Lithuanian Composers Research Articles

The Imposter by Jurgis Karnavicius: A Ballet-Fantasy on a Historical Plot

One of the first Lithuanian composers to work in the genre of ballet was Jurgis Karnavičius (1884–1941). In 1928 he introduced a choreographic scene based on his tone poem The Lithuanian Rhapsody, that engaged interest in the genre of ballet among Lithuanian composers. Afterwords Karnavičius composed four full-length ballets that were offered to a variety of European theatres. Unfortunately, due to the events of World War II, there had not been any production of the ballet organized. Fortunately, the musical material of the ballet was preserved, including The Imposter (1940). The libretto written by Elena Pavlovna France is based on historical events in Russian history of the first decade of the 17th century — the beginning of the Time of Troubles. The main characters of the ballet are the future tsar-imposter False Dmitry I and Marina Mniszech, whose fates are tied to both Russian, Polish and Lithuanian history. The ballet was influenced by the works of great Russian composers, such as Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky and A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka, most specifically, their “Polish acts.” At the same time, The Imposter added new plot motives that allow us to see the uprising of False Dmitry from a different perspective. Karnavičius’ ballet continues to be preserved in the Lithuanian Archive of Literature and Music up to the present day. The hope remains that these materials shall not only be published, but also performed.

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’s Socio-Cultural Connections and Professional Self-Realisation in Lithuania

In 1907–1909, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis worked with seven national societies active in Lithuania: Lithuanian Art Society, Amateur Music and Theatre Society “Vilniaus Kanklės”, Lithuanian Association “Rūta” in Vilnius, Music and Theatre Society “Daina” in Kaunas, Lithuanian Scientific Society, Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius, and Charitable Society for Pupils and Students “Žiburėlis”. He was a member of the formerthree organizations. The Lithuanian Art Society was the main platform for Čiurlionis’s professional and social self-realisation. He served as its vice-chair and from September 1907 to September 1909 stood in for its chair, Antanas Žmuidzinavičius. He organised the Second Lithuanian Art Exhibition. On Čiurlionis initiative, the music section was established at the Society. Together with his colleagues, he organized a competition for Lithuanian composers; he also envisaged a periodical of music, art, and literature.The article discusses the question of the affiliation with the Lithuanian Vilnius Choir led by Čiurlionis. The research has revealed that Čiurlionis conducted a united choir consisting of the singers from the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society of Vilnius and “Vilniaus Kanklės”. His participation in two soirees organised by “Žiburėlis”, quite favourable reviews of his artworks written by the liberals, and the principled criticism by the conservative cleric Aleksandras Dambrauskas (nom de plume Adomas Jakštas) demonstrate that Čiurlionis found it easier to work with democratic left-wing cultural figures. In June of 1909, Čiurlionis’s concert and the design of the curtain on the premises of the Lithuanian Association “Rūta” were associated with Andrius Domaševičius and Kipras Petrauskas. In his letter, Čiurlionis called himself “progressive.” It was uncharacteristic to indicate one’s party affiliation; in Čiurlionis’s case, it meant to be of liberal orientation. However, it was precisely because of his “leftist” views that the Educational Society “Aušra” deemed his membership unreliable. On July 11, 1909, Čiurlionis was nominated to the commission to collect songs for the Lithuanian Scientific Society. Unfortunately, the illness that manifested itself in December of 1909 prevented the composer from carrying out the work.

Historical Context in the Latest Lithuanian Music: Contemporary Tensions

The historical context opens its unresolved issues inside contemporary cultural consciousness. It gives the language of music a specific dimension of dramatic tensions. Here, composers’ propositions acquire a coded imagery close to the aesthetics of modernist catastrophe. The musical text becomes highly contextual and filled with the knowledge arisen from history. It is like an encrypted message about the current transformation of history. The texture of the work becomes an expression of the signs incorporating also non-musical sounds or visual space. Semantics play a crucial role in soundscapes. In this sense, we can talk about the war and post-war semantics, which is making its comeback into Lithuanian music. Here, the aesthetic poles of tension or the dramaturgy of conflict arise and are realised through the spectra of hum or expression of identities. In this context, two recent works by Lithuanian composers should be mentioned: they accurately respond to the tensions and wounds of the Second World War that continue to bleed inside the identity consciousness of the Lithuanian nation. These wounds are the Holocaust and the post-war partisan struggle against the Soviet occupation. The topic of ‘war after war’ acquires its musical task in Vytautas Germanavičius’s (b.1969) work Red Trees (2018) for flute, cello, and organ dedicated to the partisan commander Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas. It is important to stress that Vanagas has been recognised as a de facto leader of the state and, thanks to sustained efforts of historians and archaeologists, his remains, which were discovered in the Vilnius Orphans’ Cemetery, were reburied in the Pantheon of State Leaders. All this forms an exceptional historical dimension, which finds an original reflection in Germanavičius’s work. Meanwhile, the Holocaust theme connects vividly with the 80th anniversary (late in 2020), of the deed of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who saved over 6,000 Jews in 1940. Algirdas Martinaitis (b.1950) work Visa for Life (2020) for two flutes, oboe, and organ is dedicated to Chiune Sugihara. Here, the composer combines, in a unique way, the worlds of the Japanese, the European tradition and Jewish music. His musical expression is based on the dramaturgy of transformation (the constant running of the toccata). In this way, each composer voices the context of the past: its tension transforms the language of music. It should be noted that both works bring back the catastrophe of the Second World War and the post-war period, which is a painful drama of the history of the Baltic States and not yet sufficiently understood in the world. As a result, the former meditative face of Baltic music identity changes accordingly.

“Let Us Create a Modern Lithuania!” Confrontations of National Identity with Modernity in the Lithuanian Music Modernisation Discourse of the 1930s

Abstract The project of modernisation, which emerged as the central idea in the course of 20th-century Lithuanian music, predetermined many creative orientations and discoveries by Lithuanian composers of various generations, as well as critical reflection on their works. At the root of Lithuanian projections of musical modernism lies a central concern with questions of national identity, affected by crucial historical changes and political processes. In this paper, I explore issues of relationship between construction of national identity and the modernity, focusing in particular on public discussions concerning national and modern elements in music, which appeared in the musical press of the 1930s and became emblematic of subsequent Lithuanian music history. Among the most active participants of the debates were young composers and musicians who had set up the Society of Progressive Musicians in 1932 and the iscM Lithuanian Section in 1936: Vytautas Bacevičius, Jeronimas Kačinskas, and Vladas Jakubėnas. Their opinions marked a significant turning point in the national music discourse, updating and expanding the understanding and use of the concepts of modern and national music in Lithuania. The interwar polemical observations, insights and statements were effectively elaborated in later reception and served as basis for a reinterpretation and revision of the Lithuanian music modernisation discourse.

What did Lithuanian Composers Receive the Stalin Prize for? The Year 1948 and Lithuanian Music

What did Lithuanian Composers Receive the Stalin Prize for? The Year 1948 and Lithuanian Music

WOVEN: THE MUSIC OF EGIDIJA MEDEKŠAITĖ

ABSTRACTThe Lithuanian composer Egidija Medekšaitė (b. 1979) has developed a practice in which she uses the principles of textile weaving to make musical compositions. This article introduces a series of works created in the last three years in which she has refined these techniques; it also considers the nature of the relationship between the textile patterns that Medekšaitė uses as the basis for these works and the resultant music. In particular the article focuses on an analytical account of four works: Âkâsha for string orchestra (2015), the string quartet Megh Malhar (2016), a setting of the Nunc dimittis (2018), and Sattva for electronics and accordion (2018).

Of one chord: pre- and post-Wagnerian interpretation and adaptation of Tristan chord

The music history is full of examples when a certain element of music is established as an individual and autonomous unit that may be examined outside of the music composition. The Tristan chord is one of the most often exploated formations of tones to this day. The chord developed its special meaning in Richard Wagner’s work. It looks like that until Wagner’s opera this chord was regarded as an ordinary vertical combionation of dissonant sounds (the chord may be detected in the scores of baroque, classicism, and romanticism music as well). However, it was personalized and personified in 1859’ opera Tristan and Isolde, in second bar of prelude. The chord was accompanied with the role of leitmotiff and became an individual and recognizable element. Therefore, it caused various discussions about its structure, authenticity and the influence to future composers. For the first time in Lithuanian musicology, this article seeks to present a systematization of approaches to the structure of Tristan chord and its manifestation and equivalents in the pre-Wagnerian music. In this context, the examples of music by contemporary Lithuanian composers are commented showing the integration of Tristan chord, composed at the intersection of the 20th and 21st centuries – Mindaugas Urbaitis’ Der Fall Wagner (1999), Artūras Bumšteinas’ What Happened Between Tristan and Isolde (2001), Ričardas Kabelis’ Tan-Tris-Tan-Tris/Tris-Tan-Tris-Tan (2009) and Onutė Narbutaitė’s opera Cornett (2012).

Aesthetic transformation of Chorale in new Lithuanian organ music

The article aims at revealing a specific ultimate relation of the Baltic New Sacrality with chorale. Its subject-matter is chorale transformations through the ruination of architectonics of sanctum’s chorale, turning it into a horizontal and spreading space or “tower ruins” – inspiring a rise of vertical accordics to the transcendental “other space”. Examples can be three works of the Lithuanian composers for the organs: Mykolas Natalevičius’s “LA” dedicated to Loreta Asanavičiūtė (2014) and “Psalmus 150” (2017), also Algirdas Martinaitis’s “The Messenger from Heaven”, the prayer to St. Francis of Assisi (2014). In these works, there emerge the principles of transformation of architectonics of chorale’s “sanctum” – Natalevičius’s overflow to the horizontal and Martinaitis’s integration of different sphere outlines into the vertical of rising transcendental harmony. Baltic minimalism demonstrates the way of the New Sacrality as an ideological alternative, a response or even replication to still relevant postmodernism, the “carnival of simulacra” ( J. Ranciere), relating it with the discourse of modern Western cultural philosophy of the image. The works by Arvo Pärt (Trivium, 1976), Aivars Kalejs (“Via dolorosa”, 1990), Imants Zemzaris (“Field. Mandala”, 1984), Teisutis Makačinas (“Prayer for Lithuania”, 1980), Onutė Narbutaitė (“The Road to the Silence”, 1981), Peteris Vasks (“Musica serva”, 1988) are actualised by refusing “carnival simulacra” (after J. Ranciere) or representativity, going into silence of sacrality, seeking reduced choral architectonic and pulsation of Enlightening. In this way, the Baltic musical creation is especially relevant nowadays, it is renewing the global concept of sacrality.

Lithuanian Piano Rolls: Collections and Research

Lithuanian piano rolls are part of a large and still-neglected field in the U.S.: the musical heritage to be found on ethnic piano rolls. During the last ten years, the author discovered and researched several hundred Lithuanian piano rolls in order to determine their significance. These rolls are held mainly in U.S. Lithuanian archives, with additional examples located in several academic libraries. All Lithuanian rolls were issued in a relatively short time, from 1916 to 1931 by various companies, specifically U.S. Word Rolls, Connorized Music Company, Vocalstyle Song Roll, and especially Q-R-S. Lithuanian folk music (songs, dances) predominate, but this medium also includes numerous unique examples of Lithuanian art music composed by Lithuanian composers in the U.S.: Jonas Žemaitis, Vincentas Nickus, Antanas Vanagaitis, and Augustas Antpusaitis. Unfortunately, Lithuanian piano rolls in Lithuania itself are almost unknown, because of a lack of instruments to play them (player pianos) and the high price of the rolls. Only a few instruments and rolls were shipped before WWII from America to Lithuania, and only one roll has remained in a state museum during all the years since, having survived the Soviet Era. Consequently, these rolls were unknown to Lithuanian librarians and researchers up to 2006, when several collections of rolls were discovered in American archives.

An application of the social text theory by Alton L. Becker to the analysis of Česlovas Sasnauskas (1915) Requiem e-moll

Requiem e-moll by composer Česlovas Sasnauskas (1867–1916) is believed to be one of the first requiem written by the Lithuanian composer. It is clearly the most important example of this genre composed by the Lithuanian artist in the first half of the 20th century. However, it is not the very first cycle of the Mass for the dead written by Č. Sasnauskas: it is also possible to discuss an earlier and simpler Missa Requiem where the composer undoubtedly concentrated on the relationship between the text and music as well as pure expression of liturgical style. The exact date of this composition is not known but depending on the musical style and mentions in the press it may be asserted that this cycle was composed in 1899. Also, a soprano part of another Requiem cycle (date unknown) has survived. Its musical material is very similar to the Requiem e-moll. That lets us think that it was one of the first versions of the Requiem e-moll. In this publication, an analysis of Requiem e-moll by Č. Sasnauskas is based on the social text theory by Alton L. Becker. It suggests to analyze any kind of the artistic text with reference to its internal relations, relations with other texts of the same genre or culture and artists’ intentions as well as non-artistic events (reference relation). Such an analysis of musical and non-musical meanings leads to the conclusion that this theory reveals the polysemantic nature of the composition without any reference to the artistic value of it. Maintaining the historic nature of the analysis, Requiem e-moll by Č. Sasnauskas was analyzed depending on the aspects of the dispersion of the melodic motives in the cycle; similarities with the earlier requiem compositions by Sasnauskas himself as well as other composers’ works that were found in the personal library of the Lithuanian composer; artist’s personal relation with his nationality and artistic friendship with Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911). Analysis of the melodic motives was chosen because of the noticed connections among the melodic intonations in different parts of the cycle. Five main melodic (or melodic-rhythmic) motives joining different parts of the cycle were picked out; dispersion of these motives in the cycle parts are reflected in the original scheme. This analysis reveals that the composer sought for the coherence of different cycle parts. It was also noticed that most of new material is used in the most developed Sequentia part. There is a possibility that it was composed later than others because of its different musical language as well as being absent in the extremely similar cycle of the earlier Requiem (soprano part). Discussing the relation of Requiem e-moll with the earlier Mass for the dead cycles written by Sasnauskas it was noticed that Missa Requiem is not very similar to the later cycle, but there may be found some sameness in the tendencies of musical thinking. Whereas Requiem musical material was directly used in the Requiem e-moll. That is why we could speak about a strong relation between these two cycles. On the other hand, discussing requiem cycles of other composers found in Sasnauskas’ library, we may talk only about sporadic melodic or rhythmic similarities that are inherent to the style of requiem in general. The final version of Requiem e-moll by Č. Sasnauskas was premiered in Saint Petersburg in 1915 during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Čiurlionis’ birth. These two composers were close friends, that is why this event was as a symbolic conclusion of their artistic friendship. In this article their connection is revealed in the context of Sasnauskas’ work with the Requiem e-moll and the expression of requiem ideas in Čiurlionis’ creative work.

Instrumental music of Anatolijus Šenderovas (2015–2017) in the context of processes of its development

The instrumental music of one of the most prominent contemporary Lithuanian composers Anatolijus Šenderovas (b. 1945), created in 2015–2017 is reviewed in the article. A semantic analysis of two pieces – String Quartet No. 3 (2015) and Concerto for Piano Trio and Symphony Orchestra (2017) – is displayed in the context of processes of development of creative style of Šenderovas; therefore, earlier periods of his creation – before 1990-ies and after 1990-ies – are reviewed in the first part of the article. Emphasis is given to different contexts as sources of inspiration of Šenderovas works (Lithuanian poetry, Biblical texts, relation of the composer with artistic personalities and performers, particular events of Lithuanian music life, etc.) which determine choices of genres, instrumentation, and specific musical development. Though witnessing the recognizable creative voice of Šenderovas, characterized by clear dramaturgy, intense contrasts, emotional contents of music, use of aleatoric and sonoric elements, String Quartet No. 3 and Concerto for Piano Trio and Symphony Orchestra reveal the turn of the composer towards more philosophical music of pure instrumental genres and reveal his new voice of simplicity, deep lyricism and contemplation, open melody being the main expression tool. One may propose that these works indicate a new stage of Šenderovas’ creativity.

Influence of Japonisme on Art of M. K. Čiurlionis and His Contemporaries

Abstract The aim of this paper is to show how Japonisme was introduced to Europe in the late 19th century and how it influenced artists in major cities. Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), especially those of Hokusai and Hiroshige, fascinated the Impressionists and other contemporaries such as Claude Monet (1840-1926), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), and James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Many of them adopted japonaiserie motifs in their paintings or sculptures, and it formed a major artistic trend called Japonisme. The Lithuanian composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911) was also influenced by the trend of Japonisme, especially from the paintings of the Impressionists or through artists in Poland. In Poland and Russia, Japanese artworks were imported by artists who had studied abroad, or by wealthy bourgeoisie such as Feliks “Manggha” Jasieński (1861-1929), a Polish collector whose nickname was directly associated with Japonisme, and Sergey Kitaev (1864-1927), an ardent Russian collector of Japanese artworks. In this article, Japonisme in European art in general will be outlined, together with similar tendencies in Čiurlionis’ paintings, and then, examples of Japonisme-influenced paintings in Poland and Russia will be briefly shown. Finally, by focusing on Čiurlionis’ paintings, it will be shown how he adopted Japonisme in three stages. In the first stage japonaiserie motifs were only partially borrowed. In the second stage ukiyo-e’s motifs and pictorial schemes were applied to his paintings, and finally, in the third stage of borrowing, expressions of Japanese motifs in his most sublime style will be shown.

The Enigma of Čiurlionis's Illness and Its Relationship to His Creativity

Assumption regarding the relationship between creativity and mental disturbances has attracted academic and public interest from antiquity. Research performed in recent years, support these associations and show a disproportionately high rate of mental illnesses, especially bipolar disorder, in creative individuals. In this article, we give another example of this link by describing the life and works of a Lithuanian composer, painter, and poet Mikalojus Konstantinas Chiurlionis (1875–1911) (Lithuanian transcription—Čiurlionis). This relationship is demonstrated graphically, which enables to see a link between his mood fluctuations and quantity of Chiurlionis' works. Chiurlionis lived in the complex period with its turbulent whirl of changing trends in art doubtlessly influenced his art. Chiurlionis had synesthesia and he was one of the first who tried to join music and painting in a synthesis of the arts. Significant components of his work are related to Symbolism. Chiurlionis lived very short life—only 36 years, but during his life, he created over 200 musical works, and painted about 300 canvases. His compositions were romantic and nationalist in spirit, sometimes inspired by Lithuanian folklore and his best work is thought to be his “musical paintings”. For many years, they were virtually unknown outside his motherland. While it was well-known that Chiurlionis died in a sanatorium for mental ill, almost nothing was written about his mental illness. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that the Chiurlionis' illness (bipolar affective disorder) and his creative output in music and paintings were connected.

Rhythms of Nature and Culture in the Art of M. K. Ciurlionis

This article aims to grasp the ontological constitutional principle known as correspondances des artes. The affinity of arts is usually interpreted as a functional quality, while the author holds that it is of ontic character as well. This results from the shared ontological reference of all natural phenomena of human life and, consequently, human creative work. Experimental knowledge of this metaphysical truth, according to the composer-synaesthetic Olivier Messiaen, is within the reach of very few people, even less so amongst the artists themselves. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, the Lithuanian composer and painter, was one of those very few. The main argument of the article, which is developed in the realm of the ontology of a piece of art, is the premise that the rhythm factor can serve as grounds for discussion to investigate the nature of the correspondances des artes. This was also the subject matter of the French phenomenologist Mikel Dufrenne’s writings (Dufrenne 1992, pp. 323–324).In addition, the author argues that all so-called organic aesthetics (Tatarkiewicz 1985, p. 84), those who claim that the laws of the creative process depend on the laws of nature, prove the existence of the common and shared ontic base of the world, logos. This base belongs to both natural and created ontological phenomena. The synaesthetic pictorial and musical oeuvre of Čiurlionis is the research field for inferring the initial argument of the paper.

Statistical analysis of music data

Connection of music and mathematics is known from Pythagoras. Music sounds are in harmony if it satisfies certain mathematical conditions. Despite tight connection between music and mathematics, the idea of using mathematical methods in musicology was used only in the 1950s. Last decade various methods of mathematical statistics, such as correlation analysis, time series analysis, analysis of variance, data clustering, Markov chain models was successfully applied in musiclogy. Though, there was no work done in this area in Lithuania. In this article musical data (notes) is analysed using statistical methods. Musical intervalas are analysed. Music compositions are classified. Analysis results are presented. Research uses works of a few Lithuanian composers.

Lithuanian Musicology in Historical Context: 1945 to the Present

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKeywords: Lithuanian musicologyLithuanian musiceducationcontemporary historythe Soviet periodpolitical contextideologyresistancenational independence Acknowledgements The author is very grateful to musicologists A. Ambrazas, J. Bruveris and R. Goštautienė for their valuable comments on this article; and to musicologists V. Landsbergis, R. Naktinytė, V. Gerulaitis and J. Antanavičius, and composers A. Martinaitis and B. Kutavičius, for sharing their reminiscences. Thanks also to Aušra Simanavičiūtė for translating from the Lithuanian, with support from the Musicological Section of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union and the Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre (www.mic.lt). Notes Notes 1 The Lithuanian State Conservatory was founded in 1949 by joining the Kaunas Conservatory (established in 1933) and the Vilnius Conservatory (established in 1944). In 1992 it was renamed the Lithuanian Academy of Music; in 2004 it became the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The original faculty of the Lithuanian State Conservatory included the composers Antanas Račiūnas, Jonas Bendorius, Konstantinas Galkauskas, Jonas Nabažas, Zigmas Aleksandravičius, and Povilas Tamuliūnas, and the musicologists Juozas Gaudrimas, Jadvyga Čiurlionytė and Konstantin Tchernetsov. 2 Only a single book-length musicological study was published during the inter-war years, Juozas Strolia's Trumpa muzikos istorija (A Short History of Music 1936). 3 In 1945, the Union's composers were Jadvyga Čiurlionytė and Zinaida Feoktisova-Kumpienė. Juozas Gaudrimas was admitted in 1954. These three were joined by Stasys Yla, Vytautas Karpavičius, Vytautas Venckus and Julius Špigelglazas in 1960. 4 It was not until 1955, the 80th anniversary of Čiurlionis’ birth, that musicologists were permitted to mention his name in their work. The composer Julius Juzeliūnas and the musicologists Juozas Gaudrimas and Jadvyga Čiurlionytė were the first to write about him (Gaudrimas in the Lithuanian press, Čiurlionytė in the Russian press). 5 The discussions are documented in the secret ‘Report of the Minister of State Security of the LSSR, Pyotr Kapralov, on Statements Made by Lithuanian Intellectuals Regarding the Destruction of the Nation's Spiritual Life’ (1950; in Bagušauskas & Streikus 2005 Bagušauskas, JR and Streikus, A. 2005. Lietuvos kultūra sovietinės ideologijos nelaisvėje 1940–1990 (dokumentų rinkinys), Vilnius: Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimų centras. [Google Scholar], pp. 136–45; the passages cited are taken from this source). 6 For this work, Ambrazas and Venckus received the State Award in 1979. 7 Work on an earlier monograph on Juozas Naujalis by Narbutienė was halted around 1960 by the Ministry of Education, which apparently disapproved of the Narbutienė's treatment of Naujalis’ activities as an organist. It was not until 1989 that this study was published (Narbutienė 1989 Narbutienė, O. 1989. Juozas Naujalis, Kaunas: Šviesa. [Google Scholar]). 8 From 1958 onward, control over printed material in Lithuanian received by mail from abroad was entrusted to the Glavlit of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1961 a list of institutions that could use confiscated material with ‘anti-Soviet contents’ was compiled (see Bagušauskas & Streikus 2005 Bagušauskas, JR and Streikus, A. 2005. Lietuvos kultūra sovietinės ideologijos nelaisvėje 1940–1990 (dokumentų rinkinys), Vilnius: Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimų centras. [Google Scholar], pp. 266, 286). 9 In a meeting of this circle held in 1963, Landsbergis was reputed to have been ‘talking about contemporary trends of modernist music in the West, illustrating his speech with tape recordings; excerpts from dodecaphonic music were performed’ (quotation from a KGB report of 1965, in Bagušauskas & Streikus 2005 Bagušauskas, JR and Streikus, A. 2005. Lietuvos kultūra sovietinės ideologijos nelaisvėje 1940–1990 (dokumentų rinkinys), Vilnius: Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimų centras. [Google Scholar], p. 343). 10 In this book, Landsbergis referred to the composer's archive, which had been brought from St. Petersburg to Kaunas, where it was secretly held after the Revolution. (In 1967, Landsbergis had published an article based upon some of this material in Muzika ir teatras.) When publication of the book was stopped, the author divided its contents into three parts and published the first–a Sasnauskas bibliography–as a teaching aid for schools in 1978. In 1980 the publishing house, having failed to find a way to justify the advance paid for the book, was compelled to publish the biographical part as well; in this matter, Landsbergis was also helped by intercession from the head of the Culture Department of the Central Committee. (Some ‘ideologically unacceptable’ facts were removed from the biography, and the image of a cross that appeared in a photograph of a prayer book owned by the composer's mother was retouched.) The third part of Landsbergis’ book, including the composer's own writings, was not published until 2002 (Landsbergis 1967 Landsbergis, V. 1967. Česlovo Sasnausko gyvenimo ir veiklos bruožai. Muzika ir teatras, 4: 91–9. [Google Scholar], 1978, 1980, 2002). 11 Bruveris, interview with the author, April 2006, Vilnius. 12 Kutavičius, interview with the author, April 2006, Vilnius.

Lithuanian Art and Music Abroad: English Reception of the Work of M. K. Čiurlionis, 1912-39

The Lithuanian composer and artist M. K. Čiurlionis (1875-1911) is little-known in England but a major figure in Lithuania and has a prominent place in Russian fin-de-siècle art. Three of his paintings were included in the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in London in 1912, and from then until the Second World War his art attracted occasional interest from various English writers, amongst them the musicians Rosa Newmarch and A. Eaglefield Hull, and British vice-consul in Kaunas, E. J. Harrison. This paper examines all extant material on Čiurlionis from this period as material for a non-canonic reception history.

Vilnius: The Gaida Festival, October 2002 (plus recent CD releases of Lithuanian Music)

There's a heartening number of contemporary music festivals in the former Soviet-bloc countries, and in the three Baltic republics in particular: it's as if, after decades of the suppression of modern music – even though less severe there than elsewhere in the USSR – they're all desperate to make up for lost time. The Gaida Festival, founded in 1991 and an annual event in Vilnius in mid-October, is one of the most ambitious: ten concerts in as many days, presenting contemporary Lithuanian composers, usually in first performances, in conjunction with others from further afield (among them this year Saariaho, Tan Dun, Cage, Jan Sandström – with Christian Lindberg astride the ubiquitous Motorbike Concerto – and Gubaidulina). Naturally, such occasions are ragbags, with failures among the successes – but young composers have to be able to hear their miscalculations, and Gaida is commendably generous with its time.

THE HISTORY AND THE PRESENT DAY OF LITHUANIAN MUSIC (FROM ČIURLIONIS TO LANDSBERGIS)

national identity and patriotism, and thus to the support of those values which, through the ages, had been in a way latent and after they had been aroused, they were endangered by a succession of unfavourable circumstances. In 1910 Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis wrote that ?Lithuanian music can with certainty be said to have a future ahead, but at the moment such music does not exist at all,? and that ?the birth of the true Lithuanian music lies two hundred or perhaps even three hundred years away.?1 Looking at the modest beginnings of professional Lithuanian music at the turn of the century, one cannot disagree. In these circumstances the achievement of Lithuanian composers of the 20th century is all the more worthy of respect. It should not be forgotten that the development of music took place in the situation which was not very advantageous. On the contrary, in this part of the world the 20th century left painful scars on nations and their cultures. Lithuania, after twenty odd years of independence (1918-1940), found itself again under the threat of not only cultural but also physical extermination. And again it was a duty of Lithuanian artists, as well as all the Lithuanian patriots, to join in the struggle to preserve their national identity.

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, the Lithuanian composer and painter, and the correlation between pictorial and musical compositions

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, the Lithuanian composer and painter, and the correlation between pictorial and musical compositions