Folk traditions group
Budēļi

In Blackheads house, Riga, & October 2000

      Name: Budēļi
          meaning: mummers, maskers
          recommended transcription in English: Budeli
          approximate pronunciation in English: Budehli
          Listen pronunciation in AU format (13 Kb)

      Created: 11 February 1981
      Location: Riga
      Leader: Liena Teterovska, Jānis Kleperis
      Number of participants: 20, of them by age:
          younger than 14 years: 7
          from 14 to 24 years: 1
          from 25 to 44 years: 8
          from 45 to 64 years: 4
      and by gender:
          males: 5
          females: 15
      Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance, play roundelays
      Musical instruments: kokle (psaltery), bagpipe, zither, pipes, accordion, guimbarde, rithm instruments.

      Description: Budēļi were founded on February 13, 1981 at Institute of physics of the Latvian University. Founders - Ojārs Rode, Jānis Kleperis; first leader - Ojārs Rode. At first in group participated basically workers of the institute and their relatives, later joined students of the university and friends. At present number of the active participants is about 25 persons. The main body of the participants is formed by whole families.
    Budēļi have many times performed in different places of Latvia, guested in Estonia, England, Sweden, Belorussia, Russia, Lithuania.
    The basic form of performances is fixed programs containing different kinds of folklore: songs, music, dances, roundelays, but also tales about popular beliefs and customs represernting opinions of archeologists, ethnographers, folklore specialists and historians. Programs are orientated on pupils, teachears and general auditorium. Some programs contain visual material - slides. The programs about calendar and household holidays, sea, labour, Sun, nearby nations, harm of drunkenness, witches, Latvian riflemen, Latvian legionnaires, soldiers, youth, Riga, mythology are at preparation stage.

In festival Baltica, Riga, July 1994

      Sound sample: Budēļu mātei kraupains vēders (Mummers song) (1988.g.)
One couplet in AU format (294 Kb)
Full song in MP3 format (507 Kb)

      Address:
          in Latvian: Liena Teterovska, 2-9, Upeslejas, p/n Cekule, Rīgas raj., LV-2118, Latvija
          in English: Liena Teterovska, 2-9, Upeslejas, p/o Cekule, Riga distr., LV-2118, Latvia
      Phone: (+371) 2-956884 (Liena Teterovska), 7136858 (Jānis Kleperis)
      Facsimile: (+371) 2-529914 (Liena Teterovska), 7112583 (Jānis Kleperis)
      E-mail: kleperis_N@N_latnet.lv (Jānis Kleperis)

      Date of presenting the information: 18 November 1998