Songs from valley bottom. The singing tradition of the flooded villages of Kaunas District

The Samylai community consists of dwellers of eight settlements near Kaunas Reservoir (an artificial lake). The first inhabitants have moved there from 33 villages in 1959 in anticipation of construction of Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant and the Reservoir, which eventually flooded the area. The recollections about life in native Šilėnai, Dvareliškiai, Raguoliai, Žiegždriai, Mozūrai, Dobilija and other flooded villages, the respect for old traditions and folklore, is still alive in their memory.

Since 1990 the singing tradition of the bottom-dwellers relocated to the new settlements on the hill has been documented and preserved by ethnographers of Samylai Culture Centre, the folklore group “Samylų senolės” (“The Elders of Samylai”), the entire community of the eldership, including many young families.

The singers, which have passed, and present singers used to know and still perform the old songs for different occasions: weddings, youth love, christening, treating, family, work, war and other. The bottom-dwellers singing tradition combines the musical dialects of Aukštaitija, Dzūkija and Suvalkija ethnographic regions, creating a unique aesthetics of song execution. The performing of polyphonic songs is distinctive for rich, accordant ensemble, the melodies are sung precisely, evenly, the words are expressed accurately. The work, family and love songs are performed quietly and evenly, while ritual wedding, field work, wartime songs are sung with much more dynamism, volume and scope. While listening to women singing it seems as if the song comes “from a single mouth” since all performers sense the intensity of the sound, the essential melodiousness of the song, its flow, articulation, musical and meaning accents unanimously. The archaic unison songs are Songs from valley bottom. The singing tradition of the flooded villages of Kaunas District special for the meandering melodies, abundance of melismas, specific metro-rhythmics.

Samylai Culture Centre frequently holds artistic, educational activities; hosts the ethno-school “Etnučiai”, thus several generations of Samylai community could inherit and foster the singing tradition. It is presented together with rich records of wedding and work customs, living traditions of culinary heritage. It all helps the community to feel the cultural identity and the distinctiveness of Samylai region and to show it to the society.

Submitter – Samylai Culture Centre of Kaunas District, 2018

Custodian – Samylai Eldership community