Sauna parish ethnographical ensemble
Naktineica

Festival Baltica-94 in Riga, Ethnographical museum

      Name: Naktineica
          meaning: cornflower, knapweed
          recommended transcription in English: Naktineica
          approximate pronunciation in English: Naktineitsa
          Listen pronunciation in AU format (17 Kb)

      Created: April 1953
      Location: Priekuli, Sauna parish, Preili distr., Latgalia
      Leader: Jānis Teilāns
      Number of participants: 21, of them by age:
          younger than 14 years: 4
          from 14 to 24 years: 5
          from 25 to 44 years: 1
          from 45 to 64 years: 5
          older than 64 years: 6
      and by gender:
          males: 6
          females: 15
      Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance, play roundelays
      Musical insruments: squeeze box, zither, violin, bell-tree.

      Description: The ensemble was created in 1953, its first leader was Aleksandrs Vasiļevskis. A first serious appearance took place in 1954 in Preili on the Songs festival. In 1955 ensemble already sings in Riga - in Theatre of Opera and Ballet, but in 1956 - in Moscow it participates in Latvian cultural decade on Exhibition of National Economic Achievement.
    Since 1966 the ensemble is managed by Jānis Teilāns.
    We have taken part at many concerts in Riga and in the whole Latvia, but most of all, of course, in Latgalia itself. Some our productions have been recorded by Latvian television. The ensemble has participated in all the Baltica festivals which have taken place in Latvia. In 1989 we participated in the All-Union folk arts holiday in Ostrogi (Ukraine).
    At present in repertoir of ensemble there are about 200 songs and roundelays. All of them were sung in the nearest vicinities and were kept from generation to generation. Most of all we know household and ritual songs - wedding, joint working, workers, soldier's and games songs.
    From the beginning ensemble was identified as the ensemble of the local Zhdanov collective farm, then - the ensemble of the Sauna parish. We have decided it necessary to think up a beautiful name. And we have thought it up - Naktineica, in Latgalian - a cornflower. And our shawls are in cornflower colour.
    Recently we have celebrated our 45'th anniversary, but with each year we become younger and younger - many Priekuli schoolchildren join us, and our adult participants bring their own children and grandsons together with them.

40'th anniversary of ensemble, 1993

      Sound sample: Arit, brōļi, popiveitis (Plow, brothers, fallows) (1986)
One couplet in AU format (405 Kb)
Full song in MP3 format (521 Kb)

      Address:
          in Latvian: Ināra Dzene, Zaļā 16, Preiļi, LV-5301, Latvija
          in English: Inara Dzene, Zala 16, Preili, LV-5301, Latvia
      Phone: (+371) 53-24486

      Date of presenting the information: 20 August 1998