Abstract
This work examines the life of Raffaello Squarise (1856-1945), an Italian maestro who was a leading musician in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, from 1889 until his retirement in 1933. Squarise worked as a professional in a predominantly amateur musical environment, and this thesis demonstrates his widely-felt presence and discernible influence in Dunedin’s cultural life, through his activities as a violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer. Furthermore, it illustrates the nature of the active musical culture in Dunedin, through Squarise’s participation in established local practices and the contrast provided by the ‘otherness’ of his Italian ethnicity. The thesis shows that a two-way adaptive process took place between Squarise and the Dunedin community, as each engaged with the unfamiliar culture of the other. The success of Squarise’s musical career in the antipodes, it is argued, was based upon his willingness to adapt to the cultural, intellectual, and musical environment of his adopted home.
The method used in this study is that of interpretative biography: it conveys the experience of the individual while emphasizing context through the subject’s interaction with his environment. The sources of the research are mainly archival, and include Squarise’s personal papers, newspapers, the archives of local music organizations, and music ephemera. These are augmented by interviews undertaken with some of the few people (nearly sixty years since his death) who knew Squarise. The thesis is a study of the public more than the private man, but the sources are extensive enough to provide a thorough representation of Squarise’s professional activities.