaper clippings, annual reports published by Viennese-Slavic associations, concert programmes, memoirs and other contemporary publications on the culture of the Viennese Slavs/Czechs. By way of a systematic sociological approach, I introduce some professional and semi-professional musicians (Tonkünstlerinnen), centring on the following aspects: origin (Viennese vs. visiting women); nationality/cultural identity; motivation for musical activity (hobby vs. profession vs. family tradition vs. patriotism etc.); type of musical activity (singing, playing a musical instrument, music-related publishing). These categories help to evaluate the roles of these musical women within the contexts of musical programming, social structures, migration movements, hierarchies and gender ratios in musical associations, and school orchestras.
