(Latvija).
Country in eastern Europe. It is on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, founded in 1918. It was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940, although few other nations formally recognized this incorporation. The country regained its national independence in 1991.
JOACHIM BRAUN/ARNOLDS KLOTIŅŠ(I), MARTIN BOIKO (II)
The earliest evidence of musical life in what is now the territory of Latvia consists in some archaeological finds of end-blown flutes and strung rattles dating from the Neolithic period. By the end of the 1st millennium the tribes living in this area had developed a number of instruments, such as flutes with five finger-holes and the kokle, a type of plucked zither (see §2(iii) below). Although some professional elements were probably present, by the time of the Teutonic conquest in the 12th century the musical culture of the Baltic population was based on folk traditions (see §2 below).
While the Latvian population was reduced to serfdom and did not develop an art culture until the 19th century, the Germans developed their own, significant musical life; it was based mainly on German values and no local trend or school developed. Most musical activities were concentrated in the country’s capital, Riga. The Chronicon livoniae of Henricus de Lettis mentions the native population listening to Catholic mysteries as early as 1205. From the 14th century to the 16th, Riga’s musical life was that of a typical Hanseatic city with its Stadtmusikanten, companies of musicians and guilds. In the 16th century Lutheranism prevailed and German political supremacy came to an end. The first liturgical songbooks with Latvian texts were published in Königsberg (after 1945 Kaliningrad) in 1587 and in Riga in 1615. From the early 17th century Latvian musicians were participating in the active Polish and Czech music companies. From the 17th century to the 19th, city and country life were closely in touch with west European musical achievements; Riga’s collegium musicum, Musikalische Gesellschaft and City Theatre promoted musical activities. Another musical centre from the late 16th century was the court of the dukes of Kurzeme at Mitau (now Jelgava); musicians such as J. Fischer, F.A. Veichtner and J.A. Hiller were engaged at the court orchestra and opera.
In the 18th and 19th centuries many organs were installed in Latvian churches; some 250 historic instruments have been maintained to the present day. From the 18th century onwards significant numbers of virtuoso performers gave concerts in Jelgava and Riga, en route from Western Europe to St Petersburg. In the 18th century educated Latvian circles had close ties with the University of Königsberg. J.G. Herder, who was the first to publish Latvian folksongs in Western Europe, came from Königsberg to live in Riga between 1764 and 1769, as did the well-known music publisher J.F. Hartknoch (1740–89) and many other cultural and educational figures.
In the second half of the 19th century, against a background of Latvian national aspiration, a national school of Latvian music developed, of which Kārlis Baumanis was an early representative. He was the author of the text and music of the Latvian national hymn Dievs, svētī Latvijú (‘God bless Latvia’). Although Catholic and Lutheran liturgical music had deep roots in Latvia, its impact on Latvian music was limited to the early period when Jānis Cimze in particular was active in collecting and arranging folk music. Choral music was the form of art music that developed earliest and it has remained one of the most important genres. This is reflected in immense Latvian song festivals; the first of these took place in 1873, and they have continued in an uninterrupted tradition, held every five years on a specially constructed outdoor stage in Riga with as many as 15,000 participants. The 21st festival took place in 1993.
Early 19th-century music education in Latvia on a professional level was available only at some seminaries for teachers and music schools; conductors, composers and other musicians wanting more than a teaching diploma went abroad, mainly to St Petersburg. Latvian art music at the end of the 19th century, like other east European national schools, was strongly influenced by folk music. Most of the early Latvian composers (Andrejs Jurjāns, Jāzeps Vītols and Emīlis Melngailis) frequently used folksong quotations and arrangements. Another group (Alfrēds Kalniņš and Emīls Dārziņš) avoided direct quotations, but folk music characteristics are an integral part of their works.
The short life of the independent Latvian republic (1918–40) saw years of rapid growth: the Latvian National Opera was founded (the first Latvian opera, Baņuta by Alfrēds Kalniņš, was produced in 1920), as were the Latvian Conservatory, seven schools of music, the first permanent symphony orchestra (the Latvian RSO, 1926) and several chamber groups. Different musical styles flourished in those years: nationalist Romanticism (Jāzeps Vītols, Alfrēds Kalniņš and Jāzeps Mediņš), post-Wagnerism (Jānis Mediņš and Jānis Kalniņš) and impressionism (Jānis Ķepītis and Jānis Zālītis).
From 1940 music in Latvia came under Soviet control, and many musicians suffered repression or were forced to emigrate. Thus in 1944 a number of Latvian musicians and composers, including J. Vītols, J. Kalniņš and Jānis Mediņš, left Latvia and continued their work in the West. In the Latvian SSR some institutions were broadened (e.g. a chair of musicology was established at the conservatory) and some new ones were founded (the State Philharmonia, a composers’ union and a special musical high school). In 1948 Latvian music, like all Soviet music, was under heavy party criticism. Latvian composers experienced strong ideological pressure from the Communist Party, and many works were created of little or no lasting value. From the 1950s composers in Latvia were influenced by the postwar European avant garde; however, on the whole postmodernism in Latvian music has been tempered by a strong vein of neo-Romanticism and neo-classicism. The best-known Latvian composers at the end of the 20th century included Pauls Dambis (b 1936), Maija Einfelde (b 1939), Artūs Grīnups (1931–89), Imants Kalniņš (b 1941), Romualds Kalsons (b 1936), Juris Karlsons (b 1948), Pēteris Plakidis (b 1947), Pēteris Vasks (b 1946) and Imants Zenzaris (b 1951). Latvian composers working abroad included Ā. Ābele (1889–1967), Volfgangs Dārziņš (1906–62), Jānis Kalniņš (b 1904), Talivaldis Kenins (b 1919) and Gundaris Pone (1932–94).
Despite ideological constraints after World War II, the Latvian National Opera also renewed its activities, and was known as the State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Latvian SSR until 1990. Conductors in the years after 1944 included Leonīds Vīgners, Edgars Tons, Richards Glāzups and Aleksandrs Viļumanis. Between the 1960s and the 1980s the theatre’s repertory expanded to include 20th-century operas, among them many works by Latvian composers. Internationally known Latvian musicians of the postwar period include the conductors Arvīds Jansons, Mariss Jansons and Imants Kokars; the soprano Žermēna Heine-Vāgnere; the tenors Kārlis Zariņš, Jānis Sprogis and Ingus Pētersons; the violinists Ieva Graubiņa-Bravo, Rasma Lielmane-Kortesa and Valdis Zariņš; and the pianist Artūrs Ozoliņš.
Since the restoration of national independence in 1990, concert life in Latvia has been decentralized, professional associations of musicians restored and musical contacts with Western Europe renewed. The country also hosts regular international music festivals.
See also Riga.
Latvijas Konservatorija: 1919–1929 (Riga, 1930)
J. Vītoliņš, ed.: ‘Latviešu mūsika’, Mūzikas vēsture (Riga, 1934–7), 499–601
K. Lesiņš: Problēmas un sejas latviešu mūzikā [Problems and personalities in Latvian music] (Riga, 1939)
O. Grāvītis: Kratkiye biografii latďshskikh kompozitorov [Short biographies of Latvian composers] (Riga, 1955)
K. Mediņš: Latviešu dziesmu svētki [Latvian song festivals] (Riga, 1955)
J. Brauns: ‘No latviešu instrumentālās mūzikas vēstures’ [From the history of Latvian instrumental music], Latviešu mūzika, ii (1962), 129
J. Brauns: Vijolmākslas attīstība Latvijā [The development of the art of the violin in Latvia] (Riga, 1962)
A. Darkevic and E. Vitoliń, eds.: Muzykalnaja kultura Latvijskoi SSR (Moscow, 1965, 2/1976)
E. Arro: ‘Die deutschbaltische Liederschule’, Musik des Ostens, iii (1965), 175–239
L. Kārkliņš, ed.: Ocherki muzďkal'noy kul'turď sovetskoy Latvii [Essays on Soviet Latvian musical culture] (Leningrad, 1965)
V. Bērzkalns: Latviešu dziesmu svētku vēsture 1864–1940 [The history of Latvian song festivals] (Brooklyn, NY, 1965)
V. Bērzkalns: Latviešu dziesmu svētki trimdā 1946–1965 [Latvian song festivals in exile] (Brooklyn, NY, 1968)
V. Bērziņa: Eju pārvērsties skaņā: Operas un baleta mākslinieku portreti [Transforming into sound: portraits of opera and ballet artists] (Riga, 1969)
J. Braun: ‘Die Anfänge des Musikinstrumentenspiels in Lettland’, Musik des Ostens, vi (1971), 88–125
L. Kārkliņš, ed.: Ocherki muzďkal'noy kul'turď sovetskoy Latvii (Leningrad, 1971)
J. Vītoliņš and L. Krasinska: Latviešu mūzikas vēsture [A history of Latvian music], i (Riga, 1972)
S. Verinja: Muzykalnyi teatr Latvii i zarozhdenie latyshskoi natsionalnoi opery [The musical theatre of Latvia and the emergence of the Latvian national opera] (Leningrad, 1973)
L. Kārkliņš: Kompozitory i muzykovedy Sovetskoi Latvii [Composers and musicologists of Soviet Latvia] (Riga, 1974)
V. Briede-Bulāvinova: Latviešu opera (Riga, 1975)
N. Grīnfelds: Padomju Latvijas mūzika (Riga, 1976)
L. Apkalns: Lettische Musik (Wiesbaden, 1977)
N. Grjunfeld: Istoria latyshskoi muzyki (Moscow, 1978)
O. Grāvītis: Izcilākie tautas kori [Outstanding choirs] (Riga, 1979)
V. Briede: Jaunās balsis: Latvijas operas debitanti 70. gados [New voices: the new singers of the Latvian opera in the 1970s] (Riga, 1981)
V. Bērzina: Tautas muzikālā atmoda latviešu publicistu skatījumā [The musical awakening of the people as seen by Latvian publicists] (Riga, 1983)
J. Braun and K. Brambats, eds.: Selected Writings on Latvian Music: a Bibliography (Münster, 1985)
V. Briede: Latviešu operteātris [Latvian operatic theatre] (Riga, 1987)
I. Grauzdiņa: Tūkstoš mēlēm ērgeles spēlē [Organ music in Latvia] (Riga, 1987)
L. Mūrniece, ed.: Muzyka Sovetskoi Latvii (Riga, 1988)
L. Kārkliņš: Simfoniska muzika Latvija (Riga, 1990)
L. Lesle: ‘Auflehnung gegen eine brutale Macht: Neue Musik aus Lettland’, Das Orchester, xlv/3 (1997), 12–18
Latvian traditional music characteristically has a large number of recitative-style forms and thus differs essentially from that of its southern (Lithuanian) and eastern (Russian and Belarusian) neighbours. It is more readily comparable to that of the Estonians, to the north. Another characteristic feature is the existence of various forms of vocal polyphony, although in Latvia polyphony is not as varied in form and as widespread as it is in Lithuania, Belarus and Russia. In this sense, Latvia forms a transitional stage between these three countries and Estonia, where polyphony plays an even smaller role than in Latvia, and where it has been documented only in the south and south-east, close to the Latvian and Russian borders. As distinct from its close neighbours, Latvian tradition has no form of lament.
The expression ‘Latvian traditional music’ for the most part is synonymous with the term ‘Latvian peasant music’, as its most important genres are concerned with the annual agricultural work and ceremonial cycle. The music of family festivals (name-giving, weddings, funerals) also has a deep connection with the everyday life and world view of those working on the land. Traditional music in practice survives chiefly in south-east Latvia and in some communities in the south-west, although even in these areas it is often no longer performed in its former contexts.
3. Instrumental music and instruments.
4. The folk music revival movement.
Latvia, §II: Traditional music
On the basis of material collected systematically from the second half of the 19th century, an older indigenous stratum of traditional music can be distinguished from a later one marked by considerable outside influence. The former is an integral part of old peasant custom and usage (seasonal and family festivals, traditions connected with work, etc.), and to a large extent is pagan in character.
One of the most extensive stylistic groups consists of the recitative-like songs (teiktās dziesmas), which feature a narrow range (a 3rd or a 4th) and a syllabic relationship of notes to text. Their melodic and rhythmic structures are largely determined by elements of linguistic prosody such as word stress, syllabic quantity (i.e. the physical length of syllables) and syllabic intonations. (Syllabic intonations – descending, ascending, broken off or drawn out – constitute what might be called melodic microcurves within the long syllables.) These factors cannot be adequately notated; for instance, the fine rhythmic variations produced by a sequence of different syllabic quantities are usually reduced in notation to a series of quavers.
Although the area of distribution of recitative songs covers almost the whole country, the group shows pronounced stylistic homogeneity while covering a broad range of functions. Many recitatives can be performed in several traditional contexts. In some areas it was known for the same recitative-style melody to be sung at weddings, baptisms, funerals, the midsummer festival, and so on (of course to different texts). Most recitatives are strophic, each strophe having two sections of four bars each, or 4 + 6 [4+2] bars. In many places they were or still are performed with a drone (ex.1).
Refrain songs form a second group in this older stratum, with melostrophes consisting of sets of four-bar, three-bar or more rarely five-bar melodic lines on the following patterns (R=refrain): 2 + 2R, 2 + 1R or 2 + 3R. The melostrophes can be made up of melodic lines with different structures, so that as well as symmetrical strophic models such as (2 + 2R) + (2 + 2R), asymmetrical models occur, for instance (2 + 2R) + (2 + 1R) or (2 + 2R) + (2 + 3R) + (2 + 1R), etc. The dominant metre is duple time, with 3/4 time sometimes occurring in the refrains. The elements forming a melodic line are rhythmically contrasted: the verse line with its strictly syllabic relationship between notes and text consists principally of notes of short duration, usually transcribed as quavers, while the refrains are often dominated by longer notes, transcribed as crotchets. Longer notes can also occur. In these refrain songs melisma, if it exists at all, is very simple, usually consisting of one syllable sung to two notes, in the refrain sections (ex.2). (Narrow-range midsummer solstice songs with more elaborately melismatic refrains are found only in south-eastern Latvia.)
Eastern and central Latvia are the main areas of distribution of refrain songs and their function is confined to seasonal customs. There are smaller groups consisting of carnival songs (meteņu dziesmas with the refrains Paņudis, paņudis! and Ē, vastalāvi!), Easter songs (Lieldienu dziesmas, refrains Šūvo, šūvo! and, among the Livs of the north Kurzeme coast, Čičor, čīčor!) and spring songs (rotāšanas dziesmas, refrain Rotā, rotā!). Most numerous, however, are the midwinter songs (kaladu dziesmas, refrains Kalado, kalado!, Udobru, judobru!, Tolderā, tolderā!, etc.) and midsummer songs (Jāņu dziesmas or līgotnes, refrains Līgo, līgo!; in south-east Latvia Rūtuo, rūtuo! Leiguo, leiguo!, etc.). These last occur in particularly great variety, and, unlike the other refrain songs, they often have a wide range and show the influence of functional harmony in their melodic structure. The līgotnes and singing with a drone are regarded as musical emblems of national cultural identity. Refrain structures are also found in lullabies, children's songs and herdsmen's songs. The area of distribution of these refrain songs extends beyond Latvia into southern Estonia and eastern Lithuania.
As well as these two main stylistic groups of the older stratum there are many smaller ones. Narrow-range work songs and spring songs have been recorded, particularly in eastern and western Latvia. They are performed very slowly and forcefully, always in the open air and usually accompanied by a drone. In south-eastern Latvia there are narrow-range songs for the rye harvest and the hay harvest which show a certain similarity to south-eastern Lithuanian and Belarusian harvest songs in their profuse ornamentation and rubato-like style of performance. Many western Latvian midwinter songs (those without a refrain), wedding and funeral songs consist of a primitive melodic framework, with melostrophes usually having two lines of melody, each sung on only one or two notes of recitative. Herdsmen's calls are another stylistic phenomenon: they are often in the nature of short, powerfully sung vocalises and were used by the herdsmen or boys as a means of communicating with one another and with their homes. There is a differentiated system of acoustic signals on every farm, used in daily communication with the livestock.
Wide-range modal vocal melodies are widespread in Latvia, in particular Aeolian and Ionian and various hypomodal tunes of a lyric or lyrical-epic character. Many of these modal melodies have a changing tonic note. The wide-range modal tunes occur particularly frequently as wedding, wooing, drinking and war songs; unlike the recitative songs, their rhythm is strictly dependent on the musical metre, and they are self-contained, with more individuality in their melodies than the narrow-range tunes, although like the latter they usually have little ornamentation.
The majority of texts of songs from the older stratum consists of quatrains or six-line verses (dainas), without end rhymes and trochaic in metre (c95%), or more rarely dactylic. Two lines make up a melostrophe and can appear with or without various repetitions of one or both lines or sections of lines. In content and in poetic form the quatrains and six-line verses are self-contained, and are linked within the text of a song not by the continuation of a narrative but only by a thematic motif or key word, such as ‘sun’, ‘oak tree’, ‘cuckoo’, etc. They display various different aspects of such a theme, so to speak, and often their number and the order in which they appear is not predetermined.
The later stratum comprises music based on the principles of functional harmony, created under the influence of stimulus from Central Europe from the 18th century onwards. Quite frequently melodies of this type are sung to dainas texts. There is a large group of songs known as ziņges (from the German verb singen: to sing): these have rhyming texts, and are generally satirical or love songs. Ziņges are frequently drinking songs, and their texts, often from literary sources and, unlike the dainas, with a known author, can be transmitted either orally or in writing (by means of rough copies or printed sources). German and other models can often be detected in the melodies of these ziņges; Lutheran hymns are the prototypes of a number of them. Scholars consider that the distribution of ziņges began because of the activities of the philologist and Lutheran pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–96; in Latvia he is known as ‘Vecais Stenders’). He published a volume of poems entitled Jaunas ziņges (‘New Songs’) in 1774, hoping that the ‘new Latvian airs’ it contained would oust the pagan and unseemly dainas from peasant custom and usage. Of all the various genres of traditional music the ziņges have had the greatest influence on 20th-century Latvian pop music, and are regarded as one of its sources.
There are strong sacred music traditions of recent origin in the Catholic south-east of Latvia, which is otherwise a Protestant country. Some Catholic hymns are sung outside churches, spontaneously performed by the people in rituals with no priestly participants. The performers transmit the melodies orally, although the texts are usually learnt from written copies or hymnbooks. At ceremonies in honour of the Virgin Mary, for instance, conducted in May around wayside shrines or prayer-crosses in the open air, the ‘Songs of Mary’ (Marijas dzīsmes) are performed. When someone dies relatives and neighbours meet at the dead person's house, usually on the day of death itself and then every day until the funeral, to sing psalms (psaļmes) and funeral songs. The ceremony called ‘psalm-singing’ by the singers, is actually a complete Office for the Dead, introduced into south-eastern Latvia by Jesuit missionaries at the end of the 18th century. This ritual which lasts about two hours is repeated at memorial ceremonies held every year in October or early November. These and other forms of traditional sacred music are widespread and still flourishing in many local versions in the south-east of the country.
Latvia, §II: Traditional music
Polyphony is widespread, but there are large areas, particularly in the north, where there are no records of any polyphonic tradition. In areas where polyphonic singing exists or did exist, there are almost always strong traditions of monophonic group performance as well.
The drone songs which are part of the older stratum of traditional music are found in greater concentration in the south-west and south-east. The drone is almost exclusively a pedal drone in the south-west, while in the south-east there is also a considerable number of songs with syllabic drone. The drone almost always occurs in combination with narrow-range melodies, particularly of the recitative type. Refrain songs with drone have been recorded in eastern Latvia. Drone songs are usually two-part, although some transcriptions from the early 20th century show three-part polyphony, the result of the superimposition of a syllabic and a pedal drone. Various transcriptions show a regular alternation of syllabic and pedal drone within the confines of the melostrophe. The melostrophe of a typical drone song begins with a melodic line performed by the leading woman singer (teicēja) alone. In the next section either she sings the upper part alone, or it is continued by another or several women singers, while the others sustain the drone (see ex.1). In the vast majority of cases, the drone represents the lower part of the range employed by the melody (within the two-part section). Both constant and changing forms of the pedal drone have been recorded. The pedal drone is usually the key note, and a changing drone usually occurs because the drone part follows a change of key note in the melody. The pedal drone is sung on a vowel, usually e or a. The syllabic drone nearly always occurs in combination with ostinato elements: the drone part is provided with neighbouring notes on the 2nd below, and often oscillates rapidly between the key note and the sub-tonic. Constant syllabic drones occur rarely; the drone part recites the text at the same time as the main part.
At the end of the 19th century, several polyphonic phenomena were documented which represent the synthesis of elements of drone songs and sutartinės. The latter are a form of old Lithuanian polyphony found throughout the north-east of Lithuania; its characteristics are the dominance of the 2nd as a harmonic interval, complementary rhythms, the simultaneous performance of different texts and polymodality.
More recent homophonic polyphony based on functional harmony is found chiefly and in great variety in the Catholic south-east, with a small ‘island’ of this phenomenon in the south-west. There is wide distribution of simple songs sung in uninterrupted or predominating parallel 3rds. In addition, there are some in which the parts have greater melodic individuality and are much ornamented. Besides a type of polyphony with strict functional differentiation of the parts, there is another more reminiscent of heterophony influenced by functional harmony. Some examples display evidence of interaction between the ostinato-like syllabic drone and the harmonic parallel 3rds.
The major key predominates, although not always with the same character: for instance, melodies from the older stratum sometimes feature as the main parts, and when studied in isolation are not in the major key, but have a narrow-range tetrachordal or trichordal construction which takes on the character of the major only when fitted into the polyphonic structure. Two-part or three-part polyphony predominates, although the number of parts is not strictly regulated, and depends on the specific experience and skills of the singers. Even in what is basically a two-part polyphonic song, divergences in the supporting part can lead to sporadic occurrences of three-part polyphony.
Homophonic polyphony with a high solo supporting part is chiefly found in the eastern areas of the Catholic part of the country bordering on Russia. Songs in this category are in three or four parts. In three-part polyphony of this kind the main part is the middle or, more rarely, the lower part; in four-part polyphony it lies between the high supporting part and the higher of the two low parts. The high supporting part is taken by one woman singer with a particularly high, penetrating voice; the other parts are performed by several singers. Their number, although not usually large, is not subject to any rules. The high supporting part sometimes comes in only after the semi-cadence, sometimes just before the cadence, etc., but never at the very beginning of the melostrophe. It may take various forms: for instance, introduced in parallel 3rds to the main part, an octave above the lower accompanying part, at a distance of an octave with deviations, etc. Songs with high supporting part are performed powerfully, at a slow tempo and often in the open air, and have various functions.
In south-west Latvia, homophonic polyphony, chiefly in two-part songs, is found in the small neighbouring communities of Bārta and Nīca near the Lithuanian border. The melody is heard in the upper part. The melostrophe begins with a short solo introduction performed by the leading woman singer; then the two-part chorus comes in, or the melody may be continued by the soloist alone while the chorus sings the lower part. In many respects this two-part polyphony resembles Lithuanian homophonic polyphony. Although it is also represented among the wedding songs and in other genres, most of the songs in this form are spring songs to be performed in the open air. They are popularly known as leiši (sing. leitis, ‘Lithuanian’).
Latvia, §II: Traditional music
A feature of Latvian traditional music is the strong predominance of vocal over instrumental and vocal-instrumental music, although this impression could be caused by the tendency of earlier collectors to concentrate on documenting mostly vocal music. Documentary records of traditional instrumental music are few, and are mostly dance-tunes of Central European origin. The range of traditional instruments, however, is extensive: it is known to have included over 30 varieties of idiophone, for example, clappers, bells, jingles, jew's harp, klabata (wooden sounding-board), the čagana and trideksnis (hand-held rattles); membranophones such as the paupenes (kettledrums), cylindrical drums made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, etc.; chordophones – the kokle and cītara (board zithers), the spēles (musical bow), the dūdas (bumbass or bladder and stick), monochords and violins, etc.; and aerophones (reed pipes, various types of flute and whistle, horns with finger-holes, wooden trumpets, bagpipes, etc.). Musical instruments were played in four main contexts: while herding animals; as part of rituals, ceremonies and customs; for accompanying dance; and for self-entertainment.
Most of the aerophones are herdsmen's instruments used for signalling and entertainment. Trumpets and horns of various kinds also served to give signals during hunting, and were played for certain wooing and wedding ceremonies. Hand-held rattles (trideksnis, eglīte, etc.) also played an important part in wedding ceremonies. The kokle board zither (related to the Lithuanian kanklės, the Estonian kannel, the Finnish kantele and the north-west Russian gusli) has a special place among traditional instruments. In the late 19th and the 20th century it has been regarded as a symbol of Latvian national cultural identity. The body of the kokle (often used in the plural form kokles) is trapezoidal, with one end narrower than the other. It is made of a single piece of hollowed-out wood, to which a thin board is fitted, with soundholes cut out of it first. The strings (earlier of gut, nowadays usually metal) radiate from the narrower to the broader end, and vary between five and 12 in number. The last traditional players of the kokle died in the middle decades of the 20th century, and there is little documentary information about playing styles. During the Soviet period modified instruments, many of them chromatic, were developed, and large ensembles of kokles in various sizes were formed on the model of the Russian balalaika orchestras. A standardized 13-string kokle became popular among exiled Latvians in the West, particularly as a teaching aid, largely through the work of New York based musician Andrejs Jansons.
The dūkas (also somu dūkas and dūdas) bagpipe seems to have played a special part in the life of the peasants of the 16th to 18th centuries, as one of the few instruments that was played at weddings and dances. This was probably the consequence of a Livonian law forbidding ‘non-Germans’, i.e. Latvians and Estonians, to play any instruments at weddings except bagpipes and percussion. The violin was probably introduced during the second half of the 17th century, and as it became more widespread it obviously took over some of the functions and repertory of other instruments, particularly the bagpipe.
Dance music of Central European provenance became well established in Latvia in the second half of the 19th century. Waltzes, polkas, anglaises, various quadrilles and promenade dances, etc., were generally accompanied by an instrument ensemble consisting of one or two violins, a zither and a bass instrument such as bumbass, or in the 20th century, in eastern Latvia, by a button-key accordion, played either solo or as one of the instruments in the band.
Latvia, §II: Traditional music
The roots of the revival date from the late 19th century, when Jurjāns and others began to research and write about Latvian folk music. In the 1920s and 30s there were sporadic attempts to bring traditional music closer to the educated urban population, such as performances by folk singers organized in towns and cities. After the occupation of Latvia by the USSR in 1940 and World War II, certain forms of traditional music such as the folkloric ballet were encouraged in the context of soviet amateur art. In the 1950s and 60s a number of ethnographic ensembles were formed in order to cultivate their local traditions; their participants (or most of them) were traditional folksingers (examples are the Rikava ensemble in the south-east, the Bārta and Suitu sievas ensembles in the south-western coastal area, etc.). Their repertory mingled stylized and traditional forms. At the end of the 1970s the new revival movement took off, especially in towns, with the aim of reviving traditional forms of music. At the same time, it was a movement of protest – initially latent, subsequently overt – against the soviet policy of Russification, and it encouraged the preservation of the national and cultural identity: it was a kind of prelude to the political changes of the 1980s and early 90s. This movement saw itself as countering the stylized forms taken by amateur folkloric art, which was condemned for its willingness to be part of the propagandist showcase of the soviet regime and its betrayal of genuine traditions. (The most important representatives of the 1980s were the Skandinieki, Klinči, Sendziesma and Senleja ensembles.) Since the end of the 1980s, the revival movement has moved towards stylistic pluralism, and will now even admit synthesis with rock music (as in the Iļgi ensemble). It has become multi-ethnic by association with minority traditional music groups (Jewish, Russian, Gypsy, etc.). The Baltica International Folklore Festival, which takes place every year in one of the three Baltic states, has been central to the revival movement since 1988.
Latvia, §II: Traditional music
Most of the documentary records of the traditional music of the Livs (in Latvian, lībieši), a small Finno-Ugrian ethnic group living in north-west Latvia on the Baltic coast, and like the Letts part of the original population of Latvia, are from the first half of the 20th century. It displays no essential differences from Latvian music, and indeed no special relationship with Estonian or Finnish traditional music. Liv ensembles such as Līvlist or Kāndla have been prominent in the revival movement. From the 17th century onwards, the eastern and in particular the Catholic areas of Latvia often provided refuge for large groups of Old Believers from Russia, who came to the Baltic area in several waves after the schism of 1653–6 in the Russian Orthodox Church, when they were subject to persecution. Documentation from the 1930s shows that at this period the Latvian Russians still to some extent preserved their own traditional music, and recordings from the 1990s show that even today there are isolated places where certain of these traditional forms (ballads and dance-songs, some of them in polyphonic performance) can still be traced, if with difficulty. Russian children's ensembles are an important part of the revival movement.
Latvia, §II: Traditional music
The earliest sources for traditional Latvian music date from the 16th and 17th centuries; the first notated melody appeared in Syntagma de origine Livonorum by Fridericus Menius (Dorpat, 1632). Systematic collection of traditional music began in the late 1860s with the activities of the educationalist and composer Jānis Cimze (1814–81). The central figure in the late 19th and early 20th century was Andrejs Jurjāns (1856–1922), editor of the first scholarly publication on the subject, Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāli (1894–1926). The most important institution in the inter-war period was the Latvian Folklore Repository (Latviešu Folkloras krātuve), founded in 1925, which among other things organized the recording of traditional music, and assembled 155 wax cylinders and discs and 16,271 transcriptions between 1926 and 1941. The results of the extensive collecting work by the composer Emilis Melngailis (1874–1954) were published in Latviešu mūzikas folkloras materiali (1951–3). The major postwar institution was the Institute of Folklore, founded in 1945 to continue the work of the Latvian Folklore Repository; it was later known as the Department of Folklore of the Institute of Language and Literature at the Academy of Sciences, and reverted to the name of the Latvian Folklore Repository in 1992. It conducted field work expeditions, assembled transcriptions and tape recordings in the archives, and under the direction of Jēkabs Vītoliņš initiated the publication of Latviešu tautas mūzika in five volumes (1958–86). The research work begun by Jurjāns has been continued in the 20th century by, among others, J. Graubiņš, J. Sprogis, M. Goldin, K. Brambats, J. Braun, A. Klotiņš, V. Bendorfs, Ī. Priedīte, Z. Sneibe, V. Muktupāvels, M. Boiko, and A. Beitāne.
A. Jurjāns: ‘Latviešu tautas mūzika’ [Latvian folk music], Balss (3, 14 Feb 1879)
A. Jurjāns: Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāli [Latvian folk music material] (Riga, 1894–1926)
A. Bielenstein: Die Holzbauten und Holzgeräte der Letten, ii (Petrograd, 1918), 716–35
J. Graubiņš: Talsu novada tautas dziesmas [Folksongs from the Talsi district] (Riga, 1935)
O. Loorits: Die Volkslieder der Liven (Tartu, 1936)
J. Sprogis: Jāņu dziesmu melodijas/Johannis lieder-Melodien (Riga, 1941)
J. Sprogis: Senie mūzikas instrumenti un darba un godu dziesmu melodijas Latvijā [Ancient music instruments and melodies of work and ceremonial songs in Latvia] (Riga, 1943) [with Ger. summary]
E. Melngailis: Latviešu mūzikas folkloras materiāli [Latvian folk music material] (Riga, 1951–3) [contains 4345 melodies]
J. Vītoliņš, ed.: Latviešu tautas mūzika (Riga, 1958–86)
J. Vītoliņš: ‘Die lettischen Hirtenlieder’, Deutsches Jb für Volkskunde, xiii/2 (1967), 213–37
K. Brambats: ‘Die lettische Volkspoesie in musikwissenschaftlicher Sicht’, Musik des Ostens, v (1969), 25–48
V. Urtāns: ‘Drevneishie muzikalniye instrumenti na teritorii Latvii’ [The oldest music instruments in the territory of Latvia], Studia archaeologica in memoriam Harri Moora (Tallinn, 1970), 226–42 [with Ger. summary]
J. Braun: ‘Die Anfänge des Musikinstrumentenspiels in Lettland’, Musik des Ostens, vi (1972), 88–125
I.D. Fridrikh: Russkiy fol'klor v Latvii [Russian folklore in Latvia] (Riga, 1972)
J. Vītoliņš: ‘Tautas mūzika’ [Folk music], Latviešu mūzikas vēsture, J. Vītoliņš and L. Krasinska, i (Riga, 1972), 7–67
V. Bendorfs: ‘Latviešu valodas prosodijas īpatrīou ietekme uz tautasdziesmu melodiku’ [The influence of the characteristics of Latvian prosody on the melodic structure of folksongs], Latviešu mūzika, xii (1977), 76–81
A. Klotiņš: ‘Mūzikas folklora un mēs’ [Musical folklore and us], Literatūra un māksla (24 Nov 1978)
C. Jaremko Niles: The Baltic Folk Zithers: an Ethnological and Structural Analysis (thesis, UCLA, 1980)
K. Brambats: ‘The Vocal Drone in the Baltic Countries: Problems of Chronology and Provenance’, Journal of Baltic Studies, xiv (1983), 24–34
Ī. Priedīte: Ko spēlēja sendienās [What was played in times past] (Riga, 1983)
V. Muktupāvels: Tautas mūzikas instrumenti Latvijas PSR teritorijā [Folk instruments in the territory of the Latvian SSR] (Riga, 1987)
V. Bendorfs: ‘Latviešu tautasdziesmu melodikas elementu senums un cilme’ [The age and origin of elements of the melodic structure of Latvian folksongs], Latvijas PSR Zinātņu Akadēmijas vēstis (1988), no.10, pp.73–7 [with Russ. summary]
Ī. Priedīte: Tautas mūzikas instrumenti [Folk music instruments] (Riga, 1988) [summaries in Ger., Russ.]
Z. Sneibe: ‘Ziņge: melodikas cilme un attīstība’ [The ziņge: the origin and development of its melodic structure], Latvijas PSR Zinātņu Akadēmijas vēstis (1988), no.10, pp.63–72 [with Russ. summary]
V. Bērziņa: Tautasdziesmas gājums [The path of the folksong] (Riga, 1989)
A. Klotiņš and V. Muktupāvels: ‘Traditional Musical Instruments and the Semantics of their Functions in Latvian Folk Songs’, Linguistics and Poetics of Latvian Folk Songs, ed. V. Vīķis-Freibergs (Kingston and Montreal, 1989), 186–217
Z. Sneibe: ‘Latviešu ieražu dziesmu melodiju formveides modeļi un to funkcionālais konteksts’ [Formal models of Latvian ceremonial folksongs and their functional context], Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmijas vēstis (1991), no.4, pp.34–46 [with Russ. summary]
M. Boiko: ‘Sledď sutartines v Latvii’ [Traces of the sutartinės in Latvia], Pribaltiyskiy muzďkovedcheskiy sbornik, iv (1992), 61–81
M. Boiko: ‘Latvian Ethnomusicology: Past and Present’, YTM, xxvi (1994), 47–65
A. Beitāne: Vokālā daudzbalsība ar augšējo pavadbalsi Šķilbēnu pagastā [Vocal polyphony with a higher accompanying voice in the Šķilbēni parish] (thesis, Latvian Academy of Music, 1995)
M. Boiko: ‘Volksmusikbewegung im Baltikum in den 70er und 80er Jahren: Kontexte, Werte, Konflikte’, Verfemte Musik: Komponisten in den Diktaturen unseres Jahrhunderts, ed. J. Braun, V. Karbusický and H.T. Hoffmann (Frankfurt, Berlin and Berne, 1995), 349–57
M. Boiko: Die litauischen Sutartinės: eine Studie zur baltischen Volksmusik (diss., U. of Hamburg, 1996)
G. Šmidchens: A Baltic Music: the Folklore Movement in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, 1968–1991 (diss., U. of Indiana, 1996)
Z. Sneibe: ‘Latvian Folk Songs in the 18th–19th Centuries: Tradition and Change’, Historical Studies on Folk and Traditional Music, ed. D. Stockmann and J.H. Koudal (Copenhagen, 1997)
Latviešu folklora: Alsunga [Latvian folklore: Alsunga], Melodiya M30-42327–8 (1981)
Latviešu folklora: Rikava, Melodiya M32-44793–4 (1982)
Latviešu folklora: Briežuciems un Rekava, Melodiya M30-46001 005 (1984)
Latviešu folklora: Auleja, Melodiya S30 24885 002 (1986)
The Latvian SSR: Musical Folklore, rec. 1926–84, Melodiya M30 46913 005 (1986)
Balsis no Latvijas/Voices from Latvia: Latvian Folklore Ensembles, AUSS (1994)
Voix des Pays Baltes: Chants Traditionnels de Lettonie, Lithuanie, Estonie, Inédit. W 260055 (1994)
Suitu sievas: Lejaskurzeme [The Suiti women: Lower Kurzeme], Annemarie Classics RRLV 0009–2 (1997)