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Estonian Music
The recorded history of music in Estonia dates as far back as the 12th century. History The earliest mentioning of Estonian singing and dancing dates back to Saxo Grammaticus' ''Gesta Danorum'' (c. 1179). Saxo speaks of Estonian warriors who sang at night while waiting for an epic battle. The Estonian folk music tradition is broadly divided into 2 periods. The older folksongs are also referred to as runic songs, traditional songs in the poetic metre ''regivärss'' that are shared by all Finnic languages, Finnic peoples. Runic singing was widespread among Estonians until the 18th century, when it started to be replaced by rhythmic folksongs. Professional Estonian musicians emerged in the late 19th century at the time of Estonian national awakening. The best known active Estonian composers is Arvo Pärt. Folk music Estonian epic poetry (Estonian: ''regilaul'') has been extensively recorded and studied, especially those sung by women. They can come in many forms, including work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalevipoeg
''Kalevipoeg'' (, ''Kalev's Son'') is a 19th-century epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald which has since been considered the Estonian national epic. Origins In pre-Christian ancient Estonia there existed an oral tradition, known as runic song, of legends explaining the origin of the world. Within old Estonian folklore, a benevolent giant by the name of ''Kalev'', ''Kalevine'', ''Kalevipoiss'', ''Kalevine poisikine'' and ''Kalevin poika'' appears, battling with other giants or enemies of the nation. Early written references are found in Leyen Spiegel in 1641 as "Kalliweh", and in a list of deities published by Mikael Agricola in 1551 as "Caleuanpoiat". The earliest remaining written reference to Kalevipoeg – also known as Kaleva in Finland – is by many experts considered to be one found in Widsith, also known as ''The Traveller's Song'', which also provides the earliest known written usage of the name Viking, with the spelling ''wicing''. Widsith is a 6th or 7t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor Tõnurist
Igor Tõnurist (11 February 1947 – 8 January 2021) was an Estonian ethnographer and folklorist. In 1969 he graduated from Moscow University in history and ethnography. Tõnurist was the leader of several folklore groups, including Leegajus and Seto folklore collective Sõsarõ. Among his research interests were Estonian national costume and Estonian folk instruments. Awards * 2003: Order of the White Star The Order of the White Star (; ) was instituted in 1936. The Order of the White Star is bestowed on Estonian citizens and foreigners to give recognition for services rendered to the Estonian state. Design Classes The Order of the White Star ..., IV class. References 1947 births 2021 deaths Estonian folklorists Moscow State University alumni People from Keila Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class {{Estonia-academic-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kannel (instrument)
Kannel () is an Estonian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Finnish kantele, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian kanklės, and Russian gusli. The Estonian kannel has a variety of traditional tunings. In Estonia, studying the kannel has made a resurgence after some years of decline. (in Estonian) Etymology According to Finnish linguist Eino Nieminen, the name of the instrument, along with the names of most of its neighbouring counterparts (Finnish ''k ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polka
Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ''polka'' referring to the dance is believed to derive from the Czech words "půlka", meaning "half-step". Czech cultural historian Čeněk Zíbrt attributes the term to the Czech word ''půlka'' (half), referring to both the half-tempo and the half-jump step of the dance.Čeněk Zíbrt, "Jak se kdy v Čechách tancovalo: dějiny tance v Čechách, na Moravě, ve Slezsku a na Slovensku z věků nejstarších až do nové doby se zvláštním zřetelem k dějinám tance vůbec", Prague, 189(Google eBook)/ref> This name has been changed to "Polka" as an expression of honour and sympathy for Poland and the Poles after the November Uprising 1830-1831. "Polka" meaning, in both the Czech and Poli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mouthpiece), reed in a frame). The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the descant, diskant, usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side (referred to as the Musical keyboard, keyboard or sometimes the manual (music), ''manual''), and the accompaniment on Bass (sound), bass or pre-set Chord (music), chord buttons on the left-hand side. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The accordion belongs to the free-reed aerophone family. Other instruments in this family include the concertina, harmonica, and bandoneon. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concertina
A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The concertina was developed independently in both England and Germany. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, while Carl Friedrich Uhlig introduced the German version five years later, in 1834. Various forms of concertina are used for classical music, for the traditional music of Ireland, England, and South Africa, and for tango and polka music. The concertina has historically been a favorite instrument among people who travel often (due to its small and compact size), leading it to be a common instrument among soldiers, sailors, and cowboys. One was even brought aboard Robert Peary's 1891 expedition of the Greenland Arctic. Despite the pop-culture association of the concertina with the Golden Age of Piracy, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zither
Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, the term refers to a larger family of similarly shaped instruments that also includes the hammered dulcimer family and piano and a few rare bowed instruments like the bowed psaltery, bowed dulcimer, and streichmelodion. Like an acoustic guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber ( sound box), but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty. In modern usage the term "zither" usually refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither (), its variant the Alpine zither (each of which uses a fretted fingerboard), and the chord zither (more recently described as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiddle
A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a Violin construction and mechanics#Bridge, bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a Timbre#Brightness, ''brighter'' tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (Folk music, folk) styles, which are typically Music#Oral and aural tradition, aural traditions— ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
