the world of music, vol. 44(3),Traditional Music of the Baltic Countries: 7-19.

the world of music 44 (3) - 2002: 7-19

Baltic and Baits: On the History of Notions and theQuestion of Baltic Regionalism

Martin Boiko

Abstract

Since their introduction in the second half of the 19th century both the term 'Baltic'(Germ. Baltikum) as the designation of a region and the term 'Baits' as designation ofits population have experienced several changes of their meanings. The Baltic, a re-gion that comprises Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is neither under historical and po-litical, nor under linguistic and denominational aspects a coherent area. Since theearly 1990s, indications of the geopolitical dissolution of the region have been in-creasing. A parallel process is the formation of a larger Baltic Sea Region comprisingthe countries all around the Baltic Sea. The question whether the Baltic is a coherentregion in ethnomusicological terms remains open. However, there is no lack of musi-cal phenomena common to all three Baltic countries.

The history of the area nowadays called Baltic—the region comprising Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania—is rich of changes, as are the notions 'Baltic' and 'Baits'.These changes were consequences of geopolitical restructurings caused most oftenby exogenous historical and political factors. The following is a summary of the his-tory of the notions under discussion.

Since the late 18th century, most of the territory of modern Latvia and Estoniawas divided into three provinces called in German Ostseegouvernements or Ostsee-provinzen. (Ostsee is the German name for the Baltic Sea.) In the late 1850s it be-came customary to replace Ostsee with the adjective baltisch: one did not speak any-more of Ostseegouvernements or -provinzen, but of the baltische Provinzen orbaltische Lande—Baltic Provinces or Baltic Lands.1 These names referred to thethree colonial territories of the Russian Empire bordering the Baltic Sea, Livland,Estland and Kurland, lands which in historical and cultural terms were the heirs ofthe medieval state Livonia, a loose confederation which covered approximately theterritory of Latvia and Estonia.2

So, historically 'the Baltic' (Germ. Baltikum) was first the name only of the threementioned provinces. 'Balts'(Germ. Batten), at the end of the 19th century, was theself-reference used by the German speaking population of these provinces, a popula-

the world of music 44(3) - 2002

Gulf of Finland

Tallinn (Reval)

Gouv. Estland

Gouv. Livland

Gouv. Witebsk(Latgale)

Gouv. Kowno

. 7. 77ze Baltic Provinces (Gouvernements)-Livland, Estland and Kurland—in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th Century.3

Martin Boiko. Baltic and Baits

tion that had formed here since the 13th century and in the course of the 19th centurywas increasingly confronted with the problem of its identity (see Berkholz 1882).

In 1918, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia won their independance from Russia. Theterm 'Baltic' increased its extent and became the name of the three young republics,i.e. it became applied now not only to the territory of the three former Baltic Provinc-es but also to Lithuania and the Southeast Latvian area called Latgale. (Before Latvi-an independence Latgale was part of the province Vitebsk and, thus, like Lithuaniawas situated outside of the Baltic; see Fig. 1.) Through its expansion to CatholicLithuania and Latgale the term 'Baltic' attained a pluralistic denominational dimen-sion. Further, in the 1920s and 30s Finland was also often described as a Baltic coun-try. After the Soviet occupation of the Baltic in the summer of 1940, the Russian ver-sion of the term Baltic (Pribaltika) gained in importance. In this notion not onlyEstonia, Latvia and Lithuania but also the area of Kaliningrad (part of the formerEast Prussia) and sometimes even the Leningrad area and city (St. Petersburg) werefitted in.4 Since independence in 1991, the term 'Baltic' is used again chiefly to des-ignate the three Baltic States—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—together.

The Baltic States do not represent a coherent region. Under historical and culturalaspects there are more similarities between Latvia and Estonia because of their com-mon heritage going back to the Livonian confederation, Hanseatic League, long Ger-man domination, etc. Lithuania has its special status as the only Baltic nation that ex-perienced a period of great power: unlike the Latvians and Estonians, the Lithuanianssucceeded in resisting the German Order from 13th to 15th century, and in establish-ing a powerful Grand Duchy which at the time of Grand Duke Vytautas (1392-1430)comprised large territories from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Those early historicaldifferences and the close ties of Lithuania to Poland formed the basis of the lateremergence of denominational differences: in the course of the 16th century the terri-tory of Estonia and Latvia, except the Southeast Latvian area Latgale, became Luth-eran whereas Lithuania (with the exception of the very west of its territory) remainedCatholic. This division is valid also nowadays: in the modern Baltic there exist twolarge denominational spheres—a Catholic one in the South and a Lutheran one in theNorth. Of course, they are not absolutely homogeneous. So, there are Catholic par-ishes within the Lutheran sphere, e.g., on the West Latvian shores there is a smallcompact Catholic enclave called Suiti (see Fig. 2).5 In the Western part of Lithuania,in the coastal area around the town Klaipeda (Germ. Memel) which was formerly un-der Prussian rule, the Lithuanian Lutherans lead their traditional religious life. InLatgale and in the eastern part of Lithuania a large Russian speaking group cultivatesits religious traditions besides the Catholic population. Since the 17th century, theeastern areas of the Baltic countries became often the place of refuge for numerousRussians who left their homeland due to religious and/or economic reasons. Most ofthem were so-called Old Believers who were persecuted in Russia after the churchreform and schism of 1653-56, and came to Latgale and East Lithuania in severalwaves in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.6 In Southeast Estonia, in the area calledSetumaa ("Setuland"), live Setus, a small South-Estonian ethnic group. Russian Or-

10 • the world of music 44(3) - 2002

Gulf of Finland /

a

Russia(East Prussia)

Fig. 2. The modern Baltic—three Baltic States. (NB: The map shows also somesmaller geographic entries—the area Suiti in West Latvia, Setumaa in SoutheastEstonia and the Estonian island Kihnu, because they are often mentioned in the

articles of this volume.)

Martin Boiko. Baltic and Baits 11

thodoxy was introduced already before the 16th century in the Setumaa, which at thattime was Catholic.7 To a large degree denominationally mixed is the urban popula-tion of the Baltic, especially of East-Baltic towns and cities.

Coloured is the language landscape in the Baltic. Latvians and Lithuanians speakrelated languages. However, communication between them without training is notpossible. (The "distance" between these languages is approximately comparable tothat between German and Swedish.) Both Latvian and Lithuanian belong to the Bal-tic group of the Indoeuropean languages. Since 1845, the term 'Baltic languages' isused in linguistics for this group.8 To the Baltic languages in this sense belong alsoOld Prussian and the languages and dialects spoken in the territory of West Russia,Belarus and North Ukraine until its Slavisation in the 1st millennium AD. Estoniandoes not belong to the Baltic languages in this sense. It is Finno-Ugric and relatedfirst of all to Finnish, that is, it is not an Indoeuropean language.9 The linguistic divi-sion adds a further meaning to the term 'Baits'. According to academic usage, Baitsare/were peoples and ethnic groups speaking Baltic languages of the Indoeuropeanfamily: Latvians, Lithuanians, Old Prussians, etc. (In the articles of this volume theterm Baits is used in this meaning.) In colloquial English and German, Baits arecalled the people belonging to the three Baltic nations: Estonians, Latvians andLithuanians. For the German speaking Baits of the 19th century and their descen-dants, the term Deutschbalten (German Baits) or Baltendeutsche (Baltic Germans) isused.

As was just shown, the Baltic is neither under historical nor denominational orlinguistic aspects a united formation. This, as well as the new geopolitical situationafter the collapse of the USSR, have caused a problematization of the Baltic region-alism and the notion 'Baltic': "Redefining identity, 'inventing' regions, states or peo-ples, is very much a current fashion. The dramatic changes which have occurred inthe past decade have undoubtedly contributed greatly to this. The ending of the ColdWar has abolished divisions and restrictions, and has opened up new vistas. The pro-cess of European integration offers new opportunities. The conceptual map of Eu-rope is being redefined." (Kirby 1998:1)

In recent years, animated discussion and speculation can be observed among pol-iticians, historians, journalists, etc., about Baltic unity (that is, the historical, politicaland cultural unity of the three Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania) and themeaning of the term 'Baltic'. There are attempts to question the existence of Balticregionalism and, more importantly, the sense of its existence in the future. There aresignals from the northern and southern parts of the Baltic indicating a probability ofits disintegration and the integration of its parts into other regions. Statements in De-cember of 1996 by Lithuanian officials declared Lithuania a Central European coun-try that does not belong to the Baltic States. In 1997, the Lithuanian Foreign MinisterAlgirdas Saudargas called Baltic unity "an out-of-date stereotype" and said that Po-land was to be the most important geopolitical partner of Lithuania (Radzevicute1997:4, Upleja 1998:7). In the same year, Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar calledBaltic unity an obsolete myth which had to be given up as soon as possible (Diena

12 the world of music 44(3) - 2002

1997:6). And nowadays a new regional identity is being invented and constructedwithin Estonia which seems to be more promising in terms of national security andprosperity. This process is characterized by the slogan "Estonia—Nordic country",i.e., a country of the group that is made up of Scandinavian countries, Iceland andFinland (Upleja 1998:7 and 1999:8). In the course of this process, the question is of-ten raised: what have Estonia and Lithuania in common except their fate under Rus-sian colonial rule? This tendency to break away from the idea of a Baltic identity haspolitical, economic and historical backgrounds. Indeed, one has to realise that thereare real reasons for discussing the identity of the Baltic as a particular region, andthere are indeed many "mythological" features, including wishful thinking, in theidea of Baltic unity. One can agree with David G. Kirby, that"[...] the generic use ofthe term 'Baltic' appears very late, that it is essentially an outsiders' construct, andthat this may have hindered the development of a strong sense of common regionalidentity [...] In that sense, one may say, a Baltic identity still remains to be invented."(Kirby 1998:1)

Whether a new Baltic identity as an insiders' construct will indeed be invented, isan open question. But besides the indications of a dissolution of the region one ob-serves increasing indications of a new regional beginning: more and more often thereappears in the mass media and daily conversations the expression Baltic Sea Region,i.e. the region comprising states and areas around the Baltic Sea. An intellectual pro-cess of identifying and defining the cultural, political and economic aspects of theemergent region has been going on for years. (Its emergence was hindered afterWorld War 2 by the geopolitical division of Europe.) The University of Turku in Fin-land, with its Baltic Sea Region Studies programme, seems to have one of the leadingroles in this process. (This programme offers an interdisciplinary approach to the un-derstanding of societies, cultures and economics of the region surrounding the BalticSea, see http://www.utu.fi/hum/tdk/english/baltic.) In an international seminar inApril 2000 in the Polish city Gdansk devoted to the question of the cultural identityof the Baltic Sea Region and its development (the participants of the seminar wereleading intellectuals from the Baltic Sea countries Sweden, Latvia, Poland and Ger-many, and from the USA) the idea was repeatedly expressed that Latvia, and espe-cially its capital city Riga, has the best chance to become the symbol and the mentalcenter of the new regional formation since this country and city is the place where allthe most significant historical movements, cultural and political trends shaping theBaltic Sea Region meet (see Kalnins 2000).

Besides the issue of Baltic regionalism, there exists also one of the supraregionalidentification of the Baltic countries. For several decades already, German historiog-raphy and political science has accommodated the three Baltic States within EasternCentral Europe (Ostmitteleuropa). Since 1991, the tendency has developed to callthem a part of Northern Europe. One of the latest instances especially of interest toethnomusicologists is the volume Europe of The Garland Encyclopedia of WorldMusic. In this volume, categories like Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Eu-rope, etc., are used. The Baltic is placed in the chapter "Northern Europe: Scandina-

Martin Boiko. Baltic and Baits 13

via, Finland and the Baltic States" (Garland 2000: VI). It seems also that recently andin popular usage the idea takes hold (but with quite an effort and only slowly) that theBaltic States do not belong to Eastern Europe, unless one uses this term simply as asynonym for the states and colonial areas of the former Eastern bloc, ignoring the dif-ferences between them. Such usage makes no sense under cultural, political, linguis-tic, denominational and futurologistic aspects.

The discussion of Baltic regionalism stimulates and impels questions importantfor ethnomusicology: does Baltic regionalism exist in the area of the traditional mu-sic? Is the Baltic a particular region of traditional music, a part of a larger region, ora zone where different regions meet? There are a number of articles concerningLatvian-Lithuanian and Latvian-Estonian musical contacts, borrowings, etc., orwhich at least make references to common aspects, parallels and similarities. Thereare also some larger studies which already develop terms suitable for a regional ap-proach, such as the large stratigraphical essay by Ingrid Riiutel Estonian Folk MusicLayers in the Context of Ethnic Relations, and the Baltic Ethnoinstrumentology byRomualdas Apanavicius (see Riiiitel 1994 and 1995, and Apanavicius 1992). How-ever, no attempt has yet been made to outline a general picture for all three Balticcountries together and to include both their vocal and instrumental music. No doubt,such an attempt would be of major importance because the question of regionalism isat the same time one of regional musical identity. As for Latvian traditional music,the fact has already been accepted that it has more in common with Estonian andLithuanian traditional music than with Belarussian, Russian, Finnish, Polish orSwedish. But the key question is whether the same can be said about the two otherBaltic countries: does Estonian traditional music have more common features withthose of Latvia and Lithuania than, for example, with that of Finland; and doesLithuanian traditional music have more common features with Latvian and Estoniantraditional music than with those of Belarus and Poland? Only a positive answer tothese questions would allow one to speak of the Baltic as a particular region in ethno-musicological terms. And if the answer turns out to be negative? What if investiga-tion reveals that there is no Baltic regionalism in traditional music, that there is no co-herent musical region comprising all three Baltic countries? In that case, of course,other possibilities have to be considered: perhaps only two countries, for instanceLatvia and Estonia or Latvia and Lithuania, make up a region. Or perhaps regional-ism in traditional music ignores the linguistic, political and other boundaries to thedegree that there exists one region for the western parts of the Baltic countries andanother for the eastern parts that includes a good deal of Northwest Belarus as well?Or perhaps there is a region which comprises Latvia and South Estonia? It is not pos-sible to answer these questions now. This is a complex issue, and its solution has tobe preceded by extensive preliminary work. For the present it seems to be possible tomake only some preliminary statements concerning the general picture of the Baltictraditional music:

In stratigraphical and stylistic terms, Estonia and Latvia are close to each other.In the traditional music of both countries, two historical and stylistic strata can be

14 the world of music 44(3) - 2002

distinguished: an old autochthonous stratum deeply rooted in the old pre-Christianculture,10 and a late one having its sources chiefly outside of the Baltic in Central Eu-rope. The central stylistic phenomenon within the old stratum in both cases is multi-functional recitative tunes having narrow melodic range. The frontier between thetwo strata can be very clearly drawn, especially in Estonia. The late stratum compris-es songs and dance music with developed melodies of broad range chiefly in the ma-jor key. An important style within this stratum is represented by the songs havingrhymed lyrics which is untypical for the songs of the old stratum. In Latvia thosesongs are called ziijges (from Germ. singen—\o sing). Quite often German proto-types or sources can be detected. Of course, very old styles exist side by side with di-verse phenomena having late origin, also in Lithuanian traditional music. But thelandscape of Lithuanian traditional music is somewhat more balanced. One does notfind as sharp stratigraphical divisions as in Latvia and Estonia: the transitions fromstyle to style, from stratum to stratum are more even. In Lithuania, the narrow rangedrecitative tunes play an essentially smaller role than in Estonia and Latvia, and the"autochtonous" and the "imported" is not so easily separated. When looking for sty-listic phenomena common to the three countries, then the East Baltic refrain songshave to be mentioned first. This is a special category of refrain songs which is wide-spread in the eastern areas of the Baltic countries. Especially in Latvian and Estoniantraditional music, they represent a significant stylistic phenomenon of the old stra-tum. The forms of the so called early polyphony are present in all three Baltic coun-tries, however to a quite different degree. For eastern, central and southwestern areasof Latvia and for some South-Estonian parishes near the Latvian border, diverseforms of drone singing have been documented. In the Northeast of Lithuania su-tartinls were sung, a specific form of the Schwebungsdiaphonie which is character-ized by the predominance of seconds in the harmony, polymodality, complementaryrhythms, crossing of parts and simultaneous performance of two different texts. (Atthe end of the 19th century also in Latvia some few sutartines related phenomenawere documented.) In the Southeast-Estonian area Setumaa, a specific polyphonywith the solo upper accompanying part is still used that is also counted among the oldforms of Baltic polyphony. (In the polyphony of Setumaa, also, the drone is sporadi-cally detected.)1' Throughout the Baltic, the Baltic psaltery (Estonian kannel, Latvi-an kokles, Lithuanian hankies) was once widespread. And last but not least, herdingmusic is largely similar is the throughout the Baltic countries.

This seems to be enough to make clear that what ever the fate of Baltic regional-ism in political and other terms will be, there is no alternative to the collaboration ofthe ethnomusicologists of the Baltic States in trying to understand the rooting, distri-bution, contacts, etc., of the traditional music of their countries. And the volume inhand is a tangible indication of that.

Research of traditional music emerged in the Baltic in the late 19th century, at atime when the Baltic nations suffered severely under Russian colonial rule and madetremendous efforts to form their national cultures. In the Latvian and Estonian cases,the German, in the Lithuanian case, Polish cultural domination were strong factors

Martin Boiko. Baltic and Baits • IS

contributing the urge for an independent national cultural development. Within theconcept of national culture, folklore (traditional music was considered to be a genreof folklore) was seen as one of the main subjects of national identification, as sourceof the national specifics and character in art and cultural life.12 This has not changedvery much in the course of the 20th century for understandable reasons: the Sovietdeculturation and assimilation political policy during the period of Soviet rule (1940-1991) has again and again forced the Baltic nations to struggle for the survival oftheir national cultures, languages, identity, etc., to concentrate on the phenomena im-portant as subjects of national identification. As a result, musical folklore was andstill is the main subject of ethnomusicological study in the Baltic and is conceivedchiefly as "a collectable, comparable, and ultimately explainable object within an ob-servable cosmos" (Cooley 1997:9). Research is more focused on description and ex-planation and less on understanding in terms of modern anthropology of music.However, in the decade since regained independence, new paradigms have slowlyfound their way into Baltic music study.

The articles in this volume do not follow a strict thematic concept. The thematicelement combining them is a geographic one—they are all concentrated on phenom-ena of Baltic traditional music.

The article by Valdis Muktupavels is the first extensive summary on Baltic tradi-tional instruments, organology and source material in the English language, a valu-able collection of chronologically and typologically systematised data for everybodywho wants to get an overall view or is searching for some special sources and/or in-formation. The article by Daiva Vyciniene represents a characteristic trend in Balticethnomusicology which can be called ethnohistorical research. Vyciniene tries tofind out what is the age, ethnohistorical rooting and provenience of the LithuanianSchwebungsdiaphonie called sutartines, a phenomenon considered by Lithuanian re-searchers being very old. The article by Arnolds Klotins concentrates on the recenthistory of the Latvian neo-folklore movement. The complex social and political con-text of the movement, its role in the time of political and social changes—during thesinging revolution of the late 1980s and early 1990s—are analyzed. There are not somuch instances in the world's history where a folklore movement has been such animportant factor in the process of liberation of a nation from imperialistic and colo-nial rule. Ingrid Riiiitcl gives a thematically and geographically concentrated casestudy based on repeated observation of the customs and vocal traditions of the Kihnuisland, which is one of the last areas in Estonia where an old uninterrupted folk tradi-tion still exists. Anu Vissel develops a regional approach and describes common fea-tures and differences in the herding music of different ethnic groups in the Baltic ar-eas.

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Notes

1 The adjective baltisch was introduced by some literary works and periodicals. In 1841, thebook Letters from the Shores of the Baltic, written by an English authoress, was published inReval (Tallinn). The word Baltic was here nothing more then the normal English name of theBaltic Sea. The German translation of the Letters, however, was given the title BaltischeBriefe (instead of something like Briefe aus den Ostseeprovinzen). This draws on das Bal-tische Meer, an expression rare and marginal in German usage. (The English Baltic Sea, theGerman Baltisches Meer, the Latvian Baltijas jura, etc., go back to the Latin term mare Balti-cum, which is attested in Latin sources since the 9th century.) In the late 1840s, in the 1850sand 60s, the form baltisch was picked up by numerous German and Latvian publications.Expressions like baltisches Leben (Baltic life), die baltischen Strdnde (Baltic beaches), bal-tischer Adel (Baltic nobility), baltisches Luthertum (Baltic Lutheranism), etc., became normalwhen speaking about the Baltic Provinces. Since 1859, the influential German language peri-odical Baltische Monatsschrift (The Baltic Monthly), and, since 1868, the Latvian languageBaltijas Vestnesis (The Baltic Messenger) reinforced the new usage.

2 Livonia was founded by the German Order which had conquered this territory in the 13th cen-tury. After the Livonian War (1558-1582) between the German Order and Russia, parts of thesplintered Livonia came under Swedish, Polish and Danish dominion. Subsequently Russia,Poland and Sweden contested Livonia. Finally it was annexed by Russia in the course of the18th century.

3 NB: Estland as the name of a 19th century province does not correspond to the modern Esto-nia. The province Estland comprised only the northern part of Estonia. The province Livlandcorrespondingly consisted of two ethnically and linguistically different parts—of a southernLatvian and a northern Estonian part. Since the Baltic States became independent in 1918, Liv-land (like Kurland) is a region within the Latvian state, thus, and only the Latvian part of theformer province is called Livland, in Latvian Vidzeme.

4 In its geographic extent, the Russian term Pribaltika gets closely approximtes the Germanterm baltischer Raum ('Baltic space'). However, Pribaltika invokes associations with therecent Soviet Russian rule when terms like pribaltijskij voennyj okrug 'the Baltic militaryregion', pribaltijskij ekonomitsheskij rajon 'the Baltic economic area', etc., were used.Depending on his historical and political convictions and intelligence a speaker makes hischoice in modern Russian between the Soviet-sounding Pribaltika and the form Baltija whichis modeled after the terms used in the languages of the Baltic.

5 It comprises four small districts. In the first half of the 16th century they became Lutheran, butunlike the other parts of western Latvia, have experienced the counter-Reformation in the year1634. The reason for that was a simple one: the local landlord Johann Ulrich von Schwerin hadmarried a high-born Polish (Catholic) woman and became himself Catholic. After the princi-ple cuius regio, eius religio the population of his land became Catholic, too.

6 The descendants of the early Russian immigrants account only for a part of the large contem-porary Russian population of the Baltic States. This population consists chiefly of late immi-grants whose arrival in the Baltic became possible due to the Soviet occupation of the BalticStates in summer 1940. The immigration was lead by the Soviet government and was part ofthe communist party program of a systematc russification and assimilation of the Balticnations.

7 The Setumaa lies on both sides of today's Estonian-Russian border (see Fig. 2). The part ofSetumaa, which is nowadays de facto Russian was from 1920 to 1945 territory of Estonia.

Martin Boiko. Baltic and Baits • 17

According to the Estonian-Russian peace treaty of 2 February, 1920, this area is still de jureEstonian. The situation is analogous for the de jure Latvian territory Abrene which lies nowbehind the Latvian-Russian border in the East of the country.

8 The term 'Baltic languages' was introduced by Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann (1811-1881) in 1845 in his book Die Sprache der alien PreuSen an ihren Ueberresten erlautert (TheLanguage of the Old Prussians Explained from its Relics; Nesselmann 1845).

9 Despite their different origin and belonging to different language families, there is a secondaryrelationship between Latvian and Estonian which in linguistics is called Sprachbund (lan-guage alliance). A Sprachbund is based on essential structural and lexical correspondenceswhich do not go back to a common origin of the respective languages but to their convergence.The Sprachbund of Latvian and Estonian is based to some extent on the interaction betweenthem, but the most important factor of it is the strong and symmetrical influence on both of athird language—the German (see Stolz 1991).

10 The pre-Christian heritage has great significance for the cultures of the Baltic countries. Onehas to take into consideration that medieval Lithuania was the last non-Christian state inEurope: the eastern part of Lithuania—Aukstaitija—adopted Christianity in 1387, and thewestern part—Zemaitija—only in 1413. Although formally Latvia and Estonia became chris-tianized earlier—already in the 13th century, the old non-Christian faith and customs havebeen cultivated there long after the formal Christianisation, e.g., in Latvia the rural populationbegan to break away from non-Christian views step by step and slowly only in the 18th cen-tury. However, even at the beginning of the 20th century, old customs and beliefs were stillalive in many places. The echo of this condition can still be detected in some remote places. InLithuania, the old non-Christian views and rituals also survived centuries after the formaladaptation of the Christianity.

11 The area of late vocal harmonic polyphony corresponds to a high degree to the area of Cathol-icism in the Baltic—it is widespread in Lithuania and in the southeastern Latvian region Lat-gale. A further common feature of Lithuania and Latgale is the existence of a large stratum ofCatholic traditional music there—catholic songs and psalmody in oral or half oral transmis-sion.

12 Folklore was understood as a basically rural phenomenon. This was, of course, not a specifi-cally Baltic opinion, but in the Baltic case (at the time when the Baltic nations were searchingfor their national identity) it was strongly supported by the circumstance that an ethnicallyhomogeneous milieu could be first found in the countryside and not in the cities and townswith their mixed or even German or (in Lithuania) Polish dominated population. As for musi-cal research, an important result of this concept was that rural and not urban folk musicbecame the symbol of national cultural identity in music and, thus, the main subject of study.

Acknowledgement

The guest editor of the Baltic volume of the world of music and author of the article Baltic andBaits: On the History of Notions and the Question of Baltic Regionalism thanks the Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation for the support of his research stay at the University of Bamberg whichamong other has made possible the issue of this volume.

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1998 "Ilvess neapsauba Baltijas valstu politisko vienotlbu [lives Dues Not Contest the Polit-ical Unity of the Baltic States; in Latvian]." Diena, No.264(2270), 11.10.1998:7.