Suchergebnisse

This attempt to inventory all 1,964 songs performed at the seventy Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian National Song Celebrations (1869 to 2014) identified twelve songs which are most representative of Song Celebrations tradition as a whole. These are songs which were remembered and repeated across diff erent epochs of Celebration history (Tsarist, Independence, Soviet, and Renewed Independence). Song Celebrations heritage is measurable, in retrospect. At any Song Celebration, the number of songs from previous Celebrations can be counted to assess if the concert is more or less heritage-oriented.

The national heroes of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania that emerged in literary culture during the nineteenth century were warrior heroes. In the twentieth century, a series of interpretations and adaptations by leading authors disarmed and desacralized Kalevipoeg, Bearslayer (Lāčplēsis), and King Mindaugas, tempering or rejecting their violent actions and recasting these central allegories of national myth into a nonviolent mold. These heroes are part of the cultural context in which the nonviolent Baltic "Singing Revolution" emerged; they offer an intriguing example of evolving (or devolving) aggressive drives and the civilizing process in the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian national cultures.