The Impact of common European ethnic music on the traditional Lithuanian repertoire of kanklės music

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Dumpliniai instrumentai; Etninė muzika; Europos tautų etninė muzika; Kanklių repertuaras; Poveikis tradicinės muzikos paveldui; Smuikas; Tradicinis lietuvių kanklių muzikos repertuaras; Tradicinės kanklės; Ethnic music; Ethnic music of European nations; Impact in traditional music heritage; Kanklės repertoire; Traditional Lithuanian repertoire of kanklės music; Traditional kanklės; Violin, bellows instruments.

ENInstrumental music started to be gathered and analysed much later than vocal music. There is a lesser amount of instrumental music collected because it could only be written down by researchers who were proficient in doing that, and, at least in the beginning and the first half of the 20th century, there was a lack of such experts. Moreover, the researchers of the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century obviously paid more attention to the oldest layers of melodies. Instrumental music, which consisted of more common national dance music that appeared in Lithuania in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, probably seemed less special and less important for the analysis of ethnomusic. Using the latest typology and research methods of kanklės, we present a brief history of the research on kanklės. While studying the interaction between ethnic and common European traditions in the repertoire of the Lithuanian kanklės music of the 19th century and the early 20th century, many common features have been noticed in genres and means of expression between the music of kanklės, violins and bellows instruments (concertina, accordion). It is obvious that kanklės music has been influenced by music of bellows instruments (concertina, accordion). Kanklės players retained the main features of song melodies of western Aukštaitija (Highlanders), fiemaitija (Lowlanders) and Suvalkija (Sudovian): dominating major tonalities, homophony, simple rhythmic structure and metre. Songs that are played on the kanklės almost remained unchanged and retained the character of vocal music. Therefore, we can state that songs of this type did not become an independent genre of the instrumental repertoire. [Extract, p. 11]