Lithuanian traditional laments: simple folklore genre or the bridge from the "life world" to the "death world"?

LTThe Lithuanian traditional musical folklore is one of the most archaic in all the Europe. The ancient Baltic world-outlook is reflected in a number of calendar and family ritual folk songs, including melodic lines and poetic texts of traditional laments. What do we understand as laments in Lithuania? They represent very special and ancient genre of our traditional folklore. All traditional laments are created for a moment, on special fatal and dramatic occasions. So, they seem to be very improvised in their poetry and melodic lines. And they are. In other hand, our laments have very clear stable elements both in verbal and musical their sides. [Academia.edu]