The Folklore Movement in Latvia

This exhibition is a collective story about the formation of the Latvian folklore movement. It took place during the stagnation and decline of the Soviet Union, from the 1970s to the full restoration of Latvia’s independence in 1991. In the folklore movement, the aspirations for a Latvian culture, way of life and aesthetic were intertwined with the political goals of independence. The movement reached its emotional peak during the events of the Third Awakening, also called the Singing Revolution, in the second half of the 1980s.

The exhibition is one of the results of a three-year research project. The team of researchers interviewed participants of the movement; studied the institutions, personal archives and publications of the time; organised a survey of participants in the movement; created the archival infrastructure and databases for the inclusion of folklore movement materials in the Archives of Latvian Folklore; and, of course, prepared scholarly publications. One of the first interviews for the project was scheduled for 24 February 2022. The morning of that day arrived with the news of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In an instant, this turned the events of the past into an acute and far-from-resolved reality.

The folk revival worldwide

The folklore movement in Latvia began relatively late, in the late 1970s, when similar movements already existed in neighbouring countries. Folk, folk music and folklore revival movements had already been established around the world, on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Western folk music revival movements emerged from the folk revival in the United States in the 1940s and 50s, which was associated with people’s searches for their roots and identity and was accompanied by a left-leaning political orientation. From America, this movement spread to Western Europe and reached Central and Eastern Europe around the 1970s. In the Eastern Bloc, similar movements developed under the systems of control and standardisation in their respective states. In Russia, the Khrushchev Thaw saw a shift away from the professionalisation of folk music towards an appreciation of authenticity and the uniqueness of regional styles. In the European countries affected by Russian colonisation, folklore movements had an undercurrent of national and ethnic revival. This is also dominant in the Latvian story.

Images: The folk revival in the United States in the 1960s and 70s (publicity photos from archive.org)

Folklore movements emerge in Lithuania and Estonia

In Lithuania, student life at Vilnius University provided an active environment for the revitalisation of folklore already in the second half of the 1950s, with the singing of folk songs in the dormitories and between lectures, the organising of expeditions and hikes, living in the countryside and the publishing of collected folklore materials. In the late 1960s, regional study groups – or ethnic culture centres, as they were called locally – formed in the capital and elsewhere throughout the country, usually with a folklore ensemble at their core. People also gathered to celebrate the summer solstice at Kernavė and other seasonal festivities. This study of one’s local region served as an important catalyst for the Lithuanian folklore movement and also influenced the Latvians.

In Estonia, the movement was not as extensive as in Lithuania, and relatively fewer ensembles were formed. However, as early as the late 1960s, ethnomusicologist Herbert Tampere organised folk musicians’ events at the Theatre and Music Museum in Tallinn. Ingrid Rüütel, head of the Estonian Folklore Archives, began collecting Finno-Ugric material. A radio programme on archaic folk songs was broadcast already from 1971. The interest in archaic folklore and the folklore of the Finno-Ugric peoples served as leitmotifs for the Estonian folklore movement, which was echoed also in Latvia.

Fertile soil for the folklore movement in Latvia

“Ethnographic singing and traditional customs were alive in the first post-war review concerts of amateur ensembles in Latvia [..], interest in traditional ethnic culture and its cultivation in society never completely died out. However, in my opinion, a new stage – the present stage – in the understanding of the aesthetics of folklore itself, its practical reproduction and the independent popularisation of its heritage that is not subject to any other artistic system emerged in Latvia in the late 1970s. [..] a certain part of society had become alarmed by the low prestige and unpopularity of traditional ethnic culture in Latvia. Many found the outwardly unassuming but spiritually rich traditional singers to be quite fascinating figures. A closer look at the true bearers of the folkloric heritage revealed the deep-rootedness, the profound ethical content and the keenness of folk memory in ethnic culture, in contrast to which any sentimentalisation or pepping and amping up of folklore material felt shallow and insignificant, as was the case with professional or semi-professional folk music.”

Arnolds Klotiņš, musicologist, 1988

The formation of ethnographic ensembles

The term ‘ethnographic ensembles’ was introduced in Latvia in the mid-1950s, although their prototypes existed already in the interwar period. The members of such ensembles were musically skilled, but in most cases they were people from local communities who did not have academic education in music and whose repertoire was rooted in the folk music traditions of their immediate neighbourhood. Initially, their task was to introduce others to the musical traditions of their locality and of previous generations. Later, in the 1980s, they also aimed to preserve and ensure the further transmission of folk music traditions.

The formation of ethnographic ensembles was initially determined by the cultural policy of the Soviet Union and its need to demonstrate the achievements of folk art and national uniqueness at various events in the capital cities as well as at local collective farms and municipalities. The most important of these were the Decade of Latvian Literature and Art in Moscow in 1955 and Latgale Culture Week in Riga in 1958. More than ten ethnographic ensembles were founded in the Kurzeme and Latgale regions of Latvia in the 1950s. A second boom in the founding of ensembles took place in the 1980s under the influence of the folklore movement, when participation in an ethnographic or folklore ensemble also became a way to demonstrate one’s national position. The founding of ethnographic ensembles was promoted by folklore researchers (Jānis Rozenbergs, Rita Drīzule, etc.) and local cultural figures (Aleksandrs Vasiļevskis, Antons Slišāns, etc.). In the 1970s and 80s, individual traditional singers as well as ethnographic ensembles came to be romanticised as preservers of ancient traditions.

Activities in Latvia in the 1970s

Already in the early 1970s, the young folklorists at the Archives of Latvian Folklore expressed their academic interest and knowledge also in practical ways, by learning and teaching songs and song-games, holding lectures and organising celebrations. The Lithuanian local history movement and festive events served as a source of inspiration. They also found people of like mind among the Latvian mountaineering community. In 1972, a Midsummer celebration was organised in Lielvircava, in which an unexpected 200 people participated. The Cheka retaliated with searches, dismissals from jobs and restrictions on academic and public activities.

At the same time, the Finno-Ugric side of the folklore movement was becoming established. The first Livonian folklore ensembles – Kāndla in Ventspils and Līvlist in Riga – were founded in 1972. Other urban ensembles and tradition groups also emerged with the hope of creating a more Latvian alternative to Soviet culture, including a tradition group in Jelgava (1971), the Skandinieki folklore group in Riga (1976) and the folklore ensemble of the teachers’ club in Liepāja (1977). Even before the folklore movement began, the New Wave of Folklore had entered Latvian academic music in the 1970s, as vividly reflected in the choral music of Pauls Dambis and other composers.

“You see, the thing is, we may not even realise how much the Soviet times, how much they battered and fenced people in and were able to do all sorts of things.”

Māra Vīksna, archivist at the Archives of Latvian Folklore, 2022

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Learning songs and traditions in Olaine in June 1972 in preparation for the Midsummer celebration in Lielvircava. From the left: Māra Vīksna, Beatrise Reidzāne, Velta Ķiece, Žesija Dubulta, Agija Ķiece; in the back: Guna Riņķe. Photo: Arnis Pencis. From the personal archive of Māra Vīksna

Organisers of the Midsummer celebration in Lielvircava in 1972: folklorists from the Folklore Sector of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, their family members, friends and mountaineers. Photo: Arnis Pencis. From the personal archive of Māra Vīksna

“A Livonian wedding in the 19th century”, a performance by the Livonian song ensemble Līvlist. 1979. Photo from the personal archive of Marga Stalta

The original members of the Skandinieki folklore group. Late 1970s. Photo from the personal archive of Marga Stalta

“The representatives of the Communist regime used the newly invented and replaced traditions of common festive and remembrance days, as well as celebratory traditions and family customs adjusted to the Marxist-Leninist ideology as instruments to legitimise power and its representative institutions, to strengthen the prevalent ideology and to assimilate society. [..] The traditional customs, including the related religious rituals, were replaced with the Soviet equivalent, which used a recognizable framework for the new content: folklore and ethnographic elements including crafts and the ceremonies of the Christian church.”

Ilze Boldāne-Zeļenkova, ethnologist, 2017

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A childhood celebration and silver wedding anniversary with a programme developed by a folklore group. Photo from the 1981 album of the Novadnieki folklore group from Jelgava

Events at the Open-Air Museum

For the folklore movement, the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia served as a gathering place with a relatively informal atmosphere, where one could spend time with like-minded people outside everyday life under the Soviet regime. The museum provided an opportunity to come into direct contact with Latvian cultural heritage, teaching visitors about folk crafts, folk costumes and musical instruments, celebrating annual festivals, and organising ‘region days’ and annual craft fairs. In this, the museum and the folklore movement shared a goal of nurturing Latvian cultural heritage and making it as much a part of one’s way of life as possible. The old buildings and museum location on the outskirts of the city fostered a certain sense of separateness, and, together with the direct exposure to nature on the museum grounds, created an alternative space for participants in the folklore movement and other visitors to the museum. In 1981, the museum became the home of the Skandinieki folklore group, whose leaders Dainis Stalts and Helmī Stalte were museum employees. The Friends of Folklore Club met at the museum, and Skandinieki member Zoja Heimrāte as well as Iļģi and Skandinieki member Māris Muktupāvels also worked at the museum.

“Andris photographed the Latvian Song and Dance Festival that summer; he called it the ‘Festival of Soviet Victory’. He returned home disgusted, saying I hadn’t missed anything. The Latvian tradition of the Song Festival had been turned into a perverse spectacle of Soviet military might, generously sprinkled with doses of Russian language and culture. [..] The real Latvian Song and Dance Festival of 1985 was Folklore Day at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum, which was dedicated to Latvian folk music, folk traditions, crafts and, of course, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons (b. 1835), the ‘Father of Dainas’ [folk verses]. No Russian military tunes or communist propaganda! Latvian folk music ensembles from all across Latvia came together in their beautiful traditional folk costumes to sing old Latvian folk songs and dance folk dances. Craftsmen demonstrated their skills and sold beautiful handmade baskets, wooden toys, wool blankets, linen towels, jewellery and ceramics, attracting large crowds of people. All I heard was the Latvian language.”

Rita Laima, artist, 2017

The most important and most visited event at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia is the annual Craft Fair, which has been held since 1971. The fair was initiated by the museum’s director, Ausma Ņesterova, to give participants of applied folk art studios the opportunity to sell their wares (as individual commerce was not allowed) and share their craft skills. Like folklore and other activities related to traditional culture, folk crafts were a segment supported and encouraged by the regime within the ideological framework of Soviet amateur art groups; at the same time, the scope of meanings and values they contained was part of the cultural opposition and allowed for the preservation of ethnic identity.

Musical performances have also been an integral part of the annual craft fair since its inception. For example, the women’s vocal ensemble of the Centre for Medical Employees, kokle player Aloizijs Jūsmiņš and shepherd’s wooden flute player R. Jukums performed at the first edition of the fair. In subsequent years, folklore ensembles were added to the lineup.

“My path in folklore began with the group Bizīteri. On that day in May 1980, during the national exams at the Conservatoire, I found myself at the Open-Air Museum. And there I heard the Suitu Sievas, Skandinieki and Latgale. But I met the Bizīteri, or rather, the Bizīteri met me. We met, and it was a fateful meeting. They were playing, and I walked past the gazebo and heard someone singing, but it wasn’t Kalniņš [Imants Kalniņš, a composer of academic music and rock songs]. Very interesting, I thought… I even had my violin with me, and I stayed.”

Ilga Reizniece, founder of the group Iļģi, 2022

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The annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1989. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 183

The annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1989. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 196

The annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1989. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 219

The Skandinieki folklore group during Museum Day at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. In the middle with a violin: Lithuanian musician and folklorist Evaldas Vyčinas. 1982. From the personal archive of Ilga Reizniece

The Skandinieki folklore group during the annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1983. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 142

The Iļģi group in the Usma Church at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1988. Photo: Gunārs Janaitis. Ilga Reizniece collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2248, 86

The weavers Aīda and Teodors Mažāns treat guests to *skābputra* [sour barley and curds soup] during the annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1982(?). Ilga Reizniece collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2248, 38

1978 – the year of setting in motion

On 14 October 1978, the former building of the Dailes Theatre (at Lāčplēša iela 25 in Riga) hosted an academic session and folk music concert organised by the Folklore Sector of the Andrejs Upīts Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences and dedicated to the 30th Scientific Expedition of Folklorists. The event began with presentations: the director of the institute, Jānis Kalniņš, gave an overview of the expedition’s collections and spoke about the topicality and contemporary nature of folklore; the head of the Folklore Sector, Elza Kokare, spoke on the topic “Folklore in the past and today”; Arnolds Klotiņš, a candidate in art studies [the Soviet analogue to a PhD], gave a presentation on “Current tasks regarding the protection and propaganda of folk art”, paying special attention to the issue of authenticity. The concert consisted of performances of vocal and instrumental music, with ensembles rather than individual traditional singers taking centre stage. The Suitu Sievas of Alsunga, the ensemble from Auleja, the singers from Briežuciems and Salnava, the Dignāja singers, the ethnographic ensembles from Bārta and Otaņķi and many others introduced the audience to their multipart singing traditions. The concert became a real sensation; it was well attended and, due to high demand, was performed again on 25 November in Rēzekne.

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The Dignāja singers at the concert on 14 October 1978. From the left: Milda Kusiņa, Ieva Kalniņa, Milda Bružuka. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19780038

The singers Elza and Augusts Cimdiņš from Vecpiebalga at the concert on 14 October 1978. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19780040

The musicians Jānis Ciguzis, Jānis Paste, Ādams Lelis, and Ilga and Alfrēds Muižnieks from Smiltene at the concert on 14 October 1978. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19780044

On 14 October 1978, a singer from Briežuciems thanks the folklorist and organiser of the concert Jānis Rozenbergs. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19780052

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“The folk music afternoon that took place on 14 October in the former Dailes Theatre cannot be overestimated. This event is a first in our culture.”

Knuts Skujenieks, poet, 1978

“The concert was slightly diminished by the braids made of flax tow and the crowns [a symbol of unmarried young women] on ladies who seemed to have already passed their prime.”

Knuts Skujenieks, poet, 1978

“What has currently so greatly raised the prestige of folklore in our eyes? A folk song, dance or sculpture is not only a work of art; it is also a concentrated ethical experience, it is also a moment of history recorded in living memory. It is like a fragment that most fully describes a nation – in the past, in the present and in the future.”

Knuts Skujenieks, poet, 1978

“But in the many mutations that folklore has to endure in the carousel of modern arrangements, is it not already beginning to lose its genetic code for further development? And how can we keep it healthy?”

Arnolds Klotiņš, musicologist, 1978

“Unfortunately, the Latvian Union of Soviet Composers is less and less able to respond to invitations to participate in All-Union folklore events, because the number of appropriate music specialists in Latvia is catastrophically low.”

Ģederts Ramans, the chairman of the board of the Latvian Union of Soviet Composers, 1978

“The Union of Composers believes that the prestige of folklore in the musical life of our republic should be significantly raised through the joint efforts of the philharmonic, cultural education institutions, the press and radio. The most unforgivable deficiency of the generally prolific Latvian Soviet system of amateur art is its lack of folklore ensembles.”

Ģederts Ramans, the chairman of the board of the Latvian Union of Soviet Composers, 1978

“Just one day, but it made a big impression. On the one hand, the Academy of Sciences announced that folklore no longer existed in Latvia and halted expeditions, but at the same time, it was a concert of real folklore groups. There was a terrible contradiction. It had been a long time since the public had heard the singing of authentic ensembles, but it was announced that there was no folklore. This made people contemplate many things. Finished – how can that be? How can folklore in Latvia be finished? Folklore is finished in Latvia? That really fired people up. In the three years up to 1981, the number of folklore groups increased tenfold. At first there were three or four, but after that there were many, many.”

Arnolds Klotiņš, musicologist, 2022

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Animated map: The establishment of folklore groups up to 1991. Sources: folklore festival booklets; the 1998 survey of folklore ensembles by Ansis Ataols Bērziņš http://folklora.lt/; the Latvian cultural data portal https://kulturasdati.lv/; data from folklore movement organisers, participants and researchers. The animated map gives a general insight into the establishment of folklore groups, although it does not include a detailed look at the history of the origins and names of each folklore group. It is possible that the authors of the study did not have information about some groups.

“At first it seemed like a very united movement, in which it was one for all and all for one. Aimed at the awareness of one’s roots. That was extremely important. Everyone had had enough of the Soviet citizen cutting himself off from his roots. Everybody wanted to know their family’s history and also the history of their nation. And that movement was very broad. It wasn’t just something within the folklore movement; it was much, much broader than that. As I said, the culture as a whole.”

Iveta Tāle, leader of the Klinči folklore group from Krustpils, 2024

Daugava Festival

The first Daugava Festival, on 5 August 1979 at the Museum of the Daugava River, served not only as a launch pad in the early history of the folklore movement; it also influenced the development of attitudes within the broader society, reinforcing the notion of folklore and its use as a form of cultural opposition. The Museum of the Daugava River on Dole Island was founded in 1969 to preserve the cultural heritage of the Daugava Valley, especially in the areas flooded by the Riga Hydroelectric Power Plant. The geographical isolation of Dole Island, as well as the relatively marginal status of the museum, had already before the first Daugava Festival attracted the attention of creatives operating outside the dominant culture, and the museum hosted exhibitions that were not permitted in Riga.

The idea to organise the festival came about after Lilita Vanaga, an employee at the museum, had collected a wide range of materials about the Daugava River in Latvian folklore. The museum’s director, Daina Lasmane, involved the poet Knuts Skujenieks (who had returned from Soviet imprisonment in Mordovia in 1969), the event director Uģis Brikmanis, the music folklorist Vilis Bendorfs and other creative persons of that time in the initiative. The result was an unprecedented event that many participants still remember to this day for its uplifting emotion, sense of togetherness and the special sound of the music performed by the Skandinieki folklore group. Actors from the Valmiera Theatre, the Tēvzeme choir and its conductor Haralds Mednis, and the Madara choir conducted by Ausma Drulle also performed at the festival. However, Lasmane highlights the special atmosphere created by the presence of folklore at the event.

“The songs of the folk ensembles somehow sounded much different at that time than they had ever before or after then, because the aura was so uplifting and simply hit the right spot [..] I’ve often thought about how exceptionally the folk songs and ensembles emerged at just the right moment and the right time. One could only marvel at how they touched people not just in their hearts but also in their minds, and not only in their minds but also in their hearts. Skandinieki undoubtedly stood out. They were bolder, they had a bit more bravura, and that’s why they were always first. It was good that they were like that at that time. They could be analysed and judged, as specialists might do, but they nonetheless played a crucial role in the overall progression towards an independent Latvia.”

Daina Lasmane, former director of the Museum of the Daugava River, 2023

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The first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. Festival participants arrive by boat. 5 August 1979. Photo: U. Salna. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, DoM Fneg 2365, 2

The Skandinieki folklore group at the first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. 5 August 1979. Photo: Arnis Blumbergs. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, DoM Fneg 1647, 2

Kokle players and audience at the first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. 5 August 1979. Photo: Arnis Blumbergs. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, DoM Fneg 1651

The first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. 5 August 1979. Photo: Arnis Blumbergs. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, DoM Fneg 1702, 1

The Skandinieki folklore group and the Tēvzeme men’s choir at the first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. 5 August 1979. Photo: Laimonis Stīpnieks. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, Stīpnieks 36

An informal moment at the first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. Among the festival goers are also youths from Latvian exile communities in the West. 5 August 1979. Photo from the personal archive of Danuta Kandele

The first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. The Tēvzeme men’s choir and festival participants. 5 August 1979. Photo: Arnis Blumbergs. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, Dom Fneg 1704, 2

Knuts Skujenieks at the first Daugava Festival on Dole Island. 5 August 1979. Photo: Laimonis Stīpnieks. Daugava Festival collection at the Museum of the Daugava River, Stīpnieks 20

“We [Līvlist] had a trip to Estonia. It could have been in 1974, when the Estonians had invited us to a big singing event at Lahemaa in their national park, on the hillfort. [..] The evening took place around a campfire, and there was a folklore group from the University of Tartu called Hellero, led by Mikk Sarv. [..] The Hellero students were sitting around the fire in their hooded jackets, sitting on the ground kind of huddled together and singing regilaul, those ancient songs. We totally froze, so to say. [..] It really affected us deeply and turned things around for us! [..] We realised, wow, this is something real, [..] something like the very salt of the earth. And they sat there without any pretence. The regilaul, of course, aren’t sung with loud voices, and it was all so spellbinding! [..] And so that made us reflect on a lot of things.”

Helmī Stalte, leader of the Skandinieki folklore group, 2022

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“The 1979 Daugava Festival was the first major event in which urban people sang the old folk songs in an unarranged manner. There were reportedly around 3000 people in the audience.”

Vilis Bendorfs, researcher of musical folklore, 1996

“We probably got in touch with Vilis Bendorfs through the Academy of Sciences, because we were already going there. He taught us valuable things, like how to sing recited-style songs in trochee and dactyl rhythms. Wonderful, yes, but also very difficult for people who are starting to learn to sing in an ethnographic manner, because you also have to vary the melody along with it. But it was very, very interesting. The Daugava Festival in 1979 was one of the first times that we Skandinieki sang, in that way, the songs of the Daugava River that we had learned. And we had learned them quite precisely according his method.”

Helmī Stalte, leader of the Skandinieki folklore group, 2022

“We truly transformed over the course of that summer before the Daugava Festival. In any case, at the festival we Skandinieki were already operating at a new level. With the conviction that we were more real, a far cry from the vocal ensembles.”

Danuta Kandele, member of the Skandinieki folklore group, 2024

Development of the folklore movement style

Not immediately, but gradually, a new understanding of folk music performance emerged within the folklore movement. This was stimulated by various influences and ideas, the availability (or unavailability) of sources, different musical experiences and education, and also opinions of or examples set by experts and people considered authorities in the field. The central idea shaping the style was authenticity, and understandings of this could vary. Authenticity was sought by learning from traditional singers or ethnographic ensembles (older-generation bearers of traditional culture in rural areas, especially in Kurzeme and Latgale); by attempting to free oneself from academic musical influences in singing, instrumentation or arrangements; by looking for the oldest layer of traditional music in sheet music editions; by abandoning theatrical performances or standing in a line on stage; by involving the audience; by learning and teaching song-games and dances and celebrating traditional festivals; by highlighting the ritual side of traditional culture; by seeking knowledge about ethnography and history; and by establishing a way of life influenced by folklore. The belief that folklore can be performed and practised correctly or incorrectly has also had a significant impact on the style of the folklore movement.

1. “Nāc nākdama, liela diena”

Budēļi folklore group. 1’08”. (P) 1982 recording from the Latvian Radio archives

2. “Ezeriņi, Lubāniņi”

Bizīteri folklore group. 1'02”. (P) 1982 recording from the Latvian Radio archives

3. “Par ko mani līkas kājas”

Skandinieki folklore group. 1’57”. (P) 1983 recording from the Latvian Radio archives

4. “Šķiratiesi zosu pulki”

Savieši folklore group. 1’45”. (P) 1984 recording from the Latvian Radio archives

“It may not have been folklore performed in a completely authentic way, but the young people’s faces while they sang had a radiant, transcendental beauty and were filled with passion. And for me, as a listener, it doesn’t matter whether long ago this particular song was performed in unison or in two parts; what matters to me is that the performance strikes a chord in my soul that also resonated for the creators of the song long ago.”

Andris Bergmanis, journalist, 1981

Revival of folk instruments

In its initial period, the folklore movement gradually abandoned modernised musical instruments and forms of music-making influenced by popular music in favour of restored instruments and revised song and dance accompaniments as well as instrumental music-making. The rather limited resources necessary for the revival of instruments encouraged experimentation in the making and playing of them, and certain individuals and their musical experience and intuition played an important role in this process. It became quite common, especially in small ensembles, for the kokle (a Baltic psaltery) to accompany singing. The “discovery” of Jānis Poriķis, a kokle player from the Suiti area, provided an opportunity for participants of the folklore movement to learn his way of playing and also highlighted the Kurzeme-style kokle. Those participants of Latgalian origin brought the Latgalian-style kokle to the fore, which by the first half of the 1980s became the most widely played type of kokle. The two-stringed ģīga was derived from the traditional monochord and was used to accompany singing, putting particular emphasis on the drone tone. The guimbarde was also used to accompany singing, mainly due to its archaic sound.

“By getting to know the sound of fifteen folk instruments and musical tools – kokle, goat horn, birch bark, shepherd’s horns, shepherd’s flutes, ocarinas, bagpipes, stick rattles, clappers, etc. – the audience could see that the Latvian nation had not only created a rich song culture. Its creative imagination had also been expressed no less vividly in the skills for making musical instruments and tools as well as inventing melodies. [..] His [Jānis Poriķis’] manner of playing reflected the techniques used to produce the texture and harmony typical of kokle players from Alsunga and also their art of instrumental variation. Valdis Muktupāvels, for his part, with the help of the birchbark trumpet and the goat horn, made it possible to become acquainted with the motifs typical of shepherd’s calls used throughout Latvia and the beauty of the unarranged melodies played on shepherd’s flutes and shepherd's horns. [..] folk music must be nurtured in an ethnographic context, and the folklore values of any genre must remain sovereign and their bearers must be honoured.”

Īrisa Priedīte, ethnographer, 1982

“My learning process went like this: in 1978 I was in the Tēvzeme men’s choir, and in December, I think, we went to Tallinn to perform in a concert and befriend a women’s choir from Tallinn. And I went out for a walk in the Old Town and bought a record by Leegajus at a music shop. It had been displayed right in the shop window. A big record with Sarv playing the bagpipe on the cover. And I listened to that record, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning, and I was hooked.”

Valdis Muktupāvels, ethnomusicologist, 2024

Although dances were most often accompanied by the accordion and/or violin, the revival of the bagpipes allowed for the joint playing of the violin and bagpipes with drums, “devil’s drum” (a type of stick rattle) or other percussion instruments. The simplicity of making and playing clappers and rattles, and the invitation for all to join in, often led to exaggerations in the use of these instruments in accompaniments for dances and especially for songs. On the whole, the revival of musical instruments supported the overarching mission of the folklore movement, namely, resistance to the Soviet occupation and the cultural forms it introduced. The idea of the oldest instruments as the most valuable was often brought up, even if their musical potential was negligible compared to newer instruments. The simplicity of the instruments and the possibility of making them oneself also reduced the role of state institutions and allowed more personal expression. Instruments such as kokle and bagpipes became national symbols during the Singing Revolution.

“In the development of their collective playing (instrumentation, texture), Skandinieki have been guided by ethnographic models or descriptions and have followed the principles of folk improvisation. Skandinieki’s manner of playing also expresses our present-day perception of ancient folk music and a living and contemporary feel for it. Skandinieki’s five years of activity in the truly complex propaganda of folk songs, customs, song-games, dances – the entire folkloric heritage – makes one trust that this expression is genuine, even if stamped with the strong individuality of the collective.”

Arnolds Klotiņš, musicologist, 1982

Clothing in the folklore movement

The folklore movement also saw the emergence of a new visuality that combined notions of traditional culture with a contemporary understanding and the practical possibilities of the era as well as influences from other social trends, such as the hippie movement. Clothing played a particular role in shaping this visuality. In tune with one of the movement’s key aims – a focus on authentic folklore and Latvian culture as opposed to the theatrical stage aesthetic cultivated by the Soviet regime, with its uniform costumes, fake braids and kitsch folkiness – the movement’s participants sought to create their own individual visual image.

“We accepted the strangeness of being different from everyone else as the norm, [..] to not become part of the ‘grey mass’, to not become just a cog in the system, to retain your identity, to have your own individuality, to be a personality, to not become like everyone else, to not do something just because everyone else is doing it. In a way, the folklore movement was a kind of going against the tide, but in any case it was a deeply personal attitude. Also participating in all of the seasonal festivals, going to the Open-Air Museum. At the Open-Air Museum, whether it was Meteņi or the spring equinox or some other festival, you’d dress up at home and take the tram [to the museum]. People would look at you a bit strangely, but, yes, you’re going to the Meteņi celebration and that’s why you’re here, not hiding somewhere behind a bush to change your clothes.”

Anete Karlsone, ethnologist, 2022

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Valdis Muktupāvels and Alfrēds Stinkuls. The review of ethnographic and folklore ensembles in Aizpute, 25 July 1982. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK n1868

Ilga Reizniece playing the violin. 1980. Ilga Reizniece collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2248, 16

Bizīteri folklore group. From the left: Āris Ziemelis, Silvija Silava, Dzintars Tilaks, Ilga Reizniece. Valdis Muktupāvels also participates. March 1981, Pechory, Russia. Ilga Reizniece collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2248, 18

A concert during the annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. 1980s. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 258

At Dainu Kalns (Folk Song Hill) in Turaida. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Vaira Strautniece photography collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 2115p

Institutionalisation of the folklore movement

The first official folklore events were organised by the Andrejs Upīts Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences, the Writers’ Union of the Latvian SSR and the Latvian Soviet Composers’ Union under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture of the Latvian SSR. In 1980 and 1981, large-scale folklore events were organised by Zoja Kļujeva (later Heimrāte; at Museum Day and the annual craft fair at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia in May and June 1980), Monika Praņevska (later Livdāne; the Folklore Festival in Preiļi, 29–30 August 1980) and Liāna Ose (the Folk Music and Folklore Festival in Ogre, 30–31 May 1981) as their diploma works for their studies in cultural education at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian State Conservatoire. Other major events of the early years included the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of Andrejs Jurjāns in Riga in 1981 and the closing concert and gathering for the first review (a compulsory form of performance that served as a platform for the artistic and ideological control of folklore groups) of ethnographic ensembles and folklore revivalist groups of the Latvian SSR in Aizpute on 25 July 1982. The E. Melngailis Academic-Methodological Centre for Folk Art and Cultural Education became the main organiser of folklore events in the 1980s.

“In brainstorming and working together with Helmī Stalte, I got the idea of inviting one group from each region of Latvia to my diploma work. By the way, the diploma work was international – we also had one group from Lithuania and one from Estonia. And it was a surprise that so many people had arrived at the open-air stage in Ogre where the concert was held – it was like a Song Celebration choir concert. We also had a lot of moral support from Imants Ziedonis [a beloved Latvian poet and authoritative cultural figure in the 1970s and 80s]. He was also there, but we were not expecting him; he had not been specially invited. From then on, he was always supportive in folklore matters. Just as he had written Kurzemīte, he felt that this was a value of our people that needed to be brought to light. The creative intelligentsia of that time expressed everything that needed to be expressed and complemented what the folklore and ethnographic ensembles sang.”

Liāna Ose, organiser and director of the 1981 folklore festival in Ogre, 2024

Review concerts of amateur art

In 1978, the Skandinieki folklore group took part in the Kirov District (the central administrative district of Riga during the Soviet period, named after a Soviet functionary) review concert of vocal ensembles in Riga, which was praised by the district’s chief conductors Edgars Račevskis and Pauls Kvelde. The trio formed by Valdis Muktupāvels took part in the 1978/1979 Latvian State University review concert of amateur artistic ensembles with a performance of Latvian folk songs and folk songs of other nations, receiving the highest recognition. Already in 1979, Skandinieki were invited to take part in the large, nation-wide review of vocal ensembles, and in March 1980 the group took part in the review concert of Latvian folk instrumental, ethnographic ensembles and folklore groups held in Riga with a programme of songs and song-games related to masked mummers’ processions. The first republic-wide review of folklore ensembles was held in 1982 and concluded with a large gathering in Aizpute. A second gathering of folklore ensembles took place in 1987 at Dainu Kalns (Folk Song Hill) in Turaida.

“We began working together [with Dainis Stalts and Helmī Stalte] for this [Skandinieki’s first] review concert, and then our conversations naturally became more professional and serious in terms of the content and essence, the rituals and the functions of folklore inherent in folk singing and traditions. We felt that traditional singing needed to be brought into the light, because it had been silenced during the Soviet period and only the ethnographic ensembles of Latgale and Kurzeme had kept it alive.”

Liāna Ose, folklore event organiser and director, 2024

Gathering of folklore groups in Aizpute in July 1982

“Ilmārs Puteklis, the First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Latvian SSR, said: ‘Well, organise the gathering in Aizpute! Nobody will worry or care about it there.’ That was the first time that ensembles from all of the regions came together, having been invited by the Emilis Melngailis Folk Art Centre. Each ensemble’s programme served a purpose, whether it was the night pasture songs from Rikava, or the milling songs performed by Iļģi by the mill… The Daina folklore group from Valmiera had prepared bird songs, which resounded beautifully at the nearby forest museum. Everyone was found a suitable place where they could present their programme. A sing-along took place in the apple orchard. In a word, the whole town was populated with folk songs from all regions of Latvia. Dandari led a public dance at the bus station square, and from there the festive procession headed to the Aizpute open-air stage, where the closing ceremony took place. Back then it was called Misiņkalns [Misiņš Hill], but in reality it was Vadoņkalns [Hill of the Leader] from the time of Latvia’s first period of independence, so that stage and hill have their own history. Plus, the event took place in the birthplace of folklorist Fricis Brīvzemnieks.”

Liāna Ose, organiser and director of the 1982 folklore gathering in Aizpute, 2024

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Poster for the concert of the republic-wide gathering of ethnographic ensembles and folklore groups at the open-air stage in Aizpute on 25 July 1982. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 14

Horse-drawn carts at the concert of ethnographic ensembles and folklore groups in Aizpute. 25 July 1982. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 22

Festive procession of ethnographic ensembles and folklore groups to the concert in Aizpute, with the Skandinieki folklore group in the foreground. 25 July 1982. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 45

Participants in the concert of ethnographic ensembles and folklore groups in Aizpute, by the Lenin monument. 25 July 1982. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 41

The concert of ethnographic ensembles and folklore groups in Aizpute. 25 July 1982. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 67

“Working at the Ministry of Culture and the Melngailis Centre, I had the opportunity to support the folk arts sector and help it become an equal in the Nationwide Song Celebration process.”

Liāna Ose, folklore event organiser and director, 2024

Folklore events at the Song and Dance Celebrations

In 1973, the Nationwide Song Celebration programme for the first time included a folk music concert, which then and in subsequent Celebrations took place in the Great Hall of the University of Latvia. Although at that time the concert featured arrangements of Latvian folk songs performed by modernised kokles, choirs, vocal ensembles and folk instrument orchestras, from 1980 onward the newly established folklore groups also joined the concerts. The 1985 Song and Dance Celebration already counted 12 folklore ensembles and instrumental groups among its participants, confirming the inclusion of the folklore sector in the state-controlled and state-supported system of amateur art. The 1990 programme of folklore events was very extensive and folklore ensembles were singled out as a separate category of participants. Folk music concerts, sing-alongs and public dancing events took place at Dainu Kalns (Folk Song Hill) in Turaida as well as the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum, the 11 November Embankment and the Great Hall of the University of Latvia in Riga.

Informal and semi-formal events within the movement

In defiance of the Soviet regime’s practice of controlling all cultural activity through the mechanism of public censorship of events (including the approval of programmes), participants of the folklore movement developed ways of circumventing or minimising the impact of this control. With regard to the concert as an officially approved form of public cultural communication, there were several ways of transforming a concert into an informal event, for example, by describing it on posters as “an evening with handicrafts and singing”, “a communal flax harvest” or “the initiation ritual of a newborn baby into the community” instead of as a concert. The group members then communicated freely with the audience, commenting on the songs and their context and the traditional singers from whom they had been learned. An approved concert programme was often followed by communal singing or dancing with the audience. The boundary between performers and audience was broken down by inviting the audience to sing along or to dance the steps demonstrated beforehand.

Even more important was trying to practise the folklore they had learned in its original context: singing lullabies when putting one’s own children to bed, holding ritual singing contests at weddings, singing songs of the summer solstice celebration at Jāņi (Midsummer) or harvest songs and songs related to communal work next to a field of freshly cut rye. People also frequently gathered at each other’s homes to sing or play music together, thus marking out their space as a non-Soviet zone.

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Meteņi at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum in 1984. Photo from the personal archive of Ilga Reizniece

The Savieši folklore group during a masked procession. Vidzeme, December 1982. Photo: Andris Slapiņš. Archives of Latvian Folklore

Meteņi at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum. 24 January 1982. Photo from the personal archive of the Stalts family

Helmī Stalte, Ilga Reizniece and young women from the Savieši folklore group on Rasos (Midsummer) in Lithuania. June 1982. Photo from the personal archive of Ērika Māldere

The Klinči folklore ensemble of the open-air department of the Jēkabpils Museum at a sowing festival on the “Cīņa” kolkhoz in Jēkabpils District. 1984. Photo from the personal archive of Iveta Tāle

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Dancing in Alūksne District in early March 1981, with music provided by the Bizīteri folklore ensemble and Valdis Muktupāvels. Singer-songwriter Haralds Sīmanis is among the dancers. Photo from the personal archive of Ilga Reizniece

The Klinči folklore group at the Kurzeme Region Cultural Festival in Pope. 1989. Photo from the personal archive of Iveta Tāle

The Klinči folklore ensemble of the Jēkabpils History Museum on the Sēļi (Selonia) Farmstead at the Jēkabpils Museum in 1987(?). Photo from the personal archive of Iveta Tāle

Skandinieki lead a ritual dance at the Anglican Church in Riga. Photo from the personal archive of Marga Stalta

Skandinieki lead the “Diždancis” dance at the Anglican Church in Riga. Photo from the personal archive of Marga Stalta

Collecting folklore

In the 1980s, individual collectors as well as groups of folklore enthusiasts became involved in the collecting of folklore. Often these were practitioners from the folklore movement: students, musicians and leaders and members of folklore groups, such as Helmī Stalte and Dainis Stalts, Artis Kumsārs, Iveta Tāle, Valdis Muktupāvels, Ilga Reizniece, Mārtiņš Boiko and others. Folklore collecting by the participants of the folklore movement was mainly driven by two things. First, it was the desire to get closer to the foundations and sources of Latvian identity, to become directly acquainted with traditional singers and experience the performance of folklore firsthand. Second, during the Soviet era, the Archives of Latvian Folklore (known in the 1980s as the Folklore Department of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences), which was the main institution for folklore collection and research, was forced to represent the official position of the Soviet authorities and thus access to folklore materials was sometimes limited and communication between participants in the folklore movement and the institute’s leadership was not always mutually understanding. It is likely that the interruption in the repository’s annual expeditions from 1981 to 1985 also encouraged the collecting of folklore by participants of the folklore movement. The Archives of Latvian Folklore collected folklore for preservation, academic study and publication, while the participants in the folklore movement explored and learned traditions and folk music primarily to practise it themselves, enriching their own and their peers’ spiritual worlds and musical repertoires.

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Members of the Skandinieki folklore group taking part in expeditions to collect folklore in Kurzeme. Photo from the personal archive of the Stalts family

Students from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian State Conservatoire on an expedition to collect folklore. Traditional singer Augustīne Jakovele and her dog, Dzodzja, from Kaļvi. Kombuļi, 1985. Photo from the personal archive of Valdis Muktupāvels

Folklore recordings

Folklore recordings were officially produced in Latvia and released on phonograph records only by the Melodija record label and manufacturing facilities in Riga. The first record of folklore was released in 1981; titled Latvian Folklore: Alsunga, it launched the “Latvian Folklore” series of recordings featuring the repertoire of ethnographic ensembles and individual performers. The series was initiated by composer Edmunds Goldšteins, Melodija artistic director Aleksandrs Grīva, sound engineer and musicologist Jāzeps Kulbergs and musicologist Viesturs Vītoliņš. The series included a total of seven vinyl records with regional folklore from Alsunga, Bārta, Rikava, Briežuciems, Rekava, Auleja, Saikava, Piebalga, Lazdona, Ļaudona and other places in Latvia. In addition, Melodija released three more records: Livonian Folklore (1981), Latvian Folk Instrumental Music (1984) and the anthology Musical Folklore of the Latvian SSR (1986). By 1991, the repertoire of revivalist folklore groups had been released in Latvia on five records. Three of these were published by Melodija: Ancient Melodies: Latvian Folk Instrumental Music (1982, Skandinieki), Two Dozen Song-Games Together with Skandinieki (1982) and The Sendziesma Folklore Ensemble (1983). The albums Latgolas Dzīsmes: Songs of Latgale (1991) and Folklore Groups: Klinči, Savieši (1991) were published by RiTonis.

“Back then, in 1978 at the old Dailes Theatre, there was the first event with folklore ensembles. And Viesturs Vītoliņš, who was a radio editor, and I went to see what it was all about. At the same time, I was working at Melodija. And so now all of these Suiti women and everybody who was performing, and Klotiņš was giving a talk… And I say to Vītoliņš: ‘Damn it, let’s make records with folklore! The Estonians have them, the Russians, the Lithuanians, everyone’s got them… Latvia doesn’t!’ The first ones I recorded were Livonians from Ventspils, or maybe Alsunga was first. In any case, we just took whoever came to mind, and don’t even dare think that anyone paid us. I drove my own car, my brother-in-law gave me a good-quality tape recorder that conformed to the phonograph recording standards – not a Russian tape recorder, no. I think they cost 25 roubles per record, but it was a journey, a field trip lasting several days, and of course we didn’t go to places that had been arranged beforehand.”

Edmunds Goldšteins, composer, 2003

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Vinyl records featuring folk music released in Latvia up to 1991

Folklore in film, television and radio

As the folklore movement gained momentum, its coverage in the media became more and more noticeable. And the presence of various aspects of traditional culture in film, television and radio, in turn, was important for the education and motivation of those involved in the folklore movement as well as the prestige of their activities. In the 1970s and 1980s, cinematographer Ervīns Vēveris made many ethnographic films documenting disappearing crafts, skills, scenes of rural life and other things of ethnographic significance. Unfortunately, these films were not shown very often. The film Lielvārdes josta (The Lielvārde Belt, 1980) by Ansis Epners and Estonian artist Tõnis Vint, which encouraged a deeper look into the world of folk ornaments and, more broadly, archaic culture, led to a kind of revolution in thinking. The 1980s saw the emergence of a number of documentary filmmakers – Andris Slapiņš, Rodrigo Rikards, Dzintars Liepiņš, Maruta Jurjāne and others – who focused on the bearers of traditional culture and their heritage as well as on themes of importance to the folklore movement. Their films and television programmes reached a fairly wide audience. Recordings of folklore groups were often broadcast on the radio. In the second half of the 1980s, regular radio programmes devoted to folklore began to be broadcast, including No tautas krātā dziesmu pūra (From the Songs of the People) by Dainis Stalts.

Folklore education

In the absence of direct transmission of traditional culture, acquiring knowledge was very important for the participants of the folklore movement. Sooner or later, every folklore group became a circle of like-minded people sharing their knowledge with each other. However, this was not enough to learn the traditions in depth. Informal educational structures formed spontaneously, including the Friends of Folklore Club, which was one of the most important early groups and usually met on the 21st of every month at the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. For a time beginning in January 1986, the Folklore Council of the Writers’ Union functioned in a similar way. A group of enthusiasts gathered at the Art Employees’ House for classes hosted by the Folklore Department of the People’s University of Culture. The Riga Film Studio was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to make a film about Latvian folklore for general-education schools, and as a result, cinematographer Andris Slapiņš and the Savieši folklore group made the film Gadskārtu dziesmas (Seasonal Songs) in 1983. In the second half of the 1980s, the topic of folklore in general education was taken up by a group of researchers in aesthetic education initiated by the poet Imants Ziedonis at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Latvian State University, and soon so-called “white classes” (folklore lessons with integrated verbal, musical, choreographic and ornamental elements) were established along with courses for teachers of folklore, summer camps, and the Pulkā Eimu, Pulkā Teku festival for children and youths.

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A lecture at the Friends of Folklore Club. Berģi, 1980(?). Photo from the personal archive of Valdis Muktupāvels

A classroom activity for pupils about folk musical instruments. Riga, 1981. Photo from the personal archive of Valdis Muktupāvels

A lecture about folk music instruments for students at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian State Conservatoire. Riga, 1984. Photo from the personal archive of Valdis Muktupāvels

Curriculum for the 1984/1985 academic year for the Folklore Department of the People’s University of Culture of the Art Employees’ House. Photo from the personal archive of Valdis Muktupāvels

The spring equinox at Riga Secondary School No. 25 on 17 March 1984. Photo from the personal archive of Marga Stalta

Programme for the first event of the third edition of Pulkā Eimu, Pulkā Teku festival for children and youths. 1986. Photo from the personal archive of Marga Stalta

Cheka counteraction

In the first half of the 1980s, there was a trend to restrict folklore ensembles in Latvia and also in Lithuania. This could perhaps be attributed to the accession of Yuri Andropov, Chairman of the USSR Committee for State Security, to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in November 1982. In 1981–1984, the Latvian press published a number of articles criticising the folklore movement. In the 1970s and 80s, academic and amateur folklorists were subjected to searches of their homes by the Committee for State Security (KGB), dismissals from their jobs, restrictions on their public activities, sarcastic public comments and recruitment to collaborate. This significantly undermined the cohesion and mutual trust among the participants of the folklore movement. For an example of the activities of the Cheka (the Soviet secret police agency), read about the campaign to influence ethnomusicologist Valdis Muktupāvels, then the leader of the Savieši folklore group and a senior laboratory assistant in the Department of Music History at the Latvian State Conservatoire.

“Nowhere in the laws of the USSR does it state one cannot collect folk songs, play old musical instruments, restore old farmhouses, etc. [..] formally, it’s difficult to implicate a person [..] Of course, if the ‘organs of power’ want to, they can lay the blame on a poor folklorist, accusing him of some criminal or sexual sin, but stubborn new people emerge in place of the one who has been arrested; the voices of various ‘skandinieki’ [the name of the folklore group Skandinieki used as a common noun] are not drowned out.”

Franks Gordons, journalist, Israel, 1984

The 150^th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons

The 150^tn anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons on 31 October 1985 and the events leading up to it over a period of five years, from early 1981 onward, were celebrated on a grand scale in the Latvian SSR. The anniversary was the result of high-level supra-ministerial cultural policy planning. The National Anniversary Committee, which consisted of several institutions (the Ministry of Culture of the Latvian SSR, the Latvian Union of Soviet Writers, the Andrejs Upīts Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences, the J. Rainis Museum of Literature and Art History) was responsible for the anniversary events. The tasks to be accomplished during the five-year period included establishing the Krišjānis Barons Memorial Apartment, unveiling several monuments, publishing studies on Barons, publishing five volumes of the academic publication Latvian Folk Songs and producing an anniversary medal, stamps, and envelopes.

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons resulted in many additions to the Latvian cultural landscape, including Dainu Kalns (Folk Song Hill) in Turaida by sculptor Indulis Ranka, the monument in Vērmane Garden in Riga by Lea Davidova-Medene, the Krišjānis Barons Museum, two documentary films titled Krišjānis Barons (1984) by Andris Slapiņš and Rodrigo Rikards, the feature film Dzīvīte (1989) by Aivars Freimanis, concerts, literary works, many academic and informative press publications, publications of selected folk songs, poster art (Laimonis Šēnbergs, Miervaldis Polis), paintings and graphic art, and exhibitions of applied art. The 150th anniversary celebration took place not only in Latvia and Russia (Moscow and the Voronezh area, where Barons had lived for a time). Events initiated by the anniversary committee also took place in Tartu, Stockholm and Humboldt University in Berlin. The collection Paliekamdziesma (1987) contains publications and reports about the events of the anniversary year. In 1981, the Institute of Language and Literature launched the Krišjānis Barons Conference, an annual academic forum dedicated to the study of traditional culture. Initially, the conference was called a ‘folklore afternoon’ and ‘folklore day’. Its format was based on the academic closing sessions of folklore expeditions, namely, presentations by folklorists followed by a concert of folk music.

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Lidija Barona, the granddaughter of Krišjānis Barons, while visiting Latvia on 13 August 1985. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19850049

Unveiling of the memorial plaque to Krišjānis Barons on Dārtas iela in Riga, 28 October 1985. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 0321n

The conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons, titled “Folk Songs and Contemporary Culture”, in 1984 in Turaida. Sculptor Indulis Ranka in front of his sculpture on Dainu Kalns. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19840060

Kārlis Arājs at a Krišjānis Barons 150th anniversary event. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 19840100

The monument to Krišjānis Barons in Sigulda by sculptor Teodors Zaļkalns, architect Edvīns Vecumnieks. Unveiled in 1985. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 290

The display window of the *Sakta* store celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons. 1985. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 75

A mural in Riga dedicated to Latvian folk songs and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 76

Installation of the Krišjānis Barons monument in Vērmane Garden in Riga in 1985. Designed by Lea Davidova-Medene, the monument commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Barons. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 78

“The Regions Sing Together” – a concert dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons at the Ziemeļblāzma Palace of Culture in November 1985. Photo: Alfrēds Stinkuls. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 122

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“For quite some time now, there has been a strong interest in folklore in our country, mainly in folk songs. This interest has particularly intensified with the approach of the significant anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons. Quite unexpectedly, it seems, folk songs have become so necessary for us, so necessary for everyday life, as they were long ago, in past decades in the social and cultural life of our nation and culture.”

Jānis Kalniņš, director of the Institute of Language and Literature, Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences, 1984

“The so-called folklore wave began in the early 1980s and rolled across Latvia kind of like a ninth wave. It’s an amazing phenomenon! And in addition, the so-called folklore wave merged very smoothly and harmoniously with the time of the Awakening.”

Jānis Peters, poet, 2018

Latvian folklore and support in the West

After the Second World War, two parallel worlds existed in terms of the Latvian press – one was Soviet-occupied Latvia (the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, or SSR), the other was made up of Latvians who had fled or emigrated to the West. There, they managed to maintain the idea of Latvian identity and an independent Latvia, representing and promoting it in Western societies and among policy-makers in the West. While communication with Latvians in Latvia was difficult, it did take place, including with participants of the folklore movement. For the people in Latvia, these contacts with the West provided some protection against Soviet control and repression. Folk music ensembles began forming in the West already in the 1960s, with about ten such groups existing up to 1991. Their activities were rooted in their pre-war experience and the Latvian folklore materials available to them in the West but were also influenced by impulses from the folk music revival movements in Latvia and other countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

“Folk music was in general very popular in American society back then [the 1970s], there was Woodstock and all that. We were teenagers at that time, and the whole folk thing was very enticing. Especially the fact that we had access to Latvian folk – that was the coolest thing! We had access to authentic primary sources.”

Māra Krēsliņa, member of the New York Kokle and Singing Ensemble and the Mičotāji performance from Münster (Germany), creator of the Latvian folk music production by Mālu Ansamblis in Stockholm, 2024

“And then Mālu Ansamblis established itself as an ethnographic music ensemble. We produced a programme and went on tour to Australia. In fact, that was the first time this kind of approach had been heard in exile [communities]. The reactions were initially very different. Some said, ‘They sing like Lithuanian paupers.’ And I responded with words of reassurance, ‘That’s the best compliment possible.’ Well, and then it started, one after the other.”

Austris Grasis, folklorist, 2022

“[In 1984] I came to Latvia alone to participate in an academic conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Krišjānis Barons. [..] The conference lasted several days. It was a very interesting trip. One could feel that the winds of freedom were already starting to spread throughout Latvia.”

Imants Freibergs, computer specialist, 2024

Folklore in the Singing Revolution

In the second half of the 1980s, the folklore movement became part of the stream of events known as the Third Awakening, or Singing Revolution, which led Latvian society towards the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Latvia. The political demonstrations, rallies and barricades also became a stage of sorts for the movement’s participants and folklore itself. The repertoire and symbols of the folklore movement, in turn, served as elements of political activism alongside the increasingly visible concepts of nationalism and Latvianness in popular music, the environmental movement, the creation of the Popular Front of Latvia and other forms of nonviolent resistance.

“For example, the Environmental Protection Club was one such community that folklore people and I came into contact with. More specifically, through the Stender [Gotthard Friedrich Stender, a Baltic German Lutheran pastor who played an outstanding role in Latvia’s cultural history] clean-up initiatives that began in Sunākste. I remember very well the first time I arrived at the church in Sunākste. My father brought me there, because he was from Sece, which is the neighbouring parish, and he said, ‘I’ll show you where Stender’s places are and where Stender’s grave is.’ There wasn’t even a real road there, nothing. We arrived there, I still remember it very well – the church stood open and half-collapsed. [..] After the clean-ups began, I started participating in them. The people there were very differently minded, primarily ecologically minded, and the second thing was that national ideas and the concept of independence began emerging in that circle of people. So, we’d clean up a place and stay there overnight, and everybody would sit around a campfire singing all sorts of folk songs and ‘Imants songs’ [by composer Imants Kalniņš] and songs by other songwriters. There was usually also an impromptu concert in the evening, and during the night everybody sat around and talked about all sorts of things and sang. At first it was more singing, then later the whole community and the conversations became more and more political.”

Iveta Tāle, folklorist, 2024

14 June 1988

Memories from Iveta Tāle, leader of the Klinči folklore group from Krustpils:

“It’s clear that in school we were taught nothing about history. When I began visiting the traditional singers and listening to what they said, and in addition we each had our own family stories, too… They simply spoke a lot about experiences, about history. So we gradually accumulated that within ourselves. [..] And that national stance was growing stronger and stronger in me, too. That’s why we Klinči were one of the groups that got quite deeply involved in the Awakening movement. In fact, Klinči basically organised the first rally in Jēkabpils, which took place on 14 June 1988, a day of commemorating the Soviet deportations in 1941 and 1945–1951. Former deportees also took part. And I think there was also a call by Īvāns [Dainis Īvāns, a journalist and one of the leaders of the campaign against the building of the Daugavpils hydroelectric power plant] against the Daugavpils HPP, [..] and there was also the opposition to the building of the Riga Metro and so on. So there was a call from them to come to the Daugava River that evening and sing, and we responded to it. [..] I said that the little ones – the school-age children – mustn’t come. They had already had [incidents] at school – the Klinči children had begun walking around in traditional leather slippers, and they were being called to the headmaster and reprimanded. I told them they must not come. Only adults who are not afraid.”

4 May 1990

Memories from Ernests Spīčs, director of the Pulkā Eimu, Pulkā Teku folklore festival:

“It was a sunny morning, and as about 800 participants of the Pulkā Eimu, Pulkā Teku folklore festival for children and youths were gathering in the university’s Great Hall for the opening concert, nobody realised that an hour later they would all be standing in front of the Saeima [Latvian parliament] building guarding the deputies of the Supreme Council [the first semi-democratically elected parliamentarians] from attackers who made no secret of their foul intention to break down the doors to disrupt the vote. Not everyone went to the Old Town, however; about 250 of the youngest stayed in the Great Hall, while the rest sang and played song-games at the entrance to the Saeima. At least 50 Interfronte [a reactionary pro-Soviet Russian organisation] activists were forced to retreat – just a moment before, a few Latvian university students had stood in front of the door, but now hundreds of children were there, happily engaging in round dances with singing. After 20 or so minutes, the police arrived. Comrade Bugajs, the head of the Riga police, found me and shouted that an invasion was about to begin and that if anything happened to the children, I would be responsible. I led the festival participants to Cathedral Square, and that was the right thing to do; the children had protected the delegates of the Supreme Council, and a large crowd of nationally-minded people had now gathered in our place, and they would certainly not allow any Interfrontists to invade. We led dancing in Cathedral Square, and we nervously counted along with the voting. Soon we joined the procession to the banks of the Daugava River.”

Barricades in January 1991

Memories from Julgī Stalte:

“I was only 12 years old, but I remember those days as a whirlwind. Growing up in a home [Julgī is the daughter of Dainis Stalts and Helmī Stalte] where the fight for Latvia’s independence always came first and where our folk songs had to flow in our free land, connect with our ancestors and shape tomorrow, that was a moment when I was entrusted with my younger brother and the telephone. My parents and older brother went to the barricades, while I made hundreds of pancakes and delivered them from time to time. And then the telephone. Over the course of our struggle for freedom through song, we had built a close network with the Lithuanians and Estonians. Thanks to my knowledge of Livonian, I understood a little Estonian, and I spoke a little Lithuanian at that time because I had spent several summers with the great Lithuanian singer Veronika Povilionienė. I also had a handle on Russian and German. So the phone was ringing almost constantly – from the south and the north, from Estonia and Lithuania – short, concise messages and words of encouragement. Then my father would call, and I would pass the news on to him. I was also told what to report. The information was very varied, about the movement of trucks and equipment, where they were standing on the barricades, their feelings, the songs they were singing – everything that seemed important.”

Folklore and popular music

Public interest in Latvian folklore noticeably increased in the 1980s, and this was expressed in various creative fields: literature, visual arts, theatre, popular music. Groups wishing to combine folk music with a freer, more individualised expression and elements of popular music were also emerging within the folklore movement itself. Iļģi, the group founded by Ilga Reizniece in 1981, laid the foundation for the approach to folk music that later, in 1992, became known as postfolklore. Popular-music groups also incorporated folklore and folk music motifs into their music.

A selection of popular music:

“Spēlē pieci spēlmanīši” – a Latvian folk song arranged by the group Ornaments, 1984 recording
“Zibsnī zvaigzne aiz Daugavas” – Zigmārs Liepiņš instrumental ensemble, soloist Mirdza Zīvere, music by Zigmārs Liepiņš, Latvian folk text, 1985 recording
“Dzied ar mani, tautu meita” – the group Sīpoli, soloist Niks Matvejevs, music by Mārtiņš Brauns, Latvian folk text, 1980s recording
“Gandrīz tautasdziesma” – the group Pērkons, music by Juris Kulakovs, lyrics by Māris Melgalvs, 1987 recording
“Pūt, vējiņi” – the group Turaidas Roze, soloists Uģis Roze, music by Imants Kalniņš, lyrics by Olafs Gūtmanis, 1988 recording
“Līgo dziesma” – the group Čikāgas Piecīši, music and lyrics by Alberts Legzdiņš, 1990 recording

Baltica ’88 – an emotional culmination

The folklore movement in the Baltics was at its peak in the 1980s. In 1987, the first Baltica International Folklore Festival was held in Lithuania, and a year later the festival took place in Latvia, bringing together 28 Latvian folklore groups, instrumental groups, ethnographic ensembles and dance groups, as well as 21 music groups from abroad, in a grand folklore event. The Baltica ’88 festival turned out to be an important milestone in the Awakening movement. The theme of the festival was the Sun, and the programme consisted of concerts, exhibitions, a procession, dancing and other events in many regions throughout Latvia. Baltica ’88 was also special for being the first time that Latvian folklore ensembles from the exile communities abroad performed in Latvia: the Kolibri folklore ensemble from Boston in the United States (founded in 1976) and the Vilcējas folklore group from Sweden (founded in 1982). It was also the first public event in which participants marched with the national flags of the Baltic states, demonstrating a growing courage to speak out against the Soviet occupation regime.

“We have the same songs, we have the same language, and this time we also feel that we can sing them freely.”

Silvija Stroda, leader of the Vilcējas folklore group, Sweden, 1988

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“Aina Salmane and I went to Vilnius beforehand to find out how the Baltica festival was going to take place and what it would be like. And I can say with conviction that Baltica in Vilnius and our own Baltica, they were so spiritually uplifting – I can’t describe it in words, but the memory lives on in me. Meeting the Lithuanians, such spiritual harmony, such closeness and that warm, wonderful atmosphere.”

Indra Čekstere, member of the Senleja folklore group from Sigulda, 2022

“Indeed, it was the resurrection of Latvia. Everyone was there. And it made no difference whether you were rich or poor, whether you sang or not. You were together with everyone else. See what folklore did! And thank God those blockheads didn’t understand.”

Marga Stalta, member of the Skandinieki folklore group, 2024

“Back then, it was all so completely unimaginable – this daring, this feeling that a sack that had been tied shut for a long time had finally been opened. Unstoppable.”

Dagnija Pārupe, weaver, 2023

“As far as the Awakening is concerned, it arrived with such a loud, powerful bang. Suddenly it was the time of the Awakening, and then it was one of the Baltica festivals. The procession concluded in Cathedral Square, which was so unbelievably full of people. We were standing there like sardines in a can on that hot summer day. [..] And then I also remember that uplifting feeling, and suddenly the maroon-white-maroon flag! So moved I can’t speak… The level of emotional charge in that crowd was definitely something to experience. The emotions that were there. Well, it was obvious it wasn’t going to end well.”

Leontīne Pīgozne, textile artist, 2022

“The Baltica ’88 procession on Brīvības iela from the Sports Palace to the Freedom Monument. The many thousands of spectators along the streets and the unbreakable strength you could almost physically feel among the friends of folklore. Back then, it was about much more than just nurturing and promoting folk traditions. I remember the look in people’s eyes. They looked at us – the people in the procession – as if we were mystical spirits from a different astral world.”

Dāvis Stalts, participant in the folklore movement, from the digital survey “The Folklore Movement in Latvia”

“What sticks in my mind from the Baltica ’88 concert at the Ice Hall is that the Skandinieki opened the concert and came in holding Latvian flags, and we all sang. And the women from the Upīte group were weeping. Weeping with joy.”

Annele Slišāne, participant in the folklore movement, from the digital survey “The Folklore Movement in Latvia”

The folklore movement and visuality

Visuality is one of the important unifying aspects of a social movement, including the folklore movement. The visuality of the folklore movement – which had both developed organically and been deliberately created – was a form of cultural opposition that created a sense of belonging among the participants in the movement and also conveyed the movement’s message to the wider public. Part of this visuality was in line with broader processes in society during the period of Awakening and was connected with a return to the Latvian national symbolism of the interwar period. As the nation’s first stage of political self-determination, with the establishment of its own state and cultural and economic development, the independent Republic of Latvia of the interwar period in many ways represented an ideal to return to. This is why the restoration of the national flag, anthem, coat of arms and other symbols was so important.

“We made a flag in 1988 in Riga. We sent two people to a shop to find some more or less appropriate fabric. We were in the dormitories, and someone had lugged along a sewing machine from home. My father was the main expert on what the proportions of the stripes on the flag should be. Then we all got working and sewed right there on the spot.”

Iveta Tāle, former leader of the Klinči folklore group, 2024

“This year, during the Baltica festival, I walked under the maroon-white-maroon flag for the first time in my life. And for the first time, I realised many things that I had previously only sung about. I also felt that these colours are really in our blood, because already the first time I stood under them I felt like I had come home. And, as my mother tells it, not for nothing did my grandmother wrap a flag, the maroon-white-maroon flag, around herself under her clothes when forced to leave her home and flee into the forest during the war.”

Ilga Reizniece, leader of the group Iļģi, 1988

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The maroon-white-maroon flag of the Republic of Latvia during the Baltica ’88 festival. 15 July 1988. Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 347

The Baltica ’88 festival procession from the Sports Palace to Old Riga on 13 July 1988. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 346

Flags of the Republic of Latvia in the Baltica ’88 festival procession from the Sports Palace to Old Riga. In the foreground: Dainis Stalts. 13 July 1988. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 364

The flag of the Klinči folklore group in the Baltica ’88 festival procession from the Sports Palace to Old Riga. 13 July 1988. Photo: Kārlis Freibergs. From the personal archive of Iveta Tāle

Opening day of the Baltica ’88 festival at Cathedral Square. 13 July 1988. Alfrēds Stinkuls collection, Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2264, 338

Flags of the Baltic states at the Baltica ’88 festival. 14 July 1988, Dainu Kalns (Folk Song Hill) in Turaida. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 1883p

Flags of the Republic of Latvia during the closing concert of the Baltica ’88 festival at the open-air stage in Ogre. 17 July 1988. In the centre: Valdis and Māris Muktupāvels. Photo: Vaira Strautniece. Archives of Latvian Folklore, LFK 2184, 1934p

Alongside the renewal of national symbols and the creation of an individual visual image, the visuality of the folklore movement coincided with the popularity in the broader society of Latvian ornaments. There was simultaneously a return to the mythological interpretation of Latvian ornaments and the creation of new myths, such as the story of the Lielvārde woven belt. In the broader context of the independence movement, the most prominent visual symbol was the eight-pointed star, or octagram, referred to in Latvian as auseklītis (‘morning star’). The Austras koks (‘tree of Austra’) served as the symbol of the Baltica festival.

“In Latvia, [19]88 is the year of emblems, symbols and signs. The maroon-white-maroon [flag] of the Latvian free state waved in the summer breezes, the blue-and-white flag was returned to Riga, and the ‘auseklīts’ began its victory march [..] a diamond-shaped sun with an elongated boat adorned the proclamations and reports of the Ziedonis Culture Foundation, while the Tree of Austra ‘under the symbol of the Sun’ became the emblem of the Baltica folklore festival. In contrast, the sickle and hammer – ni-ni! [..] How much power all these circles and crosses, stars and crescents, branches and chevrons have – even in our sceptical modern times! They are not just symbols for spells and charms; they are rallying cries and guides embodying the hopes and longings of countless people.”

Franks Gordons, journalist, Israel, 1988

CIOFF – Latvia as an independent member of an international organisation

After the first Baltica festival in Latvia, it was decided to establish the Baltica Folklore Association to organise the festival more independently. In 1989, the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian folklore associations united and this was done. One of the steps taken to strengthen international relations was the association’s application to the 20th Assembly of CIOFF (International Council of Organisations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts) in Czechoslovakia to be admitted as a member of the organisation. This happened in 1989, when the restoration of Latvia’s independence had not yet been achieved. The CIOFF Statutes stipulated that only independent states could become members, but in 1990, at the 21st CIOFF Assembly in Canada, the Baltica Folklore Association was accepted as a member of the international organisation, receiving special support from the Nordic folklore organisation NORDLEK. International recognition, especially during the events of 1990 and 1991, served as important support for the Baltic states on their road back to freedom. But Ingrid Rüütel, then president of the Baltica association, also stressed the importance of the Baltic people’s own cultural values in safeguarding freedom.

“Our most important weapon is our spiritual even-temperedness and inner sense of superiority even in the most difficult moments. The Baltic nations stand up to military force and weapons with perseverance, strength of soul and feelings of solidarity, which are fortified and deepened by our songs and dances.”

Ingrid Rüütel, president of the Baltic Folklore Association, 1991

Baltica ‘91 – international recognition

The second Baltica festival in Latvia took place in 1991. Its theme was life-cycle celebrations, and the programme was built around various traditions related to family life. Participants took part in concerts and other events all across Latvia, and on the last day of the festival a grand closing event took place on the open-air stage in Mežaparks in Riga. Since the first Baltica festival in Latvia in 1988, the number of local folklore ensembles had more than doubled. The 63 Latvian folklore groups and ethnographic ensembles were joined by 13 groups from abroad. The 1991 festival marked another major step towards independence from the USSR, as the Baltica Folklore Association had recently been admitted to CIOFF, even though according to the organisation’s statutes only independent countries could join. Several CIOFF representatives, including Sirkka Viitanen from Finland, came to Latvia to experience the 1991 festival and expressed support for Latvia.

“We in Finland are following the events in Latvia. I know that the past fifty years have been very different in the lives of our two nations. But you have done better than us in preserving your people’s folklore. I am happy to see so many young faces in Latvian folklore groups.”

Sirkka Viitanen, CIOFF representative, Finland, 1991

Continuation

After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, the political goal of the folklore movement was achieved and a new era began. From the perspective of social theories, it could be said that the folklore movement lost the characteristics of a social movement. From the perspective of its participants, the folklore movement is still a strong community, a promoter of cultural heritage and a seeker of contemporary directions for folklore. Scholars of folk music revival movements call this the ‘post-revival’ phase. This is the time when the movement’s newly created musical or social culture has established itself and has itself become heritage; it has institutional, financial, social and knowledge infrastructures in place; and it has integrated into a broader global context.

Creators of the exhibition

We thank the participants of the folklore movement for their contributions to the research and the exhibition.

All materials are published with consent.

Exhibition curators and text authors: Ilga Vālodze Ābele, Rita Grīnvalde, Toms Ķencis, Aigars Lielbārdis, Valdis Muktupāvels, Digne Ūdre-Lielbārde, Ieva Weaver
Design: Krišs Salmanis
Front page photograph: Aizpute, 25 july 1982, photographer Alfrēds Stinkuls
Animation: Ramona Loce
Latvian text editor: Agita Kazakeviča
Translation into English: Amanda Zaeska
Coding: Uldis Ķirsis

This exhibition is part of the “Folklore Revival in Latvia: Resources, Ideologies and Practices” project supported by the Latvian Council of Science (2022–2024, project no. lzp-2021/1-0243)

LFK 100; FLPP; VKKF; Latvijas Radio; Latvijas Televīzija

Thefolkloremovementin Latvia