Society of Musical Artists. According to the article by Meliš, Emanuel A., ‘O působeni jednoty hudebních umělců Pražských k podporováni vdov a sirotků’ [About the activity of the Society of Musical Artists of Prague to support widows and orphans], Dalibor, 6 (1858), 81-82 this society was established in 1803 by Prague musicians to support the widows and orphans of fellow local musicians. Its foundation was approved by the then Emporer Francis, and permission granted to arrange a ‘velká hudební akademie’ [great musical academy] twice yearly in support of its charitable cause, one to take place on 25 December and one around Easter time. Meliš reported from news by Dlabač that the first production took place on 4/5/1803 in the monastary church at Strahov, with a performance of a festival mass by 150 musicians. From that time onwards at least two concerts were given each year in which the musicians of Prague and many accomplished dilettantes participated. The article noted that the compositions performed were in the main oratorios, large-scale masses, cantatas and very occasionally secular works. The society ‘contributed not a little to awakening the love of the [Prague] public to this type of music through excellent performances of the oratorios of Handel, which only in this century have been given in Prague.’ There followed a list of concerts with their repertoire from 25/12/1833 until 30/3/1863.

Although the first of the two annual concerts initially took place on Christmas day, in later years this altered. For a brief period in the late 1830s and into the 1840s the non-Easter concert was held in September or October. From 1844 onwards the concert reverted to Christmas time, but to 23rd December.

The repertoire of these concerts also evolved over time. Until 1842 secular concerts of popular overtures, even in 1842 of a Sextet for chromatic horns, were not unusual. A few of the sacred music programmes also comprised miscellaneous excerpts from various oratorios or cantatas. After 1842 almost all of the concerts were made up of one single large-scale item of sacred music, usually an oratorio. This evident change of programming policy may have been connected with broader changes in the musical environment following the death in that year of the influential director of the local Conservatory (the pupils of which participated in these events). During the whole of its history the society was far from being conservative in aesthetic and outlook, often introducing contemporary works into its programmes and sometimes mounting productions of ambitious and challenging works such as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Inevitably the large conglomeration of participants, many of whom were amateurs, combined with only limited rehearsal time, meant that standards of performance were not always of the highest level. However, this tended to be taken into account by pragmatic and sensible local critics in their reviews of these events.

Not mentioned in the article by Meliš was the annual arrangement of a church service for the society and its members in which festive sacred works were also performed.

The offices of the Widow’s and Orphan’s Institute (and presumably therefore of the Society of Musical Artists) were according to Prager Morgenpost 19/7/1863 located in Thomasgasse [Tomášká ulice], no.20-3 in the Little Quarter.