Magazine / Culture / Sing! / Article | 21/05/2008

Tell me how you sing...

...and I'll tell you where you live. eurotopics correspondents on the song cultures of Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain.

Songs in the Cupboard
Latvia is famous for its passion for singing. A party is not a party without people launching into song, song festivals are a regular feature of Latvian life, and the country has countless choirs. But where do the songs come from?

Photo: complaintschoir.org

The folk songs, the dainas, are seen as a fundamental component of the country's culture and are not just folk music but reflect elements of heathen mythology. It was only in the 19th century that the repression of genuine Latvian culture came to an end and scientist Krišjānis Barons (1835-1923) recognised the great importance of folk songs. He contrived to collect two hundred thousand of them, but according to some estimates their total number exceeds a million. For the purpose of systematisation Barons organised the songs in a specially constructed cupboard which can still be admired in Riga today - and which together with the song festivals has secured a place for itself on the UNESCO World Heritage list. (Berthold Forssman)

With Passion
When colleagues enter the office joyfully exclaiming "Ebarme dich" (Lord, have mercy upon us) in the Netherlands, you know a very special type of fever has once again taken hold of the country: the "Meezing-Mattheüs" is the sing-along version of the St. Matthew Passion composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. At Easter tens of thousands of people - there are no precise figures - converge on churches, concert halls or community centres to sing polyphonic chorales for paying audiences. You don't have to sign up, but sometimes there are rehearsals prior to the performance. Since the concerts are organised by different initiatives, sometimes the entire Passion is sung, sometimes only the highlights; sometimes it is accompanied by an entire orchestra and sometimes only an organ. The costs of soloists and sheet music are for the most part covered by the entrance fees.
Anyone can join in, regardless of whether they are good singers or not. "Only shouting is not permitted", says Viktor Visser, a civil servant who has been joining in the singing for eight years now. The Meezing-Mattheüs began its triumphant progress in Amsterdam just over ten years ago and rapidly became popular all over the country. Other important centres for the Easter sing-along are the cities of Utrecht and Breda. "You can just join in, that's the great thing about it", Viktor says and goes on trilling: "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" even after the Resurrection. (Annette Birschel)

More than flamenco
Spain's love of song goes far beyond improvised flamenco performances to the sound of the guitar and clapping on village squares. Spain offers a great variety of music, ranging from the singing of the miners and the Sevillanas of Andalusia to the coplas of central Spain, the Celtic songs of Galicia, Aragon's throaty jota and the endechas - songs of mourning sung by the natives of the Canary Islands. Many of the country's traditional rhythms have long since been incorporated into pop music. The Galician group Luar na Lubre injects its Celtic roots into modern rock and the singing duo Navajita Plateá does the same with Andalusian flamenco. The success of Amparanoia, which has its roots in Madrid's mestizo scene, is based on the fusion of reggae, rumba and rancheras with southern Spanish folk music. Kepa Junkera has won a place for the trikitixa (a diatonic accordion), and thus also for elements of traditional Basque festival music, in the international music scene. (Tom Gebhardt)

Further articles on the subject » Music, » Public Culture, » Spain, » Latvia, » Netherlands, » Europe
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