VIEWS OF RIGA’S GERMAN AND RUSSIAN PRESS ON THE MANIFESTATIONS OF NATIONAL COLOUR IN THE LATVIAN MUSIC (1876–1914)

Abstract

The last decades of the 19th century and the early 20th century were a period when many native Latvian composers and performers first entered Riga’s music life that was previously dominated by Baltic Germans. At the same time, due to the Russification carried out by tsar Alexander II, the Russian influence in Riga’s cultural life also grew, and significant Russian music institutions were formed. Thus, an interesting and complex interaction between the three national communities and their cultures emerged. This paper aims to characterize one aspect of this interaction: how did German and Russian music critics in Riga perceive the manifestations of the musical Latvianness? To answer this question, the paper examines the assessments of the Latvian national colour by German and Russian reviewers, as well as their opinions on the following aspects of Latvian music: the most characteristic emotional states reflected in music; the treatment of certain elements of musical expression; the visual analogies evoked by the Latvian music. 
Studies on this topic provide an opportunity to enrich our knowledge about the relations between the three national cultures and their historical context.