LIETUVIŲ LITERATŪROS
IR TAUTOSAKOS
INSTITUTAS
LLTI
Lithuanian Folk Music Phonogram Collection

The collection comprises the oldest documents kept in the Audio Collection of the Lithuanian Folklore Archives — recordings on phonograph cylinders  (LTRF v) and phonograph disks (LTRF pl).

The first part of the collection is made up of 117 phonograph cylinders which were recorded between 1908–1949. Eduard Wolter was the first member of the Lithuanian Science Society to start recording Lithuanian folk music. Using Edison’s phonograph, he recorded Lithuanian folk songs, and melodies played on multi-pipe whistles skudučiai and bagpipes from 1908–1909 in the eastern and southern regions of Lithuania as well as in a Lithuanian enclave that is now in Belarussian territory — Zietala. Up until today 113 of his recorded cylinders survived, and a large part of them are kept in the Berlin Phonogram Archive, while only 14 original cylinders are kept in the Audio Collection of the Lithuanian Folklore Archives. From 1909–1912 Jonas Basanavičius also used a phonograph to record folk songs, and today we have 22 of his cylinders, which contain 40 songs. After Basanavičius died, this effort was carried on by Matas Untulis. He recorded folk songs from Lyda, Švenčionys, the Vilnius-Trakai region (20 cylinders with 118 recordings, most often only the first verses of the songs were recorded). During World War II and its aftermath, Zenonas Slaviūnas and Juozas Jurga recorded songs onto cylinders.
Most of the collection consists of phonograph disks with Lithuanian folk melodies recorded from 1935–1949. Today 980 of these disks have survived, containing over 6,700 pieces. The Commission for Gathering Folk Melodies that existed from 1934–1935 in Kaunas, the temporary capital of independent Lithuania, bought a stationary phonograph and began recording folklore onto the disks. This activity was continued by the Lithuanian Folklore Archive (1935–1939), which would invite folk singers and musicians from all regions of Lithuania to the temporary capital for recording (Z. Slaviūnas was the archive staff member in charge of recording). Thus the polyphonic songs Sutartinės, on the verge of disappearance in rural Lithuania, were documented on phonograph disks, along with  traditions of polyphonic music-making with wooden trumpets ragai, and multi-pipe whistles skudučiai, as well as the voice of the patriarch of Lithuania Minor, Martynas Jankus, etc. Also recorded were calendar, work, youth, love, wedding, war-historical songs and songs of other genres as well as pieces performed on musical instruments: goathorn, flute (lamzdelis), reedpipe (birbynė), violin, Petersburg accordion, jaw-harp, dulcimer, and others.
In 2001, a program for the preservation and publication of archival sound recordings was launched at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. With support from Lithuania’s Ministry of Culture, the phonograph records were digitized (in charge of digitization was the LCVA specialist Vytautas Vizgintas), and a database for the registration of the digitized sound recordings was created (it can be found in Inventory documents). The best sound recordings representing the regional folklore of Suvalkija, Žemaitija, Aukštaitija and Dzūkija were selected, restored, and published over the course of 2003–2005 in a series of books with compact disks “1935–1941 Phonograph Recordings”. The phonograph cylinders were resurrected from oblivion in 2006 upon a visit from Vienna’s phonogram archive engineer and specialist of old sound recordings, Franz Lechleitner, to the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. He digitized 105 cylinders (340 pieces) with a phonogram machine of his own making. In 2007 the highest quality recordings were selected and restored and their transcriptions were published in the book “The Phonograms of Lithuanian Ethnographic Music (1908–1942)”.
From 2006–2010, as part of projects funded by the State Science and Studies Foundation and the Lithuanian Science Council, a Folklore sound recordings database was created to house the metadata of these digitized recordings, which are integrated into the strategic Lithuanian Folklore Archives database as well.

In 2008 the Lithuanian Folk Music Phonogram Collection (1908–1949), which is housed at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, was included in the UNESCO “Memory of the World” national register as an object of documentary heritage of regional significance (registration No. 28).
 
Signature Media number Unit number Title
LTRF pl 1363 10 Vai dienelės jūs laimingos More
LTRF pl 1363 11 Susibėgo dvi upelės More
LTRF pl 1364 1 Tu gegute, tu raiboji More
LTRF pl 1364 2 Kai aš užaugau dvylikos metelių More
LTRF pl 1364 3 Man jau nusibodo More
LTRF pl 1364 4 Turėj tėvas du sūneliu More
LTRF pl 1364 5 Mėlynos akys, raudonos lūpos More
LTRF pl 1364 6 Plaukia mano laivelis More
LTRF pl 1365 1 Kaip gaila praeitų dienelių More
LTRF pl 1365 2 Oi, tu pilkas balandėli More
LTRF pl 1365 3 Vai aš pjaunu rugelius More
LTRF pl 1365 4 Kas geria vyną, alų More
LTRF pl 1367 1 Oi kleve klevėli More
LTRF pl 1367 2 Oi kūliau kūliau More
LTRF pl 1367 3 Šią naktelę, per naktelę More
LTRF pl 1367 4 Žaliojoj lankelėj slauni kirtejeliai More
LTRF pl 1367 5 Žaliame gojely paukšteliai čiulbėjo More
LTRF pl 1367 6 Oi kūmai, susiedai, nebaidyk balundių More
LTRF pl 1367 7 Oi rūtele, oi žalioji More
LTRF pl 1367 8 Aukšti kalnai, tiesios pušys More
LTRF pl 1367 9 Augin tėvas du sūneliu More
LTRF pl 1367 10 Vai tu rugeli, vai tu žiemkentėli More
LTRF pl 1367 11 Aukšti kalneliai, margi dvareliai More
LTRF pl 1367 12 Lietelis lynoja, dvariškiai atjoja More
LTRF pl 1367 13 Turiu maistą menką More
LTRF pl 1368 2 Tylus vakaras pavasarelia More
LTRF pl 1368 3 Virš Paryžiaus lietus More
LTRF pl 1368 4 Mūs lietuvaitės darbščios mergaitės More
LTRF pl 1368 5 Liūdnos mano dienos More
LTRF pl 1368 6 Mergužėle, nesvajok More
LTRF pl 1368 7 Sėjau gėles į darželį More
LTRF pl 1368 8 Ant kalnelio, ant žalio More
LTRF pl 1368 10a Pučia vėjas vakarų More
LTRF pl 1368 10 Pučia vėjas vakarų More
LTRF pl 1368 11 Aš pasėjau ąžuolą More
LTRF pl 1369 1 Kaip yra linksmas pavasario laikas More
LTRF pl 1369 2 Išvažiavo bočius su boba More
LTRF pl 1369 3 Mano tėvas žvejys More
LTRF pl 1369 4 Trai rai rai susikuko dobilai More
LTRF pl 1369 5 Sėdi boba ant grindų More
LTRF pl 1369 6 Kaip aš šiandien nelaiminga More
LTRF pl 1369 7 Kaip šitas ratas yr platus More
LTRF pl 1369 8 Po ratelį vaikščiojau More
LTRF pl 1369 9 Po ratelį liūdna vaikščiojau More
LTRF pl 1369 10 Vaikščiojo seselės po rūtų darželį More
LTRF pl 1369 11 Vaikščiojo trys seselės More
LTRF pl 1369 12 Klevo šakos linko linko More
LTRF pl 1369 13 Linksmas pavasaris More
LTRF pl 1369 14 Mes vaikščiojom po sodelį More
LTRF pl 1370 1 Pirmų rytų bernelį More
LTRF pl 1370 2 Vai aš išeisiu More
LTRF pl 1370 3 Pavasarėlio trumpa naktelė More
LTRF pl 1370 4 Po girelį, po žalioj More
LTRF pl 1370 5 Oi ant kalno More
LTRF pl 1370 6 Oi ko smūtna More
LTRF pl 1370 7 Siuntė mane motulė More
LTRF pl 1371 1 Siuntė mane motulė More
LTRF pl 1371 2 Oi palei kelią, pakelėj More
LTRF pl 1371 3 Nujojau mylalį, sutikau More
LTRF pl 1372 1 Taisyk svirne patalą More
LTRF pl 1372 4 Motinėlė gailiai verkė More
LTRF pl 1372 5 Kai aš jojau pro bažnyčią More
LTRF pl 1372 6 Žaliavo liepelė More
LTRF pl 1372 7 Ganiau ožius More
LTRF pl 1373 1 Lėk, varnele, tik viena More
LTRF pl 1373 2 Augo žalia liepužėlė More
LTRF pl 1373 3 Užaugino jaunasis More