This fall, the 17th International Singing Poetry Festival "Tai - I" attracts many fans of this genre and new listeners who willingly participate in the event to spend meaningful and cozy autumn evenings.
The organizers of the festival assure that during the entire period of existence of the legendary event, the concert structure of the program has not changed and only the listeners themselves have to decide whether this is a good sign or whether, nevertheless, changes should be made.
"The festival itself has expanded considerably during the entire period of its organization. From today's perspective, not only the event itself, but also the genre of sung poetry, many things have already been tested by time and life, so today we can compare national sung poetry in a wider European context," said Lina Užkuraitytė, project manager of the "Tai - aš" festival.
The idea originated in the Vilnius teachers' home
"My colleagues told me that since 2001 Permanent concerts of singing poetry were held twice a month in the Vilnius teachers' home on the website. Actor Gediminas Storpiristis was the first to appear at the concerts, so it was clear that the beginnings of the genre had already existed before," recalled L. Užkuraitytė.
Since all other genres had their own international festivals, and sung poetry was the only one distinguished by its nationality and its kind of closedness, its attachment to the East, especially Russia, it was considered that the Lithuanian listener has no idea whether this genre can sound in languages other than Lithuanian or Russian.
"Polish bards were also somewhat familiar to the listeners, who inspired Lithuanian creators, and an international event was really lacking, and the Vilnius teachers' house became a kind of bard house, so we wanted to join them with performers of this genre from other countries" - said the interviewee, assuring that it is natural that the organizers of the festival wondered why this genre cannot have an international festival in Lithuania.
Vytautas Kernagis is the godfather of the festival
"The pioneer of the genre of singing poetry is Vytautas Kernagis, whose initiative since 1978 and the genre itself acquired the name of singing poetry. Vytautas Kernagis himself proposed to give the festival the name "Tai - aš" - words from one of his songs", recalled L. Užkuraitytė.
This name corresponds to the camaraderie of the genre, the listener's relationship with the performer himself and the piece being performed. The first festival started with a discussion about the resurgence of bard music, its metamorphoses and its place on the cultural map of that era.
According to the interviewer, all the fans of Vytautas Kernagis talked about it, and the organizers of this festival also talked about it publicly. Huge support was felt, we managed to find like-minded people from other countries. The organizers aimed to show everyone the diversity, possibilities of the genre and international differences.
The variety of genres shows the uniqueness
According to L. Užkuraitytė, Lithuanian poetry can accommodate everything - jazz, rock, blues, folklore, even various integrations of electronic music. Most often, foreign music brings a different sound to the sung poetry, for example, American or Balkan motifs, fado stylistics.
The head of the project assures that all these features only show that Lithuanian sung poetry is different - diverse, open to searches, experiments and discoveries. "Those who have a more conservative view of this genre expect to see a Lithuanian bard with a guitar, but that is no longer the case," thinks L. Užkuraitytė.
This year, the festival was opened by the group "Baltos varnos", which presented a program with a string quartet. At the closing concert, the songs of Vytautas Kernagis, the godfather of the festival, sounded different - they were performed by Aidas Giniotis and the band "Pliumbum".
The goal is to spread the genre in different communities
Creative people always want to get together, share experiences with the younger generation, and young developers want to grow, create, play and receive support. "Wherever the crews of our joint concert "bardamobiles" go, they are greeted by full halls of concerts and other additional festival events. People are longing for meaningful texts, the depth of words and melodious harmonies and are looking for like-minded people and what is in our nature", shared the thoughts of the project manager of the Tai - aš festival.
Many representatives of different cultures participate in the Song Poetry Festival, who perform their texts in their native language. "We are often asked if the audience understands everything about how to welcome foreigners. However, the text is the most important thing for the song poetry genre. Today, we boldly say that foreigners are perfectly understood and madly, like their own bards, loved, and I think the listeners who attended the concerts would boldly confirm that," the interviewer thinks.
Modern technologies also make it possible to translate foreign texts and present translations to viewers. This year, one was already organized concert with video projections in Biršton, in cooperation with Estonian partners "Nordic Baltic Songwriters Summit". Their mission is to encourage authors to perform songs in their native language, and this year it was proven that video projections and the ability to translate the lyrics in the subtitles erase any language barriers.
L. Užkuraitytė did not hide that when looking at the audience, at all the people who meet both on the stage and in the hall, it seems that the same faces are always visible - but not physically the same, but of the same serenity, charm and zing. "Such an audience always needs different music, different singing and a different cultural state, so as long as we see those burning and thirsty eyes, the festival "This is me" will live on," the festival project manager saw.
