The Estonian Singing Revolution

Seeking a quiet moment away from the pre-concert frenzy at Podium 2012, Canadian liaison for the Tartu Ülikooli Akadeemiline Naiskoor choir, Andres Raudsepp, discusses with me the role of music within the Estonian choral community and choir tour so far. As a choir girl who is constantly seeking international outlets to expand my choral experiences, it always perplexes me when choirs choose to tour Canada. Raudsepp describes the appeal of Canada and the relationship between the Estonian-Canadians to Estonians from Estonia. He attributes this appeal to the fact that Estonian-Canadians have always contributed back to their home country in field such as medicine and dentistry, as a result, “Estonia gives back its music.” An excellent example of cultural mutualism.

The Estonian choral community has a rich cultural heritage. Since 1869, Estonia hosts a song festival, “Laulupidu” every five years where over 25 000 singers join together in song. Raudsepp emphasized that this song festival was a formative event in Estonian history because “it established the identity of Estonian choral music… the song festival became an expression of the mentality and desire of Estonia,” and created a “singing revolution.” The reflection of Tartu’s Estonian heritage is also reflected in their repertoire choice at Podium, which was mainly Estonian folklore. Raudsepp remarks this is the case because “the tradition of women as messengers of Estonian's consciousness through folksong over countless centuries is reflected in the current devotion of their country's women singers to their art.” Therefore, the female voices of the group have become a cultural conduit for Estonian sentiments.

Podium Commences

Greetings readers,

This choir girl has officially landed in the heart of Podium 2012. The first day was a blur: a parliament tour, sound check, choir concert, interview, another choir concert, and welcome reception. As soon as I arrived, it has felt like I've been consumed in a choral-centric whirlpool. Every time I go another round in the swirling vortex there is yet another person I recognize and am excited to greet. This conference is choirtopia. There are so many opportunities to just choir geek-out throughout this conference. One look into the audience and you wonder: “Is that Jeff Enns? the composer of the piece we’re singing?!?!” or “Is that the conductor of the Canadian Chamber Choir!?!?” It’s as if these glances within an audience or during a reception function as choir star-sightings. It feels like all the musical acquaintances that I have slowly compiled have all aggregated en masse this weekend.

Belle Canto's morning began with some lovely historic touring of the East Block of Parliament in the morning followed by lunch in the parliamentary cafeteria with Canadian Senators. Afterwards Belle Canto hurried over to Knox Presbyterian Church to begin the sound check. The church was gorgeous. Reverberant stonewalls containing a cool and comforting atmosphere. We began by singing through our Schumann pieces and communal smiles appeared throughout the choir as we heard the pulsating reverb of our sound. This was going to be a fun acoustic to sing in. After a little bit of physical rearrangement, including my discovery the Belle Canto had introduced some choralography into El Hambo, we were ready for our concert.