5. “Representative” church music during the Austro-fascism era
[Detailed catalog text in german]
On 28th and 29th May 1935, the Department of Church and School Music celebrated its 25th anniversary. The nature of the events, the organisation of the programmes for the two concerts, and the response from church and state representatives indicate that this institution was regarded as politically relevant by the representatives of the Austrofascist cultural policy.
The culmination and highlight of the festivities was a highly prestigious concert held in the grand hall of the Musikverein, featuring the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Oswald Kabasta (1896–1946). In the audience sat representatives from the church and state, including Federal President Wilhelm Miklas (1872–1956). The concert was also broadcast on radio. The introductory piece, “Variations and Fugue on the Austrian National Anthem” by Ernst Tittel (1910, can be understood as a tribute to the political system of that time. It had been premiered a year earlier as part of a “service of dedication” for the murdered Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß in the large hall of the Konzerthaus, also by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Kabasta. The programme presents the principles of the Department for Church and School Music:
The students should be prepared not only for their work in church and school, but also for their role as musical educators for “broader segments of the population”. The head of the department, composer and music educator Josef Lechthaler (1891–1948), advocated in particular for a contemporary church music composition that remains rooted in tradition and oriented towards popular liturgy. Austrian cultural policymakers shared the sentiment that composers from Austria, a country renowned internationally for its rich musical heritage, could serve as standard-bearers for this musical form. All selected works of the concert correspond to these notions of an ideal contemporary church music. With the cantatas by Josef Lechthaler (1933) and Leopold Daxsperger (a world premiere), they introduced “novelties,” and with the “Te Deum” by Max Springer, they presented the work of a composer who has been active since the early days of the department of church music. With their choice of participants, the organisers also upheld the principle of ‘public education’. Alongside professional singers and musicians, there were performances by students from the Department of Church and School Music, choristers from various Viennese parishes, and a children’s choir.
The composer and educator Josef Lechthaler has been the head of the Department of Church Music since 1931 and initiated the merger with the Music Pedagogical Seminar to form the Department for Church and School Music in 1933. His vision of a musical popular education and a contemporary composition oriented towards tradition was positively received by the Austro-fascist cultural policy. At that time, Lechthaler was assigned several political functions.