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Music of Lithuania
Celtic fiddle and pipes, sean-nós singing, Nordic polska and Sámi joik, kulning herding calls, Baltic runo-song and kantele.
Sung and searched in Lithuanian. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
A brief history
History
Music was very important part of ancient Lithuanian polytheistic belief. It is known that, at the start of the 2nd millennium, Baltic tribes had special funeral traditions in which the deeds of the dead were narrated using recitation, and ritual songs about war campaigns, heroes and rulers also existed. First professional music was introduced to Lithuania with travelling monks in the 11th century. After the christianization of Lithuania in 1387, religious music started to spread, Gregorian chant was introduced. Travelling musicians arranged concerts in the manors and castles of the Lithuanian nobleman, local cappellas were founded. It is known, that Anna, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, wife of Vytautas the Great which had diplomatic relationships with the Teutonic Knights, who sent her expensive gifts, including clavichord and portative organ in 1408. Daughter of Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, Aldona, when married to Casimir III of Poland, 1325 took her palace orchestra to Cracow. It had musicians which played lute, zither and lyre.
Popular music
Rock music
The Communist government of the Lithuanian SSR criticized rock music, which was considered a decadent and corrupting cultural invasion from the West. The first local rock bands started to emerge around 1965 and included Kertukai, Aitvarai and Nuogi ant slenksčio (Naked On A Threshold) in Kaunas, and Kęstutis Antanėlis, Vienuoliai (The Monks), and Gėlių Vaikai (Flower Childs) in Vilnius, among others. Radio Luxembourg was the most important source of information about the music on other side of the Iron Curtain. It was very common for Lithuanian hippies or band players to listen to this radio. Radio Luxemburg bears strong associations in Lithuania with the Romas Kalanta generation (Kalantos karta). Another means was to smuggle LPs of popular Western bands into Lithuania and copy them onto magnetic tape. The records then spread further by making recordings to the friends, classmates.
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Radio from Lithuania
Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
Station directory by Radio Browser Streams come from each station's own server.