Male and female creators of the war songs

The article deals with Lithuanian war and historical folk songs of the late period, i.e. those created approximately in the end of the 19th and during the first half of the 20th century. Whereas the old Lithuanian war and historical folk songs, as well as folk songs of other genres, were created almost entirely by women, these late songs in question were composed by men, who had fought in the World War I, or served in Lithuanian army. The open and detailed descriptions of the battles and all the war events, and naturalistic way of representation are the main features of these songs. Most of them were first composed in writing, as poems, and only subsequently transformed into folk songs. The way of transmission of these songs is another factor distinguishing them from the rest of Lithuanian folklore tradition, as they were more frequently copied on paper than learned by heart. The author of the article makes an assumption that in Lithuanian folklore only those of these new war and historical songs took root and survived, which still had connections and similarities to the old traditional folk songs. Presumably, thanks to the women - the tenders and transmitters of the folk tradition, these songs were enriched by motives from the old folk songs, and thus became part of the traditional Lithuanian culture. The late war and historical folk songs present a natural development and continuation of this Lithuanian folk song genre