Lauliku lapsepõli
The Songster’s Childhood from Laulud laulust ja laulikust / Songs of Singing and the Songster
Cultural Context
Veljo Tormis (Estonia)
The Estonian choral tradition literally embodies the power of communal singing. With a population of only 1.4 million, fewer than 1 million of whom are ethnic Estonians, this small country boasts over a thousand choirs and tens of thousands of singers. Every five years since 1869, the country’s singers gather at a special site on the outskirts of Tallinn for a unique and amazing event: the Laulupidu or All-Estonian Song Festival, where a choir of 20,000 sings for and with an audience of 100,000. Surprisingly, during years of Soviet occupation in the mid-to-late 20th century, this gathering was even larger. From 1869 until today, the Laulupidu ideal remains consistent: to reaffirm cultural roots, to pass along the songs from generation to generation, and, as a gathered people, to sustain the culture’s value and unique identity. Despite seven centuries of occupation or foreign rule, Estonian culture—including music and language—was not silenced. Much of this cultural preservation occurred by continued assertion of the regilaul, the ancient Estonian folk song. These melodies were not written down as were other Nordic runic tunes, but are true regilaul in that they were orally transmitted from generation to generation. The first generation of Estonia’s national romantic composers—including Gustav Ernesaks and Rudolf Tobias—reflect the European compositional style of the late 19th century. The next generation of composers—Eduard Tubin, Mart Saar, and Cyrillus Kreek—began to use Estonian folk music in their compositions. However, the compositional voice of Veljo Tormis embodies the regilaul and in doing so, creates a unique choral idiom.
Composer-arranger Veljo Tormis was born in Kuusalu, near the capital city of Tallinn, in 1930. He studied organ, choral conducting and composition in Tallinn before receiving a degree in composition from the Moscow Conservatory. Tormis was influenced initially by outstanding composers of the preceding generation (Tubin, Saar, and Kreek) who used folk melodies as material for thematic development in the traditional classical compositional style. His compositional epiphany occurred with the composing of Eesti kalendrilaulud / Estonian Calendar Songs, when, as Tormis says, he “attempted to preserve the authenticity of the source material—the ancient Estonian [regilaul] song—in choral settings, avoiding any arrangements or harmonizations after European canons.” Tormis supports the original regilaul in text, tune, and structure while fusing it with a late 20th century musical framing. As he has stated on a number of occasions, “I don’t use folksong; folksong uses me.” By using the hallmarks of Estonian culture—the language and the regilaul—as his compositional materials, Tormis carries forward the country’s ancient traditions into the next millennium. Originally composed in 1966, Lauliku lapsepõli became part of a larger five-song set in 1971 entitled Laulud laulust ja laulikust / Songs of Singing and the Songster. In the midst of Soviet occupation and suppression of Estonian cultural expression, Tormis created this set and dedicated each movement to a folklorist colleague who, during this period, supported his emphasis of regilaul-based composition. This score, Lauliku lapsepõli, was dedicated to folklorist Ottilie Kõiva, one of the compilers of the Eesti rahvamuusika antoloogia/Anthology of Estonian Traditional Music which was one of the country’s earliest collections of its national regilaul. This significant collection of texts and field recordings also contains song texts, no longer with German or Russian paraphrases, but with English verses by Harri Mürk.
Interpretation and style Regilaul texts are single non-strophic lines of 8 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables (trochaic). Instead of end rhymes, these texts use alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds in successive words) and assonance (neighboring juxtaposition of vowel sounds). The melodies are characterized by a narrow range, scalar motion, frequent repetition of tones and independence from the harmonic motion so typical of western European folk tunes. Tormis always indicates in a score the parish or region from which a given melody comes. This piece’s folksong comes from the Põlva parish in southeastern Estonia, the homeland of the ancient Setu peoples and culture whose music embodies this ancient musical practice. Regilaul is usually women’s song. Traditional singing is led by one singer who is skilled in combining verses, and the other singers (the chorus) repeat each verse as sung by the lead vocalist. The lead singer breathes only when the group sings, and vice versa, thereby creating an unbroken melodic chain. Although this score’s verses are not repeated by the chorus, the melody follows the tradition of the regilaul in all other respects. The addition of the short al-le-aa refrain at the end of each verse is peculiar to the singing style in Southern Estonia. The vocal scoring of treble voices in Lauliku lapsepõli also indirectly preserves this folk tradition: a solo singer is echoed by a small group, all of which is supported by the larger chorus. After the initial solo/small group verses, the larger choir enters almost imperceptibly, untexted, and by a gradual layering of thirds, builds a fabric of harmonic sound on neutral vowels under the ongoing dialogue of the folksong. Vocally, the coloring of Estonian choirs is similar to their Nordic counterparts: light and pure upper voices, fuller and warm lower voices and less use of vibrato as a normative color.
Text and Translations Kui ma ol’li väikokõnõ, al’leaa, kas’vi ma sis kaunikõnõ, al’leaa, ol’li üte üü vannu, al’leaa, pääle katõ päävä vannu, imä vei kiigu kesä pääle, pan’de hällü palo pääle, pan’de par’dsi hällütämmä, suvõlinnu liigutamma. Par’dsil ol’le pal’lo sõnnu suvõlinnul liia laalu par’ts sääl man mul pal’lo lauli suvõlindu liiast kõnõli. Säält mina lat’s sis laulu’ ope ul’likõnõ sõna' osasi, kõik mina pan’ni papõrihe, kõik mina raiõ raamatuhe. Selle minol pal'lo sõnnu, selle laajalt laaluviisi.
When I was very little, al’leaa, I grew so prettily, al’leaa, I was but one night old, al’leaa, just two days old, mother took my cradle to the meadow, put my crib on the heath, put a duck to rock the cradle, the bird of summer to push me. The duck had many words, the bird of summer had lots of songs, the duck sang many songs to me there, the bird of summer, it spoke to me a lot. That is where this child learned the songs, this crazy one [got to] know the words, all of them I placed on paper, all of them I hewed into a book. That is why I have so many words, that is why I have lots of tunes.
Kui ma ol´li väikokõnõ,* When I was very tiny, kas’vi ma sis kaunikõnõ, grew I then, [I]**a little beautiful [one], ol´li üte üü vannu, [When I] was one night old, pääle katõ päävä vannu, more than two days old, imä vei kiigu kesä*** pääle, mother took [the] rocker [the] meadow onto, pan´de hällü palo*** pääle, set [the] cradle [the] heath onto, pan’de par’dsi hällütämmä, set [a] duck to rock [me], suvõlinnu liigutamma. [a] summerbird to move [me]. Par´dsil ol´le pal´lo sõnnu, with [the bird] **** [there] were many words, suvõlinnul liia laalu, with [the] summerbird [there was an] abundance of songs, par´ts sääl man mul pal´lo lauli [the] duck there nearby to me a lot sang suvõlindu liiast kõnõli. [the] summer bird much did speak. Säält mina, lat´s, sis laulu’ ope, From there I, [a] child, then [the] songs did learn, ul´likõnõ sõna’ osasi, [I a] crazy little [thing] [the] words [got to] know, kõik mina pan´ni papõrihe, all I placed into paper, kõik mina raiõ raamatuhe. all I hewed into [a] book. Selle minol pal´lo sõnnu, For this reason with me [there are] many words, selle laajalt lauluviisi. for this reason [with me there is] [an] abundance of song tunes. * -kõnõ = diminutive suffix: sweet, dear, little, darling ** Words placed in square brackets [ ] are not actually in the text but are understood through the context *** Parallelism in Estonian folksongs is not necessarily a matter of absolute synonyms; often two parallel lines will contain words with opposite semantic fields. The meaning of the lines is that the mother took the child everywhere she went. **** The concept of “having” is expressed in Estonian either by the use of a suffix that means something like “with” “on” or “at” attached to the possessor. This is followed by the verb “to be” and then the thing possessed. Translations provided by Dr. Harri Mürk (PhD, Finno-Ugric Studies, Indiana University) Printed by permission.
Pronunciation Guide Regilaul texts are rich with culturally-informed images and figures. This text emphasizes the culture’s teaching and learning of the traditional song literally from birth. Singing this piece in the original Estonian is not difficult because the text and tune are so interdependent. Most languages of Europe and western Asia, including Russian, have Indo-European roots. However, Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian have uniquely Finno-Ugric roots. In general, the vowels are pure, as in Italianate Latin [ a E i o u ]. Double vowels, when spoken, are simply held longer; when sung, their duration is determined by the given note value. As in Finnish, the main stress in an Estonian word is almost always on the first syllable. Solo group singers are encouraged to seek the assistance of a native speaker for refined pronunciation. Additional audio resources will be announced on the Cantemus webpage as they become available. Estonian i = i = õ = ä = ö = ü = g = r =
IPA i I O { ø y g r
Phonetic If in an initial stressed syllable: “ee” as in English “see” If in an unstressed syllable: “ih” as in English “sit” “aw” as in English “straw” as in English “cat” as in English “sir” or German “schön” as in German “über” or French “une” (shape ‘oo’ say ‘ee’) as in English “get” always rolled and on pitch
In this score, l’, n’, r’, s’ and t’ are palatalizations; the singer should move to the consonant rather than sustaining the vowel. The a’ and u’ indicate glottal stops.
For extensive information about Veljo Tormis, see Mimi Daitz’s 2004 biography Ancient Song Recovered: The Life and Music of Veljo Tormis (ISBN 1-57647-009-1). For information about IFCM’s Cantemus choral series as well as individual composers and scores, please visit the Cantemus website: www.madolu.com/ifcm/cantemus.html Dr. Marian E. Dolan, editor
International Federation for Choral Music
Cover art and Cantemus logo design by Norton Young.
To Olli Kõiva
Lauliku lapsepõli The Songster's Childhood
1. Soli o gruppi
2.
q»•º (solo) # 2p U U & 4 œ œ œ # & 24
Kui ma
from Laulud laulust ja laulikust/ Songs of Singing and the Songster
nel tempo
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mm
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Copyright © 1996 by Kirjastus "MUUSIKA", Tallinn, Estonia International Copyright Secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by Permission.
Œ
sis
al - le - aa,
˙
mm
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kas' - vi
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pää - vä
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Composer-arranger
24 œ
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3 ˙. 4
16
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Group 1: begin with a soloist; others join in mm. 33–64; then the soloist sings mm. 65–72. Group 2: a small group of singers throughout.
1.
Estonian Folk Song Veljo Tormis,
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