Music education literature in German-language polyethnic schools in Estonia, 1860–1914

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on music education literature in German-language schools in Estonia from 1860 to 1914. Music education literature in Estonian schools with German as a language of instruction has been an unexplored field of research. As a result of this systematic research, a representative sample of music education literature was formed: 30 German-language editions and 2,330 songs. The songbooks and music textbooks were considered as signs of German culture being dominant. The profound social, economic, and political changes, characteristic for the nineteenth century, caused tensions, which were expressed in the content of music literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Music education
• music literature
• German-language schools
• Estonia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Protokollbuch des Schüler-Musikvereins, 1891–4, Eesti rahvusarhiiv (hereafter – ERA), EAA.1872.1.394.

2. Jährliche Übersicht über den Zustand der öffentlichen und Privatschulen des Dorpater Lehrbezirks, vol. 3, 1860–9, ERA, EAA.386.3.180, p. 4.

3. Kurator des Dorpater Lehrbezirk, ERA, EAA.384.1.1221, p. 4.

4. Acta betreffend die Errichtung der Privatschulen, 1867, ERA, EAA.90.2.1087, p. 19.

5. Protokollbuch, ERA, EAA.1872.1.394.

6. Tsirkulyary, spiski, katalogi i perepiska s Departamentom narodnogo prosveshcheniya i uchebnymi zavedeniyami o peresmotre k neeneskol’kikh bibliotek i ikh popolnenii, 1888–1911, ERA, EAA.384.1.1199, p. 649.

7. Kanceliariia Popechitelia Rizhskogo Uchebnogo Okruga, Spiski i perepiska s direktorami i inspektorami gimnazii i uchilishch o peremene upotreblyaemykh uchebnikov, 1894–1902, ERA, EAA.384.1.1278, pp. 283, 286, 295, 300.

8. Spiski uchenikov, 1890–1, ERA, EAA.413.1.53, p. 4.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tiiu Ernits

Tiiu Ernits studied music education at the Tallinn State Conservatoire, musicology and educational sciences at the Tallinn University. Her relevant qualifications are Master of Arts degree in musicology (2005) and Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Sciences (2013). Her current position: course „Cultural history of Education” lecturer, School of Educational Sciences, Tallinn University; piano teacher, Tartu Second Music School. Her main research fields are history of Estonian music education and Baltic German music education of the 19th century. She is a member of Baltic Association of Educational Historians, Estonian Society of Prehistoric Art, Estonian Musicological Society.