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Baltic Psaltery
Baltic psaltery is a family of related plucked box zithers, psalteries, historically found in the southeast vicinity of the Baltic Sea and played by the Baltic people, Baltic Finns, Volga Finns and northwestern Russians. Types Baltic psalteries include: * Kanklės (Lithuania) * Kantele (Finland, Karelia and Northwest Russia) * Kannel (Estonia) * Kāndla (Livonian people of Northwest Latvia) * Kokles (Latvia) * Krez (Udmurt people of Central Russia) * Krylovidnye gusli (Northwest Russia) * Kusle (Mari people of Central Russia) * Harpu (Sápmi) The internationally most known instrument of the family is Finnish kantele, so its name is sometimes used in English to also refer to other Baltic psalteries as well. Many of the Baltic psalteries hold a strong symbolic significance in their respective countries, including Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia, where playing instruction and instrument makers are available. Etymology According to Finnish linguist Eino Niem ...
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Kanklės
Kanklės () is a Lithuanians, Lithuanian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic region, Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery, along with the Latvian kokles, Estonian kannel (music), kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian gusli. Etymology According to Finnish linguist Eino Nieminen, the name of the instrument, along with the names of most of its neighbouring counterparts (Latvian ''kokles'', Finnish ''kantele'', Estonian ''kannel'' and Livonian ''kāndla''), possibly comes from the proto-Baltic form ''*kantlīs''/''*kantlēs'', which originally meant 'the singing tree', most likely deriving from the Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European root ''*qan-'' ('to sing, to sound'; cf. Latin "canto, cantus, canticum", Italian "cantare", French "chanter", English "chant, cantor"). A Lithuanian ethnologist Romualdas Apanavičius believes ''Kanklės'' could be derived from the Proto-European root ''*gan(dh)-'', meaning 'a vessel; a haft ...
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Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland across Estonia to the south. Finland covers an area of with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city, forming a larger metropolitan area with the neighbouring cities of Espoo, Kauniainen, and Vantaa. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish, alongside Swedish, are the official languages. Swedish is the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to the boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes. Finland was first inhabited around 9000 BC after the Last Glacial Period. The Stone Age introduced several differ ...
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Mari People
The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with significant populations in the Bashkortostan and Tatarstan republics. In the past, the Mari have also been known as the Cheremisa or the Cheremis people in Russian and the Çirmeş in Tatar. Name The ethnic name ''mari'' derives from the Proto-Indo-Iranian root *''márya''-, meaning 'human', literally 'mortal, one who has to die', which indicates early contacts between Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages. History Early history Some scholars have proposed that two tribes mentioned by the Gothic writer Jordanes in his ''Getica'' among the peoples in the realm of Gothic king Ermanaric in the fourth century CE can be equated with the Mari people. However, the identification of the ''Imniscaris'' (or ''Sremniscans'') with "Cheremis", and ''Merens'' with "Mari" i ...
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Kusle
Kusle ( Meadow Mari: ''кӱсле'', Northwestern Mari: ''кӹсле'' or ''кӹслӓ'') or karsh (Meadow and Northwestern Mari: ''кӓрш'') is a Mari plucked string instrument (chordophone). It has 12-20 strings and is shaped like a semi-circle. The instrument is played in the lap, with both hands, and was played on some occasions such as ritual sacrifices, and to accompany dancing. Kusle is described as resembling the Russian gusli or the Finnish kantele. Organologist Anthony Baines noted in 1969, regarding the medieval Russian gusli ''Gusli'' ( rus, гусли, p=ˈɡuslʲɪ) is the oldest East Slavic multi-string plucked instrument, belonging to the zither family, due to its strings being parallel to its resonance board. Its roots lie in Veliky Novgorod in Novgorodian Ru ...: ''...and the instrument has latterly been revived, notably in the Mari province by the Volga''. See also * Mari music * Krez References Baltic psaltery Mari musical instruments ...
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Krylovidnye Gusli
''Gusli'' ( rus, гусли, p=ˈɡuslʲɪ) is the oldest East Slavic multi-string plucked instrument, belonging to the zither family, due to its strings being parallel to its resonance board. Its roots lie in Veliky Novgorod in Novgorodian Rus'. It may have a connection to the Byzantine form of the Greek kithara, which in turn derived from the ancient lyre, or might have been imported from Western and Central Europe during the Middle Ages, when the zither had immense popularity. It has its relatives in Europe and throughout the world: kantele in Finland, kannel in Estonia, kanklės in Lithuania, kokles in Latvia, Zither in Germany, citera in the Czech Republic, psalterium in France and so on... Furthermore, the kanun has been found in Arabic countries, and the autoharp, in the United States. It is also related to such ancient instruments as Chinese gu zheng, which has a thousand-year history, and its Japanese relative koto. A stringed musical instrument called is listed a ...
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Central Russia
Central Russia is, broadly, the various areas in European Russia. Historically, the area of Central Russia varied based on the purpose for which it is being used. It may, for example, refer to European Russia (except the North Caucasus and Kalinigrad). The 1967 book by Stephen P. Dunn and Ethel Dunn ''The Peasants of Central Russia'' defines the area as the territory from Novgorod Oblast to the north to the border with Ukraine in the south and from Smolensk Oblast to the west and Volga to the east. A review of the book clarifies that this concept is treated in the book as the historical and ethnographical one: this is the historical area of Great Russians.L. A. Anokhina, V. Iu. Krupianskaia, M. N. Shmeleva (translated by Stephen P. Dunn and Ethel Dunn), "On the Study of the Russian Peasantry", ''Current Anthropology'', ''Current Anthropology'', Vol. 14, No. 1/2 (Feb. - Apr., 1973), pp. 143-157, See also * Central Agricultural Zone (Russia) * Central Economic Region o ...
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Udmurt People
The Udmurts ( udm, Удмуртъёс, ) are a Permian ( Finnic) ethnic group in Eastern Europe, who speak the Udmurt language. In the course of history, Russian-speakers have referred to them as ' (), Otyaks, Wotyaks or Votyaks. Etymology The name ''Udmurt'' comes from * 'meadow people,' where the first part represents the Permic root * 'meadow, glade, turf, greenery', and the second part, ''murt'' means 'person' (cf. Komi , Mari ), probably an early borrowing from an Iranian language The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ... (such as Scythian languages, Scythian): * or * 'person, man' (cf. Persian ), which is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan term * 'man', literally 'mortal, one who is bound to die' (< Proto-Indo-European, PIE 'to ...
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Krez (instrument)
Krez ( Udmurt and Russian: крезь) is an Udmurt string instrument (chordophone) similar to the Russian gusli. The mythical origin of the krez is detailed in the Udmurt national epic, the Dokjavyl. The krez was used to accompany some shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...ic ritual dances, and the large krez (''быдӟым крезь'') was used for music during the holiday of ''Bulda''. See also * Kusle References Baltic psaltery Udmurt musical instruments {{Zither-instrument-stub ...
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Kokles
Kokle (; ltg, kūkle) or historically kokles (''kūkles'') is a Latvian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Lithuanian kanklės, Estonian kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian krylovidnye gusli. The first possible kokles related archaeological findings in the territory of modern Latvia are from the 13th century, while the first reliable written information about kokles playing comes from the beginning of the 17th century. The first known kokles tune was notated in 1891, but the first kokles recordings into gramophone records and movies were made in 1930s. Both kokles and kokles playing are included in the Latvian Culture Canon. Etymology According to Finnish linguist Eino Nieminen, the name of the instrument, along with the names of most of its neighbouring counterparts (Lithuanian ''kanklės'', Finnish ''kantele'', Estonian ''kannel'' and Livonian ''kāndla''), possibly comes from the p ...
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Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of , with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts; and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population. After centuries of Teutonic, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian and Russian rule, which was mainly executed by the local Baltic German aristocracy, the independent R ...
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Livonian People
The Livonians, or Livs ( Livonian: ''līvlizt''; Estonian: ''liivlased''; Latvian: ''līvi'', ''lībieši''), are a Balto-Finnic people indigenous to northern and northwestern Latvia. Livonians historically spoke Livonian, a Uralic language closely related to Estonian and related to Finnish. The last person to have learned and spoken Livonian as a mother tongue, Grizelda Kristiņa, died in 2013, making Livonian a dormant language. As of 2010, there were approximately 30 people who had learned it as a second language. Historical, social and economic factors, together with an ethnically dispersed population, have resulted in the decline of the Livonian population, with only a small group surviving in the 21st century. In 2011, there were 250 people who claimed Livonian ethnicity in Latvia. History Prehistory The exact date of migration of Livonians to the region has been disputed. "The Livonians claim to have inhabited their present homeland for over 5,000 years." "The Finni ...
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Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of . The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia; it is the first language of the majority of its population, as well as the world's second most spoken Finnic language. The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by '' Homo sapiens'' since at least 9,000 BC. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last " pagan" civilisations in Europe to adopt Ch ...
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