"To the Latvian the dainas are more than a literary tradition. They are the very embodiment of his cultural heritage, left by forefathers whom history had denied other, more tangible forms of expression. These songs thus form the very core of the Latvian identity and singing becomes one of the identifying qualities of a Latvian."

The central role of the Latvian folk song or daina in Latvian life has long been viewed as one of the distinguishing features of Latvian culture. The citation by Latvia's State President and folklore scholar Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga aptly describes the three essential elements of this uniquely Latvian phenomenon: tradition, literature and symbolism. The Latvian folk song represents a tradition with a long history that is very much alive in Latvian culture today. The aesthetically refined daina is a form of oral literary art, and it is a symbol that has both shaped and epitomised Latvia's national identity for the last two centuries.

To the Latvian, the daina is not just any commonly sung popular song. It is classically defined as a song in quatrain form that is specifically Latvian in its structure, sentiments and worldview. Dating back well over a thousand years, more than 1.2 million texts and 30,000 melodies have been identified.

The Folk Song as a Latvian Folk Tradition

Documentation. The oldest written documentations of Latvian folk songs that have survived are dated 1584 and 1632. These are scanty and fragmentary testimonies by non-Latvians that appeared randomly in the documents of that time period - protocols of witch trials and historical and geographical treatises. Nevertheless, even these first, incomplete publications demonstrate the same poetic forms and stylistic qualities that we recognise today, and therefore allow us to draw conclusions about this tradition's stability and longevity. Documentation of the tradition remained in the hands of cultured non-Latvians up until the middle of the 19^th century. Among these individuals was the German philosopher J.G.Herder who developed an interest in folk poetry during his Riga period (1765-1769) and also aroused an interest among the local Baltic German intelligentsia. The first collections of Latvian folk songs, which were compiled by the German clergymen G.Bergmann and F.Wahr, were published in 1807. Several witnesses have expressed wonder at the immense significance of singing in everyday Latvian life. In 1841 the German geographer and traveller J. G. Kohl was astonished to discover that Latvians had managed to preserve cultural forms that had been swept away elsewhere in Europe by modernisation and thus had become encompassed by nostalgic sentiment:

"Today it would be truly difficult to find another nation in Europe that so rightfully deserves to be called the nation of poets; it would be equally difficult to find another country that deserves to be called the land of poetry as much as the homeland of the Latvians… Every Latvian is a born poet, they all compose verses and songs, and they can all sing these songs."

As higher education became more widespread in the 1850s and 1860s the Latvians themselves revealed more interest in their traditional culture. Collecting and publishing folk songs became an essential activity during the period of national awakening. In 1868 Jānis Sproğis was the first Latvian to publish a collection of folk songs. However, in the 1870s these folk-song collections had reached such proportions that is was necessary to compile them in a publication of several volumes. This job was entrusted to Krišjānis Barons (1835-1923), who dedicated the rest of his life to working with folk songs. Up to this day the most complete anthology of Latvian folk songs is considered Latvju dainas (Latvian Folk Songs), which was compiled by Krišjānis Barons and published between 1895 and 1915 in six volumes and eight books, and contains 217,996 folk-song texts. The originals of the folk songs contained in Latvju dainas can still be found in the Archives of Latvian Folklore. They are kept in the so-called Dainu skapis, a filing cabinet that was custom-made according to drawings made by Barons himself. The Archives of Latvian Folklore, which was founded in 1924, continues the work of collecting folk songs. Today the collection has grown to approximately 1.2 million texts. An ongoing project is the publication of the fifteen-volume academic edition entitled Latviešu tautasdziesmas (Latvian Folk Songs), of which seven volumes have already been published.

Folk-song melodies have been published parallel to the folk-song texts. The first was Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāli (Latvian Folk Music Materials), which was compiled by Andrejs Jurjāns and was published in six volumes between 1894 and 1927. The Archives of Latvian Folklore is presently coming out with a publication of its collection of 30,000 folk melodies.

Folk Songs Today. Although folk songs have been abundantly documented and published they have in no way irreversibly moved for life to the shelves of archives or to the pages of various publications. In several regions of Latvia one can still encounter singers, mostly women, who have orally inherited this tradition. Often they sing in folklore ensembles side by side with others who have taken an interest in folk songs as a result of the folklore movement. About one hundred fifty singing folklore ensembles are presently active in Latvia. Many folklore ensembles have found themselves a teicējs (a folk singer), whose repertoire and singing style they can master directly - from the living tradition. The folklore festival Baltica, which takes place in Latvia every three years, is the main forum that supplies the tradition of singing with a stage and an extensive circle of listeners and supporters. Still, performances of folklore ensembles are also popular at smaller cultural events.

Today the folk-song tradition has found a new living environment. From being used solely within the confines of everyday family life or festivities this tradition has moved on stage and has become a part of school curriculum and professional art. Folk songs are taught at school in literature and music classes. Folk-song motifs, personages, quotes and stylistic features are used in literature, especially poetry and dramaturgy, as well as in professional music and the fine arts. The frequent utilisation of folk songs at various moments in human life (birthday cards, weddings, and obituaries) shows that they continue to be a vibrant part of everyday culture. The aesthetic and ethical values expressed by the folk songs are still significant in modern times and they continue to find new manifestations.

The Folk Song as a Form of Oral Art

Texts and their rendition. Latvian folk songs are short, usually in quatrains, and most often trochaic (in metrical feet consisting of one long syllable followed by one short one), and less often dactylic (in metrical feet consisting of one long syllable followed by two short ones). In content each quatrain is a complete "snapshot." It may contain an observation, a conclusion, guidance, a description of a magical or practical activity, or emotion. Some of the songs resemble proverbs or incantations. Family or seasonal ritual songs are arranged in accordance with the ritual's scenario. Simultaneously the songs helped to organise the ritual and also provided an explanation toward the meaning of a certain activity. When singing on other occasions the quatrains are mutually linked by association, using a theme, personage or word as a basis. The text is divided into sections when singing, which are either repeated or the repetition is replaced by a refrain. Typical refrains for seasonal Latvian folk songs are līgo for Jāņi songs and kalado for Christmas or winter solstice songs. Lyrical ballad-type songs are most often linked with a definite melody. On the other hand, the so-called teicamās or narrated songs represent a more ancient tradition - their melodies are within a narrow range of sounds and are used for texts that cover a wide variety of themes. In some of Latvia's pagasti (civil parishes) one or two melodies that were well known were used for all occasions. These songs were sung in a polyphonic bagpipe manner - the teicējs would begin the song with the first voice and would then be joined by the locītājas and then by the vilcējas who would sing one drawn out tone.

Themes. Latvian folk songs provide a multifaceted glimpse of a farmer's life and worldview. They depict the cyclical passage of time in nature and the various work that must be accomplished at a certain time - ploughing, sowing, reaping and harvesting. The songs are dedicated not only to each type of work, but also to tools, everyday objects and domestic animals, thereby imbuing with aesthetic value the farmer's everyday life. Crossroads in everyday work life are marked by festivities and rituals and the songs that accompany them. These festivities are connected to the closure or beginning of an important work period - the first day that the animals are put out to pasture, Mārtiņi or the end of work in fall, etc. Astronomical processes are also observed - especially winter and summer solstice. The largest number of songs is sung at Jāņi (summer solstice). These songs reflect the ancient fertility rituals of the Latvian farmer.

All year round I gathered songs,
Waiting for Midsummer Night,
Midsummer Night is here at last,
It's time to sing all the songs.

Visu gadu dziesmas krāju,
Jāņu dienu gaidīdama.
Nu atnāca Jāņu diena,
Nu dziesmiņas jāizdzieda.

The Latvian folk songs encompass the entire course of human life. They portray the principal periods in life: pregnancy, childbirth, upbringing, youth, marriage, life in wedlock, old age and death. Special songs are dedicated to three rites of passage: the baptism, wedding and funeral. The baptism songs accompany and explain the magical deeds that are performed by the baptism guests, which are intended to ensure the child's good health and well-being. Wedding songs comprise about one third of all the folk songs in total, and each song is meant for a specific moment during the course of the wedding. As a whole they make the "script" of a ritual drama that enacts an ancient tradition - the stealing of the bride and the ensuing pursuit by the bride's relatives. Rivalry between the relatives of the bride and groom continues throughout the entire ritual and includes responsorial singing - attempts to tease the other side with the help of humorous, satiric and often erotic texts. The erotic lyrics in wedding songs are related to ensuring the newlyweds' fertility. Funeral songs were sung while waking and burying the deceased. A border between the world of the living and the world of the dead was built with the help of special magical words and activities, thereby ensuring that the deceased would not haunt the living. Lamentation at the funeral was not common practice among the Latvians. The songs were intended more for achieving emotional equilibrium than for expressing one's grief.

The singers and connoisseurs of Latvian folk songs were mostly women, and the world depicted by the folk songs is largely a woman's world. Latvians also have war songs, but they are not eulogies of bravery and do not contain battlefield depictions or bloody spectacles. War is portrayed as a human tragedy that takes away lives and twists the world of emotions. In drinking songs, also, the merriment of carousal is overshadowed by the suffering of the reveller's wife and children.

As I was going to war
I cut a cross in the oak,
So that father and mother shouldn't weep,
So that the crossed oak should weep.

Es, karā aiziedams,
Cirtu krustu ozolā,
Lai nerauda tēvs, māmiņa,
Lai raud krustiņš ozolā.

The orphans' songs are the most poetically refined. Their imagery provides an aesthetic quality to the sorrow of the orphaned child. In these songs the mother is compared to the sun, and the mother's absence is like the absence of the sun's light and warmth. Yet, in the songs the orphans' tears metamorphose into visually beautiful images of nature - gleaming dewdrops, rain permeated by the sun and fog.

The folk songs also contain the Latvian perception of the world's structure, order and the powers that rule it. In this worldview the space that is occupied by humans is connected to the sun. One indicator of this is the Latvian word for world pasaule ("place under the sun"), as well as the juxtaposed pair šī saule ("this sun" or the world of the living) and viņa saule ("distant sun" or the world of the dead). In Latvian folk songs astronomical phenomena (twilight, the movement of celestial bodies in the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars) are also transformed into mythological and poetic images.

Whoever said it, lied,
That the Sun sleeps at night;
Does the Sun rise
Where it set yesterday?

Kas to teica, tas meloja,
Ka saulīte nakti guļ;
Vai saulīte tur uzlēca,
Kur vakaru norietēj'?

These cosmological motifs and personages (Dievs - God, Saule - the Sun, Dieva dēli - the sons of God, Saules meitas - the daughters of the Sun, Saules koks - the Sun tree) are enticing with their archaism to researchers of Indo-European prehistory. The main mythical being in the folk songs is Dievs - God, in which are combined pre-Christian and Christian notions. Dievs is together with humans throughout their lives, but the goddess Laima is the chief decision-maker regarding a person's fate. Laima and the goddess Māra are the chief protectresses of orphaned girls, young wives, pregnant women and women in general. In the folk songs nature is personified as many maternal personages, of which the chief ones include Vēja māte - Mother Wind, Meža māte - Mother Forest and Jūras māte - Mother Sea. The realm of the dead is ruled by Zemes māte - Mother Earth or Veļu māte - Mother of the Souls.

The Folk Song as a Symbol in Latvian Culture

The Latvians call themselves a nation of singers. The folk-song tradition is the main symbol used for the nation's self-identification, and this symbol has a history of one and a half centuries. The idea that Latvians could be more than merely an uneducated class of farmers surfaced for the first time in the middle of the 19^th century. Jaunlatvieši (the New Latvians), the ideologists of the first national awakening, turned to folk songs in order to demonstrate that Latvians have the right to be considered an indivisible nation. The folk songs were a cultural phenomenon that was used to prove that Latvians have a national distinguishing characteristic. The fact that the folk songs originated in the distant past reaffirmed the nation's antiquity, its independent history and prospects of persevering in the future. The great number of traditionalists and their cultural unity was turned into a symbolic basis for the nation's solidarity. The widespread movement of accumulating folklore at the end of the 19^th century truly was a task that consolidated the nation.

The Latvians returned to these ideas between the 1920s and 1940s, when the newly-founded national State wished to shape a nationally unique culture and the folk songs served as a source for ascertaining the Latvian national character, soul, taste, etc. Group public singing as a symbolic expression of the nation's collective consciousness is a solid tradition in Latvian culture. The song-festival tradition that was established during the period of the first awakening continues to thrive even today. Collective public singing was also one of the weapons used in the non-violent battle of the third national awakening. The political events that resulted in Latvia freeing itself from the Soviet Empire were not named the "Revolution of Song" in vain.

In the 1990s, following the re-establishment of state sovereignty, the image of the singing nation is surfacing in public debates on the return to Europe and how the Latvian national identity will be influenced by alignment with the European Union.

 Latvian_Folk_Songs.pdf (2.84 MB)

© Text: Dr. Dace Bula, The Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, 2000 

© The Latvian Institute
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