A3 Vertaisarvioitu kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa

Estonian Song Festivals : Reconsidering Time and Territory




TekijätPae, Taavi; Jauhiainen, Jussi S

ToimittajaBrunn, Stanley D.

KustantajaSpringer Nature Switzerland

Julkaisuvuosi2024

Kokoomateoksen nimiGeography of Time, Place, Movement and Networks, Volume 3

Aloitussivu173

Lopetussivu189

ISBN978-3-031-58032-1

eISBN978-3-031-58033-8

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58033-8_10

Verkko-osoitehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58033-8_10


Tiivistelmä

Singing can bring people, places and territory together over different times, but what kind of people, what kind of territories and what kind of times? This chapter discusses the Estonian Song Festival, an event that has brought Estonians together to sing for more than 150 years. It is not only about singing and performing but also attending, following, remembering, protesting and encouraging – all kinds of social actions through human voices, music and places. The Estonian Song Festival is one of the largest choral events in the world, and it takes place in Estonia, one of the smallest countries in the world. Earlier studies indicate how important this singing together has been to the national consciousness of Estonians. Song festivals historically supported the foundation of the nation in the mid-nineteenth century when Estonia belonged to the Russian Empire. The festivals fostered the unification of the population after the country became independent in 1918. During the Soviet occupation after the Second World War, these events were a way to connect to the culture before the occupation and dream about a future after it. In the 1980s, almost a third of the nation attended informally together to sing old and new patriotic songs. It brought confidence that independence could be restored, which took place in 1991. The 27th Estonian Song Festival in 2019 attracted more than 1000 choirs and 32,000 singers, more than 3% of the national population. In this chapter, we study the Estonian song festivals from the mid-nineteenth century until the most recent one in 2019. We discuss conceptually the connections between singing and territory. Music and language are deeply rooted within Estonian territory; they flow in the air and ground in the environment in which they are performed, shared, memorized and maintained by singers, followers and the broader society.



Last updated on 2025-27-01 at 19:51