From Censorship to Celebration: Rediscovering Lūcija Garūta’s “God, Thy Earth is Aflame!”

The May 2024 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “From Censorship to Celebration: Rediscovering Lūcija Garūta’s ‘God, Thy Earth is Aflame!'”. Following is a portion from the article.
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In the spring of 1944 in Riga, Latvia, Nazi Germany’s four-year occupation of the country was ending. Latvia’s national nightmare, however, was far from over. Soon the Soviet Union would exert military control for the second time over all three Baltic nations, plunging Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia into more than forty years of deportations, labor camps, and cultural erasure. It was in this narrow window of shifting control that Old St. Gertrude’s Church in Riga was packed to overflowing on March 15, 1944, to witness the premiere performance of Lūcija Garūta’s cantata, Dievs, Tava zeme deg! (God, Thy Earth is Aflame!).

Forced into obscurity due to its patriotic and religious themes, the cantata would be heard across Latvia in fragments until the end of the twentieth century. To celebrate the eightieth anniversary of its premiere, this article aims to reintroduce the choral community to this monumental work and encourage conductors to program the piece, either in part or in full, in the coming years. The cantata is achievable for many collegiate and community ensembles, and within the cantata itself is Garūta’s “Our Father”—a four-minute, unaccompanied setting of The Lord’s Prayer that can stand alone in any concert setting. Although originally a product of circumstance, Garūta’s masterpiece continues to transcend the time and place for which it was written and stands as a message of hope to all who suffer unjustly.

Lūcija Garūta (1902–1977) Lūcija Garūta’s life and compositions are divided into two stages: 1) pre-1940’s independent Latvia and 2) Soviet-occupied Latvia. During the former part of her career, she attended the Latvian State Conservatory, earned degrees in both composition and piano (the first woman to do so), twice studied in Paris, and established herself as both an accomplished composer and performer. Music in Latvia began to flourish as the National Opera, the Latvian Conservatory of Music, and the Symphony Orchestra all found their beginnings during this period. The latter half of her career saw her works censored, her name stigmatized, and the loss of her performing career as her health deteriorated. Despite numerous professional accomplishments, Garūta’s life ended before her works were restored to national prominence.

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Read the full article in the June/July 2024 issue of Choral Journal. acda.org/choraljournal