Is it true that a committee was set up by the Latvian ministry of culture to decide on the official versions of the National anthem “Dievs sveti Latviju”, the committee sat for a year and decided that at at public gatherings the version that should be sang was one in F major? Other versions are apparently planned for other occasions, and a CD and pack of music was commissioned from the publisher Musica Baltica to set out 18 different versions, even a special shortened one for the olympic games.

So what happened? Outside the presidents palace - F major fine - as engraved on Baumanis memorial.

On the riverside at the big 9pm event the band struck up in B flat? Of course lots of the crowd could not reach the high notes.

A singing revolution?

I cannot answer your question. 

Yet I wanted to make this quick point.  Why do us, the Latvians celebrate Novembris 18, when in reality we should celebrate in August, I believe wasn’t that when finally in 1991 Latvia got Independence a second time.  Why should we celebrate November 18, when the Freedom didn’t work.  In other words, Russia took over.  Latvia didn’t work.  I believe that Latvia should change their Independence day to August.

Taomant - 27 November 2009 08:53 PM

I cannot answer your question. 

Yet I wanted to make this quick point.  Why do us, the Latvians celebrate Novembris 18, when in reality we should celebrate in August, I believe wasn’t that when finally in 1991 Latvia got Independence a second time.  Why should we celebrate November 18, when the Freedom didn’t work.  In other words, Russia took over.  Latvia didn’t work.  I believe that Latvia should change their Independence day to August.

actually the ‘new’ date would be September 6th…
per Wikipedia:

Subsequent steps towards full independence were taken on May 4, 1990. The Latvian SSR Supreme Council, elected in the first democratic elections since the 1930s, adopted a declaration restoring independence that included a transition period between autonomy within the Soviet Union and full independence. On the August 21, 1991 parliament voted for an end to the transition period, thus restoring Latvia’s pre-war independence. On September 6, 1991 Latvian independence was once again recognised by the USSR.

A lot of hair splitters busily at work!!!

Actually there is no hair splitting.
If one accepts the new “Independence Day” stance then they agree that Latvia joined the USSR in 1940 legally and there was no occupation and Latvia never existed after WWII. Sorry but it does not fly with the majority of Latvians.

Taomant writes: “...Why should we celebrate November 18, when the Freedom didn’t work.  In other words, Russia took over.  Latvia didn’t work.  I believe that Latvia should change their Independence day to August.”

Taomant, googling can provide you with an elementary history of Latvia you obviously don’t know or strangely choose to question.  Why Latvians - “we” - celebrate Nov 18 is because that is the fact of Latvia’s independence date.  This is not a debatable issue.  “Freedom didn’t work” for Latvia because the big, bad countries of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia implemented their pact to divvy up countries and initiated their war of aggression for territory in Europe and occupied Latvia: first Russia “took over,” then Germany, and then Russia again - and the occupier Soviet Russia stayed until Latvia regained, restored, reinstated her Nov 18, 1918, independence. 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Latvia
“...Subsequent steps towards full independence were taken on May 4, 1990. The Latvian SSR Supreme Council, elected in the first democratic elections since the 1930s, adopted a declaration restoring independence that included a transition period between autonomy within the Soviet Union and full independence. On the August 21, 1991 parliament voted for an end to the transition period, thus restoring Latvia’s pre-war independence. ...”
http://www.mfa.gov.lv/data/file/e/P/3_okupacijas.pdf
Wikipedia - Soviet occupation

“...According to the European Court of Human Rights,[4] the Government of Latvia[5], the United States,[6] and the European Union,[7][9][8], the occupation of Latvia by the USSR in 1940, and its subsequent re-incorporation in the Soviet Union in 1944, was illegal. According to this view, the lawful government of Latvia was overthrown in 1940 and Soviet rule was imposed by force. Subsequently, the totalitarian Communist regime of the Soviet Union conducted large-scale and systematic actions against the Latvian population. Rigged elections were organized in which only Soviet-supported candidates were permitted to run.[50] As reported by the Time Magazine in 1940, those who had failed to have their passports stamped for voting Latvia into the USSR were allowed to be shot in the back of the head by Soviet NKVD,[40] The country remained occupied by the Soviet Union until restoration of its independence in 1991. The 48 years of Soviet occupation and annexation of the Baltic States was never recognized as legal by the Western democracies. The United States especially applied the earlier-adopted Stimson Doctrine to the issue of the Baltic states, leading to its becoming an established precedent in International Law. ...”

http://www.latvians.com/en/index.php
http://www.li.lv/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=200
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=4211