• The First Latvian Song Festival in America, choir participants' music, complete

No one takes their song more seriously than the Latvians. Impartial observers have likened Latvia's choir competitions to Olympic events.

Latvian folk songs reflect Latvia's cultural experiences and character, from celebrating nature, to young men cheerfully singing sad words as they leave their betrothed to go off to war, to bloody skies dawning, to orphans weeping for their lost parents. Far too many orphan songs.

In keeping with the rest of our site, we hope to bring you items of musicological and historical interest that you won't find anywhere else!

• www.opera.lv, Latvian National Opera
• www.latviansongfest.org, the Twelfth U.S. Latvian Song Festival
• www.lmuza.lv, Music in Latvia

A kokle found in lower Kurzeme, on which is engraved the Latvian representation of the year 1282 (significance unknown)

from Latvju Raksnieciba Portrejas, by Alberts Prande—Latvian Writings in Portrait

The kokle, or Latvian version of the zither, is an ancient instrument dating back perhaps 2,000 years. The Finns, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians all share essentially the same instrument. (It's also the national instrument of Finland.)

Note that later (and modern) kokles are straight-bodied and boxed with a resonating chamber, unlike the curved ancient one pictured in the side-view above.