Folklore group
Patmalnieki

      Name: Patmalnieki
          meaning: millers (on a water mill)
          recommended transcription in English: Patmalnieki
          approximate pronunciation in English: Patmalnieki
          Listen pronunciation in AU format (16 Kb)

      Created: 1992
      Location: Riga
      Leader: Aivars Zariņš
      Number of participants: 4, of them by age:
          from 14 to 24 years: 1
          from 25 to 44 years: 3
      and by gender:
          males: 2
          females: 2
      Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance, play roundelays
      Musical insruments: kokle (psaltery), pipe, blockflute, violin, perkusy.

Symbolism:     Patmalnieki sign.

      Description: The group has 4 participants; all sing, dance and play. We work at the Riga Latvian society already more than 6 years, from the very day of returning of the house to the society. Regularly we participate in town actions, and also in folklore festivals Baltica and Pulkā eimu, pulkā teku. We have participated in the Fribourg festival (Switzerland) and played on the Baltic Arts festival in London (England).
    We perform Latvian folk songs, dances and instrumental music. In our repertoir there are calendar, household, mithological, labour songs from various regions of Latvia.
    We act in costumes of different areas of Latvia whence we come. In the essence we are an urban ensemble, and, as against the country-side ensembles, we should be more open to external influences and not to adhere to ethnographic traditions so strongly.
    Our name we found 2 years later, at the beginning we were identified simply as the group of RLS. Once, travelling on Latgalia, we were marching by a road and spoke that is was necessary to think up a name. Suddenly on curb we saw a tablet with the name of a farm: "Patmalnieki". We liked it - and took it as our own.
    Meaning of this word is - millers. We "grind" our ancient traditions and put them to the use of the modern society.

      Address:
          in Latvian: Aivars Zariņš, Saules 40-11, Madona, LV-4801, Latvija
          in English: Aivars Zarins, Saules 40-11, Madona, LV-4801, Latvia
      Phone: (+371) 48-22482
      E-mail: azarins_N@N_lanet.lv

      Date of presenting the information: 27 August 1998