1869–1934 · Russia, Lithuania · Romantic
Juozas Naujalis (1869–1934) was a Lithuanian composer, organist, choir conductor and teacher, known as the patriarch of Lithuanian music. He wrote church music and choral songs, arranged folk songs, and opened a music school in Kaunas that later became a conservatoire. Our catalogue has three of his pieces for mixed choir.
Juozas Naujalis was born on 9 April 1869 in the village of Raudondvaris, which now belongs to Kaunas District. A monument was later put up in his home village, and a memorial museum also operates there.
He studied at the Warsaw Institute of Music in the organ class of Jan Śliwiński from 1884 to 1889. After that he spent one more year, 1889–1890, in the composition class of Zygmunt Noskowski.
From 1890 Naujalis worked as an organist in various places in Lithuania, among them Vabalninkas and Retavas. From 1892 until the end of his life, in 1934, he served in Kovno (now Kaunas), at the archcathedral.
Around 1892 he opened private courses in Kovno for organists and choir conductors and taught on them himself. In 1894 he did a placement at the school of church music in Regensburg. He also conducted the cathedral choir in Kaunas.
Naujalis organised a secret Lithuanian choir, Daina, in Kovno.
In 1905 he founded the first legal Lithuanian bookshop and music publishing house. They operated in Kovno until 1912. In 1909–1910 he published the first Lithuanian music magazine, Vargonininkas ("The Organist").
Naujalis was also a founder of a school of organists and of a society of organists. The society had been active since 1908 and was formally approved in 1911.
In 1919 Naujalis opened a private music school in Kaunas. A year later, in 1920, it became a state school, and in 1933 it was made into a conservatoire. From 1920 to 1927 Naujalis headed the school, and from 1933 he was a professor at the conservatoire.
He also taught choral subjects at the clerical seminary in Kaunas. His students included Stasys Šimkus, Aleksandras Kačanauskas and Julius Štarka.
Naujalis gave concerts as an organist, pianist and choir conductor, in Lithuania and in the USA (in the USA in 1922). The first song festivals in Lithuania (1924, 1928 and 1930) took place with his participation: he was among the organisers and conducted.
In 1928 Naujalis received the Italian Order of the Crown, third class, for his services in composing church music. He was awarded the Order of Gediminas twice: third class in 1930 and second class in 1931.
Naujalis died on 9 September 1934 in Kaunas and was buried in the Petrašiūnai cemetery. A music gymnasium in Kaunas bears his name. In 1994 a monument of polished granite, 3.1 metres high, was erected in his home village, and a memorial museum also operates there.
The main areas of Naujalis's work were church music, choral songs and music for organ. He wrote 13 masses, motets, hymns, psalms and other church pieces; his legacy contains more than 150 compositions of church and choral music in all. His church works were published in Poland, Germany and France.
Choral songs hold an important place in his legacy. They include 27 original songs for choir and 17 harmonisations of folk songs; he arranged Lithuanian folk songs for choral performance. His main choral works are "Spring", "Summer Nights", "Dear Lithuania", "Where the Sheshupe Flows" and "Songs of Youth"; they are mostly set to words by Maironis.
He also wrote instrumental music: pieces, preludes, 12 trios for organ, the symphonic poem "Autumn" (around 1930) and a piece for string quartet, "Dream" (around 1921). His instrumental works number 45 for organ, piano and orchestra. Naujalis is described as upholding classical traditions and classical harmony, and as rejecting new developments in musical language.
Our site has three of Naujalis's pieces for mixed choir (SATB) from Op. 7: "Caligaverunt" (Op. 7, No. 1, level Beginner+), "Popule Meus" (Op. 7, No. 2, level Intermediate) and "Vexilla Regis Prodeunt" (Op. 7, No. 3, level Beginner+). You can start with "Vexilla Regis Prodeunt" or "Caligaverunt".