Getting Settled!

4-8.11.13

I am finally beginning to adjust to the 10-hour time difference, the colder climate, and the challenge of sustaining a conversation in English of any substance; all clichés, colorful modifiers and esoteric subject matter is off limits! The air is filled with Estonian and Russian both distinctly different in their tone and cadence. I am trying to add five new Estonian words to my vocabulary daily. Beyond please, thank-you, good day, and excuse me, my Estonian has to be rehearsed in advanced, phrase by phrase.

There is so much to do just to get oriented. Which market shall I shop at? How do you tell which coffee grind is for French press? Where can one buy a broom? Which soap is for the face and which is for the toilet bowl?

The week began with two outstanding concerts, informal meetings with students at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT), and observations of two treble choirs which I will have the honor of co-conducting in the spring, The Ellerhein Girls’ Choir, and the Girls’ Choir at the Muusikakeskool in Tallinn.

Last Sunday, I heard Stockhausen’s Herbstmusik (autumn music) 1974: No. 40, performed at Theatre No.99 (the theatre features regular theatre, music, dance, and has a weekly jazz night). Stockhausen’s work is a slightly mischievous multimedia mix of visual theatre, music for clarinet and viola, mime, and sounds amplified by microphones, featuring four players who make natural sounds with hammers, nails, sticks, dried leaves, straw, and running water. Activities of autumn, nailing, breaking sticks, threshing grain, and a young couple tussling in wet leaves become a texture of rhythm and sound grouped into four movements ending with a duet for clarinet and viola using serial techniques. I loved it!

On Monday, I attended a concert of Veljo Tormis’ Unustatud Rahvad (Forgotten Peoples), an incredible set of six song cycles, performed in a 14^th Century mill which had been converted into a performance space. The composer and his wife, Lea, were both in attendance. I have had the privilege of meeting Veljo during the 2007 International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) World Symposium on Baltic Music. Twice, I have shared meals alongside him. He speaks Estonian, Russian, and German, but no English. He has a great sense of humor and appreciated that I could use my limited Estonian to count the strawberries on my dessert plate.

The free concert was not well advertised and the place was small. I got there an hour early only to discover that admittance was by pre-invitation. I stood patiently and reminded the doorkeeper of my presence. While waiting, I chatted briefly with Veljo and Lea (still can’t say much in Estonian) and joked to them that they may not be able to get into the concert. Along with a few dozen “uninvited,” I was admitted just before the performance began—a small miracle! The set of six cycles takes just over three hours. The choir of 25 (including two conductors, male and female) made multiple formation changes, sang from under the stage, above the stage in a gallery, and in the round, sometimes with only tiny folder lamps in a darkened space!  The music ‘catalogues’ and preserves the song heritage from Finno-Ugric peoples in and around the area of Estonia, Western Russia (Karelia) and Finland. Multiple dialects and language variants are used (Finnish and Estonian being very close cousins), peoples, some of whose languages and songs are nearly extinct. The evening was pure magic. The acoustics in the mill, a circular building with ancient stone walls, are magnificent. The ensemble was a pick-up choir of singers from the EAMT and the professional community. They were outstanding and athletic—singing without apparent fatigue for three hours, with only one intermission. WWU audiences will be hearing one of these song cycles for sure, either Votive Wedding Songs, or Ingrian Evenings!

Both Choirs, Ellerhein and Muusikakeskool, are outstanding. The girls are ages 14 to 18. Those who are in the Muusikakeskool (music high school) study solfeggio and often play in orchestra, band, or study piano. Their music literacy is high. The singing quality is clear and resonant, without vibrato. The tone is warm and reflects the tall darker vowels prevalent in the Estonian language. It will be interesting to see how they sound on music from the Americas, which I will introduce to them in January!

More to come! I must go to the ilusalong (beauty salon) for a haircut!

Head aiga! Have a good day!