Čiurlionis’s Works in Sheet Music: Dissemination in Interwar Periodicals and Typological Publishing Aspects after 2000

Abstract

Characterised by consistency and continuity unlike that of any other Lithuanian composer since the 1900s, the publication of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’s music serves as a benchmark for assessing the overall state of sheet music publishing in Lithuania. This encompasses not only the history of Lithuanian music publishing but also the evolution of editing, printing, and distribution practices. While Volume 40 of Knygotyra in 2003 provided a detailed overview of the first century of Čiurlionis’s sheet music publishing, there is now a need to review the situation of publishing of his musical works after 2000. Considering global trends in sheet music publishing and editing, recent decades of the activities of publishing Čiurlionis’s music reveal certain directions: arrangements and transcriptions, urtexts, digital publications, and others. The article also presents systematic factual data on the short-lived yet relatively systematic printing of Čiurlionis’s sheet music in the interwar foreign press, specifically in the journal Margutis (USA), which also served as a symbol of maintaining Lithuanian identity in the diaspora.