Country in Europe. The area south of the Finnish Gulf has been inhabited by the Estonians since about 3000 bce. Like other Baltic states, Estonia has spent most of its history ruled by neighbouring countries, except for a short period of independence between 1918 and 1940, and since 1991.
URVE LIPPUS (I), INGRID RÜÜTEL (II)
There is evidence from about the turn of the millennium of the influence of Christianity, both Eastern and Western, in the culture of peoples living in Estonia, but it was the crusade of the Teutonic Order in the 13th century that brought present-day Estonia into the north German cultural area. Churches, monasteries, and later towns became centres of art music. Though Denmark conquered considerable parts of the country in the 13th century, and later also Swedes, Poles and Russians ruled, the language and culture of the upper classes was German until the end of the 19th century. The Estonian-speaking population mostly was peasantry, but formed also the lowest stratum of townspeople. Those who gained some education and social advancement, merged with the German-speaking community without essentially altering the ethnic opposition between upper and lower classes that remained an important feature of local cultural history up to the 1930s. By the end of the 19th century the Estonian national revival had led to the rise of an Estonian-speaking middle class, and the competition between the two communities was reflected in musical and theatrical life. The Baltic-German population was deported to Germany after the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty of 1939 by which the then independent Baltic countries were annexed by the Soviet Union.
Little is known of Estonian music before the Reformation. There is evidence of organs in some village churches (Helme, Paistu) from 1329; scarce fragments of earlier manuscripts have not been studied well enough to say anything about local church music. The Reformation reached Estonia in the 1520s and was established in the northern part; south Estonia remained under Polish rule after the Livonian war (1558–83), and the Catholic church was restored there until the Swedes conquered all the Baltic provinces in the 1620s. In the 16th century there were some attempts to translate Protestant hymns into Estonian. One of the earliest extant books with Estonian text is Heinrich Stahl’s Hand- vnd Hauszbuch für das Fürstenthumb Esthen (1632–8), whose second part includes 18 pages of recitation tones for collects and prefaces with Estonian words and was the earliest locally printed music, produced by the printer of the Revalsche Gymnasium in 1637.
There was no court in Estonia: the towns were centres of art music, engaging town musicians, organists and cantors. Tallinn (Ger. Reval) had a strictly organized institution of town musicians from the end of the 15th century, and in Tartu (Ger. Dorpat, Russ. Yuryev) the first reference to a town musician dates from 1587. In the 17th century there were choirs and instruments in town churches in addition to organs and congregational singing. There are documents describing the roles of town musicians, cantors and organist in festive services (from 1674 concerning the church of St Nicholas in Tallinn and from 1681 for St Johannes in Tartu). St Johannes, the main church at Tartu, employed two cantors in the 1680s: a cantor figuralis responsible for the choir and a cantor choralis for hymn singing. Narva, Pärnu (Ger. Pernau) and Viljandi (Ger. Fellin) were also old Hanseatic towns with similar needs and similar organization. Musicians who worked in Estonia in the 17th century included Johann Valentin Meder (cantor at the Revalsche Gymnasium, 1674–83) and Ludwig Busbetzky (organist in Narva, 1687–99), who had studied with Buxtehude in Lübeck around 1680. The Busbetzky family was one of the few local musical dynasties. Barthold Busbetzky had been engaged as a town musician in Tallinn in 1624; his son Barthold was an organist at St Nicholas in Tallinn (1658–99); and among the latter’s sons were three organists: Christian and Heinrich as well as Ludwig.
In 1632 the University of Tartu was founded by the Swedish king Gustav Adolf, making Tartu an even more important cultural and intellectual centre. In 1640 a speech about music, Oratio de musica by Jacob Lotichius (later cantor of the cathedral school in Riga), was delivered and printed there.
The Swedish period in Estonian history ended with the Northern War (1700–21), one of the most disastrous periods in the history of these areas, when war, hunger and plagues ravaged the villages. Estonia was incorporated into the Russian empire, and the university, having evacuated from Tartu to Pärnu, closed there in 1710. Not until 1802 was it reopened, in Tartu. The 19th-century university employed music directors to conduct choirs and provide its festive occasions with music, but music was never studied there as a scholarly discipline. However, a recognized 19th-century music theorist, Arthur Joachim von Oettingen (1836–1920), was a graduate of Tartu and later professor of physics there.
By the middle of the 18th century the towns had recovered from the wars and musical life was flourishing; it became fashionable to take keyboard and singing lessons. The travelling opera troupe of Mme Tilly from Lübeck met an enthusiastic response in Tallinn performing Mozart’s Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni (in 1795) among other popular repertory, and in 1809 a theatre was built in Tallinn, with a full-time troupe that also performed operas. The 19th century was the great age of choral societies, who gathered at Baltic-German song festivals (first in Riga, 1836, later in Tallinn, 1857 and 1866) and also organized performances of the great oratorios. Public concerts became common. In Tallinn and Tartu several music societies were active during different periods, and there were even some subscription series. Tartu, in particular, attracted travelling musicians, the common route from Riga to St Petersburg at the time passing through Tartu. Clara Schumann and Lizst were the most prominent among many who performed there.
The beginnings of popular education reach back into the 17th century. For peasant congregations the Swedes established a post of köster (Ger. Küster, Swed. klockare) at parish churches. This person had to teach young people to read and write, to sing church hymns and to pray; later, in the 19th century, the köster was also organist and village schoolteacher. A seminary was founded near Tartu in 1684 by Bengt Gottfried Forselius to train for this position: it was the first special school in Estonia for young men and it achieved good results. Towards the end of the Swedish period, the system of parish schools for peasant children started to build up, but all educational developments were interrupted by the Northern War for several decades.
The official German-oriented church was never as close to the Estonian peasantry as were the revivalist movements of the 18th century. Most influential were the pietist missioners from Herrnhut in Germany, who taught peasants not only to read and write, but also to read music and play the organ. Congregational singing had an important place in their services. As a counter-action, the official church became active in founding village and parish schools at the beginning of the 19th century and singing loomed large in their curriculum. Thus began the choral movement that became extremely significant in Estonian culture. Soon there were several well-trained parish choirs; that of Laiuse performed polyphonic choruses by Bach and Handel in 1835, and that of Põltsamaa, under Martin Wilberg, sang movements from The Creation and Messiah in 1856. Orchestras and instrumental ensembles also became widespread. At first whatever instruments were available played together, but by the middle of the century the brass band was the standard. Musical societies that had a choir and/or orchestra often also organized theatrical performances and were the principal means of social organization among Estonian peasants, because any political initiative was suppressed by the Baltic Germans as well as by the Russian authorities. The first Estonian song festival in Tartu (1869) brought together 1000 participants and became an important landmark in the national awakening movement. Song festivals have continued after every five years up to the present time. When the institutions of professional music life were established among the Estonian community in the early 1900s, the musical value of song festivals was often criticized, but their social function as one of the few legal patriotic festivals was as important in the Soviet era (1940–91) as it was during the Russification of the 1880s.
By the turn of the century the economic conditions of Estonians were considerably improved. The numbers of Estonians in the urban population increased quickly, and their growing wealth, education and national self-confidence formed the basis for a professional music culture. The Estonian music societies Vanemuine (Tartu) and Estonia (Tallinn), both founded in 1865, became the first institutional centres, each with an amateur choir, orchestra and theatre troupe. Singspiels, operettas and plays with music were very popular, but they also tried opera. Both societies engaged a full-time theatre troupe in 1906; Vanemuine opened its theatre the same year, Estonia followed in 1913, and regular opera performances started in the 1920s. Estonia developed into a national opera, while Vanemuine continued as a general theatre, and many new Estonian operas have been presented there. In 1908 the first series of symphonic concerts was organized by Vanemuine, with an orchestra of professionals and amateurs.
Early in the 20th century the first generation of professional Estonian musicians graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatory, the nearest and most accessible musical academy. The growing need for art music in the Estonian community forced most of them to be active in several fields; to teach, compose and to conduct choirs and orchestras. The most important composers among them were Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918), a powerful Romantic talent, who established large-scale symphonic and choral genres in Estonian music, Mart Saar (1882–1963), Peeter Süda (1883–1920), Heino Eller (1887–1970) and Cyrillus Kreek (1889–1962), the founders of Estonian national school in composition with more or fewer modernist sympathies, and Artur Kapp (1887–1952) and Artur Lemba (1885–1963), who both achieved high academic positions in Russia before repatriating after the Bolshevik Revolution and were more conservative as composers.
Estonia declared its independence in 1918. Very important for the future of Estonian music was the establishment of higher musical education in 1919, again simultaneously in Tartu with the Higher Music School (Tartu Kõrgem Muusikakool) and Tallinn Conservatory (Tallinna Konservatoorium). Soon the orchestras of Vanemuine and Estonia improved, and in the 1930s a new orchestra was formed at the radio that became the main concert orchestra (known since 1975 as the Estonian State SO), achieving particularly high standards during World War II under Olav Roots and later with Neeme Järvi. In 1920 Heino Eller became the composition and theory teacher at the Tartu Higher Music School, and his pupils formed the next strong generation of Estonian composers. Most prominent among them was Eduard Tubin (1905–82), a great symphonist whose international recognition was delayed until Järvi left Estonia in 1979 and started to perform his music with famous orchestras.
Though most genres had been represented in Estonian music by the 1920s, choral music has maintained a special position. Synthesizing modern harmonies and old folk music, Saar and Kreek created a style of large-scale choral composition with a nearly orchestral treatment of the voices, a style that has remained popular among Estonian composers.
After World War II, when Estonia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, a period of stagnation followed in composition. Many prominent musicians had perished in the war or left the country in flight from the Soviet regime. Most institutions, however, continued working, and two full-time choirs were founded: the National Men’s Choir (Eesti Rahvusmeeskoor) in 1944 and the Estonian Radio Mixed Choir (Eesti Raadio Segakoor) in 1945. The breakthrough of modern music came at the end of the 1950s, and was brought about by composers then completing their studies: Veljo Tormis (b 1930), Eino Tamberg (b 1930), Jaan Rääts (b 1932), Arvo Pärt (b 1935) and Kuldar Sink (1942–95). While Tamberg and Rääts brought neo-classical models into Estonian music, each in his own way, Pärt and Sink introduced serialism and other avant-garde techniques. Tormis is closest to the tradition of Saar and Kreek in his interest in folklore and preference for choral music, but his methods belong to the contemporary world. His music has helped Estonian choirs win prizes at international competitions since the early 1970s. From the next generation of composers, Lepo Sumera (b 1950) and Erkki-Sven Tüür (b 1959) have attracted attention.
In 1991 Estonia regained its independence and, despite economic problems, musical life benefited. Where the Soviet way had been to centralize everything in Tallinn, after independence several smaller towns made serious efforts to engage professional musicians; for example, Pärnu founded a municipal orchestra and Viljandi an ensemble for early music. There are also many regular music festivals.
See also Tallinn.
E. Arro: ‘Baltische Choralbücher und ihre Verfasser’, AcM, iii (1931), 112–19, 166–70
E. Arro: ‘Die Dorpater Stadt-Musici 1587–1809’, Sitzungsberichte der Gelehrten estnischen Gesellschaft (1931), 90–157
E. Arro: Geschichte der estnischen Musik, i (Tartu, 1933)
H. Saha: Eesti muusika ajaloo lugemik [Estonian music history reader] (Tallinn, 1934–40)
A. Kasemets: Eesti muusika arenemislugu [The history of Estonian music] (Tallinn, 1937)
A. Vahter and L. Normet: Soviet Estonian Music (Tallinn, 1967)
K. Leichter: ‘Estonskaya sovetskaya simfonicheskaya muzïka’, Stat'i muzïkovedov pribaltiki, ed. G. Golovinsky and L. Polyakova (Moscow, 1968), 256–78
A. Vahter, ed.: Eesti muusika [Estonian music] (Tallinn, 1968–75)
R. Põldmäe: Esimene Eesti üldlaulupidu 1869 [The first Estonian Song Festival] (Tallinn, 1969)
H. Olt: Estonian Music (Tallinn, 1980)
R. Põldmäe: ‘Hernhuutlane Christoph Michael Königseer ja tema kohtuprotsess 1767. aastal’ [Königseer and his lawsuit of 1767], Religiooni ja ateismi ajaloost Eestis [The history of religion and atheism in Estonia], ed. J. Kivimäe (Tallinn, 1987) 172–91
J. Kahk and E. Tarvel, eds.: Eesti talurahva ajalugu [The history of Estonian peasantry], i (Tallinn, 1992)
T. Siitan: ‘Das Regionale und das Allgemeine in der Choralrestauration des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Music History Writing and National Culture: Tallinn 1995, 84–92
K. Pappel: Muusikateater Tallinnas 18. sajandi lõpus ja 19. sajandi esimesel poolel [Musical theatre in Tallin from the late 18th and early 19th centuries] (Tallinn, 1996)
V. Lippus: Eesti pianistliku kultuuri kujunemine [The formation of Estonian pianism] (Tallinn, 1997)
H. Heinmaa: Tallinna kantorid 16.–17. sajandil [The cantors of Tallinn in the 16th and 17th centuries] (Tallinn, 1998)
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
The earliest references to Estonian folk music can be found in chronicles from the 12th century onwards (Saxo Grammaticus, Henry of Livonia, Russow, etc.). Certain old documents, such as records of local courts and those of church inspections, also provide information. The first fragment of an Estonian folktune was published in 1632 (in F. Menius: Syntagma de origine livonorum, Dorpat), but it was not until the end of the 18th century that A.W. Hupel, C.H.J. Schlegel and others began to take a profound scholarly and aesthetic interest in Estonian folk music, foreshadowed by the writings of J.G. von Herder.
Systematic collection of Estonian folk music began at the end of the 19th century under the direction of Karl August Hermann and continued later with the work of Oskar Kallas, Herbert Tampere, Udo Kolk, Ingrid Rüütel and others. The first sound recordings of Estonian folktunes were made using the Edison phonograph in 1912 by the Finnish researcher A.O. Väisänen. The Estonian Folklore Archives in Tartu now contain about 25,000 transcriptions and 55,000 sound recordings (including about 10,000 recordings of the music of other peoples). Extensive folk music collections are also held in the Museum of Theatre and Music and in the Institute of the Estonian Language in Tallinn.
The Folk Music Department of the Institute of the Estonian Language at the Estonian Academy of Sciences is the main folk music research centre in Estonia. It deals with the collection, research and publication of the traditional music of the Estonians as well as of other Finno-Ugric and Samoyed peoples; it organizes field expeditions (making video as well as sound recordings); it issues a series of monographs and folk music materials with commentary, Ars Musicae Popularis, as well as other publications, has created an Estonian folk music database, publishes CD collections and organizes international conferences.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
Estonian folksong can be divided into two main historical-stylistic strata: ancient folksongs (regivärsiline rahvalaul, also referred to as runo songs, Kalevala-metre songs, alliterative songs, etc.), and newer strophic folksongs with end-rhyme. The two types are musically distinct, the former belonging to the old Balto-Finnic culture, the latter more closely related to the European folksong of the 18th century onwards.
A number of ancient, non-runo genres exist alongside runo songs, which include shouts or calls for signalling, communication, or coordination of rhythm (e.g. herding or hunting calls, work signals, ritual calls, etc.); imitations of natural sounds; incantations and spells used to influence natural forces, animals or humans, to initiate work processes, healing, etc.; laments (funeral dirges, wedding laments) which survive only among the Setu people; songs in fairy tales; songs for children (lullabies, nursery songs) and some children’s songs; and cumulative songs (which initially had a magic function but have now also become children’s songs).
These genres possibly evolved earlier than runo verse, and have survived longer because of their specific purpose and function. They have characteristic modes of utterance unlike those of runo songs: intonation on a monotone; calling, shouting, etc., based on the contrast of two pitch levels; repetition of a step-by-step descending movement; imitation of natural and other sounds; or speech-like delivery corresponding to a narrative phrase with an undulating melodic contour in a generally descending direction. The melodic climax corresponds to the prosodic one, smaller rises and falls being connected respectively with the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words. The last type of melodic construction forms the main basis of runo song melodies, which are characterized by a more developed and stable tonal and melodic structure.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
The runo song form probably dates from the last millennium bce when the Balto-Finnic tribes had not separated, and spoke the same Balto-Finnic proto-language. The same poetic form and subject matter link the old Estonian folksong with the Finnish, Karelian, Votic and Ingerian ancient songlore. Runo songs include work songs, wedding songs, calendar ritual songs, game-songs, lullabies and children’s songs, and non-ceremonial lyrical and narrative songs. Most Estonian runo songs are lyrical; heroic epics (characteristic of Karelian and Finnish tradition) are not known in Estonia.
The runo song form dominated in Estonia up to the mid-19th century, when it was rapidly superseded by the newer end-rhymed folksong. Even in the 20th century, however, there were some old people in various parts of Estonia who were well versed in runo songs, and in some rare places the tradition of runo singing still exists – on the island of Kihnu off the west Estonian coast and among the Setus (a group living in the south-eastern corner of Estonia and in the neighbouring area of Russia, in the Pskov district).
The poetic form of runo song is characterized by alliteration and parallelism, and by the use of trochaic tetrameter. The 8-syllable verse-line is based upon the alternation of long and short syllables, the stressed positions not being fixed. Because the main stress in Balto-Finnic languages is always on the first syllable of a word, various rhythmic modifications may occur (illustrated in ex.1) and change during the song. There are also melodies in regular metre in which the word stresses are shifted according to the musical accents. Prolongation of the final note of a line is characteristic of north Estonian melodies. Such tunes may have a speech-like or regular metre. Sometimes every second note is prolonged (this is especially typical of swinging songs and lullabies, also of wedding and other tunes in some areas).
The oldest basic layer of runo tunes is represented by one-line refrainless melodies (i.e. tunes corresponding to one line of text) with a narrow tonal range (mostly a 3rd or 4th). These occur mostly in north and west Estonia. Among them one can differentiate between tunes with a descending melodic movement based upon speech-melody and rhythm and representing a generalized model of speech patterns (ex.2), and tunes with a descending-ascending movement. The first type were polyfunctional (i.e. used for different song genres), the latter (characterized by specific rhythmic patterns and melismas) belonged to the swinging songs (a particular genre of older calendar-ritual songs) in a restricted region of north Estonia (ex.3).
The runo tunes of south Estonia consist first of all of one-line refrain tunes with a narrow range, in which the basic melody-line is followed by a short refrain (ex.4). Later, two-line refrain tunes appeared with a refrain at the end of both lines, and include both narrow-range tunes (e.g. a 4th) and those with a wider range. Refrain melodies were typical of work songs, calendar and family ritual songs and game-songs. Each song genre had a specific refrain word, while the same melody-patterns might be used for different genres. Herding calls (the so-called helletused) are characterized by specific formal and melodic structures and often by free rhythm.
The most popular melodic style of north as well as south Estonian runo songs consists of two-line refrainless melodies based upon different diatonic scales with a range of a 5th or a 6th, often supplemented with a second or a fourth below. Both the major and minor 3rd occur. These melodies are especially typical of lyrical and narrative songs. Various rhythms and asymmetric structures, characterized by the repetition of some words and more ‘melodious’ refrains, are typical of south Estonian lyrical songs (ex.5).
Runo songs were usually sung in unison without any accompaniment. Most genres were performed by a song-leader alternating with a chorus (or another singer) who joined in on the last syllables of the leader’s verse and repeated it, perhaps varying or modifying the melody (see above ex.2 and ex.3). Everybody could join in, improvisation was frequent and as a result heterophony might appear. A specific type of drone singing was known in south Estonia: an accompanying voice performed the text on the same note, occasionally deviating from it, for example, at cadences. Herding songs, lullabies and nursery rhymes, charms and laments, sometimes also lyrical and other songs were performed by one person only.
A characteristic type of polyphonic singing is found in the Setu tradition. The melody sung by the leader is repeated (or varied) by a chorus forming the basic part (torrõ); its heterophonic modifications form a lower part (‘lower torrõ’). One singer with a particularly high and resounding voice performs the higher supporting part (killõ: ex.6). The separate voices may form discordant-sounding intervals, the impact of which is emphasized by a persistent rise in pitch, initiated by the killõ and followed by the other parts. The rise is interrupted by a perpendicular descent (kergütämine), when the leader abruptly starts the next verse at a lower pitch, which is immediately accepted by the chorus. The Setu tunes are characterized by particular structures and rhythms. Their melody-lines are often longer than the runo verse, thus word repetitions, additional words and syllables, and refrain-like structures occur. A similar type of polyphony can be found among the Mordvinians (a Finno-Ugric people living in the Volga region in Russia). Features common to both these song traditions are abrupt descents of tonality in a basically smoothly ascending tessitura, a particular vocal timbre and singing in a strained manner, which differs greatly from the usual performing style of Estonian folksongs.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
In the 18th century evolved songs in the so-called transitional form (i.e. those containing some traits of both the old and the newer song styles). These included some game-songs from the Medieval European repertory, which in Estonia were mostly adapted to local tunes, and dance-song melodies in triple metre and particular variable rhythms, deriving from bagpipe pieces, etc.
During the second half of the 19th century the end-rhymed strophic songs became predominant together with a new musical style characterized by a symmetrical four-line form, wider tonal range and use of the major-minor modal system. The influence of newer folksong styles of neighbouring countries as well as of German folk and popular songs was marked. Songs in this more recent style were not directly related to the working process or rituals. Instrumental dance-tunes were often used (polkas, waltzes, etc.). The men’s role was considerably greater than in the runo song tradition which applied mostly to women’s repertory. To the newer style belong game- and dance-songs, songs concerning historical events and social relations, soldiers’ and sailors’ songs, village songs (mostly humorous men’s songs: ex.7), sentimental songs and ballads. Although monophonic singing is dominant, more recent styles of polyphonic singing as well as singing with instrumental accompaniment are found.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
The older folk music instruments include the five- to seven-string kannel, which was trapezium-shaped, cut from a single block of wood and covered with a soundboard. This instrument was common to the earlier Balto-Finnic and Baltic tribes (see Kantele). During the 19th century a newer type of kannel, similar to the west European zither, with a soundboard made of staves, became widespread. Originally it had 15 or more melody strings, but later more strings were added; at the beginning of the 20th century harmony strings were introduced. Two basic playing styles have been used: in the first the strings not being used are damped with the fingers of one hand, while the other (usually the right) hand strikes chords on the open strings, the higher sounds forming the melody (the latter style may be supplemented with single sounds plucked by both hands); in the second, the right hand plucks the melody while the left hand strikes bass chords on separate strings. In south Estonia a chordal kannel evolved, which was played in instrumental ensembles. During the 20th century a chromatic kannel was devised. There is no information about older kannel music (except for melodies for a special type of Setu kannel which persisted longer); newer songs and dance-tunes were played on the more modern kannel.
Herding aerophones form another subdivision of older Estonian folk instruments, including the herding trumpet (karjapasun), the buckhorn (sokusarv) and various pipes. They were originally used for performing various signal melodies, but also melodies for amusement, especially in more recent times.
As the herding trumpet did not usually have finger-holes, the basic harmonic series was used for producing short signals. The buckhorn usually had three or four, rarely more, finger-holes. The melodies consisted of a short introduction, a central section including a theme consisting of one or more short motifs and its variations, and a coda.
Whistles made of willow and other materials were also used as popular herding instruments. The majority of Estonian herdsmen’s music instruments are single-reed aerophones, for example the roopill (reedpipe, usually with six finger-holes) and vilepill (pipe). The latter was usually made from a pine-tree branch with the pith pulled out and finger-holes cut in. In north Estonia a bell made from alder bark, and in Setu a buckhorn, was attached to the pipe.
The Estonian bagpipe (torupill) could use the reedpipe as a chanter. The windbag (made of a seal’s, or any other bigger animal’s, stomach or bladder; less often goat or dog skin was used: see illustration) was inflated through a wooden blowpipe with an internal valve to retain the air while blowing was interrupted, and had one or two, sometimes three, drone pipes, usually tuned to the system tonic; the second drone would be tuned to the fifth. The Estonian bagpipe belonged to the East European type and the earliest information dates from the 14th century. The bagpipe was especially popular in north and west Estonia, and for centuries was the main instrument for dance music at weddings, farmstead working bees, etc.
Bagpipe pieces consist of an introduction (based on a prolonged note or short melody-line), a central section and a postlude (which generally ends with a trill on the fifth, sometimes the second or sixth). Melodies are usually based on a major pentachord or heptachord, and include many figurations. Many bagpipe melodies were later transferred to newer folk instruments, with corresponding changes according to the instrument’s playing technique. Among older folk instruments, the jew’s harp (parmupill) was also popular.
In some coastal regions of west and north Estonia the bowed hiiukannel or rootsikannel (Swedish tallharpa, bowed harp) with two to four strings was played. Another instrument borrowed from Sweden was the mollpill (psalmodikon), a monochord constructed of staves, in the shape of an upturned trough. It usually had one string and was used for accompanying religious songs. These instruments were probably introduced into Estonia only in the 19th century.
The fiddle (viiul) became widely disseminated in the 19th century, although it had been used in Estonian villages to some extent already in the 18th. The popular style of fiddling involved holding the instrument lower than the chin, which enabled the musician to accompany himself with singing. The basic repertory consisted of labajalavalss and newer dance-tunes (polkas, etc.). By the end of the 19th century the lõõtspill (village accordion), which was loud and could play a chordal accompaniment, displaced all other instruments for dance music. The dominating dances became the polka, later the waltz and other social dances.
Traditional folk music ensembles appeared in Estonian villages at the end of the 19th century. They consisted of two fiddles or of a combination of fiddles, kannels and an accordion. Sometimes a double bass, guitar, mandolin and others, as well as some rhythmic and noise-making instruments were used.
The fiddle, accordion and new types of kannel have survived to some extent as an unbroken tradition, while a number of older folk music instruments (e.g. the bagpipe and hiiukannel) have been reconstructed and revived in amateur folk music groups.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
There is little information about the old ritual magic dances. Some references from the 17th and 18th centuries tell of fertility dances which barren women performed naked around the Catholic chapels. On the isle of Muhu a special men’s ritual dance (tõrretants) survived into the 20th century which was performed secretly by naked men around a beer barrel during Yuletide rituals and the wedding night. Wedding dances also belong to the ritual category: the first dance with the bride, and the dances performed by the wedding guests. Ritual wedding songs were usually performed with particular movements – moving in a circle, standing in a semicircle, stamping on the spot, etc. There are also references to dancing during certain feast days, for example, in the 17th century in west Estonia in connection with the cult of the Metsik – a straw male doll around which young people danced during winter evening games. At Shrovetide or some other feast day, it was taken to another village or the forest, accompanied by bagpipe playing, singing, shouting and dancing; there is, however, no concrete information about the steps or character of the movements.
The dances imitating animals or birds (ox, bear, goat, magpie, etc.) probably also originated in magic practices.
From the end of the 18th century, dances of the polonaise type became popular as well as the three-couple dances. At the beginning of the 19th century, the quadrille and dances evolving from it spread, mainly in eastern Estonia, while the labajalavalss (‘flatfoot waltz’) – a group of couple-dances in triple metre performed in a circle – spread through northern and western Estonia.
A number of dances belonging to the country dance type, such as Ingliska (‘English dance’), Kalamies (‘the fisherman’) and Oige ja vasemba (‘the right and the left’), spread in the second half of the 19th century in north and west Estonia, as well as dances in which different elements were mixed.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the polka (with a number of elaborations), waltz and other more recent social dances became an integral part of Estonian folk tradition, surviving and being performed alongside the foxtrot, tango and other modern dances in the 1930s and later decades.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
Amateur groups have now become the main mediators of traditional songs and music in contemporary culture, performing traditional styles as well as different arrangements and stylizations. During the Soviet period only highly stylized forms of folkdance and music, as well as new creations ‘in folk style’ were approved as they corresponded more to the officially recognized concept of culture – ‘socialist in content and national in form’– and to the aims of official festivals. Nevertheless, even the ‘acceptable’ forms of the folklore movement provided a means of national self-expression for the people, as did the huge song festivals in which numerous amateur choirs from all over the country – tens of thousands of singers – take part and hundreds of thousands of spectators gather to listen. This tradition goes back to the first song festival held in Estonia in 1869. The feeling of national identity and the need to demonstrate it at these festivals has been maintained through the course of recent history, regardless of to what and to whom they may have been officially dedicated.
Traditional folklore groups, which started their activities in the 1960s, were for a long time in opposition to the dominant and officially preferred folkloristic movement. The international folklore festival ‘Baltica’ as well as a number of local folk music festivals (Setu leelopäevad, Viru säru, Viljandimaa virred etc.) represent new trends in the Estonian folklore movement. They are primarily orientated to the revival of local traditional styles that were not recognized during the Soviet period. More recently gatherings of traditional folk musicians and summer seminars for young musicians have become very popular, as modern folklore activities in Estonia have become a part of the international folklore movement.
Folk music greatly influenced the rise and development of Estonian professional music and continues to be a source of inspiration for a number of composers such as Veljo Tormis, Anti Marguste, Ester Mägi and so on. Here can be included songs by Alo Matiisen (who died in 1996) and others, which represent a synthesis of ancient runo singing and modern rock music. Collective singing of popular songs was an inseparable part of the ‘singing revolution’ in Estonia which led to the restoration of independence in 1991.
Estonia, §II: Traditional music
A. Launis: Über Art, Enstehung und Verbreitung der estnisch-finnischen Runenmelodien (Helsinki, 1894)
A. Launis: Eesti runoviisid/Estnische Runenmelodien/Mélodies runiques estoniennes (Tartu, 1930)
J. Zeiger: Eesti rahvaviisid/Mélodies populaires estoniennes (Tartu, 1934)
H. Tampere: Eesti rahvaviiside antoloogia [Anthology of Estonian folk melodies], i (Tallinn, 1935)
R. Põldmäe and H. Tampere: Valimik eesti rahvatantse [Collection of Estonian folk dances] (Tartu, 1938) [incl. Ger. summary]
H. Tampere: Kuusalu vanad rahvalaulud [Old folksongs from Kuusalu], Vana kannel, iii (Tallinn, 1938)
H. Tampere: Karksi vanad rahvalaulud [Old folksongs from Karksi], Vana kannel, iv (Tartu, 1941)
U. Toomi: Eesti rahvatantsud [Estonian folkdances] (Tallinn, 1953)
H. Tampere: Eesti rahvalaule viisidega [Estonian folk songs with melodies], i–v (Tallinn, 1956–65) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
H. Tampere: Eesti regivärsiliste rahvalaulude muusika liigilised iseauml;rasused ja stiilid [Styles and characteristics of the melodies of the Estonian runo songs] (diss., U. of Tartu, 1960)
H. Tampere: Die Stiltypen der Melodik estnischer Runen (Tallinn, 1964)
H. Tampere: ‘Die Erforschung der Volksmusik in der Estnischen SSR’, Deutsches Jb für Volkskunde, xiii (1967)
I. Rüütel: Eesti uuema rahvalaulu kujunemine [Development of the newer Estonian folksong] (diss., U. of Tartu, 1969)
J. Zeiger: Rahva muusikalise loomingu aluseid ja traditsioone [The fundamentals and traditions of folk music creation] (Tallinn, 1970) [incl. Russ. and Eng. summaries]
H. Tampere, O. Kõiva and E.Tampere: Eesti rahvalaule ja pillilugusid: teaduslik antoloogia [Estonian folksongs and instrumental music: anthology of records] (Tallinn-Riga, 1970) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
I. Rüütel: Eesti uuema rahvalaulu varasemast arengujärgust [Earlier stages in the development of the recent Estonian folksong] (Tartu, 1971) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
I. Rüütel, H. Tampere and E. Tampere: Eesti rahvalaule ja pillilugusid [Anthology of records of newer Estonian folksongs and instrumental music], ii (Tallinn-Riga, 1974) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
H. Tampere: Eesti rahvapillid ja rahvatantsud [Estonian folk music instruments and dances] (Tallinn, 1975) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
I. Rüütel , ed.: Soome-ugri rahvaste muusikapärandist [Musical heritage of Finno-Ugric peoples] (Tallinn, 1977) [in Estonian and Russ., incl. Ger. summaries]
I. Rüütel, ed. : Finno-ugorskii muzykalnyi folklor i vzaimosvyazi s sosednimi kulturami [Finno-Ugric traditional music and its relations with the neighbouring cultures] (Tallinn, 1980) [incl. Eng. summaries]
I. Rüütel: Eesti uuemad laulumängud [Newer Estonian song-games], i–ii (Tallinn, 1980–83) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
H. Tampere and E. Tampere: Mustjala regilaulud [Runo songs from Mustjala], Vana kannel, v (Tallinn, 1985) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
V. Pino and V. Sarv: Setu surnuitkud [The Setu death dirges], i–ii, Ars Musicae Popularis (Tallinn, 1981–2) [incl. Russ. and Eng. summaries]
A. Vissel: Eesti karjaselaulud [Estonian herding songs], i–iv, Ars Musicae Popularis (Tallinn, 1982–92) [incl. Russ. and Eng. summaries]
I. Rüütel, ed. : Muzyka v obrjadah i trudovoi deyatelnosti finno-ugrov [Music in rites and working process by Finno-Ugrians] (Tallinn, 1986) [incl. Eng. summaries]
I. Rüütel, ed. : Muzyka v svadebnom obryade finno-ugrov i sosednih narodov [Music in wedding ceremonies of Finno-Ugrians and their neighbouring peoples] (Tallinn, 1986) [incl. Eng. summaries]
K. Salve and V. Sarv: Setu lauludega muinasjutud [Setu folk tales with songs], Ars Musicae Popularis (Tallinn, 1987) [incl. Russ. and Eng. summaries]
E. Laugaste: Haljala regilaulud [Runo songs from Haljala], Vana kannel, vi/1, 2 (Tallinn, 1989) [incl. Russ. and Ger. summaries]
I. Rüütel: ‘Die Schichten des Volkslieds der Setukesen und ihre ethnokulturellen Hintergründe’, Finnisch-ugrischen Forschungen, xlix (Helsinki, 1990)
I. Rüütel and K. Haugas: ‘A Method for Distinguishing Melody Types and Establishing Typological Groups (on the Material of Estonian Runo Songs)’, Musicometrica, ii: Quantitative Linguistics, xliii (Bochum, 1990)
I. Rüütel, : Istoricheskie plasty estonskoi narodnoi pesni v kontekste etnicheskih otnoöenij, Ars Musicae Popularis, xii (Tallinn, 1994)
U. Lippus: Linear Musical Thinking: a Theory of Musical Thinking and the Runic Song Tradition of Baltic-Finnish People (Helsinki, 1995)
V. Sarv and A. Koiranen, eds. : Veera Pähnapuu: Setukeste rahvalaule [The Setu folklongs by Veera Pähnapuu] (Tampere, ) [in Estonian, Finnish, Eng. and Russ.]
I. Rüütel: Ühte käivad meie hääled: eesti rahvalaule Väike-Maarja kihelkonnast [Estonian folk songs from Väike-Maarja] (Tallinn, 1997)
O. Kõiva and I. Rüütel: Kihnu regilaulud: Pulmalaulud [Estonian runo songs from the Kihnu island: Wedding songs], Vana kannel, vii/1 (Tartu, 1997)
I. Rüütel: Estonian Folk Music Layers in the Context of Ethnic Relations Folklore, vi, (1997), 32–69 [electronic version: http://haldjas.folklore.ee/folklore]
M. Kasemaa and V. Sarv: Setu hällitused [The Setu lullabies], Ars Musicae Popularis, xiii (Tallinn, 1999)
Setusongs MIPU CD 104. Global Music Centre, Mipu Music and Vaike Sarv (Finland)
Suu laulab, süda muretseb...: Anthology of Estonian folk songs coll. I. Rüütel, CD 1994 , FORTE (Tallinn, 1994)