VOLUME X

Jonas Basanavičius Folklore Library, Vol. 10

Folksongs from Ožkabaliai, book 2. Collected by Jonas Basanavičius.
Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, 1998

The second book of Folksongs from Ožkabaliai contains folksongs 215–420 from the collection edited by Basanavičius and afterwards split into two parts by the publisher, as well as melodies of the songs, somewhat later recorded by Jurgis Narjauskas.
The book starts with an introductory article by Leonardas Sauka “Collectors of Songs from Ožkabaliai”. Here, a general description of the cultural atmosphere in the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries is presented: from all the various local folksong collections, those edited by Juška brothers and by Jonas Basanavičius distinctly stand out, surprising the readers by the folksong treasuries presented in them. Sauka surveys factors that encouraged Basanavičius to start compiling such a large-scale folksong collection and appreciates the merits of his co-workers and assistants that have significantly contributed to this work. Almost a quarter of the total number of songs published in both books of Folksongs from Ožkabaliai, i.e. as many as 97, have been personally recorded by the editor. He collected folksongs in 1865–1874, while still at the gymnasium, and started publishing them in periodicals in 1880. This publication also contains 138 folksongs recorded by Vincas Basanavičius in 1899. Along with them, the most prominent folk singers are listed. The biggest amount of texts (182) has been recorded by an official Vincas Vaičaitis, who happened to communicate with the famous ethnographer Eduard Volter. The wedding songs that he collected are particularly valuable. Many of them are supplied with references indicating the circumstances of their performance. Narjauskas started recording the melodies of folksongs, when an idea (unfortunately, unfulfilled) was raised of making a new edition of Folksongs from Ožkabaliai and publishing them together with their melodies. He recorded 98 melodies from Magdė Galeckienė, 31 melodies from Magdė Besaspariūtė, 27 melodies from Vincas Basanavičius, while 21 melodies he knew himself, and therefore recorded them “from himself”.
The tenth volume of Jonas Basanavičius Folklore Library was edited by Kostas Aleksynas and Leonardas Sauka. Melodies were edited and the principles of their editing in both books were defined by Eligija Garšvienė. Aspects of textual editing were discussed by Kostas Aleksynas, the author of the commentaries and the compiler of indices is Leonardas Sauka. Vocabulary was compiled by Vitas Agurkis.