SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL CULTURE AND EDUCATION IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE IN THE 2ND HALF OF THE 19TH – BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The article considers the development of musical and cultural life in the largest centres of Southern Ukraine in the late 19th – early 20th century: Kherson, Nikolaev and Odessa. The author pays special attention to the specific features of the region determined by its geographical location and multi-ethnic population. In many provincial and district centres of Southern Ukraine, cultural life developed due in no small way to the involvement of musically gifted foreigners: Czech and German colonists and also the guests from the modern Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Italy etc. The author provides evidence that almost every department of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (IRMS) of the southern region of that historical period engaged foreign specialists. Moreover, many domestic music teachers received musical education in European conservatories (Leipzig, Warsaw, Brussels, Vienna and others). All of the aforesaid illustrates the implementation of European pedagogical and methodological principles in music education in Southern Ukraine. In many educational institutions (especially women’s institutions), foreigners made up the majority of teachers. Having analyzed the cultural life in Southern Ukraine in the 2nd half of the 19th – early 20th century, the author concludes that the increasing demand for a diverse and comprehensive cultural life in local communities back at that time determined the development of musical courses and educational institutions (both public and private), the IRMS local branches, performing schools and groups etc. General trends in the development of music, musical pedagogy and other areas of musical activity were rooted in Western European traditions. Thus, interethnic musical contacts carried out on the territory of Southern Ukraine and its cultural and economic centre – Odessa, contributed to the formation of a unique multi-dimensional culture of this region by the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century.