Hippies in the Baltic [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 157-176]

HIPPIES IN THE BALTIC
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time it still contained strong sympho-rock elements in its melodic structure
and sounds, since rock instruments were used in the orchestra.
Kalninsh was an avid populizer of rock-and-roll who didn't understand
why the authorities constantly imposed prohibitions and limitations on
this, in his words, "beautiful music," which so often contained beauty
and philosophical profundity in its texts. In his compositions he frequently
tried to find a form of rock-and-roll that the musical authorities would
find acceptable for Soviet listeners, and he tried to do so without any
particular concessions in the area of common sense and good taste.
Moreover Kalninsh was a very popular rock performer (a pianist),
which was quite unusual for a member of the Composers' Union, and was
a laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize, which he received for his October
Oratorio. For a long time Kalninsh was the director of the well-known
underground rock group MINUET, which was the host at the famous,
scandalous Liepaja rock festival "Zolotoy yantar," which began in 1971
and existed, with some changes, until 1977. Among the songs by Kalninsh
performed by MINUET at the festival was "The Ballad of Matison," a
song about a Latvian hippie-nonconformist, calling upon the older generation to leave the young people in peace. The song was dedicated to none
other than Alice Cooper, the same Cooper whom the Soviet press considered to be the height of decadence in rock-and-roll, and whom they
called a "fascist."
Being himself a full-blown hippie (he also wore his hair long, as did
many others in those days), Kalninsh was not above narcotic experimentation, communes and free love, and his compositions often possessed a
psychedelic character. All this had little in common with the image of a
Soviet composer whose calling was to be the champion of the foremost
ideas of socialist art in life. Such behavior was often openly debated and
condemned in the Composers' Union. His "amorality" and "decadence"
reached their height at the moment when, after a MINUET concert in the
Latvian town of Ogre, the local hippies (carried away, as were many others
in that period, by the power of the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar"
and the Chirst-seeking in their midst) scrambled onto the stage and hung
an enormous cross around Kalninsh's neck and proclaimed him Christ.
This event caused a storm of indignation and serious discussions in
the Composers' Union, where many champions of purity in Soviet music
"lifted angry voices" and recommended that Kalninsh be excluded from
their ranks. As a result he was condemned for amorality, drunkenness
(which really meant drugs), for religious sentiments and nasty adultery.
They forgave him only because of his youth-he was 26-and because of
his great musical accomplishments-four symphonies. Another important
factor in his pardon was the fact that Kalninsh was, and many people
understood this, a person of rare talent and a sort of national Latvian
property. This tiny nation, and even the bureaucrats in its midst, often
attempt to preserve whatever is a treasure of their national spirit.