(Ger. Reval).
Capital city of Estonia. It was the northern centre of medieval Livonia, ruled by the Livonian knights, but had considerable autonomy as a free Hanseatic city from the 1280s onwards. Despite changing political authority, it remained a Baltic German city up to the end of the 19th century, its commercial and thereby cultural links being with other such cities (Riga, Lübeck).
The first documents concerning music go back to the 14th century. By 1365 the Dominican monastery (founded in 1246) was campaigning for a school separate from that of the cathedral; by 1475 the Dominican school had three teachers and probably included musical studies. New members of the order came from among local people, and the names of several priests testify to Estonian origin. There were also Estonians among students at the town school, which had been founded in 1428 by the church of St Olaus. Here music was important in the curriculum: by 1559 the school was employing cantors who were responsible for music at various churches.
In the 1520s the Reformation arrived, but its spread was interrupted by the Livonian war (1558–83). More documents relating to music survive from the ensuing period under Swedish rule. The institution of town musicians is recorded from the 15th century to the 18th, when that institution was transformed into the Kapelle, later the nucleus of the opera and concert orchestra. The Revalsche Gymnasium, founded in 1631, became the centre of musical life; the most prominent of its cantors was Johann Valentin Meder (1674–83), whose opera Die beständige Argenia was performed by the students in 1680. The school choir and instrumental ensemble, comprising teachers, students and townspeople, performed in the churches of St Nicholas and St Olaus and on festive occasions. In the 17th century there were also musical and theatrical performances in the guild halls and occasional visits by touring companies.
The beginning of the 18th century was overshadowed by the Nordic war and comcomitant famine and plague. In 1710 the city was taken by the Russians, and the war ended in 1721 with the absorption of the Baltic provinces into the Russian empire. In the second half of the century amateur music flourished: the Revalsche Wöchentliche Nachrichten published many advertisements for music lessons, printed music and instruments. One such advertisement in 1779 offered locally made fortepianos (though other instrument makers were active before this), and in 1818 a piano factory was founded by Heinrich Falck. The industry continued: in the 1930s the firm of Ernst Hiis (Ihse) emerged from among several smaller workshops, and in 1950 the Tallinna Klaverivabrik was established with Hiis as principal constructor.
In 1784 the Revaler Liebhaber-Theater was founded by August von Kotzebue to perform plays and Singspiele, but there was also opera given by visiting companies, such as Mme Tilly's troupe from Lübeck, which presented Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni in 1795. The Revalsche Theater (renamed Revaler Stadttheater in the 1860s) opened in a new building in 1809, and most seasons included some opera (e.g. Tannhäuser in 1853 and 1860).
Two important figures during the first half of the 19th century were the German singer Gertrud Elisabeth Mara (in Tallinn from 1812 until her death in 1833, teaching singing and organizing concerts) and August Hagen (1786–1877), a composer, organist at St Olaus and music teacher at the Gymnasium. He ran a choral society, conducted several choirs and published singing and organ manuals in Estonian. In 1835 an amateur music society was formed, and in 1841 another, the Musikverein, with the aim of arranging regular concert series. The Musikverein had its own chorus and orchestra, its first director being the prominent pianist Theodor Stein, later a professor at the new St Petersburg Conservatory. In the 1840s there were performances of Beethoven symphonies and both Haydn oratorios. Visits by touring soloists (Vieuxtemps played here in 1839) became more frequent after the 1870s, when the railway placed Tallinn on the main route from the west to St Petersburg. Philipp Spitta, who came to teach languages in 1865–6, gave public lectures on music history.
In the second half of the 19th century cultural life became more organized. The city grew, and its ethnic proportions changed: in 1820 there were 34.8% Estonians and 42.9% Germans in the population of 12,902; by 1913 those figures were 71.6% and 8.3% in a population of 116,132. The first Estonian choral society, Revalia, was founded in 1863, and two years later the most influential cultural organization, the music society Estonia, was established. The latter had a choir and orchestra and occasionally performed Singspiele, even before opening its permanent theatre in 1906. In 1908 it began presenting opera there, and in 1913 it opened a new theatre and concert hall, which was rebuilt after World War II and has remained the city's cultural centre. Regular opera seasons began in 1918–19, and the ballet company was engaged in 1924. In 1949 the theatre company left and Estonia became the national opera.
The city became the capital of the new Estonian republic in 1919. That same year the Estonia society opened a higher music school, which became the Tallinna Konservatoorium (Tallinn Conservatory). Several leading Estonian musicians returned from Russia during or after the Revolution and taught there, among them the pianists Artur and Theodor Lemba, the hornist Jaan Tamm and the composer Artur Kapp. After the Soviet take-over, the conservatory was restructured as a university-level institution, with lower courses offered by the new Tallinna Muusikakool (Tallinn Music School). In 1993, two years after the country regained independence, the conservatory was restyled the Eesti Muusikaakadeemia (Estonian Academy of Music).
Regular broadcasting began in 1926, controlled from 1934 by Riigi Ringhääling (State Broadcasting, succeeded by Eesti Raadio), which formed its own orchestra. This sometimes combined with Estonia's orchestra, for example to perform Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms in 1936, and in the early 1940s it reached high standards under Olav Roots. It remained under the radio until 1975, when it became the Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester (Estonian State SO); its conductors have included Roman Matsov (1950–63), Neeme Järvi (1963–79) and Peeter Lilje (1980–90), and it has made recordings of new Estonian music.
Great changes took place after the reabsorption of the state into the Soviet Russian domains in 1940, and especially after the cessation of hostilities in 1944. Many musicians had emigrated; all private societies were closed and institutions nationalized. The ENSV Riiklik Filharmoonia (State Philharmonia of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic) was created in 1941 as the central concert agency, under whose auspices the ESSR Riiklik Akadeemiline Meeskoor (State Academic Men's Choir, widely known by the acronym RAM) was founded in 1944 by Gustav Ernesaks. Throughout the Soviet years this choir was the most popular representative of Estonian music; in 1989 it was renamed the Eesti Rahvusmeeskoor (Estonian National Men's Choir). A full-time mixed choir was formed in 1945 by the radio, the Eesti Raadio Segakoor, and the two choirs joined the Estonian State SO to give most oratorio performances in the city during a period of several decades.
Nationalization also changed a private music museum (founded in 1934) into the Teatri- ja Muusikamuuseum (Theatre and Music Museum) in 1940. Thanks to the state system by which new music was controlled by the Ministry of Culture during the Soviet era, and thanks to its own work in collecting earlier documents, the TMM has become the central archive of Estonian music. It also has a small collection of historical and folk instruments.
More recently founded performing groups include the Tallinna Kammerkoor (Tallinn Chamber Choir, particularly important from its foundation in 1966 into the 1970s, for both modern and older unaccompanied music), the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus (1972, led by Andres Mustonen) and the Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, professional from 1981 onwards and conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste), which has been the outstanding representative of Estonian music abroad (Pärt, Tormis) and of choral classics at home.
Independence restored pluralism to musical life, and various societies were founded or refounded. Among competing concert organizations, the Philharmonia's successor, Eesti Kontsert, remains the leader. Best known of the festivals are the Estonian Song Festivals (Laulupidu), which have often been accompanied by international choral competitions, oratorio performances and other events. There are also the Tallinna Orelifestival (Tallinn Organ Festival, held each August), the Barokkmuusika festival (spring) and Nyyd, a festival of contemporary music.
O. Greiffenhagen: ‘Revaler Stadtmusikanten in alter Zeit’, Baltische Monatsschrift, lv/2 (1903), 98–115
E. Rosen: Rückblicke auf die Pflege der Schauspielkunst in Reval (Melle, 1910/R)
H. Saha: Vana Tallinna noodikirjandusest: trükkimine, kirjastamine, levitamine [Music publishing in old Tallinn: printing, publishing, distributing] (Tallinn, 1945)
R. Pullat, ed.: Tallinna ajalugu 1860–1965 [History of Tallinn 1860–1965] (Tallinn, 1969)
M. Topman, ed.: Tallinna Riiklik Konservatoorium 1919–1969 [Tallinn State Conservatory] (Tallin, 1969)
H. Saha: Muusikaelust vanas Tallinnas [Musical life in old Tallinn] (Tallinn, 1972)
R. Pullat, ed.: Tallinna ajalugu 1860. aastateni [History of Tallinn up to the 1860s] (Tallinn, 1976)
K. Leichter: ‘Tallinna muusikaelu XIX sajandil’ [Musical life in Tallin in the 19th century], Valik artikleid (Tallinn, 1982), 157–99
K. Pappel: ‘Theaterstücke mit Musik in Reval’, Balticum: a Coherent Musical Landscape in 16th and 18th Centuries: Tallinn 1992, 31–5
K. Pappel: ‘Mozarts Opern in Tallinn (Reval) vor 200 Jahren’, Music History Writing and National Culture: Tallinn 1995, 61–7
H. Soobik: ‘Kantoren und Musikleben am Revalschen Gustav-Adolf Gymnasium 1631–1710’, Music History Writing and National Culture: Tallinn 1995, 93–100
URVE LIPPUS