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Rasa, who drags a double bass, and Dainius, a busy clarinetist, are the wife and husband of Jovita, who is sitting in a chair with an accordion in her arms, an “aunt of the family.” Rasa and Dainius Buikai’s sons – Saulė, Dovydas and Ramunė – immediately join the trio. We would discover many family ensembles, but have you ever heard actual Jewish plays performed by Lithuanian lips and hands?
The story of such a meeting is worth mentioning: after the concert, with a smile on her face, her mother Rasa and the sun playing the violin share their story.
Klezmer Klangen – literally from Yiddish – “voices of musicians”. Accordionist Jovita, as Rasa calls her, “aunt of the family”, was the stranger of the band. called the pioneer of his training. It was she who had worked in a Jewish school for twenty years and invited Dainiai to play in the gymnasium. She also shared her first knowledge of Jewish music.
But above all, at the beginning.
Initially, the family played three
Until the knowledge of Jewish music, the classics sounded in the Buikai house. Even before joining the ensemble, they tried their luck at a family festival in Kaunas, when the youngest member of the family was only seven months old. “It just came to our knowledge then. Of course, a lot of work, we don’t listen to each other, after all, we are a family,” smiles Rasa.
At that time, the performances took place in a home environment, the family played a wide range of repertoire and discovered Jewish music only when the husband was invited to play. In the Vilnius Jewish ensemble Šolomas Aleichem ORT gymnasium. Rasa, who had not listened to Jewish music before, was amazed at its beauty: “The man came to rehearse at home, she played the clarinet, so I asked her, what music is there here? It is really beautiful. “
Photo by Kristina Kryžienė / “Klezmer Klangen” Family Set
The first family contact with Jewish music took place in 2014, when eleven-year-old Saule had to quickly learn the violin part (change violinist in the ensemble – aut.) To go to a festival in Poland with an ensemble of gym where his father played.
Even so, Rasa says that it is possible to learn a melody very quickly, but the way of cutting was then childish and Lithuanian: “You can only catch it growing up in that environment, so it was more difficult for us to do it.”
It is true that the Sun now has many achievements and appreciations not only as a representative of the classical violin school. Professionals of Jewish music consider her “particularly well versed in Jewish manners.” The sun turns constantly not only klezmer style music, but also the professional work of Jewish composers at various scientific events.
After a while, the whole gym disintegrated, but the family decided not to abandon the matter after the consultation. “I realized that there is not a great offer of that kind of music in Lithuania, and the thing is really beautiful ”, says Rasa about the circumstances of the meeting.
As a pianist, he realized that the piano would not go everywhere, so he played the drum in company.
Not only musicians join the ensemble
The ensemble, which started with three people, developed rapidly: his son David, although not a musician, but a good athlete and mathematician, also joined in the family’s leisure activities. “You won’t say … David, sit here and we go. You need to join the family in some way,” smiles the interviewee.
Photo by K. Savickytė Rasa’s husband, Dainius, a clarinet teacher.
Ramunė, the youngest member of the family, showed his love for music to his parents when he was three years old: “There was a rehearsal, so I was sitting somewhere far away. The man invited her to sit between us, we gave each other a toy violin and … She imitated playing for two hours ”, the woman recalls her daughter’s first musical touches. The girl, who learned songs by listening, was recorded by her parents in the singing department of the music school, where she is studying for the third year.
Although her mother, Rasa, is a professional pianist, she took a double bass in her hands at the Days of Jewish Culture concert where we met; the choice of this instrument was determined by the violin dominated by the Sun.
“When a child learns to play an instrument, you cannot let him learn by himself, you must help him and teach him to learn, that’s why I studied together. I understood how the string system works and I thought it would be necessary to replace the piano, which is very difficult to to find them in concert halls, for something else. Besides, the piano is not an authentic instrument for that kind of music, so it was not difficult to change it, “he recalls.
Photo by K. Savickytė / Rasa raises his hand: he wants to draw the attention of all the musicians before the completion of the work.
For the family, music alone was not enough
With the beginning of playing Jewish music and singing in Yiddish, the field of interest also naturally shifted to Jewish culture. Rasa recalls that in the past almost all connections with Jews were just jokes, her daughter Saul negot is secondary: knowledge about Jews is hardly received in schools.
“We started to dig deep, our eyes were opened – Lithuania was completely different than I imagined,” says the head of the Rasa ensemble. According to her, the Jewish culture in Lithuania was excellent, but with the beginning of the massive repression against the Jews: Nazi physics and Soviet culture – that culture was eradicated.
“Therefore, we dedicate our free time to that invisible work under water: we are looking for historical works of Jewish music. For a time we were interested and looking for the beautiful. Still, we returned to the search for authentic songs and music that were performed here in Lithuania, ”Rasa describes in her spare time.
The search for such historical archives is complicated by the changed and extinct generations of Jews, which makes it really difficult to find living examples. The woman regrets that the musical heritage of the Litvaks is not stored in a separate archive.
Photo of Kristina Kryžienė Family playing Jewish music
“You can also see that the Jewish cultural heritage of certain areas of Ukraine or part of Poland has been included in the list, it has not disappeared and there are no litvaks,” he says.
The searches, according to Rasa, are carried out through books and electronic files, but it is not that simple either: you have to constantly compare them with other works to see if the work is really from that region.
Music interests people who value culture
The concert family says they have a lot: historic holidays and anniversaries, scientific events. And the team itself is exceptional. “We try not only to perform plays, but also to perform songs in the Litvak way – this is especially interesting for people who appreciate culture and look for what’s left of it,” he says.
While researching litvak music, Rasa realizes that the differences between her and, say, the music created by Jews living in the Balkans are obvious and relate to the Jewish way of life: It’s a completely different way, we treat to keep it, “he says.
The music of different regions differs in rhythm and melody, the music of the Balkans, according to the eldest daughter, Saulė, is more fiery, temperamental and Litvaks is normal for our ears.
Naturally deepening her activities, Rasa also had to delve into the Yiddish language, which she studied in the courses and can now read Yiddish texts written in the original language.
Photo by K.Savickytė / “Aunt of the family” Jovita. It was from this that the family’s interest in Jewish culture began.
The family also initiates and conducts educational activities that promote Jewish culture and history in educational institutions in the country. This promotes knowledge of the country’s history and tolerance towards those around it.
Rehearsals – work, after concerts – joy
Rasa jokes that rehearsals don’t always go smoothly. “It was especially difficult at first because everyone in the family needed to understand that it was a job. Sometimes you can’t listen to your parents or respond, but you also need to do things to make the rehearsal productive. “
Photo by K. Savickytė. Little musicians: Ramune and David
The interviewee admits that this attitude is not yet the same as at work and among strangers, but the common goal and the desire to see the world in concert do not allow this family activity to be abandoned.
The violinist Saulė opens: it is not difficult to see his mother as a leader of a band or teacher, but even so he does not always agree with his mother’s comments: “Mom is a leader; others can express their opinion, but they will be the most important. Dad probably always agrees with her. But later the habit, when you rehearse more, just accept it. “
However, when asked if it would be better if everyone were strangers on the team, both Rasa and Saulė reply synchronously: It is better to be a family.
Photo by Regina Pečiulytė / “Klezmer Klangen” family complex
“You work a bit, but then after the concerts, you embrace inner joy. And we are all going to rejoice together, it’s not that your family is somewhere in the house, and you spend time with strangers, ”Rasa opens.
The woman believes that these activities bring the family together: “Sometimes I wonder how our appreciation of what we do has changed. Now we all have a goal in the family: to be together and spiritually enriched by knowing and spreading the culture and history of another nation. “
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