Paper short abstract:

The paper describes some significant features of the revival of folk music instruments –resources, influences, contexts of playing, negotiations of authenticity. An increased interest towards simple, primitive, not-modernised instruments is discussed.

Paper long abstract:

Two different approaches how to incorporate folk music instruments in the current cultural processes have developed in the 20th century.

The first one is based on the idea of modernisation – certain changes in construction, tuning etc. to make the instruments fit for modern (basically, romantic style classical) music. This approach took certain shape in Latvia already in 1930s. After WW2 under the Soviet regime it became part of state-sponsored folk music practices, and was supposed to conform to "progressive" folk traditions. As a result, orchestral groups of modernised folk music instruments were created, with music for these instruments by professional composers.

The other approach aims at the revival of instrumental traditions – to preserve traditional construction, tuning etc. and make music with the musical resources provided by such instruments. This approach emerged within folklore movement at the turn of the 70s and 80s. It was started by personally motivated enthusiasts, and gradually involved significant part of folklore practicioners, turning into a weighty alternative to the modernised segment.

The paper describes some significant features of the revival – available resources, different influences, contexts of playing, negotiations of authenticity. Selective manipulation of the material is discussed – there was an increased interest towards simple, primitive instruments, considered also as "the oldest". This manipulation, in fact, had a counter-culture nature, and its unspoken purpose seems to be to resist to modernity, or even to present a radical standpoint against the conformism within the sphere of the modernised instruments.