Saucejas

The traditional singing group of the Latvian Academy of Culture “Saucējas” was established in 2003 in Riga, Latvia.

Members of the group are united by a common goal - to learn and promote styles and techniques of Latvian ethnographic singing, with special emphasis on local polyphonic singing traditions from Kurzeme (south), Selonia (south-east) and Latgale (east).

Group’s repertoire holds examples of both archaic drone singing and various other forms of polyphonic singing of more recent times. Other factors that influence the choice of repertoire are related to availability of archival audio recordings of traditional singing, and personal contact with singers – the carriers of tradition - during research in the field. 

In order to gain more comprehensive idea about the musical material, members of the group are also interested in the functional contexts of songs, the terminology used to refer to singing, the individual experiences of particular singers, language dialects etc.