PRINTING AND PUBLISHING OF SCHLAGER (HIT) SHEET MUSIC IN RIGA IN THE 1920s–1930s

Abstract

Publishing sheet music in Riga in the 1920s–1930s was a complicated process involving the interaction of various actors – music publishers, printers, and traders that formed a network based on mutual economic interests and technical capabilities. Also, schlager publishing in interwar Riga was a brand-new branch of polygraphy. This article aims to analyse the schlager printing and publishing in Riga, emphasizing the role of key personalities. The topic discussed in the article is related to music history, but it includes various disciplines such as music printing and publishing, music sales and economics, legal issues, and biographic studies. After the proclamation of the Republic of Latvia in 1918, the new democratic order created a new legal framework, and several new companies entered the business, including printing houses and publishing houses. Within the period, the music publishing industry was growing. At the beginning of the period only a few sporadic attempts to publish foreign schlager editions can be identified. Activity reached its peak at the turn of the 1930s (1928–1931) when at least 17 names of schlager publishers in Riga were active. Whereas in the 1930s, the first local popular dance music composers started publishing regularly in Riga. Starting from 1934, the pressure of censorship increased rapidly in culture as well in the music business because of the authoritarian rule of Kārlis Ulmanis (1934–1940). As a result, the number of publishers decreased in the mid-1930s. Until 1940, only Harmonija remained. The period of the 1920s–1930s can be considered a relatively closed period in the political, cultural, and economic history of Latvia because in the summer of 1940, the Republic of Latvia was occupied by Soviet forces, and the authorities put an end to private business activities in Latvia.