Roland Mair-Gruber
Department: Department of Art, Musicology and Dance Studies
PhD Supervisor: Univ.-Prof Dr. Nils Grosch
PhD Co-Supervisor: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Hochradner (University Mozarteum)
Start: WiSe 2020/21
Thesis/Topic: The Bad Gastein Kurorchester and its repertoire (Working title)
Abstract
Over the course of the 19th century, Central European spa resorts developed into social and cultural hubs for high society. Alongside physical activities and therapeutic baths in thermal springs, spa concerts formed an essential part of a spa stay, which was described as a ‘summer retreat’ for the recuperation of body and mind. The spa musik repertoire remains a field that has received little attention in musicology to date. This thesis therefore uses the example of the Bad Gastein Spa Orchestra, founded in 1850, to situate the music performed within the socio-cultural context of the spa and seaside resort of Bad Gastein, and explores the interplay between performance, orchestral instrumentation and the techniques used in arranging works for spa orchestra.
Performance contexts in spa and seaside resorts are considerably more flexible and varied than those of a performance held exclusively in a concert hall, a fact reflected in the sheet music of the spa orchestra’s repertoire. In 2021, the archive of the Bad Gastein Spa Orchestra was rediscovered, and work began on the partial cataloguing of the surviving repertoire as part of a research project at the University of Salzburg. Building on this, this doctoral thesis reconstructs the changes in the repertoire through the analysis of three archive books from different periods in the history of the spa orchestra. Furthermore, concert programmes and photographs from the Gastein Museum’s archive allow conclusions to be drawn about specific performance contexts at various venues in Bad Gastein. The variability of performance venues and orchestral instrumentation results in variability in the musical score, which will be demonstrated through the analysis of selected arrangements for spa orchestras.
© Hubert Auer
