laupäev, märts 22, 2008

regilaul

I recently burned myself a copy of Hedningarna's 1999 album, Karelia Visa. It is a modern exploration of Karelian folk music. I am pretty pleased with it, and it serves as good background music during a ride through the countryside.

It's also fun to match the Karelian words up with the Estonian ones. the first track 'Veli' means 'Vend' (brother) in Estonian. The second track "Mitä Minä (Laulan)" is "Mis mina laulan" (what I sing) in eesti keel.

When I visited Lapland about five and a half years ago I remember that there seemed to be an abundance of folk music available for purchase. The most famous folk form in Finland is, of course, the Sami joik. I became well acquainted with 'joiking' during that trip.

In Estonia though I am unaware of where I can find decent recordings of Estonian folk music. I am familiar with the works of Jaan Tätte and Erkki-Sven Tüür, but I am thinking more along the lines of people from rural areas singing the traditional runo song or regilaul. That is why I am putting up this post: I am fishing for some new music. My daughter requests music performed by other girls, so if there are female singers, it's an added bonus. I welcome your suggestions.

29 kommentaari:

Unknown ütles ...

Actually veli is an Estonian word also, its synonymous to brother. And "Mitä Minä (Laulan)" is "Mis ma laulan" in Estonian.

Wahur ütles ...

Check out Anu Taul. I think what she is doing is not authentic old music, but her own stuff, but it's in beautiful mulgi dialect (that is probably THE most beautiful way to speak Estonian). I would also highly suggest listening her live. When she was singing her wolf song I really felt like growing some extra hair and fangs :) This girl has more raw power than Metsatöll :D
Beware of anything "authentic" - this usually means old women singing in ugly and worn-out voices about things they forgot half of the life ago. Mostly pathetic.
Oh, and the best over view you will get in Viljandi - just couple of more months to wait. See you there!

Kristopher ütles ...

Check the National Museum gift shop on Veski -- I'm 80% positive that they had an anthology of folk music on CD. If by decent you mean hi-fi, they may be historical recordings just like the American one of the same name.

Giustino ütles ...

Actually veli is an Estonian word also, its synonymous to brother. And "Mitä Minä (Laulan)" is "Mis ma laulan" in Estonian.

Thanks. Estonian seems full of words that nobody uses. They taught me that 'käli' is 'sister-in-law', but nobody says 'käli', they say 'mu naise õde'.

Unknown ütles ...

Hi Justin:

Check out the www.folk.ee site. You can listen to performances from past festivals. Last year's focus was Regilaul.

Try the setomaa website. They used to have music on their site.

If you want nordic roots music (not Estonian) go to www.noside.com. Their samplers are really nice.

Anu Taul also has a My Space site.

For fun use the link on the folk.ee website to Iker Goenaga -- a Basque accordian player who performed at Viljandi Folk a couple of years ago. Fun music too.

space_maze ütles ...

t's also fun to match the Karelian words up with the Estonian ones. the first track 'Veli' means 'Vend' (brother) in Estonian. The second track "Mitä Minä (Laulan)" is "Mis mina laulan" (what I sing) in eesti keeles.

I've been having a lot of fun with that in Mari. While 500 times more distant from Estonian than Finnish, at times you run into a sentence that just makes a whole lot of sense.

Like in some crappy pop song .. "Kušto ulat da kunam tolat?"

= Kus oled ja kunas tuled?

Hannele ütles ...

The suggested singer, Anu Taul, is really a good choice to start with. I also recommend Mari Kalkun (she's my friend) whose record just came out before Christmas and contains songs in Võru language as well in Estonian.
http://www.myspace.com/marikalkun

Also, a band called Zetod is really cool. They mix Setu folk songs with their own unique ways (e.g rock).
http://www.myspace.com/zetod

And some more: http://www.myspace.com/valkvabarnapriks


If you come to Viljandi and you're still looking for folk music, check out our new Estonian Traditional Music Center now located in the castle hills (next weekend will be the opening of the Storage of Music with lots of music).
The Center sells a variety of Estonian and foreign folk music.

Madame D ütles ...

http://www.diskreetsemangotrio.ee/eng/

and they have 2 female singers, plus two male singers...so it's a win-win situation :D

Wahur ütles ...

Estonian has a word for every thinkable relative - and despite speaking better native Estonian than many in this country I am yet to memorize all of them - kõik need onud, tädid, vaarid, küdid, kälid, naod, lelled - never mind, if you know who käli is, you already know more than me, a native speaker.

Hannele ütles ...

I'm checking my music folder so I can suggest some more:

Vägilased http://www.vagilased.ee/
Helletused (with Liisi Koikson)
Meelika Hainsoo (lead singer of Vägilased, Wirbel) http://www.epl.ee/artikkel_324898.html
Oort http://www.oort.ee/

Also, I suggest a band called Paabel www.myspace.com/paabel who mix folk, jazz and acoustic. Also there's an interesting group called Ro: Toro (folk, experimental) http://www.myspace.com/rotoro

Oh, so, most of the groups are not authentic regilaul BUT they use elements, rhythms, texts to bring it to the time where we are now. :)

Unknown ütles ...

If you also like metal music, then Metsatöll's new album is brilliant. Although probably not what you were looking for.

Ellen ütles ...

I love Mari Kalkun too!
She has got a great voice :)
Couldn't stop thinking about this music when I came back from Estonia, so I asked an Estonian friend and now I've got her cd at home :)
And Anu Taul is also nice to listen.

Sverik ütles ...

Soovitan soojalt, kuula seto miihhilaulu: http://www.liinatsuraq.ee/lauluq.html

Jens-Olaf ütles ...

In the early 90ies ECM Records in Munich published two cds by Veljo Tormis. The choirs are performing Livonian, Votic, Izhorian, Ingrian, Vepsian and Karelian song in their original language.

Veljo Tormis: 'I do not use folk song, it is folk song that uses me.'

and
'I believe the runic songs to be the highest achievementt and most original phenomenon of Estonian culture.'...

Painting waves in clouds ütles ...

http://www.folklore.ee/Kannel/index2.html and click Arhiivilindistused or any of the laulud-links. The former is for the old tädid and the latter is for the young tibid.

Also, Sinimaniseele is going to release a CD or may already have done so.

By the way, have you been to tantsuklubi Tiigi seltsimajas? It's a nice place to start your self-study on the subject. Ask anyone there.

Anonüümne ütles ...

Dude, in eesti keel. Not in eesti keeles.Es at the end of an estonian word means in. So in Eesti keeles means in in Estonian which makes no sense. Stop adding an extraneous in even when mixing two languages. One in in one language is enough (note correct use of the double in).

Giustino ütles ...

I know, Puu, but the rhythm of the sentence makes in 'eesti keel' sound awkward. There needs to be something else. If this was Swedish, it would be so much easier. Say it 'paa svenska' -- no 'in' required.

viimneliivlane ütles ...

Out of 16 comments only one about Veljo Tormis tells me that indeed the new explosion in regi is for the young!

Last summer at the Viljandi Folk Festival, while observing what the new generation is doing with the old song form, I realized that when a few educated Estonians in the 19th century set out to record regilaulud in writing they were setting them in stone for all time, so to speak, whereas living breathing songs change over time as each generation adds their own verses, changes a few words here or there, and, in sum, sings them only as well as they remember them at all, meaning the songs have some relevance in their lives, because that's how the wisdom of the ages got carried down through time immemorial...

Which is to say that the old women with the wobbly voices who remember some but maybe not all the words are passing the tradition on in the way it always has been, not at one point in time which is the way of books, CDs, films, etc. - they are giving these songs to you to make your own revisions to suit yourself. For me the same process accounts for how the various finno-ugrics changed the language to suit themselves.

Giustino, I gather you have Nils Valkepea's joike in your collection.

Anonüümne ütles ...

Folk group "Sinimaniseele" has released album "Ääletu ägin". Strongly recommended :)

Visit website http://meestelaul.metsatoll.ee/foorum/index.php
On certain times, people come together and sing, everyone is welcome (some events still are 'men only')

kärg ütles ...

For somewhat more authentic hardcore regilaul sung by young girls:
Väike Hellero
http://www.hot.ee/vaikehellero/
Tsibihärbläseq
http://tsibileelo.maaturism.ee/

Giustino ütles ...

Why does Wõro language have all those 'q's at the end of words? It looks like Greenlandic.

viimneliivlane ütles ...

I don't know anything about the Wõro language however your questions made me think that there may be something going on in the way of acoustical effect, and am reminded that on Kihnu Island when boys sing, each line of the song ends with 'ning' which means 'and' - an appropriate connector to tell the listener there's more coming - however it also has the acoustical effect, when song by little boys, of sounding like a bell ringing at the end of each stanza...
It's a real treat to hear Kihnu women sing on their island because if you close your eyes they can sound like sirens calling out to fishermen far out at sea.

All this is to say that you may find simple esthetics in regilaulud not explained by content alone.

Wahur ütles ...

I thing 'q' is used in võro dialect to mark swallowed and therefore soundless 'k'. I am no expert, though.

Hannele ütles ...

'Q' has two different meanings.
It is for stressing a word. For example, the word 'mina' shorter form 'ma'. You can just say 'Ma olen inimene.', but you can also say 'Maq olen inimene.' Then 'q' stresses the word 'ma'. It's like "It is I who is...".

The other meaning is plural.
For example 'kala' is fish and 'kalaq' is fish (a flock of fish).

It is pronounced somewhat between k and h, ending the words in the throat.

(hopefully I got it right)

Hannele ütles ...

(sorry, the examples about 'ma' in Estonian should be in Võru actually, I forgot to translate)

lagritsalammas ütles ...

Vägilased and Diskreetse Mango Trio are already mentioned, but not Indigolapsed *inserts a thousand harts*

http://flightbasic.com/indigolapsed/

viimneliivlane ütles ...

It occurs to me that why peope find the mulgi dialect so pleasant to the ear is that it is lacking in aspirates - forget h at the beginning of a word - Heiki is Eiki, Helvi is Elvi, and, if a word should begin in two consonants, the first one is dropped - trepp is repp, traat is raat. Sounds smoother, doesn't it? The aspirating letters t and k also sound smoother when found in the middle of a word. Makes me wonder why the rest of Estonia doesn't want to talk like this.

Laudaukse Kääksutajad ütles ...

Hmm, Barndoor squeakers?
Laudaukse kääksutajad- nice calm music before sleep.
Especially the last album Õhtu tuleb!

Anonüümne ütles ...

"q" stands for a laryngal occlusive. North Estonians have it only in colloquial forms "mkmm" and "äkää". If you ask for an Indoeuropean example, try some English dialects - "wha' is i'?"
By the way, next tantsuklubi is on next Wednesday (2.04), starts at eight. But I haven't heard much of regilaul there.