Although this article is based on a study of the original a cappella chord songs of the composer Lūcija Garūta (14.05.1902. – 15.02.1977), I would like to (typically for myself) start with the events that took place shortly before the submission of the article. Namely, I am happy and grateful for the opportunity to meet Patriks Zvaigzne – the great-grandson of the composer’s older sister Olga Krastiņa (1900-1984), who is the son of Daina Pormale (1956-2020), the founder and head of the Garūta Foundation. For twenty years, Daina enthusiastically fulfilled her promise to Garūta to take care of the special family heritage, as well as popularize the composer’s music both in Latvia and abroad. Among other things, Garuta is the only female composer from the Baltic States who was included in the German music lexicon published in 1996 (Olivier, Antje; Braun, Sevgi. Komponistinnen aus 800 Jahren. Ein Lexikon zur Musikgeschichte der Frauen. Sequentia) about female composers of the world during the 800-year period .
Behind the wheel of a BMW
We met Patriks in the Marijas Street apartment, where Garūta lived and worked from 1940 until the end of her life. It is touching that Daina Pormale’s conviction to almost preserve the composer’s room at one time has created an absolute miracle. It’s clear that it won’t just stand there forever, and it tears open the scar of injustice.
Opening the door of the room, we see Garūta’s famous Steinway, next to which are patent leather shoes left on the floor, as if Garūta had just taken them off. Patrick does not undertake to confirm that this is really the case, but we are both fascinated by this idea, as well as the fact that Lūcija Garūta is one of the first women in Latvia to obtain a driver’s license. In addition, she has owned a BMW passenger car in the late 20s. In the room are countless piles of excellent quality family photos, letters, postcards and greeting cards – many of them signed Lūcītis (as Garūta is known to his family and close friends). Folders with students’ harmony exam assignments, her own sketches and scores are arranged on the shelves, but a colorful glossy paper magazine with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on the cover slips out of one folder of newspaper clippings. As Patriks knows how to tell, passionate conversations about astronomy, physics and technical sciences were quite frequent in the family circle, because the husband of the composer’s sister Olga, Roberts Krastiņš, was a self-taught scientist in physics, and he conducted serious experiments at home.
Stirs the soul and tugs at the heart
Lūcija Garūta’s most recognizable work is undoubtedly the cantata “Dievs, Tava zeme deg”(“God, Your Earth Is Burning!”), which is included in the cultural canon of Latvia among the twelve national musical monuments. The story of the premiere of the cantata, which took place on March 15, 1944 in Riga’s Old St. In Gertrude’s church, the tanks of the Nazi army were passing by at that time. But the prayer “Our Father in Heaven” included in the cantata has been a stable value in the repertoire of almost every choir since the Song Festival of 1990, when it was sung for the first time in the choir. Garūta’s piano music is also bright, especially the excellent Piano Concerto, for which the pianist Reinis Zariņš, chosen by Daina Pormale, was approached. As a result, Garūta’s first self-titled album (2017) was released under the auspices of the Latvian national record house SKANI, which still continues to surprise the world. There have even been reflections among musicologists that under other conditions the Piano Concerto would rank among the world’s most appreciated masterpieces in this genre. On the other hand, in the 1930s, Lucija Garuta’s friend, the singer Mariss Vētra, was excited that, despite not being a composer of choral songs, she gained recognition with solo songs, also among lovers of simple music, “pulling the heart through the soul”. Pianist Dzintra Erliha has contributed a lot to the performance and research of the composer’s chamber music, also defending her doctoral thesis “Lūcija Garūta chamber music: biographical context, style and interpretation” (2013, JVLMA). Continuing the genre list, it seems that the time has come to change the impression rooted in Soviet times about the emptiness of Garūta’s a cappella chordal song on the shelf.
Garūta’s “Castle of light”
Although the prayer “Mūsu Tēvs debesīs” cannot be ranked among Garūta’s a cappella choral songs, it is nevertheless the only example of this genre, which was heard not only at the General Latvian Song and Dance Festival, but is likely to be the first even for experienced choral singers, conductors and music researchers. which will come to mind in the context of Garūta’s a cappella choral music. The important collection of Latvian choral music “Anthology of Latvian choral songs”, which graphically reflects the brightest heritage of Latvian a cappella choral songs, adds only a little to the idea of Garūta’s original a cappella choral songs – with the song “Ābele” (text by Alfred Krūkļa) for mixed choir. It is especially interesting to think about those composers who started their creative career during the free state and continued in Soviet Latvia. It clearly reveals how the change of political powers affects artistic processes and works. Lūcijas Garūtas’ probably the first original a cappella chordal song is “Mums mūžam brīviem, latvji, būt” for mixed choir, which is again probably transferred from a solo song with the same name. The exact year of writing is not known, but it is likely to be before the summer of 1940. Here are already several statements in ‘possible’ form. This reveals the current state of Garūta choral music research – still in progress. Garūta is the author of the text of the mentioned song, and the composer has used her talent as a writer several times in other choral songs as well. Garūta has indicated that she had no prior intention to write songs with her own text, as she highly values the work of poets, however, sometimes the music and words of a piece appear at the same time. In the post-war years, the poetess Mirdza Ķempe (1907–1974) gave advice and help to the composer, who is said to have delicately edited the second edition of the opera “The Silver Bird” and the cantata “Viņš lido!”, as well as other works. Direct collaboration took place in the choral song “Voice of Peace” (1961) for the mixed choir, forming a creative tandem in the creation of the song’s text. “To be free forever, Latvians, to be” is written in the classic Latvian choral song tradition – in a simple three-part form with contrasting middle-stage imitations, with culminating drama, but without exaggerated pathos. Despite the patriotic theme, the composer’s sensitivity is revealed in the song, without turning the song into a typical musical salute. The text of the song contains the line “To live forever, Latvia” from a poem by Vilis Plūdonis. Perhaps it is a symbolic gesture of commemoration in the year of the poet’s death, as a large part of Garūta’s works have a dedication meaning. But maybe the composer was inspired by Jānis Mediņš’s choral song “To live forever, Latvia”, which came into the world, probably in 1936? “Let us be free, Latvians, to be free”, as in the later songs of Garūtas, the handwriting of Jāzeps Vītols’ chordal song can be felt through the ballad presentation, creating contrasting relations of characters and giving a special role of storyteller to the choral basses. It is not appropriate to mention here that Garūta graduated from the composition class of Latvian Conservatory professor Vītols (1924). In addition, for almost half of her life (from 1940), the composer taught composition and music theory at the Latvian State Conservatory.
Garūta has a special memory of her time studying at the conservatory precisely because of Professor Vītols, with whom she has maintained cordial relations even after the years of study, besides dedicating several opuses to the professor during her lifetime. Immersion and even an attempt to imitate Vītol’s handwriting can be observed in the ballad-type chordal song “Tava Skaņu pils” (author’s words, original version for men’s choir, later for mixed choir), dedicated to the professor’s centenary commemoration (1963). Metaphors are symbolically played out in the song: castle of sound – castle of light (both as a choral song and as a symbol of the Latvian Conservatory). “Tava Skaņu pils” is a poetically autobiographical song that concentrates on the most important pages and events of Professor Vītols’s life. The song is written in tripartite form, contrasting the first and second sections, with a climactic and anthemic closing section.
Content-wise, the first stage reveals Vitols’ dramatic and the personal side of loss: “Far away from your native land, stormy whirlwinds carried you away”. Here the enemy is poetically compared to a whirlwind and strong winds. The dramaturgy of the song is directed very deliberately, the author gives character and tempo to almost every sentence. Such an expressive narrative presentation is typical of ballad-type songs and especially in Vitols’ works. The ending of the first stage for the bass of the choir undeniably leads to the expressive bass line “there lie the gods of our fathers” of Vitol’s ballad “Gaismas pils”. On the other hand, the middle part of the song with Garuta’s character designations “very warm, sincere, passionate” is contrasting both in terms of content and music. The “groves, mountains and valleys of the native land” and, of course, “Skaņu pils” – the happy days of Jāzeps Vītolas are joyfully sung. The song ends in a climactic and anthemic way: “Life’s work Tava Skaņu pils!”, all the more confirming the parallel with Vītola’s ballad “Gaismas pils”.
Songs that went along
Garūta’s original a cappella chord songs have not been performed at the song festival until now. In addition to the prayer “Mūsu Tēvs debesīs”, the men’s choir song with piano accompaniment “Jūra, plašā jūra” (at the Song Festival of 1965) and the cantata “Spring Winds” (at the 2018 Song Festival vocal-instrumental music concert) were played once. Dziesmusvetki has always been a platform promoting and stimulating the recognition of composers and choral songs. Although the Soviet rule did not destroy the tradition of song festivals, it significantly changed the situation of composers in choral music. Chord songs in Soviet Latvia had certain desired criteria of musical expression, which were quite clearly inclined towards “victorious dynamics, vigor and major,” as accurately summarized by musicologist Arnolds Klotiņš in his monograph on Latvian music in post-war Stalinism. During her creative life, Lūcija Garūta has experienced how appreciation for compositional mastery and very open emotionality turns into individualism and pessimism criticized by the Soviet authorities, which leads to the swamp” (its violinist and music functionary Pēteris Smilga commented on the music of Lūcija Garūta in the context of the first plenum of composers in 1946) . Although Garūta’s choral music was ignored in the context of the Soviet Song Festival, Garūta has kept the tradition of the Latvian Song Festival in honor, as evidenced by the mixed choir work “Day of Songs” (author’s text). It is dedicated to the XIII General Latvian Song Festival, which was the IV festival of Soviet Latvia (1960). Perhaps this holiday emotionally shook many choir conductors and singers due to the fact that Jāzeps Vītol’s “Castle of Light” was removed from the repertoire, which until then had been continuously included in every holiday since 1910, and Emīls Melngail’s “Jāņuvakars” was also deleted from the repertoire. The lines of Garūta’s “Days of Songs” are significant and descriptive of the mood: “Through long years of pain, you protected yourself in songs, carrying longing for the sun in your heart, chanting songs of the sun”. The musical language of the song does not correspond to the understanding of the new work of the Song Festival at the time, the aesthetics chosen by the composer contradicts it. Garūta’s music is characterized by special harmonies, which are primarily formed by the melodic color – as if a major melodic scale, but minor, it is formed through pronounced plagality, and we also often encounter chord rearrangements without a pronounced melodic line. In general, a complex harmonic language, frequent alterations, a complex two-part meter that gives the music an elusive flight – all these are not only aesthetically, but also technically difficult prerequisites for a song to be suitable for a choir. For Lucija Garūta, the ‘song’ as an image forms a separate thematic group. Several pieces of the following themes have been composed for a cappella choir: “Dziesmiņas gaitas” for mixed choir (Rainis, 1961), “Dziesmai” for men’s choir (author’s text, 1965), “Dziesma, cilvēka dziesma” for mixed choir (author’s text, year of writing unknown) . “Man dziesmiņa līdz nāca” for men’s choir (author’s text, 1965) is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the composer Jēkabs Mediņš (1885–1971) and the commemoration of 60 years of work. A song of three repeated stanzas, which stands out among others for its pentatonic scale, and the tonality of the song is the composer’s favorite C sharp major, which means a row of black keys. Sharing her childhood memories, the composer mentions the row of black keys as an important impulse for her interest in composition. The presence of pentatonic scale in Garūta’s music is probably also the reason why, for example, in Japan there is increased interest in the composer’s work. In Latvian music, this sonorous color is more a bridge to the heritage of folk music, which Garūta has also very consciously celebrated in her work.
Every car has its character, it’s up to you to feel it
In 1960, three songs with a Soviet theme were written: “Tērauda pērkons” (text by Andris Vējāns, “Pavasara lietū” (text by Indra Mežnora) and “Our pride is work” (text by the author). Thematically, these three songs are united by the singing of the virtue of work, but the musical language and aesthetics are different. “Our pride is work” – a song for a male choir with a content pleasing to Soviet ideology about the satisfaction of the working class to be useful for the common good. Through a typically marching and victorious character, the work approaches t. s. to the aesthetics of mass songs, but despite this, the composer’s characteristic harmonic language remains. Compared to other works, the male choir’s song “Tērauda pērkons” stands out. The short song, written in a varied form of stanzas, has apparently openly Soviet content about one of the most powerful tools of the working life of the kolkhoz – the tractor. It is difficult to judge what inspired Garūtas to choose exactly this poem by Andris Vējāns, first published in 1950: “Rīts. Tractors speak like steel thunder, | And the brightness of the lightning fades in the plowshares. | The old earth trembles in the caterpillar dune | Like a new heart when you love someone deeply.” It is understandable that the context of the era requires a critical evaluation of compositions of such a theme. However, one should not draw hasty conclusions, ranking this song only among propaganda works of Soviet achievements or the virtue of work. Most likely, the primary idea of the composer was related to her passionate interest in technique. The achievements of cosmonautics also played a special role in Garūta’s creative work, and the beginnings of her interest in space can be traced back to her childhood, when the girl had an overwhelming desire to literally soar in the wings. According to Garūta’s relatives, one of the attempts of little Lūcija to take off, jumping from the top of the closet, ended with a back injury for life. The dream of flying (on wings, with an airplane or a rocket) was with her throughout her creative life. On the other hand, the car as an achievement of humanity beyond the layers of ideology was one of Garūta’s great themes in music. During her studies, the composer heard for the first time Artūrs Oneger’s opus Pacific 231, where the operation of a locomotive is depicted in an illustrative way. It is said that this inspired the young composer so much that she was ready to defend her opinion publicly: “The machine also has its own expression, so you need to feel it. This uncontrollable anxiety of the machine – can it not find an echo in the human soul, can it not excite us a little? Honegger has experienced the machine and wanted to give this experience to others. Imitation of the machine is also for him a means, not an end. He needs the imitation of wheels and screws to create the iron rhythm of the machine. This steady, merciless rhythm is what makes us feel that this machine knows no obstacles and is constantly hurtling into the distance…” (“Reflections on Honeger’s Pacific” in the edition of the Latvijas Skaņražu kopa “Mūzika” in the March 1925 issue). Garūta precisely formulated the writing techniques of Oneger, especially emphasizing the rhythm, and it seems that this style of writing had taken root in the consciousness of the composer until it was realized by her own efforts. “In the 1960s. In 1985, I heard the expressive words of A. Vējāns “Tērauda pērkons” in the voices of the men’s choir in an iron rhythm [underline by the author of the article],” says Lūcija Garūta’s article “Life and creativity”, which was published in honor of the composer’s memory on her 85th birthday on 15.1985. in the May issue of “Literature and Art”. The theme of the tractor has been played out in the works of several Soviet-era composers, but often they are witty and even a bit heretical, songs full of humor, for example Jānis Ķepīš’s “Traktorist Polka” (1947) for soloist and piano or Marģers Zariņš’s choral song “Traktorist Waltz” from the song cycle “Kolchoza dainas” (1952) for mixed choir a cappella. Looking at the score of Garūta’s song “Tērauda čerkons”, there is no trace of jokes or irony. One of the most effective techniques in the song is the ostinato of the rhythm and descending minor second melody, the “iron” rhythm mentioned by the composer illustratively creates a vision of an unstoppable and powerful process, which is sometimes interrupted by dynamic exclamations of sighs or moans in the female chorus. An eerie and uneasy sound picture is formed, revealing the darkest color palette in Garūta’s music. And not only in the context of choral music, but in the context of the entire creative work, this work reveals an atypical, lesser-known facet of Garūta’s handwriting.
Rocks may erode over endless ages, yet the apple tree still blossoms
We have already established that in the “Latvian choral anthology” volumes of original songs, Garūtas is represented with the song for mixed choir “Ābele” (1956, text by Alfrēds Krūklis). This song largely reflects the stylistic essence of Garūta’s chord songs. First of all, the choice of the subject reveals a sensitive love of the motherland through natural metaphors. At the same time, it also sounds like a call and an encouragement to cultivate the spiritual strength, which has a timeless and spiritual dimension: “the strength that makes you mature. .. the rocks crumble even for ages, but the apple tree blooms”. There is no dramaturgy of conflicts in the song, thus a unified mood is formed. Secondly, the musical language summarizes the most characteristic elements of Garūta harmony. Despite the fact that in the history of Latvian music, Garūta, who is also imprinted in the memories of students with great love and care, acquired the image of a warm, instructive, selfless and otherwise caring teacher, however, this romanticized image reflects only one side of Garūta’s personality. The composer’s handwriting, especially through the harmonic language, reveals a very brave and strong, contemporary and progressive, as well as a personality endowed with an amazing intellect, who possesses both humanity as an emotional sense of good/bad and right/wrong, as well as a rational view manifested through logical generalizations. The harmony of Garūta’s music is able to unite seemingly opposites. On the one hand, it is a high flight through sequences of unresolved chords, gorgeous seventh chords of a non-third structure and rows of parallel triads, pronounced plagality. However, the complex harmonic systems create good sound and vibrate the innermost strings of the soul, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste of the minor major. The composer created an impression of herself as an emotionally sensitive, yet strong personality who was able to turn the tragic moments of her life into great human strength and love for her work. In the pre-war years of Latvian music history, Garūtas had already filled important pages in many ways. She is one of the first female composers with an unusual aesthetic vision, which is rooted in a deep love for Latvian, but at the same time strives for a worldly breath. Already in her early years of study, Garūta had a dream of studying abroad, she was especially interested in the music of the French impressionists. In 1926, the young musician fulfilled her dream not only of studies, but also of getting to know concert life in Paris. She studied both with the pianist Alfred Corto, who is especially known for his interpretations of Chopin’s piano music, and with the composer Isidore Philip. Garūta learned instrumentation from composer, conductor and music critic Paul Leflem. Visiting Paris for the second time (1928), she continued her composition studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique under Paul Dick, who was the teacher of several great composers, including, for example, Maurice Duriflet and Olivier Messiaen. Of course, along with the occupation, the attitudes of cultural policy also changed – the Soviet government strongly controlled and directed all art processes, accordingly, Garuta’s impressions in Western Europe probably had to be obeyed. The post-war mood, both in Latvian identity and in the rule of occupation, was focused on mass power and pathos, which was obviously dissonant with Garuta’s aesthetic ideals.
120
In music research, one of the goals when analyzing a composer’s or works in certain genres is to create a description of the individualized musical language. Responsible, because it takes root in a wide range of people, sometimes in several generations. Unfortunately, actuality most often flashes in the context of composers’ anniversaries, but even then, public discussions do not always result in fundamental research – sometimes only written evidence of ideas remains. This article was written thinking about the 120-year commemoration of Lúcia Garūta, however, in the research field of the author of the article, Garūta’s choral music is an important and vivid element in the mosaic of the original Latvian a cappella chordal song of the Soviet period (the author of the article examines the original Latvian a cappella chordal song from 1944 to 1964 in her doctoral thesis ), moreover, it is still in the active research process, when the research work with primary sources or manuscripts is ahead. Lucija Garuta’s creative life spans about half a century. Still a great challenge in the research of music history is the heritage that arose in Soviet Latvia, especially in the genres of choral music, because the verbal text is also involved here. From the second half of the 1950s to the second half of the 1960s, Garuta was particularly active in the field of choral music – a large number of her choral songs were composed. Through the choral song, Garuta has encouraged everyone to realize their personal responsibility and strength for common goals. The composer’s modus vivendi expresses a faithful attitude, following her sometimes misunderstood aesthetics and musical language, thus demonstrating the spirit of artistic freedom. In addition to the original a cappella chord songs (about 40), Lucija Garutas also has arrangements of folk songs (about 10), as well as several chord songs with piano accompaniment. The children’s choir has a wide repertoire – about 30 original songs and about 20 arrangements of folk songs. Garuta is the author of seven cantatas, and the choir also plays an important role in the opera “The Silver Bird”, which is still awaiting its premiere. Only one monograph on the life of Lúcia Garutas is still available – “Zvaigznes und zeme” by Silvija Stumbres, which was published in 1969. After visiting the memorial room, it will be confirmed that the composer herself had collected many materials and handed them over to the musicologist, participating in the creation of the book’s content. However, taking into account the censorship and propaganda of the Soviet era, we cannot be proud of an ideologically free compilation of Garuta’s life, moreover, it cannot be called complete, because Garuta ended his career several years after the publication of the monograph.
In the place of jubilation
‘Composer’ is among those professions that acquire a sort of intermediate state in the context of eternity. Or one can claim two states of eternity at the same time: continuing to live the eternal earthly life in music even after passing away, where everyone passes physically once. In addition, the composer’s 50th, 150th, 300th anniversary concerts sometimes differ only in the presence or absence of the celebrant himself. On anniversaries, people tend to express regret for what was not done and resolve to do it anyway. This time neither for regret nor for commitment. Music historians and players are privileged to give meaning and appreciation to a composer’s life. It is a pleasure that the life of Lucija Garutas and its fruits continue to inspire both very young and experienced pianists and vocalists. Lucia Garuta’s courage and strength resonates in each of us every time we hear the prayer “Our Father in Heaven”. The apple tree continues to bloom even when the rocks are crumbling.■
Thanks to Patriks Zvaigzne and Professor Lolita Fūrmane for their support in writing this article!
