Serbisch-rumänische Verknüpfungen in der Salon- und Ballmusik des 19. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Focusing on salon and ball music, this essay comparatively investigates the musical habits of the Serbian and Romanian nobility in the post-Ottoman period. It first examines their contacts and dynastic marriages, and links their interest in Western music to the education of boyar-daughters. In the context of the newly attained independence of Romania and Serbia, their musical taste exerted a modeling influence on the production of salon and dance music; stylized folk dances gained a representative, quasi-official function, analogous to the national garb adopted as courtly attires. Thereafter interest shifts on the issue of Balkan Westernization, when the European music market expanded towards southeast and numerous musicians from abroad resettled in Romanian and Serbian cities. Employed as music teachers in boyar families, they alternated between aristocratic and public music life. As conductors, operetta, or salon music composers they disseminated a type of musical entrepreneurship that Josef Lanner und Johann Strauss, Sr. successfully established in Vienna.