Muzikolog ̧ija / Mūzikas Zinātne

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKeywords: Latviahistory of musicologymusicology and Soviet ideologycultural change Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Jānis Torgāns, Oļģerts Grāvītis, and Arnolds Klotiņš for their invaluable advice and suggestions throughout the process of writing and editing this essay, and Ilze Liepiņa for inspiring his work on this project. Thanks also to Kevin C. Karnes for translating the article from Latvian. Notes Notes 1 The word musicology is an English translation of the German term Musikwissenschaft, which was first widely used during the period of the discipline's founding and academic institutionalization in the final third of the nineteenth century. In contrast to English, modern Latvian has two distinct terms to connote what is widely understood by the German Musikwissenschaft: muzikoloģija and mūzikas zinātne. According to oral testimony from the musicologist Arnolds Klotiņš, the term muzikoloģija was introduced into the lexicon in the late 1950s by the historian Nilss Grīnfelds, who hoped to replace the older term mūzikas zinātne (literally the ‘science of music’) with one derived from the English musicology and the French musicologie. Today, the word muzikoloģija is generally preferred, though mūzikas zinātne is still encountered. In general, muzikoloģija tends to denote a broader field of discourse than mūzikas zinātne. While the latter refers to academic research specifically, the former includes scholarship as well as criticism and other forms of writing about music. 2 For a selection of Jūrjans’ critical writings, see Jūrjans (1980, pp. 51–91, 126–35). For Jurjāns’ surveys of Latvian musical life, see the unpublished manuscripts ‘Latviešu tautas mūzikas literatūra no viņas sākuma līdz 1891. gadam’ (‘The Literature on Latvian Folk Music from Its Beginnings through 1891’ 1891) and ‘Kritisks pārskats par latvju jaunāko mūzikas literatūru’ (‘A Critical Survey of the Latest Latvian Musical Literature’ 1895); both are preserved in the archives of Latvijas folkloras krātuve (Riga), file Bb 43. 3 It should be noted that historical and theoretical subjects were indeed taught at the Latvian Conservatory in the 1920s and 1930s, but they were taught by composers rather than musicologists. The Conservatory did have a faculty of composition and music theory. But although graduates of this faculty were called theorists, the label did not mean the same thing in Latvia as it did in Central and Western Europe. In Latvia, ‘theorists’ were individuals who exhibited competence in music analysis and theory, but who lacked the aptitude for composition. They attended courses in composition and acquired their theoretical training in that environment rather than in courses and seminars dedicated specifically to analytical and theoretical inquiry. Music theory was, in itself, not regarded as an independent field of research or instruction. 4 Melngailis began his work as a collector of folk songs in 1899, when he transcribed 120 Hebrew melodies in the Lithuanian village of Ķēdaine. He worked most actively in this field in the 1920s and 1930s, and was able to expand his collection further in 1941, under the Soviet regime. A relatively small collection of Turkmen and Uzbek music, transcribed by Melngailis between 1906 and 1920, was lost upon his return to Latvia after a period of residence in Tashkent. Though lost, this collection constituted the first significant work undertaken by a Latvian scholar on non-European musics. 5 Sproģis’ second book, Senie mūzikas instrumenti un darba un godu dziesmu melodijas Latvijā (Ancient Musical Instruments and Work- and Honor-Song Melodies in Latvia 1943) only made it to galley-proofs. Its planned publication was canceled by the regime. 6 Joachim Braun has estimated that between 1945 and 1982 approximately 70% of scholarship on Baltic music was undertaken by Baltic residents, with the rest undertaken by émigré scholars residing in Western Europe, North America and Australia (Braun 1982 Braun, J. 1982. Some Preliminary Considerations on the Present State of Baltic Musicology. Journal of Baltic Studies, 13(1): 40–52. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], pp. 41–2; reprinted in Braun 2002 Braun, J. 2002. Raksti. Mūzika Latvijā, Edited by: Boiko, M. Riga: Musica Baltica. [Google Scholar], p. 240). 7 It is difficult to assess the degree to which Melngailis assumed the position he did as a strategy of self-preservation, to what extent his actions reflected his bitterness regarding the professional setbacks he had experienced in the independent Republic, and to what extent he truly sympathized with the new regime which repressed some of Melngailis’ relatives. It is also important to understand that if Melngailis had resisted the regime's overtures, he too would have been repressed, his work would have remained unpublished, and his collections would most likely have been ignored or even destroyed. 8 See Muzalevskiy (1969 Muzalevskiy, VI. 1969. Zapiski muzïkanta, Leningrad: Muzïka. [Google Scholar], pp. 171–200). 9 Until his death in 1977, Vītoliņš remained a central figure in Latvian folk music research. Beginning in 1946, he worked as a researcher at the Archives of Latvian Folklore (called, during the Soviet period, the Folklore Section of the Institute of Language and Literature at the Academy of Sciences) alongside his Conservatory appointment. After his dismissal from the Conservatory in 1962, the Archives became his primary place of employment. Vītoliņš' work touched upon many facets of Latvian folk music, including aspects of rhythmic, melodic and polyphonic structures; formal and genre characteristics; and the relationship between texts and melodies (see Vītoliņš 1959 Vītoliņš, J. 1959. “‘Latviešu tautas dziesmu melodika’”. In in Latviešu literatūras vēsture, Riga: Latvijas Valsts izdevniecība. [Google Scholar], 1960 Vītoliņš, J. 1960. Issledovaniya v oblasti latïshskoy narodnoy muzyki, habilitation diss.: Leningrad Conservatory. [Google Scholar]; Vītoliņš & Krasinska 1972 Vītoliņš, J and Krasinska, L. 1972. Latviešu mūzikas vēsture, Riga: Liesma. [Google Scholar]). Another important facet of Vītoliņš’ work is the published corpus of folk musics collected by him over the course of his life. The latter was published in the series Latviešu tautas mūzika (Latvian Folk Music 1958–1986), which remains the most significant body of traditional Latvian music published to date. After Vītoliņš was fired from the Conservatory, a substantial tradition of folk music study withered at the institution. With his death, an important line of scholarly work came to a halt. 10 Kārkliņš also contributed in important ways to the development of Latvian music terminology. As the leading scholar of twentieth-century Latvian symphonic music, Kārkliņš' books include Jāņa Ivanova simfonisms (Jānis Ivanovs’ Symphonic Language 1978) and Simfoniskā mūzika Latvijā. Simfoniskie orķestri, diriģenti, mūzika, kalusītāji laikabiedru skatījumā (Symphonic Music in Latvia: Symphony Orchestras, Conductors, Music, and Listeners from the Perspective of Contemporaries 1990). 11 Alongside this enumeration of problems, one must note that valuable works of scholarship have indeed been published in recent years. A partial list of books treating themes and subjects that were either marginally addressed or not considered at all by Latvian musicologists in earlier decades would include Zemzare (1994 Zemzare, I. 1994. Tālivaldis Ķeniņš. Starp divām pasaulēm, Riga: Garā pupa. [Google Scholar]), Lindenberga et al. (1997 Lindenberga, V, Torgāns, J and Fūrmane, L. 1997. Gadsimtu skaņulokā, Riga: Zinātne. [Google Scholar]), and Gailīte (2003 Gailīte, Z. 2003. Par Rīgas mūziku und kumēdiņu spēli, Riga: Pētergailis. [Google Scholar])

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