Active in music from a young age, Jurjāns decides to become a musician after participating as a choir singer in the First Latvian Song Festival in 1873.
[2] At the same time, he took an active part in Latvian musical life as a collector, researcher and arranger of national folk songs.
His five-volume work, "Materials of the Latvian Folk Music" encompasses about 2,000 tunes.
Together with his brothers and musicians Juris, Pāvuls and Pēteris he regularly took part in the Latvian Song Festival as the Jurjāns' French horn quartet.
After the death of Jurjāns, the 6th part of his work was published posthumously by his brother Pāvuls.