Music connects many things – including countries. This is undoubtedly true also for Latvia and Germany, and was impressively demonstrated at the Deutsch.koris concert during the recent German Language Month in Latvia.
Language and music are closely tied in singing. Choirs are thus not only a great way for children of all ages to cultivate and grow their musical talents, but also for learning foreign languages. This is not only confirmed by academic research, but also has recently been proved also in real life at the Deutsch.koris concert in atrium of the University of Latvia’s House of Science. Under the motto “many voices, one language” over 200 young people and German learners from all over Latvia formed a German-singing choir that performed a varied program of German and Latvian songs.
The trailblaizing hour-and-a-half concert was the highlight of April’s German Language Month in Latvia – a joint initiative of three German-speaking countries to encourage more people in Latvia to learn and understand the language of Goethe and Schiller. Taking part were singing ensembles from eight schools in Riga, Ventspils, Talsi, Kekava and Daugavpils that have learned the songs by heart and combined their voices – with the youngest singers even being only second graders.
Among the spectators in the audience along parents, teachers and others were also the ambassadors of Germany, Austria and Switzerland – the countries behind the language initiative. Enjoying the power of song and the performance of the combined choir, the three envoys were full of praise for the young singers and almost outdid each other with their expressions of gratitude for the Latvian singing wholeheartedly together tunes in German.
“I am very impressed. It was fantastic. I do not know how you managed to learn so much German and convey it so wonderfully. It was truly amazing,“ German ambassador Gudrun Masloch told the children, praising their engagement and motivation not only to learn but also to sing in German – a language that is notorious for its grammar, syntax and compound word constructions.
“I must confess: I am also learning Latvian, but I am nowhere near as good as you. And I cannot hold a note either. But I still sang along. And that is a huge compliment to all of you. Because I very rarely do that“, Masloch said in her speech after the concert, adding full of joy that she is very happy about the increased interest in Latvia in the German language – the most spoken native language within the EU.
Photo: German embassy in Latvia
Deutsch.koris concert during German Language Month in Latvia
Despite the linguistic challenges involved in learning German, the language has gained new popularity in Latvia and is on the rise again – even though English and Russian are still the most spoken foreign language in the country. But Latvian schools are legally obliged to stop teaching Russian as a second foreign language starting from the school year 2026/2027 and surveys show that German is the most popular choice at educational institutions to replace it.
This tendency was confirmed also by the director of the Riga State German Gynasium, Gundega Muceniece. Since the decision was to phase out Russian as a second foreign language, the number of German learning students in Latvia has almost doubled from to 27,000 in 2022 to now 53,000, she told Latvian Television during the final rehearsal for the Deutsch.koris in St. Peter’s Church.
The German language month, run by the three embassies in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut in Riga and several other partners, wants to add to this momentum and bring Latvians closer to German language. Organised for third year in a row, a wide range of events was offered throughout April in Latvia to anyone interested in learning German or more about the culture of German-speaking countries – with the Deutsch.koris being the highlight and culmination of the activities.
Some of the young singers went even further and performed a song in Swiss-German – a unique and peculiar language variation from the German-speaking part of Switzerland. “Who would have thought that we would ever hear the song W. Nuss von Bümpliz in Latvia!“, Swiss ambassador Anja Zobrist Rentenaar said visible impressed and excited about the resounding recital of a famous Swiss song in Bernese dialect by two students of the Ķekava Secondary School.
“That was phenomenally good. I could not have sung it better myself“, Rentenaar cheered about the performance of the song in her mother tongue released in 1997 by the Swiss rock band Patent Ochsner, but wholeheartedly commended also the other musical presentations in German. “This concert impressively demonstrated that language can not only be learned, but above all experienced also with heart, voice and great meaning“, the Swiss envoy said.
Joining in the praise was also the third ambassador present at the event. “Congratulations on this moving concert. I really got goose bumps quite a few times“, Austrian envoy Bernadette Klösch told the singers, while emphasizing the diversity of the German language and paying special tribute to the performance of “Ich war noch niemals in New York“ [I have never been to New York]. The song has been one of the biggest hits of Austrian pop music titan Udo Jürgens (1934-2014), with whom “me and many of us here grew up“, as the ambassador revealed in front of the singer and the audience.
Jürgens is considered one of the brightest music stars in German-speaking countries. The late Austrian singer-songwriter composed several hundreds songs and sold over 100 million records over the course of his more than 50 years long career. Many of them have become what Germans call an Ohrwurm – a song that you just will not get out of your head once you hear it. One of his earliest and biggest hits was “Merci, Chérie“, with which Jürgens in 1966 won the Eurovision song contest – then still known as the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne and much more about music than show. Unlike today.
Sing and sway to ‘Šlāgeris’
Along with other German singing artists, Jürgens has also been widely credited with revitalizing and advancing the ever-popular schlager music. His compositions and arrangements have moved the music genre beyond its traditional meaning and style of light music that typically features sentimental-romantic themes, memorable melodies and easy singable refrains with a catchy instrumental accompaniment. The lyrics are typically about love, relationships and feelings.
Known in Latvian as Šlāgermūzika or Šlāgeris, this kind of easy-going sing-along music has attracted also many followers and fans of all ages in Latvia. Yet for many German speakers it is not only the name that reminds them immediately of their favourite schlager music – also the melodies of quite a few Latvian pop and folk song feel very familiar on first listen and make them often want to sing and sway along right away to the feel-good tunes that usually capture both hearts and ears.
The musical similarities are also acknowledged and highlighted by Latvian music experts. “This tradition is characteristic of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and us“, Latvian musician and Latvian Radio 2-DJ Mārtiņš Kanters recently said in an interview about schlager music. However, the 2021 winner of the “Latvijas Sirdsdiesma“ – a popular schlager show aired on Latvian television – still has figured out some differences.
“Interestingly, in Germany, for example – even though the performance is professional – the songs themselves are, one might say, simpler, even more primitive than ours“, Kanters claimed without elaborating further, but adding at once that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. “Because what is a schlager? A popular and simple song that is loved by the masses. And there is nothing to condemn in that, as some people might think.”
“Šlāgeris is folk music, its task is to lighten the monotony of everyday life. Academic music requires knowledge, exploration, deep engagement, and seriousness before it opens up and reveals itself. None of that is necessary for a Šlāgeris,“ Kanters went on to explain. “There is only one rule here: Either you like it – or you don’t”.
Long German musical traditions
The musical ties between Latvia and German-speaking countries are much older and deeper than the lyrics of many of these sometimes very light-hearted schlager ballads. The musical life in Riga was already in the first half of the 19th century shaped by several important musicians from Germany. Most notably among them was opera composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who from 1837 to 1839 acted as Kapellmeister (chief conductor) at the German City Theater in Rīga – the then hotspot of German theater and musical life in what’s now the capital of Latvia.
Maybe less known, but even more important is another connection: What nowadays is known as the Song Festival and has become the ultimate celebration of Latvian culture and identity has its roots in German speaking countries. The origins of the proud Latvian tradition of organising great gatherings with thousand of singers can be traced back to similar events in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in the first half of the 19th century – the so-called Liedertafeln.
Photo: German embassy in Latvia
Deutsch.koris concert during German Language Month in Latvia
One of the most ambitious festivals of this kind took place in Leipzig in 1848, where a joint men’s choir of 5000 singers gathered. The idea was not much later also picked up by Baltic Germans living in what is now Latvia. Following the first initial gatherings to come together and sing, an significant milestone was reached with the Daugava River Music Festival in Riga in 1836, before later the tradition of holding nationwide Song Celebrations was launched in 1873 – many years before the name Latvia even had appeared on any world map.
While the tradition has carried on in Latvia now for more then 150 years and has become one the cornerstone of the Latvian nationhood, in German speaking countries such kind of mass singing events are hardly organised anymore. All the more the German, Austrian and Swiss embassies embraced the musicality of the Latvian school children. Some of their diplomat even joined in and together performed a song in Colognian dialect on the big stage, but in their vocal efforts were not even coming anywhere close to the excellence of the Latvian choirs.
Latvia’s very own favourite German singer
Still, there was at least one German singer that definitely managed to capture the Latvian audience with his singing and stage presence. Hosting the musical event was the singer-songwriter Jöran Steinhauer, who rose to prominence in Latvia in 2013 with his farewell song “Paldies Latiņam“ [Thank You, Little Lats] for the then Latvian currency ahead of the Euro changeover, and later with his band Aarzemnieki who represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. He was also the artistic director of concert who selected and rehearsed the songs with the students.
“I have been touring the schools across Latvia and at the beginning the children were a bit reserved but very soon sang all along“, Steinhauer told LSM, adding that he had placed a lot of emphasis on the song selection. “It needed to be a nice collection of singable songs for everyone. Folk songs, pop songs, songs both from recent years and older times, so that the audience can sing along too. And, of course, it had to be something Swiss, something Austrian and especially something German that everyone knows.“
The choice was anything but simple, but the young singers very well received the selected musical pieces. Many of them were excited and grateful to be able to sing and perform together with Steinhauer, as some of them revealed both in private conversations and publicly in social media. “We came here as classmates and as a choir. We leave as friends. Thank you!“, Matīss from the Ventspils 4th Secondary School wrote Facebook above a picture that shows him together with the German singer after the concert.
Two students from the Talsi 2nd Secondary School even approached Steinhauer during the rehearsals themselves and asked him if they could solo-perform the party song “Cordula Grün“ by the Austrian singer Josh – a regular hit and audience favourite both at the Oktoberfest in Munich and at après-ski parties in Austrian and Swiss mountain lodges. “I was very happy, of course, about this request, but the first attempt went so badly that I thought, ‘Okay. Maybe better next year’,” the singer remembered the beginning of the cooperation with the two students.
Photo: German embassy in Latvia
Jöran Steinhauer during German Language Month in Latvia
“But luckily, they did not give up. And we found a way to work it out together. I simply wrote down the German text in Latvian phonetic spelling, and then suddenly it all worked out!”, said Steinhauer, who first came to Latvia as young exchange student in the early 2000s, fell in love with the country and its people, and for long years now lives in Riga where he creates music and songs in German, Latvian and other languages.
Steinhauer also made a song dedicated specially to the Deutsch.koris concert. “I thought, ‘Hey, you have to do another song about choirs, because that is exactly what it is all about. ‘ I then wrote the lyrics in German, and now I am so happy that they liked and rehearsed it all right away,“ the singer said about his song “Land der Chöre” [Land of the Choirs] that he wrote just week ahead of the final concert and was also performed by the children choir . “Everything went just perfectly.”
Hardly anyone who had been present at the concert would disagree with his evaluation. It was an impressive performance by the young singers who received standing ovations and a big round of applause from the audience, along with the wish expressed by all three ambassadors that they preserve their enthusiasm for both singing and the German language.
The full concert is available to watch online via the link below.