organised by
Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Croatian Musicological Society
Palazzetto Bru Zane
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Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
Faculty of Educational Sciences, Negrijeva 6, 52100 Pula
17-19 September 2026
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CALL FOR PAPERS
The Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, the Croatian Musicological Society and the Palazzetto Bru Zane are pleased to invite submissions of proposals for the Conference «Soundscapes of Entertainment: Music at Leisure in the 19th Century» to be held at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Faculty of Educational Sciences, from 17 to 19 September 2026.
Since the late 18th century, when the development of the bourgeoisie and the mechanisation of production enabled a more leisurely pace of work, the right to leisure time was no longer reserved only for the aristocracy and upper middle class, but increasingly also for the craftspeople. Musical societies were organised in cities, in which various social classes were represented. Democratisation also affected musical education, and schools educated future professionals as well as amateurs — the future audience.
Professional education and high art favoured virtuosity and the gradual rise of the performance level, while amateurs were supplied with simplified popular works for home music making and musical entertainment.
At the same time, the virtuosity that transferred itself from the concert hall into restaurants and outdoor spaces was not ignored, just as opera hits became available outside the theatre. On the other hand, amateur music making was structured in various musical societies, which proliferated not only in cities, but also in smaller towns, also encompassing ethnic and minority musical organisations.
A kind of new enlightenment and democratisation was realised in ‘music for all’, whether at promenade concerts, or at specially organised performances for workers.
Such an exponential growth of music for leisure towards the end of the century and on the eve of the cataclysms of the First World War found its audience in all layers of society, and was applied to professional and amateur music making, and to high and low art which adopted a number of commonalities in diverse social systems.
The symposium aims to draw attention to various factors that influenced the articulation of leisure and the musical aspects that were associated with it, and also to the series of new demands that were placed on music for leisure.
- Music societies: structured leisure (choirs, brass bands, community bands, orchestras, student societies, public lectures)
- Military music in the service of leisure
- From the stage to the music at leisure
- Art music or kitsch
- Music for workers
- Street music
- Café chantant
- Benefits of music at leisure
- Music education as leisure education
- Concert series
- Pianos and piano music
- Domestic music making
- Music at the seaside
- Music at circuses, fairs and expositions
- Music for dancing
- Music publishing
- Music economy and artistic policy
- Migrating musicians and music material in the entertainment industry
Scholarly Committee
- Lada Duraković (Juraj Dobrila University of Pula)
- Ivana-Paula Gortan-Carlin (Juraj Dobrila University of Pula)
- Roberto Illiano (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini)
- Étienne Jardin (Palazzetto Bru Zane)
- Vjera Katalinić (Croatian Musicological Society)
- Fulvia Morabito (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini)
- Massimiliano Sala (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini)
Keynote Speakers
- William A. Everett (University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory)
- Vjera Katalinić (Croatian Musicological Society)
The official languages of the conference are English, French and Italian. Papers selected at the conference will be published in a miscellaneous volume.
Papers are limited to twenty minutes in length, allowing time for questions and discussion. Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words and one page of biography.
All proposals should be submitted by email no later than ***Sunday, 12 April 2026*** to <conferences@luigiboccherini.org>. With your proposal please include your name, contact details (postal address, e-mail and telephone number) and (if applicable) your affiliation.
The committee will make its final decision on the abstracts by May 2026 and contributors will be informed immediately thereafter. Further information about the programme and registration will be announced after that date.
For any additional information, please contact:
Dr. Massimiliano Sala
conferences@luigiboccherini.org
www.luigiboccherini.org
