Past and Present Lithuanian Polyphonic Sutartinės Songs

Book excerpt: Sutartinės, the especially ancient form of, often sacred, Lithuanian music, is enjoying a renaissance, mostly in Lithuania’s cities. Since UNESCO recognized these unique dissonant sounds originating from Lithuania’s Aukštaitija ‘Uplands’ ethnographic region as part of our Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010, in-depth studies have flourished. This book presents the latest analogies discovered in distant examples of the genesis and ethnogenesis of foreign folk music examples, not only in neighboring lands but as far away as the Ainu subculture of Japan. It presents the latest findings and analyses of the hymns once said to be conveyed by laumės, mythical beings later demoted to witches during this music’s demise. This study supplements perceptions from Lithuanian and foreign ethno-musicologists with data from ethnology, archaeology, linguistics and other sciences and areas of scholarship, and thereby encourages even more studies in this field.