Research Center

For a number of years (1795–1918), Lithuania did not exist as a sovereign European country as a result of long-term wars and occupations.
However, the name of Lithuania was directly or indirectly reflected in the works of foreign composers. The aim of the article is to
identify the connections of the 19th and 20th centuries foreign composers and Lithuania, and the way those connections were reflected
in their music. This article is addressed to foreign readers who are willing to learn about the image of Lithuania in the context of the
European musical culture.
Keywords: music, Lithuania, Italy, Poland, Russia, Lithuania Minor, composer, song, opera.

The article considers historical conditions for establishing the Lithuanian composer school and the influence of Lithuanian folklore traditions. The author presents famous composers and their bright works, combining innovations of the musical language of the XXth century and neofolklore traditions.

The article presents a review of musical life in the Kaunas Ghetto against the background of the history of Vilijampolė, a suburb of Kaunas. The focus of this research is the activities of the Ghetto musicians, as well as the melodies and lyrics of Jewish songs which were created during World War II. The aims of this article are: 1) to ascertain the reasons for establishing the Jewish Ghetto in Vilijampolė; 2) to examine the traditions of musical life in the Ghetto; and 3) to reveal the hopes, political views and the artistic consciousness of the Jewish community through the analysis of the orchestra concerts and songs performed by the Ghetto residents.

Juozas Zilevicius (1891–1984) was an important collector of Lithuanian musical material
in Klaipe˙da, Lithuania, before moving to the United States to continue his work.
After his first collection was destroyed in Lithuania during World War II, he rebuilt
his collection in the United States, eventually holding over 400,000 items. The collection
moved from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Chicago, Illinois, and despite Zilevicius’
wishes that it be returned to Lithuania, it was combined with another Lithuanian collection and remains in Chicago, Illinois, to this day as The Juozas Zilevicius-Juozas
Kreivenas Archives of Lithuanian Music.

Emigration of Lithuanians from their native country to America, having started in the seventeenth century, acquired a large scale over a period of several centuries. On the eve of World War One, the number of Lithuanians in the United States had reached half a million and often exceeded the number of immigrants of larger nationalities (Michelsonas, 14). Even if Lithuanian immigrants were enterprising and full of energy, their musical activities did not flourish at once. Few had received any formal musical education, and most were not able to read music (Petrauskaitė, 18). Some former village musicians carried their fiddles, concertinas and clarinets around with them and organized entertainments for Lithuanians or performed at wedding parties. At the beginning of the twentieth century, more musically educated Lithuanians came to the shores of America. They were mainly graduates of Juozas Naujalis's courses for organists or pupils of manor schools in Rietavas and Plungė, and they gradually formed the core of Lithuanian musical life. That life was most colorful and intensive. In accordance with the type of performance, musical activities developed in several parallel directions: 1) staged works of music, such as operas and operettas; 2) entertainments, such as vaudevilles; 3) song festivals, and 4) performances of vocal and instrumental music. Concerts of symphonic music belong to the last group. During the period of mass emigration, the number of symphonic concerts given was not very large, yet they impressed the general American community and influenced the image of Lithuanians in America.

There are not many historical connections between the two Catholic countries – Lithuania and Spain. Most often, the echoes of remote Spain reached Lithuania via literature, music, and art. In 1940, when Lithuania was occupied and Spain was under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, the two countries lost all contact. However, despite this difficult historical period, there were still people in Lithuania who managed to learn Spanish and to gather information about the country’s culture. One of those people was the composer Jonas Tamulionis. In 1990, when Lithuania regained its independence, full international cultural, economic, and political cooperation was renewed. People interested in Spanish culture were given the chance to visit the country and to establish connections with Spanish people. Because of the changes in Eastern Europe, the music of Jonas Tamulionis became more widely known. Written in a Spanish manner, his compositions were performed in Spain and the Canary Islands on a number of occasions and received the highest awards; he has won over forty prizes for his music at various international competitions. However, the bibliography on the composer is still not very rich. That is why our article will introduce Jonas Tamulionis to an English speaking audience and distinguish the traits of his compositions that essentially relate to Spanish culture.

Mass emigration of Lithuanians to the USA started at the end of the nineteenth century. There were musicians among the first immigrants. Some of them brought along their violins, harmonicas and clarinets, gathering in dormitories after a hard day’s work so that their songs would ring out even a few blocks away. Others partied in their own homes; and still others, who were more business minded, opened their own saloons–Lithuanian- style inns with dancing and singing, only bolder and more audacious. Thus country musicians, like art pioneers, were the first to spread Lithuanian music among their own and other nationalities. It would be difficult to imagine any large Lithuanian gathering, party, and wedding without them. These evening gatherings were spontaneous, without anyone purposefully directing or coordinating them. Thus today, we can consider them only as the beginnings of musical life or the introductory stage of a new era, which started by founding Lithuanian parishes and associations. Being far from their motherland, Lithuanians not to forget their native language, national customs and traditions as well as the faith inherited from their ancestors. This is why they donated their hard-earned money for the construction of Lithuanian churches, hired organists, started parish choirs, and engaged in various musical activities.

The cultural life of Lithuanians in Chicago
would have been much poorer if not
for the input of Lillian Vanagaitis (Lilija
Žilvitytė-Vanagaitienė). In her youth she
sang in choruses; and when she married the
composer and actor Antanas Vanagaitis, she
became a part of his productive creative life,
giving him a helping hand or taking the lead
in writing articles, publishing periodicals,
preparing radio shows, and organizing concerts
and sports events. Unfortunately, it is
difficult to pull her out of history’s shadow –
there are no documents about her in the
archives; there is a shortage of even basic
biographical information about her. Thus
the paper is an original work, as this is the
very first attempt to draw a portrait of Lillian
Vanagaitis’s’ creativity using the information
found in periodicals, concert programs, and
recollections of her contemporaries, and
utilising the methods of logical analysis and
comparative history as well as a chronological
exposition of the available facts. The purpose
of this paper is to review her cultural
activities in Chicago and to evaluate them in
terms of their contribution to fostering ethnic
identity. The new material published here
might be useful to researchers of cultural
processes in emigration.

The article is devoted to an overview of Lithuanian emigrant music writing in the United States of America in the 20th century. The main
goal is to search for the Lithuanian composition school in exile. The work seeks to find out who encouraged emigrants to write music, under
what conditions they did it, to assess their musical compositions, and to identify the reasons that prevented the formation of the composition
school. The article consists of several parts. The introduction presents the role of music in emigration in different historical periods. The first
part deals with the situation of music writing in the first half of the 20th century and concludes that the Lithuanian composition school could
not form at that time. The second part focuses on the process of music writing in the second half of the 20th century, discovers the rudiments
of the composition school, and argues why they were destined to be abandoned.
Keywords: Lithuanian composition school, emigration, exile, the United States of America, choral music, instrumental music, national identity.

This paper discusses the vetlatori dance performed on the occasion of a baptized infant’s death in the Valencia region of Spain until about fifty years ago. Analysis of historic sources which emphasise the noble spirituality of the vetlatori dance are shown to be based on romantic views of traditional culture and emotions related to the loss of an infant rather than on authentic information. Ethnographic and ethnomusicological data are presented to illustrate that the music and dances performed during the vetlatori dance were meant for entertainment rather than for spiritual impact. Recourse is also had to oral sources, particularly interviews carried out in the 1960s and 1980s with former infant wake participants who experienced the vetlatori dance, and who confirmed the popular nature of the music, song, and dances which were performed. Analysis of written sources and of the choreographic and musical characteristics of the dance also shows that the kind of music performed was typical of festive celebration in the Valencia region. Functional outcomes for such wakes are also proposed.