Lithuanian songs appeared in European music before čiurlionis
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In Germany and beyond, Liudvikas Rėza published collections of Lithuanian folk songs in 1825, translating the lyrics into German and making them accessible to a wider European audience.
Rėza’s work opened a path for Lithuanian songs to enter professional music compositions much earlier than previously understood, influencing composers and appearing in poetry collections and theatrical works. Researcher Vilimas Norkūnas discovered that these songs traveled to places like the Czech Republic and Norway, becoming source material for composers.
Norkūnas traced the songs’ journey through libraries, museums, and historical collections, finding connections between Rėza’s publications and compositions by figures like Alexander Winterberger, a student of Franz Liszt, who published a collection of songs with Lithuanian lyrics in 1880. He also found evidence of Rėza’s influence in the works of Frédéric Chopin and Edvard Grieg, with Chopin’s “Lithuanian Song” and Grieg’s “The Orphan” both drawing on lyrics first published by Rėza.
The researcher and baritone Giedrius Prunskus are currently performing these rediscovered songs in a concert tour across Lithuania, presenting the music with the original Lithuanian lyrics whenever possible. Norkūnas believes this work reveals a new chapter in Lithuanian music history, demonstrating a broader European context for the country’s musical heritage and the importance of figures like Rėza in connecting Lithuanian culture with the rest of the continent.
