page_title: Kokle
section_title: In modern music
hierarchical_section_title: Kokle / In modern music
caption_attribution_description: English: Māris Muktupāvels of the Latvian band Iļģi tuning a kokle.
context_page_description: Kokle or historically kokles is a Latvian plucked string instrument belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Lithuanian kanklės, Estonian kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian gusli. The first possible kokles related archaeological findings in the territory of modern Latvia are from the 13th century, while the first reliable written information about kokles playing comes from the beginning of the 17th century. The first known kokles tune was notated in 1891, but the first kokles recordings into gramophone records and movies were made in 1930s. Both kokles and kokles playing are included in the Latvian Culture Canon.
context_section_description: Already at the first kokles revival in 1930s and 1940s kokles music saw an influx of newly composed folk music-inspired compositions and orchestral arrangements of folk songs. However, only recently kokles has truly grown to transcend the boundaries of traditional folk music. From the experimental post-folk band Iļģi, Biruta Ozoliņa's and DJ Monsta's electronic folk collaboration, Laima Jansone's free improvisations and fusion of kokles' sounds with jazz in the project "Zarbugans" to a more heavier kokles-accompanied folk metal sound of Skyforger.
  In 2002 record label Upe released a double CD by ethnomusicologist Valdis Muktupāvels titled "Kokles", dedicated to the instrument. The first disc "Muktukokles" contains 9 Muktupāvels' original kokles compositions and 2 arrangements of traditional songs accompanied by other instruments (sarod, tambura, and tabla), as well as the vocals of Rūta Muktupāvele, while the second disc "Tradicionālās kokles" contains 24 Kurzeme, suiti and Latgale traditional tunes and dance melodies.
  In 2016 record label Lauska released a CD Trejdeviņi koklētāji (Thrice-nine kokles players) featuring some of the best known Latvian kokles players (Valdis Muktupāvels, Laima Jansone, Biruta Ozoliņa and Ansis Jansons among others) and Baltic psaltery players from abroad (Leanne Barbo from Estonia and Jenni Venäläinen from Finland), as well as Latvian concert kokles ensembles, with a collection of 13 compositions that span from traditional to ethno-jazz and ethno-baroque genres. A bilingual Latvian-English hardback booklet was also included with notes on performing musicians and their compositions, as well as a brief history of kokles.
caption: Māris Muktupāvels tuning kokles during a concert with the post-folk band Iļģi, July 24, 2010
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2010:07:24 21:33:32", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "352", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "36920", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "37048", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9575", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "53/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:07:24 21:33:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:07:24 21:33:32", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "49/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "75", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "36888", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "112", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}