Folklore band
Maskačkas spēlmaņi

Riga, 30 December 2000

      Name: Maskačkas spēlmaņi
          meaning: Maskachka's musicians
          recommended transcription in English: Maskackas spelmani
          approximate pronunciation in English: Maskachkas speelmangi
          Listen pronunciation in AU format (36 Kb)

      Created: 14 September 1995
      Location: Riga
      Leader: Ansis Ataols Bērziņš
      Number of participants: 6, of them by age:
          from 14 to 24 years: 3
          from 24 to 44 years: 3
      and by gender:
          males: 3
          females: 3
      Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance
      Musical insruments: squeeze boxes (ievina, petrogradka, hromka, bayan), violin, bass (cello), kokle (psaltery), zither (manual, accord), bagpipe, drum, timbrel, rattle stick, triangle, clappers, pipes (pipe, reed).

      Description: Maskachka is a part of Riga, just to the East side from the Central bazaar, on the bank of the biggest river of Latvia - Daugava. It is a place of our meetings, that's why we call ourselves Maskackas spelmani - Maskachka's musicians.
    We play and sing together from September 1995.
    In our repertoire, there are original songs from different parts of Latvia, accompanied by various instruments (psaltery, harmonica, bag-pipe, violin, drums and others), and, of course, dances.
    Generally we play in ethnographical manner, we try to play like country musicians of Latvia have been playing more than hundred years ago.
    We have taken part in many concerts in Latvia and also international folklore festivals Pulkā eimu, pulkā teku (Riga, Latvia, 1996), Skamba, skamba kankliai (Vilnius, Lithuania, 1996), Baltica (Riga, Latvia, 1997), Ēāiķ˙öü öūģįąėū i ćąšģīķiź (Pastavy, Belorussia, 1998), Jalkala (Leningrad distr., Russia, 1998), Myjava folklore festival (Myjava, Slovakia, 2000), Baltica (Riga, Latvia, 2000), Griežyne (Vilnius, Lithuania, 2000), Contemporary folk music festival (Riga, Latvia, 2000), Festival of Baltic folklore (Panevežys, Lithuania, 2000). .

Festival Baltica concert on Tanisa hill in Rauna, 8 Jule 2000

      Sound sample: Trīs putan dižan dzied (Three birds sings famuosly) (2000)
One couplet in AU format (540 Kb)
Full song in MP3 format (429 Kb)

      Address:
          in Latvian: Ansis Ataols Bērziņš, Maskavas 54, Rīga, LV-1003, Latvija
          in English: Ansis Ataols Berzins, Maskavas 54, Riga, LV-1003, Latvia
      Phone: (+371) 7210428
      Facsimile/answer machine: (+371) 7210128
      E-mail: maskacka_N@N_folklora.lt
      Home page: http://maskacka.folklora.lt/

      Date of presenting the information: 20 March 1999, 2 January 2001