Zespoły muzyczno-teatralne Białej i Słucka w korespondencji Hieronima Floriana Radziwiłła (1715-1760)
ENAlmost thirty-years’ period of existence of the musical groups in the estates of Prince Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł at Słuck and Biała disintegrates into neat two sub-periods: the first one, musical (1733 - end of the 1740s) fell on the years when the prince devoted more attention to hunting and good drilling of his soldiers; the second, theatre-musical (the 1750s) fell on the time of fascination with stage, and in particular with ballet. Already from the mid-1740s the prince paid special attention to musicianship, artistry and skills of the engaged musicians, while the 1750s could be regarded as the years of conscious shaping of the concert and theatrical life at Stuck and Biala. Among the musical bands performing in the main estates of Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł - at Słuck and Biała could be distinguished the groups of the so-called applied music and artistic music. In the former category the authoress includes musical groups accompanying numerous hunting expeditions, consisting of French horn players; the groups of trumpeters, band of Janissary music and garrison music band performing at least since 1740. According to the present state of knowledge there were at least few groups of artistic music: private musicians of the prince (performing between 1738-1760), court band (1733-1760), i.e. so-called Polish band, Italian band (1749-1760), ballet team (1750-1760) and theatrical German and French groups (1754-1760). The preserved lists of the musicians’ names belonging to these groups are incomplete and do not allow us to assign them to the specific groups (with the exception of the dancers’ team and their masters).
