A Collection of Ethnographic Ensembles

04.01.2021

The newly created collection No. 2235, "Recordings of Ethnographic Ensembles", comprise a repertoire of 24 Latvian ethnographic ensembles which continue to sing and play local traditional music from various villages of Kurzeme and Latgale. This is a special audio-visual collection, as it reveals musical soundscapes presented by current Latvian ethnographic ensembles. The recordings are now available in a digital environment along with thorough historical information about the ensembles and rich illustrative material in the form of photographs.

The ensembles were recorded from 2015 to 2018 at the Sound Recording Studio of the National Library of Latvia as well as during a folklore expedition to Northern Latgele in 2016. The recording project was carried out by Aigars Lielbārdis, a researcher of the Archives of Latvian Folklore in close cooperation with Renarts Braufmanis, the sound recording director of the Library.

Recording, processing and publication of the ethnographic ensembles’ repertoire was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia (basic budget sub-programme 05.04.00 "Krišjānis Barons’ Cabinet of Folksong") and the State Cultural Capital Foundation (project "Traditional Culture in Digital Environment").

Photo by Aigars Lielbārdis. The Otaņķi Ethnographic Ensemble at Sound Recording Studio of the National Library of Latvia in 2015.