Folklore group
Vydsmuiža

Concert of folklore groups of the Preili district, 5 February 1997

      Name: Vydsmuiža
          meaning: toponym
          recommended transcription in English: Vydsmuiza
          approximate pronunciation in English: Vydsmuizha
          Listen pronunciation in AU format (19 Kb)

      Created: winter 1983
      Location: Galeni, Preili distr., Latgalia
      Leader: Anna Kupre
      Number of participants: 32, of them by age:
          younger than 14 years: 6
          from 14 to 24 years: 5
          from 25 to 44 years: 12
          from 45 to 64 years: 4
          older than 64 years: 5
      and by gender:
          males: 7
          females: 25
      Forms of activity: sing, play music, dance, play roundelays
      Musical instruments: violin, accordion, pipe, various pulsatile instruments.

      Description: During the 80ties contests of different sort were popular in our area, for instance Beauty for each farmstead, My house, my yard. After the competitions family evenings were carried out. At one of such evenings a competitions between tables in folk singing was arranged. Now, Jevgēnija Audare fancied that a folklore group could well be created. A female folklore ensemble had already worked at the club. On its basis a new folklore group under the management of Juris Teilāns was founded. Since 1990 the group is managed by Anna Kupre.
    From the beginning the group did not have a name; the main thing was simply to begin to sing songs of our area. Later, when we already sang better, the ensemble was given the name Maganeņis (Poppies), because every work it is better to begin to do not on Monday, but on Tuesday, and all the villagers know the song, in which wenches sowed on Tuesday poppies... Later, when we had begun to act in other areas of Latvia, we decided that the name should comprise the information from where we are and who we are. Therefore we renamed the group to Vydsmuiža - an old name of our village Galeni.
    The group has participated in all the arrangements in the collective farm: the holidays of cattle-farm workers, machine operators, of harvest, first furrow, beginning of sowing, reporting meetings etc. We have acted in Jelgava, Rezekne, Songs hill, Jasmuiza, Riga, participated in the Baltica festival in 1991, 1994, 1997.
    In our repertoir basicaly there are songs which senior women or their parents have sung in their youth. We sing about work (shepherd's, plowman's), about fatherland, sing household songs, and we posess lots of wedding songs. We also play roundelays. Of course, we perform also songs from other regions of Latvia.

Concert Vilani-500 in Vilani stadium, 12 August 1995

      Sound sample: Tymsā mani tautas veda (In darkness me suitor drive) (1998)
One couplet in AU format (330 Kb)
Full song in MP3 format (684 Kb)

      Address:
          in Latvian: Anna Kupre, Liepu 18a, Galēni, Preiļu raj., LV-5311, Latvija
          in English: Anna Kupre, Liepu 18a, Galeni, Preili distr., LV-5311, Latvia
      Phone: (+371) 53-14253

      Date of presenting the information: 20 August 1998