This year the first volume of the academic folksong text edition "Latviesu tautasdziesmas" came out of print. The work was started many years earlier, in 1950's when nearly twenty typists retyped the archive collections of song texts in order to prepare them for use in such an edition. This is the second folksong text edition in the post-war period, the largest, as the previous was just a selection. By Krisjanis Barons 150th anniversary in 1985 five volumes in six tomes were published (Volume V 2 contains not only songs, but also the collector indices of both Barons LD and the collections used for this edition).

The edition is expected to have 15 volumes in total, still as the number of texts to be published well exceeds one million, it is difficult to foresee exactly how many volumes there will be. This edition is abundantly illustrated by Dainis Rozkalns. Due to ideological issues the edition initially had to be organised differently from Barons'volumes. Though the currently prepared volumes take into account the Barons' system.

After Latvia regained its independence, lack of sufficient funding has made publishing of scholarly books complicated. By now three more volumes have come out of print (the most recent - Volume VIII - accompanied by a music CD), the next volume is being prepared. LFK must thank Kulturkapitala fonds for funding this work. But the work itself is very much the same as in Barons' time - arranging of texts typed on small sheets of paper into boxes, then writing a manuscript. Unlike the case of "Latvju Dainas" this is done by several people.


Editor Elga Melne proofreading Volume VIII (October 2003)