Gunda Vaivode has invited to a conversation Gunita Irbi (Gunita Bird) – Latvian language and literature teacher of the private university “Patnis”. The music she chooses is accompanied by thoughtful stories about childhood and family, school and self, language, poetry, theater, cinema and the world of sound, where the heart is always present.
Gunda Vaivode: Probably a large number of listeners and readers also know you by the last name Gunita Putns, and I myself have read your posts in the big book of faces – on Facebook – with great excitement, admiration, smile and sometimes sympathy. In fact, it was these posts that prompted me to invite you to talk about music. You have one special story about how you waited for your students at the Daile Theater for the play “Poem about Spēlmani”. Can you remind me of that?
Gunita Irbe: Thank you, Gunda, for this opportunity! Yes, there was such a moment when
I had gone to this show with my students. Before the show, I’m waiting for them with tickets, and suddenly a gentleman comes up to me – I can’t see who it is yet, and asks in a very kind voice: “Excuse me, can I get invitations from you?” I look and it is none other than the composer Pēteris Vasks! (laughs) And I say – oh, no, I’m waiting for my students. And that look… That x-ray look!
He says, “Oh, so… Do you have good students?” I answer – yes, the best! Him: “I’m glad!” Then the hustle and bustle broke up our special moment.
But the next day you must have told this incident to your students. And what did they say about being good students?
Yes, of course they have this belief that they are good because they have heard it so many times. They are also bearded and handsome, but they have often heard that they are special, my “own” ones.
So you are a teacher at the private secondary school “Patnis”…
… and I am very happy for this gift of fate, for this opportunity. It was like that. I studied in elementary school – I think it was the 8th or 9th grade, and at that time I didn’t read any newspapers or magazines in particular. But
one day I open the ark, and there is a picture with the founder of this school [Zani Ozolu]. She spoke so wonderfully about this pet of hers, about her “Patni”, that I was such a young jewel – there was absolutely a miracle there! – I thought: yes, I would like to work in such a school, even though I had no dream of being a teacher at all. Absolutely not! It’s a coincidence or a “fate”. Years passed with all kinds of twists and turns, and I am in “Patni”. It happens.
We have already mentioned Pēteris Vaskas. And we will play a small moment from Marħers Zariņš, played by Marħers Zariņš, a resident of Pēteras Vaskas, a piper, organist Tālivalžs Dekšnis, from the cycle “Baroque of Kurzeme”.
This is my childhood.
How did I get to know the sound of the organ in the first place? My grandfather, who was a real country man, had a huge collection of sheet music with organ music. And there were days when he chose to listen to organ music instead of diendusa.
A kind of meditation!
Yes, a kind of meditation, and behind closed doors – no one was allowed to go in there and disturb him! And I, such a little puppy, listened with one ear to what was happening there, what it was, and I remember that mystery, that wonder, that sound – and the respect of my grandfather, respectfully. “The organ!” he said. “Organs…” After some time, I started singing in the choir of the Gulbene Lutheran Church, and our choir director Daira Karole, who is still the church organist, gave her music school students the opportunity to play – to sit [pie ērģelēm] and feel this immense power.
But speaking of Lestenes church… I did a little research. That sad story of how everything was ruined… But the ruined must always be reborn!
And Imants Lancmanis did it fantastically.
Thanks to him wonderful!
But this is always the case: no matter how someone tries to destroy us or what is beautiful and holy – whether it is buildings, churches, people or human relationships – we must always face rebirth.
Speaking about your path as a teacher, you mentioned a beautiful word – god leadership.
Yes, that’s how it is. I experienced this in the best sense and lived through it constantly – it has never been different, and nothing has ever been particularly sought, but I simply know that He helps me, and what else in such a sometimes harsh and sometimes bright world as school work. I’m honestly surprised I’m still doing this…
Because we very often hear not the best things about the school – both the teachers sometimes say bad things about the children, and the children about the teachers. But in relation to you, at least I had to read and hear only the best reviews. What is your key – how do you approach children, and how do they not drive you out of patience?
exported Take out! (laughs) I’m not protected from that either. But it is already such a school of life, and the fact that it is becoming more and more difficult is the truth. But here, my teacher already said such words that I often remember: that at school, what pushes you to the ground one day, lifts you to the sky the next. And it’s like that constantly, every day! If one day you think – that’s all, well that’s all, the last year, you have to think about something else, the next day you receive a miracle and believe again that you have to be there, that you still have to do it. How do I get there? I do not know. Again, it’s a mystery. All life is one mystery.
But you must know something that others do not know. What are the media with and through which you reach them so that you get into their world?
The heart… The media should be used, of course, as much as the teaching material requires.
Although I am a big opponent of technology and I don’t feel “on you” with these devices, so maybe I seem old-fashioned to someone. The more technological the world becomes, the more heart must be put into it all. Just like that. Just like that! I guess that’s the key.
And probably everyone should be loved – even the biggest razbainieks.
Everyone should be loved – just like that pebble given by Ausmas Kantāne.
Right here on the studio table is your Ausmas Kantanes stone.
Of course, I couldn’t help but take it with me, because it is like a friend to me.
On the one hand – very rough, on the other – a polished and beautiful gem.
That’s how it is.
You look at a person and maybe you see that rough side in them that breaks out so much, which is an armor or sometimes a shield. But you have to believe that there is a gem behind it all. And if you do, a wonderful garden opens up.
Your choice is Elga Igenberg’s song “Winter Evening” sung by Vera Singajevska. The time of Margarita Staraste’s beautiful fairy tales and drawings… What did you listen to and read in your childhood? Probably the same books were already on your shelves.
It was. I didn’t choose this song for nothing, because my childhood is the wonderful voice of Gundars Āboliņš, which I listened to when I clapped on the same record player – how he reads “Princess on a Pea”! It was so very beautiful. And Vera Singajevska, Tālivaldis Āboliņš, Anta Klints. We had records from my mom’s childhood.
Also “Skroderdienas Silmachis”?
Yes, also the screeching “Skroderdienas”… (laughs)
It was a ritual in my family too. My grandmother made me listen to “Skroderdienas” with Anta Klinti once a year at Midsummer.
Wonderful! And I am extremely happy and grateful to fate that I was born when I was born. Maybe it seems so to every generation, but I think that the children of today do not have that purity in the material offered to them – there is no childhood that was in Starling’s fairy tales and “Snow White’s school”, which, of course, I knew by heart.
Such a special story is about my aunt, about my mother’s sister, who has been disabled in the first group since childhood – she was denied the opportunity to move and attend concerts and theater performances. But she showed me, told me and taught me – she was my first cultural school, art school!
I knew almost everything about theater performances, as well as about movies, actors, books. As it is: when one door closes, many others open.
For example, “The long way in the hills” with the wonderful music of Raymond Paul… It’s very difficult for me to listen to it, because I can’t cope without tears… I think that fate, in general, the fate of a person, sounds so much there. It is my aunt’s favorite novel and also a movie, and her favorite actress was Lilita Ozoliņa.
The novel “The Long Road in the Dunes” was in Russian at that time. And the aunt said – you, that is – my family – must also read it! But hey, it’s Russian, and I was still a very small child at that time. And my aunt translated the whole novel! He wrote with his small hands in huge thick notebooks.
They have been preserved – this novel has been translated into Latvian. She said – read! It is something very beautiful.
At that time, we generally looked at the aunt as such a miracle. She is like that for us – with great love for her own and great respect for art, literature, actors. That’s the story. Thanks to my aunt, I shone in school with my knowledge.
Remind me – what did the teacher call you?
It was in high school. “My golden girl!” And how beautiful it is that you forget it. Why is it beautiful? Because at one point you find yourself calling your schoolgirl that, and freak out – where have I heard that?
And that’s what happened?!
It has happened, it is happening, and I have such a student. And it’s wonderful – how life intertwines in such silver threads.
Students do not save their thoughts and reveal them to you. Indeed, it is enviable. And even after this summer’s Song Festival, you probably heard very inspiring stories from them, because your students also participated in the Song Festival.
Participated and attended as listeners, as spectators. I don’t this time. And then we met in the new school year, and they proudly ask me – well, teacher, you were there too?! And I honestly say – no. How to? How is that even possible?! I say – it happens.
As Rolands Kalniņš once told me. When I asked why you are going to the Song Festival, he answered me – I can’t not go, I have to be there!
Yes, and I am very glad that my students also said exactly such words. There was one such wonderful moment. There’s a concert I’m watching on TV, my phone beeps, I look, and there one of my students writes: “Now you’re singing your favorite folk song, ‘Where were you, little girl?’
More in the audio recording.
Gunita Irbe’s choice of music:
Marģeris Zariņš – “Lesten’s rose tree” from the organ series “Courzeme Baroque” / Tālivaldis Deksnis
Žans Sibelius, the gates of Tirzmalietes – “Ved mani, God”/ Linda Prindule, voice, Kaspars Zemītis, guitar
Words by Elga Ígenberg, Jázeps Osmani – “Winter evening” / Vera Singajevska, voice, Elga Ígenberg, piano
Raimonds Pauls – melody from the movie “A long road in the dunes” / Egils Straume, saxophone, Latvian Radio big band under the direction of the author
Selga Mence, Agra Pilsuma’s words – “Where you were, bālelnini” / Marina Rebeka, soprano, Mārtiņš Zilberts, piano, United Women’s Choir led by Aira Birzina
Words by Imants Kalniņš, Imanta Ziedoņš – “Buramdziesmiņa” / Agnese Barone, voice, Ilze Grunte, Gints Sola, guitars
Imants Kalniņš – finale from the music for the movie “Winds blow” / Vyacheslavs Mitrohins, guitar, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra conducted by Māras Kupčas
Pēteris Plakidis – music from the movie “Apple in the River”
Arturs Maskats, words of Ojāras Vācieš – “Something for silence” from the performance “Vācietis. November. Piano Concert” / Ivars Cinkuss, baritone, Latvian Radio Choir led by Sigvardas Kļavas, Aldis Jurisons, accordion, Arturs Maskats, piano
Ainars Virga, Grigore Vieru’s words in Imanta Ziedonis’s poem – “Native language”/ “LIVI”
Niks Matvejev, Vizma Belševica’s words – “Kliedz mana tauta”/ “SĪPOLI”
Gija Kančeli – music from the play “King Lear” / Gidon Kremer, violin, Andrejs Puškarev, vibraphone
Gija Kancheli – music from the play “King Lear” / Nato Metonidze, voice
Gustav Mahler – Third Symphony, 6th movement – Slow, peaceful / Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
Mārtiņš Brauns, Māras Zālīte’s words – “Dedication” / Paula Ķiete, Andris Kivičs, voice
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2023-11-29 08:41:31
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