Music in Social and Cultural Environment in a Noble Estate in the end of the 18th — the mid of the 19th century: from the History of Serf Orchestra of Galagan’s Family

Abstract

The issue of musical culture development in a noble estate in Ukraine from the end of the 18th — to the mid of the 19th century was considered in the article on the grounded source base. This objective has been realised via reconstruction of the creation and activity circumstances of serf orchestra belonged to Galagan’s family in the estates in Sokyryntsi and Digtiari. The purpose of the article is to analyse a summary of social and cultural factors that secured Galagan’s family estates as the centers of musical art in the atmosphere of which refined amateurship of the owners co-existed with high quality musical performance of the serf musicians. The author studies issues of inherited character of orchestra’s activity during the life of several generations of Galagan’s family in the estates in Sokyryntsi and Digtiari. Furthermore, the author considers in what way musical performance in the estates facilitated communication practices of the noble community. The main attention of the article is devoted to the issue of ambivalence of cultural space in the estates. Men from Galagan’s family were sincerely fond of music and simultaneously used it as a mean for their social status improving as well as for social reputation of their own estates. They provided an opportunity for the talented peasants to enhance the artistic abilities, secured their profession education. On the other hand, the serf-musicians remained slaves who were in complete power of their owners. The article is completed by a publication of two letters written during 1824–1831s by Petro Galagan, the owner of the estate in Digtiari to his brother Pavel who was the owner of Sokyryntsi. These texts depict the circumstances of Digtiari’s transformation into the representative residence where music played a crucial role as well as reveal the details of artistic atmosphere of the estate. The letters are published for the first time.