START WITH YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE

Think of a song you know from your family, school, choir, camp, or a celebration. It might be a lullaby, a birthday song, a Christmas carol, or a piece sung by your entire class. Try to remember not only its melody but also how the song was passed on to you: who first sang it to you, where you heard it, on what occasion it was performed, how many people sang together, and whether the song sounded the same every time.

A song remains alive when it is sung, passed on to another person, adapted to a new setting, and given new meaning. A song performed by a grandmother may sound calm and free, without instrumental accompaniment. The same song performed by a school choir may be polyphonic, carefully rehearsed, and accompanied by a piano. At the Song Festival, it may be performed by thousands of voices and become the culmination of the entire event.

A song’s journey is therefore a continuous movement between people, places, and historical periods. The same song may be performed at home, in the fields, in church, at school, by a folklore ensemble, by a large choir, or in a professional concert hall. In each setting, it fulfils a slightly different function while retaining its connection with an earlier tradition.

At home, a song may help soothe a child, recall a family story, or celebrate together. During work, it may help maintain a shared rhythm. At weddings or seasonal celebrations, a song becomes part of a ritual. At school, it may be used to learn language, melody, and rhythm. In a choir, the same song requires singers to coordinate their voices, follow the conductor, and perform their respective parts responsibly.
When a song is passed on by ear, it does not necessarily remain completely unchanged. One singer may alter a word, another may change a melodic phrase, while a third may modify the tempo or rhythm. This is not always a mistake. In an oral tradition, different versions show that a song has remained alive and has been adapted to different people and circumstances. To understand a particular version, it is useful to ask from whom the singer learned it, in which region it was performed, what the occasion was, and who sang it.

For a music historian, not only the work itself but also its journey is important. Sometimes the author of a song is known, but it is not known who created a version that later became widespread. Sometimes only the lyrics are known, while the melody has not survived. Sometimes several choral arrangements are created from the same folk melody. The question “Who created this song?” therefore does not always have one simple answer.

WHY IS LATVIA CALLED A SINGING NATION?

In Latvia’s case, the expression “singing nation” is more than a beautiful metaphor. It is based on a long-standing cultural system in which singing is connected with the family, school, church, choir, cultural centre, public celebrations, and Latvian communities living abroad. 

Latvia’s singing tradition became particularly strong in the nineteenth century. At that time, the territory of present-day Latvia belonged to the Russian Empire, while German and Russian had long played an important role in public cultural life. The development of schools, the press, cultural societies, and choirs created more opportunities for the Latvian language to be heard in public. Singing became a way not only to express emotions but also to meet other people, learn a shared repertoire, and experience a sense of belonging to a broader cultural community.

During the Latvian National Awakening in the nineteenth century, song acquired an additional meaning. It became a symbol of language, cultural memory, and unity. When choirs from different towns gathered for a single event, they did more than perform musical works. They demonstrated that the Latvian language could be heard in a large public space, that different regions could learn the same repertoire, and that music could help shape a shared cultural identity.
An important step was the gathering of Latvian male choirs held in Dikļi in 1864. It was organised by the clergyman and teacher Juris Neikens. This event became one of the most important forerunners of the future Song Festival tradition.

Nine years later, in 1873, the first General Latvian Song Festival was held in Riga. The Song and Dance Festival is generally organised every five years. However, its life does not end when the lights of the closing concert go out. Between festivals, choirs rehearse and learn the repertoire, auditions and competitions are held, conductors work with their ensembles, regional events take place, national costumes are prepared, and cultural centres continue their activities.

The 2018 Latvian Song and Dance Festival brought together 43,290 participants. They included 16,500 singers from 427 choirs and 18,174 dancers from 739 dance groups. These numbers demonstrate that the Song Festival is not merely an event for professionals but an extensive network of amateur artistic activity and cultural education.

In 2003, the shared tradition of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian song and dance celebrations was proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In 2008, it was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This recognition means that the Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations are valued as a living tradition passed down from generation to generation and considered significant to humanity as a whole.

FOLK SONG – THE FIRST LAYER OF MUSICAL IDENTITY

Latvian musical culture did not begin with an opera house, a conservatory, or a symphony orchestra. One of its most important foundations was folk song—music that formed part of people’s everyday lives. Songs were performed while working and travelling, during weddings, funerals, seasonal celebrations, family gatherings, and various community rituals.

Latvian dainas are often short, concise, and poetic. They frequently consist of four lines in which very few words convey a great deal of life experience. They address birth and death, family, love, separation, work, nature, the seasons, the sun, thunder, fate, and people’s relationship with their community. These texts frequently use symbolic imagery. A tree may represent family, life, or the order of the world. A road may symbolise departure, a journey, or a change in life. The sun may represent light, life, and continuity. A river may mark a boundary, a journey, or the passage of time. Consequently, dainas speak not only about particular events but also about how a community understands a person’s place in the world.

It is important to distinguish between the lyrics of a song and its melody. A written text does not yet reveal how the song sounded. The same text might be performed to different melodies, while one melody might be used for several texts. The tempo, rhythm, ornamentation, and manner of performance could differ from one region to another. A song might be performed by one person, a small group, or an entire community. Distinctive forms of polyphonic singing also existed in some regions of Latvia.

DAINU SKAPIS – WHEN LIVING MEMORY BECOMES AN ARCHIVE

For a long time, folk songs were transmitted orally. In the nineteenth century, however, an important question arose: how could something that was constantly changing and might disappear together with the person who knew the song be preserved? Folklorists, teachers, clergymen, and other collectors of folk songs sought an answer. 

The folklorist Krišjānis Barons, who collected, systematised, and edited Latvian folk-song texts, was particularly important. The Cabinet of Folksongs, known in Latvian as Dainu skapis, which is associated with his work, became one of the most important symbols of Latvia’s cultural memory. It was a specially designed working tool in which song texts were stored on small handwritten slips of paper. These slips had to be organised by subject, compared with one another, and prepared for publication. In this way, the texts submitted by many different people were transformed into a systematic cultural archive.

The Cabinet of Folksongs was made in 1880. It contains more than 350,000 handwritten slips. The multivolume collection prepared from this material includes almost 218,000 published song texts. In 2001, Dainu skapis was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register. The Cabinet of Folksongs also demonstrates that preserving culture requires active work. A tradition does not survive on its own if nobody sings, records, studies, or passes it on to the next generation.

STENDER – AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENCOUNTER BETWEEN CULTURES

Latvian culture was also influenced by broader cultural developments in Europe. During the eighteenth century, Enlightenment ideas spread throughout the Baltic region, placing greater emphasis on education, literacy, the use of languages, moral instruction, and book publishing. Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796), also known as Old Stender, was an important figure in this context. He was a clergyman, teacher, translator, language scholar, and educator. Stender worked in an environment where German, Latvian, and other Baltic cultural traditions met. His activities demonstrate that Latvian musical culture developed not only from local folklore. Texts, melodies, and educational ideas created elsewhere in Europe were also introduced into it. Once translated into Latvian and adapted for local people, these works became part of Latvia’s singing culture.

In 1774, Stender published the collection Jaunas Siņģes. Its texts were intended to be sung to well-known melodies. This was not the same as an anonymous folk song transmitted from generation to generation. The collection contained authored, translated, and adapted texts, often with a secular, didactic, or sentimental purpose.

Stender’s work also reflects the broader European musical repertoire. In 1774, he published a Latvian version of the text of Carl Heinrich Graun’s cantata Der Tod Jesu. At the end of the eighteenth century, songs with texts by Elisa von der Recke, intended to be performed to well-known melodies, also appeared in Latvian. This demonstrates that the Latvian language was already being used not only in folk songs but also in cantatas, translated songs, and other forms of vocal music.

The term ziņģe should therefore not be used as a synonym for all Latvian folk songs. It represents another layer of singing culture associated with authors, translations, printed publications, and deliberate instruction. A folk song is generally transmitted through tradition, whereas a ziņģe is more likely to have a specific textual source and a clearer secular or educational purpose.

FROM LOCAL SONG TO THE CHORAL MOVEMENT

During the nineteenth century, singing in Latvia increasingly moved into the organised public sphere. Schools, church choirs, local societies, teachers, and conductors all contributed to this development. Singing had to be learned not only individually. Choir members had to learn to listen to other voices, maintain a shared tempo, follow the conductor, and create a unified sound together.

The choir became a distinctive form of community. The 1864 event in Dikļi demonstrated that choirs from different areas could gather and perform a shared repertoire. The 1873 festival in Riga expanded this principle to encompass all of Latvia. The Song Festival became a regularly renewed tradition, while its shared repertoire began to connect individual regions into a broader musical community. The Song Festival tradition survived through different political periods: the Russian Empire, independent Latvia, the Soviet occupation, and the restoration of independence. Its repertoire and public meaning changed, but the foundation of communal singing remained.

FROM THE CREATOR TO THE INSTITUTION

As the choral movement grew stronger, there was an increasing need for new repertoire, professionally prepared arrangements, conductors, music teachers, and composers. Institutions capable of training these professionals were also needed. One of the most important figures in Latvian music history was Jāzeps Vītols (1863–1948). He composed choral, vocal, and orchestral music. Works such as Gaismas pils, Septiņas latviešu tautasdziesmas, and Ziemeļblāzma demonstrate how ideas from Latvian folklore and choral culture were incorporated into a professional compositional language. A professional compositional language does not mean that a folk song becomes “better” only after it has been arranged by a composer. A composer selects a particular melody or text, creates its harmony, distributes the vocal parts, determines its form, and adapts the work for a particular group of performers. This constitutes a new layer of creativity, while the song’s traditional origins remain important.

In 1919, Vītols established the Latvian Conservatory and became its director. The maturity of professional music is also demonstrated by Alfrēds Kalniņš’s opera Baņuta, which premiered on 29 May 1920. Baņuta is regarded as the first completed and staged opera in the Latvian language and the first Latvian national opera. Its libretto was written by Artūrs Krūmiņš. The plot constructs a mythologised world of the ancient Baltic peoples in which Latvian, Lithuanian, and other ancient Baltic cultural symbols are intertwined. The opera is therefore not an accurate reconstruction of historical events. It is an artistic narrative about an imagined past, human conflicts, love, duty, and the fate of a community.

ADDITIONAL INTERACTIVE AND TEAM-BASED ACTIVITIES

TASK 1 | A LIVING TIMELINE OF LATVIAN MUSIC HISTORY

Working format: team activity. Team size – 3–4 students.

Task: each team receives six cards. Write six different events on the cards without placing them in chronological order: publication of Jaunas Siņģes / gathering of Latvian male choirs held in Dikļi / first General Latvian Song Festival held in Riga / construction of the Cabinet of Folksongs—Dainu skapis / establishment of the Latvian Conservatory / premiere of the opera Baņuta.

What should you do? (1) Arrange the cards in chronological order. (2) Write the correct year next to each event. (3) Assign each event to one of four areas: folk culture / choral culture / music education / professional music theatre. (4) Select two adjacent events and explain what changed during the period between them. (5) Briefly present your team’s answer to the class.

TASK 2 | MUSIC-HISTORY DETECTIVES: IDENTIFY THE CULTURAL LAYER

Working format: work in pairs or small teams.

Task: read the four situations and select the most appropriate concept for each one: folk song / ziņģe / arrangement / choral culture.

Situations: A. A girl learned a song from her grandmother. Her grandmother had heard it during her childhood but did not know who had written it. In another town, the same song is performed with a slightly different melody. B. In the eighteenth century, a Latvian text intended for singing is published. It has been translated or adapted from a work created in another European country and has an educational purpose. C. A composer takes a well-known melody, creates a four-part harmonisation, and adapts it for a school choir. D. Ensembles from different towns learn a shared repertoire, participate in auditions, and meet to perform at a large Song Festival.

WHAT DID WE LEARN TODAY?

Which statement most accurately describes the transmission of a folk song?

•  A. A folk song is always passed on exclusively through printed sheet music.
• B. A folk song may be transmitted through oral tradition and may exist in different versions.
• C. A folk song may only be performed by a professional folklore ensemble.

Who is associated with the 1774 publication Jaunas Siņģes?

• A. Jāzeps Vītols.
• B. Gotthard Friedrich Stender.
• C. Alfrēds Kalniņš.

Why is Dainu skapis important to Latvian culture?

• A. It stores and systematises Latvian folk-song texts.
• B. It was the first building of the Latvian opera theatre.
• C. It is a musical instrument used at the Song Festival.

Where and when was the first General Latvian Song Festival held?

• A. In Dikļi in 1864.
• B. In Riga in 1873.
• C. In Riga in 1919.

Why is the year 1919 important in Latvian music history?

• A. Jāzeps Vītols established the Latvian Conservatory.
• B. Jaunas Siņģes was published.
• C. The Cabinet of Folksongs was made.

What does 29 May 1920 mark in Latvian music history?

• A. The beginning of the first General Latvian Song Festival.
• B. The premiere of the opera Baņuta.
• C. The first presentation of Dainu skapis.

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER?

• Latvia’s musical identity is based not only on professional music but also on family, community, and folk-singing traditions.
• A folk song may be passed on by ear and may exist in different versions.
• Dainu skapis demonstrates how oral tradition was collected, recorded, systematised, and preserved.
• Stender’s Jaunas Siņģes reflects the cultural exchanges of the eighteenth century and the development of secular singing culture in the Latvian language.
• The 1864 event in Dikļi and the first General Latvian Song Festival in 1873 are related but distinct historical events.
• The Song Festival is a long-term communal, musical, and educational process.
• The establishment of the Latvian Conservatory in 1919 made it possible to train professional musicians systematically.
• The 1920 premiere of the opera Baņuta demonstrated the maturity of Latvia’s professional music theatre.
• Folk song, choral culture, music education, and opera are interconnected parts of Latvia’s musical life.

END OF LESSON REFLECTION

Complete the following two sentences:

• Before this lesson, I thought that musical identity was…
• I now understand that the history of a song includes not only the date on which it was created but also…