Revitalizing Livonian through Music – blog post by Bridget Moran-Nae

In this blog post, I would like to share my recent journey to Latvia. My name is Bridget Moran-Nae and I am a student in the Multilingualism MA at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and an intern in the Re:voice project. I recently embarked on a research trip to Latvia to investigate the role of musical groups in the revitalization of the Livonian language.

With the following set of research questions in mind, I engaged with Livonian musicians and immersed myself in the rich cultural heritage of the Livonian community:

• What role do members of traditional music groups see for themselves as actors in the revitalization of Livonian?
• What are their attitudes towards Livonian and its revitalization?
• According to them, what impact do music and musical performance have on language revitalization?
• How do they envisage the future of the revitalization process?

The four musical ensembles whose members I intended to interview included Laula from Kolka, Līvlist from Riga, Rāndalist from Ventspils and Kāndla from Tārgale.

I arrived in Riga on the 8th of March, filled with a mix of excitement and nostalgia. Having visited Latvia regularly after my European Voluntary Service there in 2015-2016, I feel a deep connection to the country and its language. Riga, although transformed, still felt like a familiar place to me. I began my journey at the Livonian Institute by attending Dr. Karl Pajusalu’s lecture on Finnic languages and dialects in the Central Baltic area at the University of Latvia. This provided me with valuable insights and set the stage for my research.

During my initial weeks, I dedicated my time to conducting my literature review for my thesis and finalizing chapters for the Re:voice collective volume. In my free time, I made sure to embrace the cultural richness of Riga by participating in Latvian traditional folk dancing and attending a music party exclusively featuring Latvian music.

In celebration of Livonian heritage day, my colleagues Gunta, Anna and I took a weekend trip to the Livonian coast. This journey was the perfect opportunity to delve deeper into the traditions and customs of the Livonian community. We stayed by the sea in Pizā (Mikeltornis) and spent every morning and evening walking along the windy, deserted sandy beaches, with birch and pine tree forests behind us and the Baltic Sea in front of us. On the 23^rd we drove to Ventspils, to attend Randalist’s 20^th anniversary concert. It was a lovely experience, with Livonian filling the room, both through the songs and through the speeches of the singers and members of the Livonian community. The next morning, we woke up at 7am to be on the beach by 7.30 and awaken the birds. In earlier times, the Livonians believed that, rather than migrating south for the winter, the birds used to hibernate in hidden places. We sang the songs Tšītšōrlinkizt and tied ribbons in the colour of the Livonian flag (green, white and blue) to the trees, for the birds to find their way back. Later that day, we drove to Irē (Mazirbe) to awaken the birds once more, but this time with a larger congregation. The ceremony was led by Julgī Stalte, a Livonian musician. Once more, we sang to the birds and tied ribbons to trees, but we also presented an offering to the Sea Mother and shared bread, honey and red fruits. We washed our faces in amber dust and scared away evil spirits. In that moment, no matter what others might say, the Livonian language and Livonians culture felt, to me, very much alive.

On my return to Riga, I started my data collection, having been introduced to some members of the different musical groups during our trip to the coast. I was very grateful to Livlist for allowing me to join their rehearsals. They invited me to sing with them, and I had a wonderful time singing together with them in Livonian. I was given lyrics, musical sheets, and the text was translated to me by one of the members of the ensemble. Over the course of the following week, members of Livlist came by the Livonian Institute to share their experiences with me in my semi-structured interviews, sharing books and songs with me, both written and sung. I also carried out online interviews with two members of Laula, which unfortunately I was not able to interview in person due to lack of transportation. Whilst in Riga, I got in touch with members of Rāndalist in Ventspils and Kāndla in Tārgale to see when they might be able to chat with me.

Early in the morning on April 9^th, I took the morning bus to Ventspils from Riga Central Bus Station. After a three hour ride, I arrived in the very windy city and my colleague Māra took me to the headquarters of the Livonian Union, a small room in a building just next to the market, where I would be carrying out my interviews. Over the next two days, I had the joy of chatting to some lovely ladies about their passion for singing in Livonian. I was also interviewed by Livones.net, the official Livonian website, and by Ventas Balss, the Ventspils newspaper, about my research. I can understand why they were quite curious about a Franco-English girl who speaks Latvian and is interested in Livonians.

I am currently writing this blog post from Café Windau, a small café in the old town of Ventspils. I have a few hours before my bus leaves to Riga and then another two days before my flight home. These five weeks have been a wonderful, enlightening academic and human experience. Many thanks to my colleagues at the Livonian Institute and the members of the Livonian ensembles who welcomed me and opened up to me.

My work on the role of musical ensembles in the revitalization of Livonian and my trip to Latvia were financed by the Livonian Institute’s project named “Continuity of Livonian: Understanding language transmission processes in a critically endangered contemporary indigenous community to develop process-driven instruments for preservation and revitalisation”, FLPP, Nr. lzp-2023/1-0264.

The Re:voice project officially finished in August 2023, but since then we have been busily pulling together all our findings, which  will be published by Routledge next year in their Critical Heritages of Europe series. Our volume – written by the project team and additional collaborators – will be entitled Revoicing Intangible Cultural Heritage: Perspectives from the Margins of Europe. Watch this space!

We’re excited to share the Re:voice project’s Chartour An Govskrifva Klewwelyek Kernow | Cornish Audiovisual Archive Charter. The Charter was developed on the basis of our research in collaboration with partners in Cornwall: it aims to support a cohesive, collective approach to audio-visual archives.

All individuals and organisations who hold, collect, create with and care for Cornish audio-visual (AV) archives are encouraged to join others in signing up to the principles in the Charter, to make the treasure that is Cornwall’s audio-visual archive secure for the future and accessible to all.

The Re:voice show directed by Agnieszka Blonska – performed at Tate St Ives as part of the Re:voice project – has been shortlisted for Collaboration in the Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP) Cornwall Heritage Awards 2024.

The collaboration led by Falmouth University was with Tate St Ives, imPOSSIBLE Producing Ltd, and the Tuesday Night Fun Club, a community choir from Penzance.

The show was co-created with the choir, building on workshops around the project’s research questions to explore living heritage in relation to themes of home, belonging, and community.

The performance took place at Tate St Ives in April this year on the final weekend of its Barbara Hepworth exhibition and was shown alongside other outputs from the project including A Serpent’s Dance, a sound piece by Lucy Frears; and Pass It On, a film by Florence Browne about Cornish, Frisian, and Livonian intangible heritage.

The CMP Cornwall Heritage Award winners will be announced in February 2024.

Re:voice is a new participatory theatre performance created as a part of the international academic research Re-voicing cultural landscapes: narratives, perspectives, and performances of marginalised intangible cultural heritage (Re:voice). The piece aims to provide new perspectives on a key research question of the project: How can a better understanding of the interplay between majority and minority in relation to intangible cultural heritage enable us to make European indigenous cultures more visible and resilient? Although the larger Re:voice project focuses on marginalised cultures across several countries, this performance is part of the project’s research in Cornwall, in particular drawing on the project’s data from Penwith.

The work draws on the research interviews from Cornwall and also explores new knowledge through a collaboration with a community choir from Penzance, The Tuesday Night Fun Club, who have co-created and will perform as part of the piece.

Collected stories and conversations addressing issues of belonging, identity, heritage and the interplay between majority and minority will build a narrative delivered through performance, movement, sound and video in a gallery space, dialoguing between intangible (performance) and tangible (art). The performace was devised, created and rehersed through a series of workshops involving invited artists, designed to exchange experiences through conversations, movement, singing and actions. As the landscape plays a huge part in constructing our identities, the work will centre around the main space of the gallery but also will take the audience for a processional walk connecting various gallery rooms and the space outside – allowing the audience to experience the performance not only intellectually and emotionally, but also physically through the journey across the space.

Re:voice is created by director Agnieszka Blonska, with imPOSSIBLE Producing, choir leader Victoria Abbott, choreographer Jennifer Fletcher, videographer Joshua Pharo, tech Louis King and The Tuesday Night Fun Club Choir. In collaboration with Falmouth University and the Tate Gallery.

The show will take place Tate St Ives on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 April at 14:00 and 16:00. Visit the Tate St Ives website for more information or to book tickets.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN for the third annual Leeuwarden Summer School on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in collaboration with the Heritage Lab, focusing this year on Heritage, Identity and Inclusivity

Cultural heritage – both tangible and intangible – is often used to define who does and who does not belong to certain groups and communities. The mediation of and participation in a culture’s living traditions is often important for constructing personal and collective identities; but by its very nature, it does not facilitate inclusivity. Confronted with this uneasy relation between cultural heritage, identity and inclusivity, we take a step back to reflect. What does a more inclusive mediation of cultural heritage look like? How do minorities use their cultural heritage to stay connected with an identity that does not belong to the majority culture they are surrounded by? How does cultural heritage both divide and connect groups and cultures? How can we research and interact with these dynamics?

In this summer school we will ask these questions while looking at diverse cultural heritage practices. Scholars and professionals from diverse fields, such as critical heritage and tourism studies, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, and media studies will give lectures and workshops during an intense, five day long programme.

For more information and to apply, please visit the Summer School website: 

https://www.rug.nl/education/summer-winter-schools/leeuwarden-summer-school/?lang=en

“The language distinguishes Livonians from Latvians. The language is there, but it is at the same time. Only through the language, it shows that we are something else, we are not Latvians or some dialect, that it is something completely other, a completely different language, because there are no associations.”

February 20th 2023, just ahead of International Mother Language Day, was a historical moment for the Livonian language and the community – the first road sign carrying Livonian alongside Latvian is installed in Talsi County municipality. The richness of Latvian cultural heritage is our diversity in every cultural space, in every village, and that can is expressed in the language, culture, and habits. This richness needs to be seen. This sign ensures to everyone that Livonian heritage is not only Latvia’s past but also today and tomorrow.

The installation of the road sings in languages of the indigenous inhabitants of Latvia is an action regarding the Historical Latvian Lands Law that come into force on 1 July 2021. The aim of the Law is to create the necessary preconditions for strengthening the common identity of the population and for the preservation and sustainable development of the cultural and historical environment and cultural spaces of the historical Latvian lands.

The Livonian singing group “Laula” from Livonian village Kolka.

“Everyone can hold hands and take part in the Serpent Dance, an old Penzance dance that links community and two contrasting ancient, revived & re-imagined Penzance traditions – Golowan (in midsummer) and Montol (the winter solstice).

The light and the dark…”

“A Serpent’s Dance started with collecting sound from the town of Penzance (Pen Sans which means Holy Headland in Kernewek/ Cornish). I recorded different sounds at all times of the day and night, in different seasons and during the festivals of Montol and Golowan. Night recording helped me, for example, capture the sound of flapping Golowan festival flags that were always ruined by cars and voices in the day. I asked residents and those that work in Penzance what sound they feel is closely connected with the town. The jangles and ting-ting-tings of the boat masts as the wind whistles through them (which feature prominently – they are one of my favourite sounds), the birds that live in the tree by the train station that signal that you are finally home, the kids playing in the water by the slipway, the sound of swimmers in the open sea and Jubilee Pool. Then there are the sounds of crowds of people enjoying themselves at two of the traditional festivals where the community – whether pagan or Christian, old or young and all those in-between – find a way to celebrate their home and community. There are lots of sounds you might not recognise – but someone will.”

“The sound piece meanders like Penzance’s Serpent Dance to evoke some of the atmosphere of the town and its traditions. Traces of interviews from the Re:Voice research project and interviews recorded specifically for this piece are used to emphasise what the sound effects are implying or to express aspects they cannot. Photographs and film footage were shared, kindly, by amateur & professional photographers, archivists and filmmakers contacted after seeing their work online or through targeted research. Marcus Cook edited this jumble of material together to the sound piece. My hope is that people listen to the soundscape first (with headphones) as an embodied experience and imagine what they are hearing. Watching the film afterwards (with headphones), adds another layer of understanding to these far southwest ancient Cornish community traditions.”

Dr Lucy Frears

Soundscape & Design – Lucy Frears
Picture Editor – Marcus Cook
Original Music (at end): MUHLA
Duration: 4.39 mins (designed to be played in a loop).

The sound & film were made possible by contributions by many people – thank you.

Interviews by Lucy Frears in order of first appearance:  
Leader of the Golowan Band – Rosie
Leader of the Golowan procession & Penglaze Teazer – Elise Sampson
Master of the Glorious Company of the Egyptian House (the ‘gyptians guise guild at Montol) – Carol Tanner
Poet, writer & part of the Golowan founding group – Pauline Shepherd
The Egyptian God Horus (Montol) & various Golowan & Montol roles – Andy Tanner
Montol researcher, initiator & director – Simon Reed
Producer & filmmaker Denzil Monk
Poet – Katrina Naomi
Montol Artistic Director (2022 -) – Joe Gray (who was interviewed by Lucie Akerman)

Thank you for sharing photos:
The Terry Sampson Golowan Archive – including photos by Steve Tanner,
Bill Mitchell Archive (courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Falmouth University and University of Exeter Penryn Campus),
© Sue Hill (a founder of Golowan who designed the logo),
Simon Cook, Mike Newman, John Stedman, Joe Beer & © Peter Waverly collection held at Kresen Kernow [AD2764]

Thank you for sharing film footage: 
The Terry Sampson Golowan Archive,
Barbara Santi,
Mike Newman,
Lucas Nott,
© Peter Waverly collection held at Kresen Kernow [AD2764]

Thanks to:
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange – Blair Todd; Olga Reed AMPS – YXO Studios Ltd; Re:voice colleagues: Laura Hodsdon, Flis Tattersall, Denzil Monk & Paul Sewry, Golowan Associate Director – Martin Venning, maker of the Glorious Company of the Egyptian House osses displayed at The Exchange – Martin Cleaver, editor Marcus Cook, all those who helped secure permissions for photos – Debby Wright & Sharron Parsons, Cultivator Cornwall (for funding sound equipment), Maggi Simpson, Maria McEwen, Lucie Akerman, Harriet Poznansky, David Prior, Chris Ryan & Louis Frears.

Funded by Research England in partnership with Falmouth University.