Lithuanian Music in America, 1870–1920
LITHUANIAN MUSIC IN AMERICA, 1870-1920 Danute Petrauskaite, Klaipeda University, Lithuania hile it is known that small numbers of Lithuanians emigrated to W America as early as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, massive emigration to the New World began only after the second half of the nineteenth century, especially after the abolition of serfdom (Michelsonas 3- 4). If the first arrivals in America included a number of nobility, a greater part of the later emigrants were peasants, mainly men, who later invited their sisters, wives or fianc6es to come to the New World. Among the reasons which persuaded people to leave Lithuania were the repressions which followed the anti-Russian uprising of 1863, the country's poor economic situation, the new Tsarist conscription law of 1874, and the suppression of the revolution in 1905. After 1859 Lithuanians flooded into America, creating proportionately one of Europe's largest diasporas. In 1899, about 275,000 Lithuanians lived in the United States, while on the eve of World War I the number increased to 500,000 (Michelsonas 14). After the war the number of newcomers from Lithuania significantly decreased, as a strict immigration quota was introduced by the US administration, according to which, only 382 Lithuanians could enter the country per year (Lietuviq enciklopedija 420). As a consequence, Lithuanians began searching for a better life in Canada, Brazil, and Argentina, although a number entered the United States illegally. Lithuanian emigrants did not initiate their cultural and musical activities immediately upon arrival. The first emigrants were mainly village people, not influenced by either the first Tsarist schools in Lithuania or the first Lithuanian-language newspapers.
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