TraditionalLatvian music is often set to traditional poetry calleddainas, featuring pre-Christian themes and legends,drone vocal styles, andBaltic psaltery.
Traditional Latvianfolklore, especially the dance of thefolk songs, date back well over a thousand years. More than 1.2 million texts and 30,000 melodies of folk songs have been identified.[1]
Dainas are very short, which usually consist only one or two stanzas, are unrhymed, and are in a four-footed trochaic metre. Lyrically, dainas concern themselves with native mythology, but in contrast to most similar forms, do not have any legendaryheroes. Stories often revolve around pre-Christian deities like thesun goddessSaule, themoon godMēness and, most notably, the life of people, especially its three most important events – birth, wedding, and death (including burial). The first collection of dainas was published between 1894 and 1915 asLatvju Dainas byKrišjānis Barons.
Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāli, translated in English as the Materials of Latvian Folk Music, is the anthology and commentary of Latvian folk. It analysed 5999 items of Latvian ethnography published in 6 editions from 1894 to 1926 by the Latvian musicologist and composerAndrejs Jurjāns (1856–1922).[2]
Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāliSestā grāmata (the sixth book) was published posthumously in Riga, 1926. On page 1latvju komponistu biedrības izdevums is inscribed, translated as the Latvian Society of Composers edition.[3]
Accompaniment to the village songs is played on various traditional instruments, the most significant of which is thekokles, a type ofbox zither related to theLithuaniankanklės and otherBaltic psalteries. In the 1970s, artists likeJānis Poriķis andValdis Muktupāvels led a revival in kokles music, which had only survived in theCourland andLettgallia regions. The Latvian-exile community abroad, especially in theUnited States, has also kept kokles traditions alive. In the last hundred years, a new kind of kokles was developed, with many more strings, halftones levelers and other improvements that expand the capacities of the instrument to play not only modal music but, in another point of view, displeased more traditional musicians. This modernized version of the instrument is called "concert kokles". However, currentlyImants Robežnieks [lv] is the only remaining master concert kokles maker,[4] although recently he has taken in twoapprentices.[5]
Choir traditions are very strong in Latvia. Alongside many professional choirs, there are tens of thousands of Latvians who are part of different amateur choirs. Once every five years theLatvian National Song and Dance Festival takes place with around 20,000 singers taking part in it.
The 2014World Choir Games took place inRiga.[6]
This year (2019) Latvia hosts the inaugural Riga Jurmala Music Festival, a new festival in which world-famous orchestras and conductors perform across four weekends during the summer. The festival takes place at theLatvian National Opera, the Great Guild, and the Great and Small Halls of the Dzintari Concert Hall. This year features theBavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, theIsrael Philharmonic Orchestra, theLondon Symphony Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra.[7]
Internationally famous Latvian musicians include conductorsArvīds Jansons and his sonMariss Jansons,Andris Nelsons, violinistGidon Kremer, cellistMischa Maisky, and sopranoKristīne Opolais.
During theSoviet era,rock music became extremely popular, because it, as well asfolk songs, offered a chance to rebel against the local authorities.Imants Kalniņš was the most important composer of the time, and his songs were extremely popular. He also wrote music for the movie "Four White Shirts", which spoke about the need for freedom and was therefore banned. One of the most important social gatherings of the time was the annualImantdiena ('The Day of Imants (Kalniņš)'), forbidden on grounds of interfering with hay-gathering. The tradition continued informally at the composer's house.
The songs ofImants Kalniņš were best known as performed by the groupMenuets [lv] which only played songs by this composer. Most of the members of the group moved on to form another group,Pērkons ('Thunder') later. Pērkons was a symbol of rebellion. They played fascinatingrock and roll bordering on hard rock music, composed by the band's frontmanJuris Kulakovs [lv], using poems mostly written byMāris Melgalvs [lv]. Many of those were strongly disapproved by the Soviet authorities, as they implied the ridiculousness of the system. The most famous concert by Pērkons resulted in the destruction of a train compartment by the young people who had attended the concert. This, as well as other events, is portrayed in the movie "Is It Easy to Be Young?" byJuris Podnieks. Acts such asPērkons certainly played an important role in the lives of the youth of the time and were a serious challenge to the Soviet system.
Nowadays, the pop music sphere is dominated bypop music (e.g.,Prāta vētra[8]) andalternative rock.