The Pesth-Ofner Localblatt und Landbote as Source of Music History: Guest Performers in Context of Pest-Buda, 1857
The Pesth-Ofner Localblatt und Landbote as Source of Music History: Guest Performers in Context of Pest-Buda, 1857

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the importance of micro-historiography in music history research, which involves studying the everyday lives of individuals and events to uncover forgotten details and gaps in traditional historical approaches. Reading the main source, the daily Pest-Ofner Localblatt und Landbote it is especially important to emphasize the significance of shorter news, reports, and advertisements in newspapers as valuable sources of information for reconstructing everyday musical life in Pest-Buda. The Pest-Ofner Localblatt und Landbote mentions several guest performers on the stages of Pest-Buda, including the visits of traveling national or folk companies, the performances of the successful Spanish folk dance company at the National Theater in Pest, the tour of the popular Tyrolean folk music company for several months, the supposedly Viennese singing company, marked by the names of Mutzbauer, Honetz, and Lasky, which clearly represented the Wienerlied repertoire on the stage of popular cafés, the guest performances of singer Babette (Betty) Gundy, or Sigismund Thalberg’s student, the pianist Rosa Kastner. The present paper also discusses the sources that can be used to list the guest performers, such as the surviving archive material of the National Theater in Pest, the theatre pocket books of German theaters, and the period’s press, especially the Pesth-Ofner Localblatt und Landbote. By studying the lives of everyday individuals and the events of everyday life, researchers can uncover information that may have been overlooked or ignored by traditional historical approaches. In the context of music history, micro-historiography can help to shed light on the functioning of an entire city or region, as well as the structure of musical life from a variety of perspectives. It can also help to reveal the realities of everyday musical life, including the network of contacts through which musicians could reach their audience, and how this was reflected in the period’s sources.

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