Latvian Ethnomusicology: Past and Present

Author(s): Martin Boiko

Source: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 26 (1994), pp. 47-65
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
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LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY:
PAST AND PRESENT
by
Martin Boiko
Since the
collapse
of the Soviet
empire
-
foreshadowed
by
the
Singing
Revolution of the Baltics'
-
and Latvia's
regaining independence
on
May
4th, 1990,
no
sphere
of the
public
and intellectual lives of that
country
has
been left
unchanged. Ethnomusicology
is no
exception.
At
present
this field
is faced with
rapidly changing
circumstances and
perspectives.
This therefore
seems to be a
good
time for
retrospective
reflection on the
experience
collected
to the
present
and for an
analysis
of our current condition.
Through
such
reflection and
analysis
we should be able to define our actual
position,
outline
new orientations and
recognize
our limitations as well. This article contains
an overview of the
history
of Latvian folk music research and some remarks
on folk dance research in that
country
as well.
Earliest Latvian Folk Music Research2
The first
period
of Latvian folk music research dates back to the late
1860s,
to the time called the "National
Awakening."3 During
this
period
folklore
and folk music were
recognized
as the basis of a national
style
in the arts
and as such became
subjects
of considerable interest in the Latvian
community.
1870 marked the
beginning
of the
systematic
collection of folk
music,
organized by
the
composer
and music teacher
Janis
Cimze
(1814-1881).
His idea was to collect folk tunes in order to use them in
arrangements
for the national
repertoire
of the choral movement. This was
a mass movement of Latvian choirs which now for more than 130
years
has been an
important
factor in national consolidation and
identity.
Cimze
himself
published
about 350
arrangements
for choirs.
In 1879 the first scientific contribution
regarding
Latvian folk music was
published,
an article
by
the
composer, organist
and theorist
Andrejs
Jurjdns (1856-1922)
entitled "Latvian Folk Music." This
study presents
a short
survey
of folk instruments and
music,
defining
the latter as an
expression
of the national
mentality
and the essential source for national
art music. The author establishes the main
goals
for the first
period
of folk
music research as
collection, systematization
and
publication. Jurjdns
himself
became the main executor of this
program
and the most
important
name
in Latvian folk music
study
of that time. In the 1880s he
developed
a
large
network of informants and
correspondents
and conducted his first field
trips
in the summers of 1891 and 1892.
The result of
Jurjdns'
activities is the six volumes entitled Materials
of
Latvian Folk Music
(1894-1926),
which contain more than
1,100
items and
remain
up
to the
present
one of the most
significant
sources for Latvian
folk music. Materials
provides descriptions
of customs and traditional contexts
together
with field observations and comments. Each volume is devoted to
a
specific genre
or
group
of
genres.
The first
begins
with an
essay
on the
tunes of the summer solstice
songs.
Here
Jurjins expounds
his
theory
of
three historical strata.
(This theory
is based on the
idea, widespread
at that
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48 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
time,
that historical
development
follows a
path
from a narrow to a broad
melodic
range
and from
modality
to functional
harmony.) Jurjans' publi-
cations
give
a clear idea of the
genre system
of Latvian folk music and of
musical life in the
countryside during
the late nineteenth
century.
One of
the features that make this work
especially
valuable is the
high quality
of
the
transcriptions.
We can indeed make the
generalization
that
Jurjans
set
a solid and
promising
course for future Latvian folk music research.
Noteworthy
research into folk musical instruments was made
by
the writer
on music and conductor
Jnis
Straume
(1861-1929)
and the Baltic-German
ethnographer August
Bielenstein
(1826-1907).
Straume's
study
On Latvian
Folk Music and Ancient Musical Instruments
(1904)
is an
attempt
to combine
ethnographic
and folkloristic data within
organological
research. He
developed
a
theory
that divided instruments into
categories
of
ancient,
autochtonic and
late,
or borrowed
(non-Latvian),
instruments. This subdi-
vision had a
puristic background
and reflected the search for a
genuine
strata
of national culture that was so characteristic of the nineteenth and
early
twentieth centuries. The second volume of a fundamental work
by
Bielenstein
called Die Holzbauten and
Holzgerdite
der
Letten, published
in
1918,
contains
a
chapter
on wooden instruments. It would have been the most
thorough
and
profoundest organological investigation
of that
time,
if not for the
thematic limitation indicated in the title of the work.
First Era
of Independence,
War and Immediate Post-War Years
A second
period
in Latvian folk music research
comprises
the 1920s and
1930s
-
the first era of Latvian
independence
- as well as the 1940s. An
important
event
marking
the
beginning
of this
period
was the foundation
of the Latvian Folklore
Repository (Latvielu folkloras krdtuve)
in 1925. The
collection of materials
organized by
this archive and research institution was
mainly
carried out
by
enthusiastic,
voluntary
local collectors. The
majority
of the collectors who sent transcribed items to the
Repository
were teachers
and
students,
but in some cases the collection was taken
up by boy
scouts
and even
by
some
military organizations.
Particular attention was
paid
to
folk
song
texts, beliefs, riddles,
and similar verbal lore. Folk music was not
counted
among
these
priorities, although
155 wax
cylinders
and a number
of discs were recorded from 1926.
By
1941, 16,271
transcribed musical items
had been archived in the
Repository.
Particular mention should be made
of Emilis
Melngailis (1874-1954)
as the most
productive
collector, having
contributed more than
3,000
tunes to the
Repository.
He is one of the most
contradictory
as well as
impressive personalities
in the
history
of Latvian
music.
An
outstanding composer,
writer about music and folk music
collector,
Melngailis
alone
managed
to
carry
on with his
ethnomusicological
activities
more or less undisturbed under three different
political
and
ideological
forces:
the Russian
empire,
the first
Republic
of Latvia and the Soviet Union. His
interest in folk music
began
with the notation of 120
Jewish
tunes in the
Lithuanian
village
of Keidanai in the summer of 1899.
Melngailis'
most
active
period
of
collecting
was the 1920s and 1930s,
but he continued
collecting
until 1941, by
which time he had about
4,500
tunes at his
disposal.
In addition to about
4,350
Latvian tunes,
he had also collected music of
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 49
the
Russian, Belorussian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Jewish, Gypsy
and Liv
minorities
living
in
Latvia.4
As a writer on music
Melngailis
left behind a
large
number of articles
describing
his
collecting trips
which are
exciting
literature,
though
not
exactly
scholarly
studies.
They
lack a sense of distance between the observer and
the
subject,
methodicalness and thematic
purposefulness.
Folk music was
one of the most
important
sources of
Melngailis'
own
compositions
and the
signpost
in his search for national
identity
in music. His
approach
to
collecting
was therefore that of an artist.
Moreover,
he considered himself
a member of the folk culture and his own attitudes and
knowledge
as a
continuation of those of the
people.
This
self-perception
can
perhaps explain
why
he sometimes ventured to
"improve"
the tunes he transcribed. From
1951 to 1953 three
large
volumes of
Melngailis'
Folklore Materials
of
Latvian
Music,
containing
thousands of
items,
were
published.5
Material is
arranged
according
to
geographic principles.
In
general,
the
transcriptions by
Melngailis
lack the
quality
of those made
by Jurjins.
Nevertheless,
thanks
to him we are able to know
something
about the folk music of different
regions
within Latvia in the first half of the twentieth
century. Especially
significant
is his contribution to the collection of the folk music of
Latgale
(in
southeastern
Latvia),
which was almost untouched
by Jurjdns.
During
this
period
one can trace the
development
from
sporadic,
short
articles in the 1920s and
early
1930s to the more extensive contributions
of the mid-1930s to 1940s. In relation to this
development
in
scope,
I should
mention the
composer
and scholar
Jekabs
Graubii'
(1886-1961).
From
1933 to 1950 he wrote a number of contributions on different
subjects:
overview studies of a
general
character
showing
the basic features of Latvian
folk music and
giving
evidence of the
progress
made in research
(e.g., 1935a),
studies on metrics and
rhythmics (e.g., 1935b)
and others.
Graubii
is the
author of the first
investigation
on a distinct local
style,
Folk
Songs of
the Talsi
Area
(1935c).6
His most
important
and last
work,
The
Song
Nest
of Grievalta,
was written from 1949 to 1950. The author himself has
unpretentiously
described this book as "folk
songs
collected in
Grievalta,
with comments"
(Berziga
1989:
114).
In
fact,
this is a
large
collection and multi-dimensional
study
based on the
repertoire
of a
single area,
giving
detailed historical
background
about the
songs
and their variants and
describing
both
genres
and the use of folk tunes in art music.
Graubipg
pays special
attention to
the
biographies
and characteristics of the
singers.
This is connected to one
of the main
concepts
behind his work: the
investigation
of the influence of
human
individuality
on
style, personal repertoire
and
change
in music. This
anthropocentric emphasis
in The
Song
Nest was a new feature in Latvian folk
music research and a
completely strange
and
unacceptable
trait for the Soviet
music
folklorists
of that time.
They
after all denied the role of the
personality
and defined folklore and folk music
simply
as the
products
and
expressions
of a collective or social class. The
Song
Nest was the first
significant
investi-
gation
based on
immediate,
in the field observation
-
something
new in
the context of the
oppressive predominance
of armchair studies. This
work,
like several others written
by Graubid,
remains
unpublished.
His other
significant
achievement was the institutionalization of folk music as a
subject
of
study
at the Latvian
Conservatory
in
1938, also
becoming
the first
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50 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
professor
of this
subject.
Little is known about his
style
as a
teacher;
there
are some indications that he has made references to the Kulturkreislehre in
his
lectures,
but his
writings
do not reveal a serious influence of this
theory.
The third
outstanding representative
of this
epoch
is the scholar and
composer
Jfilijs
Sprogis (1887-1972),
who was influenced
by
the Finnish
school of folklore
study.
This can be seen in both of his works
(1941, 1943),
especially
in Tunes
of
the Summer Solstice
Songs,
the first
monograph
devoted
to a
single genre
in the
history
of Latvian folk music research. It
gives
structural characteristics of the
ligo-tunes (melodies
of the summer solstice
songs),
describes the contexts of
performance
and - also a first in Latvian
folk music
study
- contains a
chapter
on
comparative aspects. Sprogis
believed that he had found in the
ligo-tunes many
traces of the
"travelling
melodies" of different centuries:
popular
Catholic
hymns,
some old French
and German folk
songs,
Russian
biliny,
etc. His second
work,
Ancient Musical
Instruments and the Melodies
of
Work and Ceremonial
Songs
in
Latvia,
was never
published
and is
only
known in some
proof copies. (The publication
was
suppressed by
the German
occupation powers.)
This book
actually
contains
two different
studies, including
the first modern contribution on Latvian
folk musical instruments.
Descriptions
of their construction and use is
accompanied by
accounts of the
early
written
sources, history
of the
instruments,
their international
contexts, mythological backgrounds,
and
transcribed
examples
of
repertoire.
In the mid-1930s the first
scholarly
edition
concerning
folk dance
appeared:
Latvian Folk Dance
(in
four
volumes) by Johanna
Rinks
(1893-1982)
and
Janis
O's
(1890-1937) (Rinks
and O's
1934-1936).
This edition contains
a theoretic
introduction,
a collection of 33 dances described in detail and
with
piano accompaniment,
and an
explanation
of the
principles
of
classification and the creation of
periods
in the fourth volume. The book
by
Elza
Siliga (1895-1988),
Latvian Dance
(1939),
examines the
early
written
sources,
folklore and
ethnographic
materials
concerning
dance,
giving
descriptions
as well of their traditional contexts. The author offers a
general
division of Latvian folk dances into three basic classes:
1)
dances connected
with
(heathen)
cults and/or
having mythical backgrounds; 2)
ritual dances
of the human life
cycle (christening, wedding, funeral);
and
3)
dances of
the annual
cycle.
The book does not contain detailed
descriptions
of
any
dances.
The 1940s were a time of
political
and social disaster. For Latvian folk
music
study
it was a decade of deformation in its course of
development.
Torpidity
set in
and,
after
1945,
a
period
of transition to the Soviet
style
of research
began.7
However,
because the same scholars and collectors are
active
during
this decade as the
preceding
two,
I
put
them all
together
as
one
period.
The main task of the communist
regime
in science and research
after 1945 was the introduction of Marxist
methodology. According
to this
methodology,
almost the
only accepted aspect
of
study
was the class character
of traditional
culture,
folklore and folk music. A
subject
of
special support
in the second half of the 1940s and 1950s was the collection of
something
that did not exist: so-called "Soviet
folklore," namely,
the "folk
songs"
about Stalin and Lenin, communism, revolution,
one's
happy
life under
communism,
etc. Collectors were forced to create falsifications in order to
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 51
fulfil this task and because of their fear of
repression.
Another trend of this
time was a selection
process among
scholars in order to isolate those who
refused to follow the communist
ideology
or who
simply
seemed to be
ideologically suspect.
Let us trace the fates of the three above-mentioned
representatives
of the second
generation
of Latvian folk music researchers.
Melngailis
was chosen to be the favourite of the Soviet
regime.
His field
tours
(1940
and
1941)
and
publications
received considerable financial and
other
support.
Of
course, Melngailis
was
expected
to
express
his
loyalty
to
the communist
powers.
The
regime
had made the
right
choice:
arrogance
and ambition hindered the
elderly
man from
truly comprehending
the
situation. In 1945
Melngailis
was awarded the title of "Folk Artist of the
Latvian SSR." On the other
hand,
one must realize that resistance to the
support
of the
regime
would have cost
Melngailis
much: he could have been
repressed
or ousted and his collection
forgotten
or
perhaps
even
destroyed.
Graubij,
the most talented of the three
scholars,
experienced
an unlike
fate. He became one of the more than
200,000
Latvians who were
repressed
by
the
regime.
In the
spring
of 1949 the
composer
and scholar was dismissed
from the
Conservatory.
He was arrested in the
spring
of
1950,
condemned
by
a troika and
deported.
Graubips'
returned from Siberia in 1955 and was
rehabilitated,
since "Khrushchev's Thaw" had set in
by
this time.
But,
as
was characteristic of the
regime,
in
spite
of his
rehabilitation,
access to
research and a
professorship
remained closed to him forever.
Sprogis
was not
deported
but
managed
to remain in Latvia.
However,
he was considered
ideologically suspect and,
until his death in
1972,
was
excluded from research
projects.
The Later Post-War Period
From the
early
1950s until 1977 the foremost
authority
in the field of folk
music
scholarship
was
JEkabs
Vitolipvs
(1898-1977).
From 1938 to 1962 he
was a
professor
at the Latvian
Conservatory
and from 1946 until his death
a researcher at the Folklore
Department
of the
Academy
of Sciences. There
are two main directions in
Vitolipg'
work.
First,
he
attempts
to define in
a
comprehensive way
the
general
characteristics of Latvian folk music. His
studies cover all the basic
aspects: rhythm, form, melodics,
genres,
the
relationship
between text and
melody,
the division of folk music into historical
or
stylistic strata,
polyphony,
and others
(e.g.,
Vitoligpv
1959, 1960,
1972).
The second direction of his activities
lay
in the
publishing
of collected folk
music. All five volumes of the series Latvian Folk Music that have been
published
to the
present
were
compiled
under his
guidance. Every
volume
is devoted to a
single genre
or
group
of
genres:
Work
Songs (1958;
757
items),
Wedding Songs (1968;
1,475
items),
Children's
Songs Cycle.
Funeral
Songs (1971;
901
items),
and Traditional
Songs of
the Annual
Cycle (1973; 1,492
items).
In
1986,
nine
years
after the death of
Vitolip's,
the fifth volume of the series
was
published, Matchmaking Songs (1986;
1,756
items),
which had been
completed by
him in the 1970s.
Together,
these volumes
represent
the
largest
edition of Latvian folk music and are
indispensable
for its
study. They
are
based on the collections of
Jurjins
and
Melngailis
and much of the other
material archived in the Folklore
Department.
Each volume
begins
with a
general
introduction in Latvian and Russian that
gives insights
into the
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52 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
traditional
contexts,
performance,
local
variety
in
tunes, sources,
analysis
of tonal
structures, form,
and other factors.
Vitolig'
is also the author of
what is
up
to now the most
thorough
work on a
single
local
style
(Vitolig's
1955).
His article "Die lettischen Hirtenlieder"
(1967) presents
the
characteristics and a
typology
of this
genre and,
for the first time in Latvian
folk music
research,
includes as a
special subject
of
study
the vocal
signaling
used
by shepherds.
His book Folk
Song
in Latvian Music
(1970)
examines the
role and influence of folk music in Latvian art music from a historical
point
of view.
The
comparative
trend of the 1950s to 1980s is
represented by
the
composer, musicologist,
and
professor
of the Latvian
Conservatory
from
1948 to
1991,
Max Goldin
(b. 1917).
He
published
a number of studies
between 1958 and 1983 that were devoted to contacts between Latvian folk
music and folk music of the
neighbouring
countries of
Russia, Byelorussia,
Lithuania and Estonia
(e.g.,
Goldin
1961, 1965,
1972).
His articles and
books can be
easy
used as a list of
borrowings
and
descriptions
of similarities
and common features.
They
do not
expose
the forms and manners of
interaction between the
styles
and lack the historical and social contexts of
the
borrowings.
Another researcher at the Folklore
Department
at the
Academy
of
Sciences,
Vilis Bendorfs
(b. 1941),
has
published
a series of
short,
elegant
essays
based on field observations. His
significant
article "The Influence
of Latvian
Language Prosody
on Folk
Song
Melodics"
appeared
in 1977.
In his work Bendorfs has discovered some of the basic
principles
involved
in the interaction between
phonetics
and melodics in Latvian recitative
songs.
The
archaeologist
Vladislavs
Urtdns
(1921-1990) published
in 1970 the
first
purely music-archaeological study,
The Oldest Musical Instruments in the
Territory of Latvia,
which examines all the
music-archaeological
discoveries
that were at the
disposal
of the researchers of that time.
A
significant
achievement in folk dance research was marked
by
the
appearance
in 1966 of the volume Latvian Folk Dance
Accompanied by Singing
by Harijs
Stina
(b. 1923).
This elaborate work contains an
investigation
on elements and constructions of the folk
dance,
a collection of 65 dances
and
commentary
to them. Each of the dances is
accompanied
with its versions
and variants
(all together
3,412
choreographic items).8 Suina,
the foremost
authority
in Latvian folk dance for more than three decades and researcher
at the
Department
of Folklore since
1959,
has still been
actively researching
in recent
years.
His book Latvian Traditional
Choreography appeared
in
1991,
which deals with the historical and
stylistic
stratification of folk dance while
proposing
a
typology
for dance as well. In the
early
1960s
Suina developed
an
original
dance
notation,
fixing
dance movements in horizontal and vertical
projections (see
1966 and
1979).
From the
beginning
his idea has been to
develop
a notation suitable for use in the
computer.
Several times he has
returned to this
subject
to
improve
his notation.
The central institution of this
period
is the
Department of
Folklore
of
the Institute
of Language
and
Literature,
which was a substructure of the former
Academy
of Sciences of the Latvian SSR.9 This institution has carried out folklore
expeditions
with the task of
collecting
folklore and folk music since 1947.
This
work,
with the
exception
of an
interruption
between 1980 and 1985,
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 53
has been continued to the
present.'0
Between
May
1945 and 1990 about
14,000 newly
transcribed musical items were
archived;
the total number
of
transcriptions
has now reached more than
30,000.
A
large
collection of
recordings
has also been built
up by
the
Department.
From the
early
1950s
to 1972 about
3,000
items were recorded on
tape,
and from 1973 to 1980
an
average
of ten to fifteen hours of new
recordings
were added to the
collection each
year.
Since 1985 290 hours of audio
recordings
and about
60 hours of video
recordings
have been made. The series Latvian Folk Music
mentioned earlier is a
publication
of the
Department.
It is not
easy
to
exactly
define the end of this
period.
At
any
rate,
it is
clear that from the death of
Vitoliglp
in 1977 until 1983 almost no
impor-
tant
publications,
new ideas or names
appeared,"
whereas after 1982 a new
situation
began
to
develop.
In
retrospect,
one must
recognize
that this
post-war period, despite
the
unfavourable
conditions,
can on no account be called unsuccessful.
During
this
time,
after
all,
several
major publications appeared concerning
folk music
and
dance,
and institutional work continued. On the other
hand,
one has
to
acknowledge
that even the studies of the 1970s still show
many
features
of
early ethnomusicological
research. Still of
importance,
for
instance,
are
both the
opinion
that folk music is
only
a
stage
in the
general development
of music - a
stage
that is
already nearing
an end - as well as the belief
in the existence of a
universally predetermined
scheme or direction of
development.
Another feature is the
priority
of the
transcription
over the
recording: recordings (if
made at
all)
are mere
supplements
to the
transcrip-
tions. Of
course,
one can
imagine
that such attitudes
deeply
influence the
style
of research and documentation.
Furthermore,
we can still observe in
this
period
the
tendency
to collect items without
paying enough
attention
to the
terminological, anthropological
and other contexts of the collected
music.
Striking
is the
predominance
of such
collecting
over field work
(in
the sense of modern
anthropology
and
ethnomusicology),
as well as the
absolute
predominance
of armchair studies.
The answer to the
question
of
why
this was so is
quite easy.
First of
all,
the more than
40-year-long
isolation from Western
ethnomusicology played
an
important
role. The basic
ethnomusicological
literature
-
books
by
Merriam, Nettl, Hood,
Blacking
and others
-
remained unknown in Latvia
until the mid-1980s. Latvian folk music research was
prohibited
from
developing alongside
worldwide
ethnomusicology
since the
1940s,
and this
was a
purposeful policy
of the Soviet
regime.
The isolation of
Latvia,
as
well as Estonia and
Lithuania,
was
especially thorough
because of the ticklish
history
of the
incorporation
of the Baltic States into the Soviet
empire
in
1940,
and because these states were never
recognized by
the democratic world
to be a
legitimate part
of the Soviet Union. So until the mid-1980s
ethnomusicology
in
Latvia,
like
many
other fields in that
country,
was
simply
excluded from
developing
international contacts. Another reason lies in the
insufficient
recognition
of folk music research as an
independent
field of
study
in
Latvia;
it has
always
been considered
only
a subsection of either
general
musicology
or folklore studies. The result was an
oppressive methodological,
intellectual and institutional
dependence upon
these
disciplines.
At the same
time, anyone
who knows
something
about the
history
of
European
ethno-
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54 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
musicology
also knows
very
well that the above-mentioned criticisms also
can be
easily applied
to folk music
study
in
many
countries where conditions
were much more favourable between 1940 and 1980 than in Latvia.
Before we review the research that has taken
place
since
1982,
we should
examine two earlier factors that are
important
for
understanding develop-
ments in the 1980s. The first is a
strong, extra-scholarly factor,
the
folk
music
revival movement. The historical roots of this movement date back to the late
nineteenth
century.
In the late
1970s,
exactly during
the afore-mentioned
standstill in Latvian
ethnomusicology,
this revival movement
experienced
a sudden and
strong
boom.
12
The new
impulse
to the movement derived
from the idea that folk music in its
original
forms had a distinct value
per
se,
and should not be considered as
merely
a
stage
in the
general development
of music or as
simply
a source for art
music.13
At the same time the movement
was an
initially latent,
then later
open protest
movement
against
Soviet
political policies
of Russification and
assimilation;
the assertion of national
identity
and its
preservation
became an associated issue. A
large
number
of small folk music
groups appeared
which tried to
copy precisely
the
styles
used
by
folk
singers
in the
countryside: "authenticity"
and "back to the
roots" were the catchwords of the movement from the late 1970s to
mid-1980s. The
regime
watched this movement with astonishment and
guardedness,
for it was the first
spontaneous
mass movement to
appear
in
Latvia since the Soviet
occupation
and
attempts
to
bring
it under state control
were unsuccessful. The
government began
to
recognize
the movement as
its
enemy,
and in this it was not mistaken.
During
the era of
perestroika
and
the
subsequent Singing Revolution,
many participants
of the folk music
revival movement
played leading
roles in the liberation
process,
and the
movement's
meetings
and festivals were
highly significant
events in this
process.
To a
great
extent it was thanks to this movement that the revolution
became a
singing
one. New
public
attitudes and the
growth
of interest
towards folk music were a
significant impetus
for the further
development
of
ethnomusicology.
There is
hardly
a Latvian
ethnomusicologist
of the
younger generation
who has not
"gone through"
this movement.
The second
important
factor to influence later work is the
parallel
existence
after World War II of Latvian
ethnomusicology developing
in the West.14
Of
course,
research conducted
by
Latvian scholars
living
in exile had
many
handicaps. During
the Soviet era such
people
could not visit
Latvia,
work
in its
archives,
conduct field work or contact
colleagues
there.
Nevertheless,
several scholars
living
abroad made some
important
contributions to the
study
of Latvian music. In 1956 the
composer Volfgangs
Darzins
(1906-1962)
published
an article on the
typology
of Latvian vocal folk music called "The
Types
and Peculiarities of Latvian Folk
Songs."
This
study
marks the
beginning
of Western Latvian folk music research. Some
years
later "Die
lettische Volksmusik aus der Sicht der kulturhistorischen
Gegebenheiten
des
baltischen Raumes"
(1959) by Longins Apkalns (b. 1923) appeared,
which
is an
attempt
to view Latvian folk music in a broad
historical,
cultural and
geographical
context. Karl Brambats
(b. 1924),
a
specialist
in Baltic folk
music who had moved to
Hamburg
after World War II and had been a
student of H.
Hickmann, began
in the late 1960s to
publish
articles on
Latvian folk music and instruments. His work Die
lettische Volkspoesie
in
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 55
musikwissenschaftlicher
Sicht
(1969) represents
a new
approach
to the ethno-
musicological
information contained in the
dainas,
the texts of Latvian folk
songs.
Particularly
since
1982,
we can
perceive greater activity
in Latvian
ethnomusicology
abroad. In that
year
the
study Einfriihes Zeugnis livliindischen
Singens by
Brambats was
published,
which concerns
early
written sources
of Latvian folk music. The doctoral thesis of Irana Dunkele
(b. 1916),
Zur
Struktur der lettischen Volkslieder
"Put,
vfjirgi.
"
Ein
Lied in Tradition und
Expansion
seit
1800, appeared
in Stockholm in 1984. This is a
unique
book in Latvian
ethnomusicological literature,
since it is devoted to a
single song
and its
versions
(both
text and
melody)
and examines them from
many synchronic
and diachronic
aspects.
The article "The Problem of
Classifying
Latvian
Folk Music"
by Andrejs Jansons (b. 1938)
was
published
in 1983 and is
a
summary
of his doctoral
thesis."5
Joachim
Braun
(b. 1929),
now Director of the
Musicological
Institute of
Bar-Ilan
University (Israel),
met an
original
fate. In the 1950s and 1960s
he
developed
an elaborate and innovative
approach
to the
early history
of
musical instruments and instrumental
music,
an
approach combining
data
from
archaeology,
historical
sources,
linguistics (onomastics, etymology)
and
social
history.
This
represented
a new trend in
organology
and his first studies
were
published
in Latvia
(Braun 1962a,
1962b).
When,
in the summer of
1971,
he declared his intention to
emigrate
to
Israel,
his most
significant
ethno-organological contribution,
Die
Anfiinge
des
Musikinstrumentenspiels
in
Lettland
(German
version: Braun
1972)
was withdrawn from the
already
printed
ninth volume of the series
Latviesu
mazika
(Latvian Music). (The
volume was
destroyed
and
printed
anew without the article of
Braun;
all
his
writings
were
subsequently
removed from
libraries.)
In 1985 Braun and
Brambats
compiled
a
bibliography
of Latvian
musicology
called Selected
Writings
on Latvian Music. The
chapter "Ethnomusicology"
lists 88 biblio-
graphical items,
while the
chapter "Organology" comprises
16 items.
After
1982
This
period
is characterized
by
a
pluralism
of
approaches
and trends. Some
of the thematic trends of the mid- and late 1980s include: folk musical
instruments,
ancient folk music in the context of
early
ethnic
history,
folk
songs
of later
origin, non-European music,
the
study
of
Jewish
folk
music,
the
history
of folk music research and the role of folk music in culture.
During
the
previous period,
folk instruments had been
largely neglected
as
objects
of
study.
This
period
of
neglect
was
brought
to an end in 1983
by
the
monograph
of
ethnographer
Irisa Priedite
(b. 1944)
entitled What
was
Played
in Ancient Times. "What were the most ancient
instruments,
what
was their function in the
peoples'
lives and in their
development?
And what
do we know about their constructors and
players?" (1983: 5)
-
such are
the main
questions
that the author addresses in her book. Priedite
published
in 1988 a
complete catalogue
that she had
compiled
of instruments collected
in the museums of Latvia. Folk Musical Instruments comprises 653 items,
including archaeological
collections as well as
cartograms showing every
class
of
organological
material.'6
The book
by
Valdis
Muktuplvels (b. 1958),
Folk
Instruments in the
Territory of
the Latvian SSR
(1987) gives
an overview of
types,
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56 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
origins, development, construction,
playing techniques
and
repertoire.
His
classification
system
is based on the
principles developed by
Ernst Emsheimer
and Erich Stockmann for the
project
Handbuch
der
europdischen
Volksmusik-
instrumente. The
study by Muktupdvels
and Arnolds
Klotipg
(b. 1934)
called
Latvian
Folk Instruments and the Semantics
of
Their Use in Kr.
[Krijdanis]
Barons'
"Latvju
Dainas'"
(1985; Engl.
version:
Klotipi
and
Muktupdvels
1989)
is the first
computer-aided study
of Latvian folk instruments. It
continues and
develops
the
topics
and
approaches
initiated
by
Brambats in
his 1969 article and
partly
the ideas of Braun as well. An
important
new
element in this work is that it
goes beyond
mere
ethno-organological
infor-
mation. As the authors
write,
this work
provides
more than
merely ethno-organological
information. The
contexts
relating
to narrative
topics, mythology,
and
magic,
the
situations in which instruments are
used,
as well as the occasional
poetic commentary
on instruments and their
application
- all this
helps
. . . to
gain insight
into the world view of those who
originated
the dainas
(1989: 206).
One of the most
popular
themes in the mid- to late 1980s was ethno-
historical
aspects
of an ancient
style
or ancient strata of folk music - the
probable
connections between musical
phenomena,
their distribution and
processes
of
early
ethnic
history
such as
migration,
inter-ethnic
contact,
assimilation,
etc. In the 1970s and 1980s
significant progress
was made
by
Russian and Lithuanian
linguists
and
archaeologists, together
with Latvian
anthropologists,
in the
investigation
of the role of Old Balts
(the
ethnic
ancestors of
Latvians,
Lithuanians and Old
Prussians)
in the
early
ethnic
and cultural
history
of Eastern and Western
Europe.
The
larger public
enthusiastically
received the results of these studies and
parts
of them were
spontaneously reinterpreted
into a form that could be called the contem-
porary
Latvian
mythology.
This
"mythology"
is one of the factors in the
redefinition of national
identity
that took
place during
the 1980s.
This ethnohistorical trend in folk music research was a
response,
on the
one
hand,
to the
progress
made in
linguistics, archaeology
and other fields
that offered
exciting hypotheses regarding early migrations
and contacts.
At the same time the
public
interest in ancient times and old ethnic
symbols
still
living
in the
contemporary
culture also
spurred
such folk music research.
Drone
singing,
the emblem of Latvian national cultural
identity
in
music,
was often chosen to be the
subject
of these studies and for
good
reason. Drone
singing
is considered one of the earliest forms of Latvian vocal
polyphony,
and it has
interesting
correlations in those
European
areas where there are
indications of
early
ethnic contact with the Balts. This thematic trend was
common
during
the 1980s for Latvian
ethnomusicology
in the homeland
as well as abroad. In 1983 Brambats
published
the
article,
"The Vocal Drone
in the Baltic Countries: Problems of
Chronology
and
Provenance."17
He
came to the conclusion that the
Baltic,
Balkan and
Georgian
drones are off-
shoots of a
very
old common root. Bendorfs defines the
question
more
broadly.
In his article "On the Interrelation between Baltic and Balkan Areas
of the Folk
Polyphony" (1986)
he concludes that not
only
Latvian drone
singing
but also other forms of Baltic vocal
polyphony (that is,
Lithuanian
sutartines
polyphony
and Estonian
polyphony
of the Setumaa
area)
have direct
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 57
parallels
in the Balkan. Thus we find
correspondences
of a
complex
nature
that cannot be accidental and which most
probably
date back to the
period
of contact between ancestors of the Balts and the
paleo-Balkanians,
who at
that time lived in
neighbouring regions.
Martin Boiko
(b. 1960),
lecturer
at the Latvian
Academy
of
Music,
published
a
study
called "Ethnohistorical
Aspects
of Latvian Drone
Singing"
in 1990 which dealt with similarities
between different forms of Latvian vocal drone and those of South
Byelorussia
and Western Russia.
One of the characteristic features of Latvian folklore and folk music
research since their
beginnings
is the idea of
purism, namely
a
thorough
segregation
of vocal music into two
parts:
classic folk
songs
and
zies,
songs
of later
origin
that for a
long
time were not considered to be folk
songs
at all.
Ziqes (<
Germ.
singen) belong
to a musical stratum common for
several countries of the Baltic Sea area. Since the era of the National
Awakening
these
songs
have been
reproached
for
triviality
and lack of
national character.
They
were excluded from the national cultural
heritage
and almost
completely ignored by
researchers.
(The development
of a
zizes
catalogue
in the Latvian Folklore
Repository
in the late 1920s and
1930s is an
exception.) Among researchers,
only
Graubips
has
paid
attention to this
phenomenon.
In the 1980s
ziqes
became one of the main
subjects
of
study by Zaiga
Sneibe
(b. 1949),
a researcher at the Folklore
Department.
She is author of the first article
published
to the
present
on
the later folk
song,
called
"Zipe.
The
Origin
and
Development
of
Melodics"
(1988).
It deals with the definition of the notion of
ziqe,
the
fate of this
style
in the
history
of Latvian
culture,
the influence of the classic
folk
songs
on it and its influence on Latvian
contemporary popular
music.
The
study
Latvian Musical Folklore
of
Late
Origin,
which is
largely
devoted
to the
origins,
sources and
development
of
zizges,
was
completed
in 1987
by
Goldin
(1987b).
Serious interest in
non-European
music was awakened in Latvia
during
the 1980s
largely
thanks to the enthusiasm of Boris Avramets
(b. 1949).
From
1982 to 1986 and then
again
since 1991 he has
given
a
general
course in
ethnomusicology
and introductions to
Indian, African,
Southeastern Asian
and American music at the Latvian
Academy
of Music. He earned his Ph.D.
at the Vilnius
Conservatory
in 1990 with a thesis entitled The Main Traits
of
the Music Culture
of Ethiopia,
which was the first work devoted to non-
European
music in the
history
of Latvian
ethnomusicology.
It is the first
attempt
to
investigate
the music culture of
Ethiopia
as an
integral system
including
different musical traditions. This work traces
developments
from
the Aksum era to the transformation
processes
of the twentieth
century.
A
special emphasis
was
placed
on the music of the
Ethiopian Monophisite
Church. Avramets has
prepared
radio and TV broadcast series on the
traditional music of the world's
peoples
and has
published
a
great
number
of studies on Indian and African
music,
as well as
methodological
works.
One
example
of his work is his article "The Main
Stylistic
Features of
Dhrupad
Performance in
Dagar VWni Practice,"
which deals with essential
factors of
drupad performance
and asserts its
viability
as an art form
(Avramets
1988).
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58 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
Goldin,
a
specialist
in the folk music of East
European Jews, published
a series of articles
during
the 1980s
dealing
with the common features and
connections between
Jewish
folk music and the folk musics of the
Ukraine,
Moldavia and
Germany (see
Goldin
1983, 1984,
1985).
This
appeared
in
1989 in Massachusetts as the
comprehensive
work On Musical Connections
Between
Jews
and the
Neighboring Peoples of
Eastern and Western
Europe.
His
Anthology of Jewish
Folk
Song (completed
in
1987)
has been submitted for
publication
in St.
Petersburg.
This
Anthology (1987a;
285 items with
versions)
is
mainly
based on
already published sources,
but contains about 50 new
variants transcribed
by
the author from Latvian
Jews.
It includes an
introduction and detailed comments on
every song
and variant.
The book of Vizbulite
Birzipa
(b. 1929),
The
Way of
the Folk
Song (1989),
traces the role of the folk
song
in Latvian culture from the historical and
synthetic viewpoints, namely
the
history
of
public
attitudes toward folk music
and the collection and use of folk music in art music. She
provides
an
introduction to the
development
of the revival movement in the late 1970s
and 1980s as well.
Of
course,
the traditional
subjects
of research have also not been
forgotten
since the 1980s. In addition to the above-mentioned thematic
trends,
a
number of contributions deal with the
chronology,
structure and functions
of Latvian classic folk
song (e.g.,
Bendorfs
1992,
Krfimipg
1988,
Sneibe
1991).
Thus the mid- and late 1980s
brought
new
ideas,
names and
writings.
And new contacts as well. The second half of the decade was
already
a time
of
change
in the
European political
situation. Due to those
changes,
member-
ship
in the International Council for Traditional Music and the
European
Seminar for
Ethnomusicology
has become available to Latvian ethnomusi-
cologists
since the late 1980s. Since
1990,
thanks to the
support by
Western
institutions and
colleagues, regular participation
of Latvians at ICTM and
ESEM conferences is now feasible. These new contacts have become a
very
important
factor in the current
development
of
ethnomusicological thought
in Latvia. Of the former Soviet
republics,
Latvia is one of the best
represented
both in ICTM and ESEM. At the same time Latvians maintain
good
contacts with their Lithuanian and Estonian
colleagues.
The same can be
said about the contacts with Eastern
colleagues
that were established in the
1980s,
thanks to the Folk Music Board
of
the USSR
Composers'
Union
(1972-1991)
and its leaders Edward
Alexeyev
and
Evgenija
Andreeva.
In the final
part
of this article I would like to summarize a few charac-
teristics of the current
ethnomusicological landscape
of Latvia in the
early
1990s, particularly
that
country's
folk music and the institutions that deal
with it.
First of all I must stress
that,
in
spite
of
wars, deportations, repressions,
and so
on,
in some rural districts of Latvia the old work and
wedding songs
are still a
part
of the
repertoire
of the older
singers
and are
occasionally
still
used in ceremonies. This is true of the southwestern and
especially
the
southeastern
regions
of
Latvia, where,
due to various historical and social
reasons,
the folk traditions have been better maintained than in other areas.
Since the late 1980s
significant changes
have taken
place
in the folk
song
revival movement. It has lost its
political significance.
Common aesthetics
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 59
and a national
protest ideology
no
longer
exist
-
those
very
factors that
had unified the movement. Life has become
quite pluralistic
now.
Every
ensemble has its own
style.
A broad
spectrum
of different
synthetic
phenomena
have
emerged,
for
instance, syntheses
between Latvian folk
music on the one hand and rock
music,
some
styles
of Lithuanian folk music
and
non-European
music on the other. Pluralism and individualization of
styles
are not the
only
new features. One of the most
important
trends
is
that the movement has become multi-ethnic. This is the result of the new
politics
of cultural
autonomy
for our national
minority groups.8"
Their ethnic
music is a
very important
factor in the
identity
of these
groups
and one can
observe a
great diversity
in the
ways
different minorities use their folk music.
For
example,
the
pupils
of the Russian Grammar School in
Riga try
to
imitate the so-called authentic
style:
to do
everything
as the old Russian
singers
in the
countryside.
The
Jewish
children's and
youth ensemble,
"Kinnor,"
takes another
path: Jewish
folk
songs
are the source of
inspiration
for the
arrangements
and
compositions
of the conductor and
composer
Michael Leinwand.
The number of institutions
dealing
with folk music has increased
considerably
since the end of the 1980s
-
a rather
surprising development
considering
the hard economic conditions of this
period.
The Collection
of
Folk Music Audio
Recordings
at the Music
Department of
Latvian Radio was
developed by
the
ethnomusicologist
and music editor Gita Lancere
(b. 1965).
Since 1989
special
field work tours have been
organized by
this Music
Department
in order to record interviews and music and so far about 90
hours of audio
recordings
have been collected.
(Since
the mid-1980s several
series on folk music have been broadcast and
non-European
music can be
heard more or less
regularly
since 1987 on Latvian
Radio.)
The
Repository of
the Folklore
Recordings of
the
Krija-nis
Barons
Museum
contains about 500 hours of audio
recordings
that have been collected since
1986. The
Repository
is
managed by
Valdis
Jurkovskis (b. 1966)
and has
a
computerized catalogue.
An
independent
Folk Music Center is led
by Miris
Jansons (b. 1962).
In
1993 he
began
extensive
collecting
and his archives now contain more than
150 hours of audio and about 30 hours of video
recordings.
The Center
produces
musical instruments and folklore films.
Special
attention is
paid
to the collection and documentation of folk dance. The activities of the Center
are oriented toward the
popularization
of folk music and dance
among
the
general public
and
support
of their inclusion in educational
programs.
Jansons
also
organizes practical
courses of instrumental music and
singing.
The Archives
of
Folk Music
Recordings of
the Latvian
Academy of
Music was
founded in 1990 and was led until 1993
by
Boiko.
Emphasis
was
placed
on the detailed research of traditional contexts and the
anthropological
dimension of folk music. To this
end,
lengthy
interviews with
singers
and
players
were recorded. In the collaboration with Latvian
Radio,
100 hours
of audio and 50 hours of video
recordings
of
Latvian,
Russian and
Byelorussian singers
have been made.
Also founded in
1990,
the Latvian Oriental Music Center was established to
acquaint
the
general public
with Asian and African music and dance and
to
promote
scientific and educational activities in this field. The
Center,
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60 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
whose chairman is
Avramets,
arranges meetings, seminars,
lectures and
workshops
on Asian and African music and dance.
The Center
for
Ethnic Studies
of
the Latvian
University,
founded in
1992,
is
led
by ethno-choreologist
Ernests
Spiis (b. 1955).
The Center works out
guidelines
for folklore education in schools oriented toward
learning through
action and
participation.
Traditional culture is
interpreted
as a
syncretic
unit;
an
approach integrating music,
choreography,
narrative
genres,
ceremonies,
ornaments and
symbols
has been evolved.
Ethnomusicology
is
represented by Muktupavels.
Developments
of the 1980s and
early
1990s offer
promise:
a new
intensity
and
diversity
of
ethnomusicological
activities has
already
been attained. At
the same time
ethnomusicology,
like
many
other areas of the humanities
and natural
sciences,
is
suffering
under the
generally
difficult
conditions
marking
the transition to a free market
economy.
Much of the
progress
that
has been
recently
achieved has been based on enthusiasm. And this
experience
shows that
simple
freedom in intellectual life can be
just
as or
even more
stimulating
for research than favourable
financial
and economic
conditions
-
particularly
if
previous
eras have lacked this freedom. At the
same
time,
one can
expect
that the
general
stabilization of the national
situation,
noticeable
already
since the summer of
1993,
will be
accompanied
by
the institutional and
financial
stabilization of Latvia's new centers and
archives. Stabilization and the
development
of international collaboration
are the basic
ingredients necessary
for further
progress
in Latvian
ethnomusicology.
NOTES
1.
The
struggle
of the Baltic
peoples
for
independence
from the USSR in the second half
of the 1980s is often called the
"Singing
Revolution" because of the
musicality
of the
non-violent
political meetings
and activities.
Singing
was an
important
form of demon-
strating
the
peoples'
will. The international folklore festival Baltica
88,
the 20th Latvian
Song
Festival in 1990
(with
37,000 participants)
and others became
significant
events on
the
way
to the rebirth of the Latvian state.
2. The earliest information on Latvian folk music dates back to the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. In the second edition of his
Cosmographiae (1550),
Sebastian
Miinster
relates
some observations on
singing
made
by
the
poet,
musician and
travellerJohannes
Hasent6ter
while in Livonia
(Miinster
1550:
787).
It contains
early iconographic
evidence of Latvian
instrumental music as
well,
such as a
picture showing
a
group
of werwolves and musicians
standing
around them
playing
a
hurdy-gurdy
and some other instruments which seem
to be a
bagpipe,
a lute and a
psaltery.
A
parson
from
Reval,
Balthasar
Russow,
in his
Chronica
der
Prouintz
Lyffland
... reported
in 1584 on the
bagpipe music, singing
and
dancing
that took
place during
the Summer Solstice Feast and other occasions
(Russow
1584:
42-43).
The first transcribed tune was
published
in Fridericus Menius'
Syntagma
de
origine
Livonorum
(1632),
which also contained the first mention of Latvian drone
singing (Menius
1632:
525-26).
In the late
eighteenth century
a man of the
Enlightenment, August
Wilhelm
Hupel,
made some comments on
improvised singing
and
drone,
and
published
two first
transcriptions
of this kind of Latvian vocal
polyphony
in the second and third volumes
of his book
Topographische
Nachrichten
von
Lief-
und
Ehstland (1777-1782).
3. The "National
Awakening" (tautiska atmoda)
movement
began
as the
larger
Latvian
community began
to
perceive
national
identity
as a value that deserved
special
care and
development. Arising
with the formation of a
strong
middle
class,
the movement worked
for a free
press
and the
promotion
of the national
language,
literature and art. One of
the most
important representatives
of the movement was the
folklorist, poet
and mathe-
matician
Kriji*nis
Barons
(1835-1923).
He devoted
many
decades of his life to the
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BOIKO LATVIAN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY / 61
collection of
dainas,
the Latvian folk
song texts,
and
compiled
them into the monumental
edition of
Latvju dainas, containing
217,966
items. The National
Awakening
movement
began
a
process
that ended with the
founding
of the democratic Latvian State in 1918.
4. The Livs are a small
Finno-Ugric
ethnic
group.
Their
origins,
like that of the
Latvians,
lie within the
territory
of Latvia.
Already
for
many
centuries Livs have been drawn into
a
mainly spontaneous process
of ethnic assimilation. In 1937 about
2,000
Livs lived in
several
fishing villages
on the northern coast of Kurzeme. At
present
there are
only
some
few dozen
people
of Livian
origin
in Latvia who are still able to
speak
the Livian
language.
Melngailis
also had made a small collection of Turkmen and Uzbek folk
music,
which
he collected between 1906 and 1920 while a teacher of German and
English
at the
military
school at Tashkent. This was
unfortunately
lost when he returned to Latvia in 1920.
5. These volumes were based on
Melngailis'
work of the 1920s to
early
1940s and
prepared
in the late
1940s,
so that
they
are mentioned here as a
part
of this
period.
6. This
genre
of research has not been
strongly developed
in Latvian folk music
study. Only
a few
examples
can be listed in addition to those
already
mentioned: Graubi4s
1950,
Kvelde
1955, Vitolipq
1955 and Beitine 1993.
7. After the
occupation
of the Baltic States
by
the Red
Army
in the summer of
1940,
the
rule of the Soviets was
replaced
in 1941
by
the German
occupation.
The second
period
of Soviet
occupation began
in 1945 when that
regime
returned.
8. The Latvian Folklore
Repository
now contains more than
26,000 choreographic
items.
9. The Institute of Folklore was founded in 1945 at the
Philological Faculty
of the Latvian
State
University
and was built
upon
the Latvian Folklore
Repository.
One
year
later it
became a substructure of the
newly organized Academy
of Sciences of the Latvian SSR.
In 1956 the Institute was reduced to the
Department
of Folklore of the Institute of
Language
and Literature within the same
Academy
of Sciences. Since 1992 the
Department
is
again
called the Latvian Folklore
Repository.
10. One of the characteristic features of the
collecting
work
organized by
the
Department
in the 1950s and 1960s was the involvement of
young composers.
Pauls Dambis
(b. 1936),
Aldonis Kalnins
(b. 1928), RomualdsJermaks (b. 1931),
Edmunds Goldsteins
(b. 1927)
-
all
important
names as
composers
of Latvian
contemporary
music - and several others
were enthusiastic collectors and their contact with folk music left
many
traces in their work.
11. An
exception
is some
publications
that
appeared
in connection with the celebration of
the 125th
anniversary
of the birth
ofJurjans
in 1981. At that
time,
for
example,
the facsimile
of the first volume of his Materials was
published
with a
lengthy
introduction written
by
Klotip?
and
commentary by
Bendorfs
(Klotip? 1981b;
Bendorfs
1981).
12. A similar
process
can be traced in this same
period
within Estonia and
Lithuania,
where
folk music revival movements also throve.
13. The new aesthetic
principles
and aims of the movement were defined
by musicologist
Arnolds
Klotipq (1978
and
1981a).
14. In 1944 about
240,000
Latvians were forced to seek
refuge
in the
West, among
them
many
of the
intelligentsia.
The nation and national culture thus was divided into two
parts.
The Soviet
regime
tried to
prevent any
contact between these two
parts.
Almost
all branches of Latvian culture are
represented
in a
strong
Western
immigrant community,
ethnomusicology
included.
15.
Jansons
defended his dissertation in 1986 at
Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA).
16. The
largest
collection of folk musical instruments is that of the
Latvian
Ethnographic Open-
Air Museum
(about
250
items).
17. This is an article
summarizing
a
larger
contribution from the
mid-1970s
(see
Brambats
1973-1974).
18. Since
independence,
national minorities in Latvia
enjoy
broad cultural
autonomy. They
have national schools
(financed by
the
state), associations, newspapers,
radio and TV
broadcasts, religious
institutions and
political parties.
There are
many
minorities
living
in Latvia:
Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Livs,
Armenians, Georgians, Gypsys
and others.
Together, they
make
up
about 46% of the
population.
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62 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
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64 / 1994 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC
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