The Song Of The Centuries . Lithuania is the land of songs - having retained the name since olden times. First chronicles that had not mentioned the name of Lithuania, yet - the Baltic tribes, and historical sources of the 19 -20th centuries, foreign travelers and nationals – pillars of the renascent national movement – had noted the special songfulness of the Lithuanian nation and the beauty of a folk song that used to accompany people throughout their entire life. Millenary songs are still heard in Lithuanian villages, as there is no better way to convey the Lithuanian worldview, to reveal the rather nostalgic national character, the subtle perception of the beauty and good, as by means of a song.
It is no wonder we preserve the tradition of the Song Festival. Symbolically it may equal to a crown, mustering and joining together all creative souls of the nation – singers, dancers, instrumental music performers, folk craftsmen, actors, composers, writers, choreographers, painters, amateur stage directors and professional artists. Comparing the spirit, splendor and magnificence a parallel between a Song Festival and ancient Greek Olympic Games could be drawn.
The first Song Festival was held in 1924, in Kaunas, assembling approximately three thousand participants and ten thousand spectators. In 85 years it grew up into an impressive cultural movement.
The Lithuanian Song Festival is organized every four years. The fundamental parts of the program are - the Folklore Day, unfolding the geographical and genre diversity of traditional culture, the Ensembles Night, presenting the springs of folk culture in a theatrical and stylized form, the Dance Day, distinguishing by professionally staged finest choreographic ornaments lively weaved in a large square, and the Song Day, drawing up over fifteen thousand singers, performing harmonizations of folk songs, vocal music pieces both of the golden fund of the Lithuanian professional music and those by contemporary authors. A particularity of the day is a capella singing. The program of the Song Festival is surrounded by additional events such as the folk art exhibition, the Afternoon of the national instrument Kanklės, brass orchestra concerts and parades, amateur theatre performances, professional art events, processions of participants of the Festival. The program is annually renovated.
In 2003 UNESCO proclaimed the tradition of the Song and Dance Festivals of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as a value of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The Song of the Centuries is the 18th Song Festival. This is an exceptional event, selected as the main accent of the programme of the Commemoration of the Millennium of Lithuania for being the most universal manifestation of the national culture. The title of the Festival reflects the natural need of Lithuanian nation to live in harmony of both people among themselves and their environment, the nature. This element has ever lingered in unique polyphonic songs of ancient Lithuanians – sutartinės (from a word sutarti – to agree); likewise an ability to find a common agreement was essential in surviving most desperate storms in the Lithuanian history.
From 1 to 6 of July the Festival will gather approximately forty thousand performers to events in Vilnius and Kaunas. The Festival will start with a cycle of professional art projects, which will symbolically recreate the way of Lithuania running from ancient Baltic to contemporary Western cultures. The Folklore Day will be dedicated to versatile semantics of the Earth. The Ensembles Night and the Dance Day will reflect the flow of cyclical and historical time. New programmes of the Schoolchildren Day, modernized folklore, theatre and others will be presented.
The main accent of the Festival is the Song Day. 18 thousand singers will perform most beautiful songs of the previous Song Festivals and new pieces dedicated to the Millennium of Lithuania on an outdoor stage in Vingis Park designed especially for the Song Day.
Participation in the Song Festival is a great desire of every person, fostering the national culture. The Festival reveals the essence of the state – participants dressed in national costumes, united by a song and dance, the proud of the Lithuanian state. A hardly defined feeling of emotional commonness of participants is shared by a tenfold audience of Lithuanians – almost the entire nation - attending the events of the Festival or watching them on television channels.
Lithuanian Folk Culture Centre
