Veljo Tormis (b. 7 VIII 1930), one of the greatest masters in Estonian music, has composed almost exclusively for the voice – hundreds of songs, cycles, and large-scale compositions for different choruses, some stage-works and cycles of solo songs, and only single instrumental pieces. Now we are used to that, but decades ago his colleagues sometimes criticized such narrow choice of media. He had already proved his skill of writing for orchestra in Overture No. 2 (1959) and in the opera Luigelend (Swan's Flight, 1964-66). Why not to try a symphony? Veljo Tormis had often to explain that for him all music starts from words, he needs a text for composing, that he does not have “purely musical” ideas. He has emphasized that he cannot (or does not want to) write music for pleasure or entertainment, his music has always something to say about the world, nature, men, and peoples. Tormis is a real master of choral sound and large-scale choral composition. Be it his monumental song cycles or extensive dramatic choral works, Tormis' colourful, nearly orchestral style of writing for voices is always remarkable. As a critic, I have often been struck by his skill of creating tensions with cumulative, seemingly monotonous repetition of an ancient folk tune, or his sound paintings disclosing unexpected resources of human voice.
Tormis was the firstborn son of a music-loving farmer, an amateur violinist and conductor of the local choral group at Kuusalu, a parish about 40 km to the east of Tallinn. In 1937 his father Riho Tormis obtained the position of köster (i.e. organist and precentor) at the church of Vigala, a parish in west Estonia. The rehearsals of the newly founded Vigala church choir took place at their home, his mother singing among altos and Veljo, soon a schoolboy, often sitting next to her. Aside from their “job” at church (as Tormis later joked) Vigala choir sang all kinds of music, they participated in local social events and travelled to the national song festival in Tallinn like most Estonian choruses of that time. This early experience of choral life and choral sound, involvement with national ideas and feelings related to the Estonian choral movement, was certainly important for the future composer. In the age of 12 Veljo Tormis came to Tallinn to study music and after a year of private lessons he was accepted to the organ class at the Conservatory. That was war-time, a year before the Soviet invasion connected Estonia to the Soviet Union for the coming 50 years.
After the war, music life and education were reorganized according to Soviet patterns. The organ class at the Conservatory, traditionally related to church service, was closed, and for a year Tormis studied choral conducting. In 1951 he continued his studies as a composer at the Moscow Conservatory with professor Vissarion Shebalin, graduating in 1956. Shebalin supported his student's interest in national style based on the use of folk music. However, in the 1950s Tormis wrote rather traditional music for chorus, some solo songs and instrumental pieces. Returning to Tallinn he taught music theory and composition at the Music School. In Estonian musical life, the years around 1960 were marked by enthusiastic study of modern ideas made possible by general intellectual liberation in Soviet Union that started some years after the death of Stalin in 1953. Young composers Arvo Pärt and Kuldar Sink, for some time students of Tormis, became the leaders of local avant-garde experimenting with serial techniques while neoclassicist models were more widespread (Eino Tamberg, Jaan Rääts). In the music of Tormis, the breakthrough of modern composition techniques and antiromantic attitude towards folk music took place in the years 1959-1967. In 1958 he lead a student expedition to a small Estonian island of Kihnu. The group happened to attend a real traditional wedding with old folk songs and dances. The enchanting effect of this event was so strong that it changed Tormis' relationship to the use of folk material. The cycle Kihnu pulmalaulud (Kihnu Island Wedding Songs, 1959) was written after a thorough study of recordings from Kihnu at the Estonian Folk Song Archives, texts were arranged by a specialist of Kihnu tradition Olli Kõiva. As for more modern music, the performance in Tallinn of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in the late 1950s was an important event for Tormis. But crucial, in that respect, was his acquaintance with the music and writings of Béla Bartók, analyses of choral songs by Zoltán Kodály after a visit to Hungary in 1962 that changed the musical language of Tormis. One of his most popular cycles Sügismaastikud (Autumn Landscapes, 1964) was written under those impressions. Some years later Tormis finished his first great cycle Eesti kalendrilaulud (Estonian Calendar Songs, 1967) for a male and a female chorus, in which the primeval enchanting power of ancient folk tunes used as the material for original choral composition was fully exposed. That was the starting point for “real” Tormis style as we know it now, forty years later, and several cycles of great choral compositions based on ancient folk songs of different peoples followed (like Liivlaste pärandus [Livonian Heritage] in 1970, or Isuri eepos [Izhorian Epic] in 1975, and many others). No more did Tormis use a folk tune as a melodic idea for further motivic development. Instead, old rustic songs sounded in his compositions in their original manner, but around those monotonously repeated short tunes he has built truly symphonic choral textures and dramatic musical structures. In 1970 Tormis was awarded the Estonian State Cultural Prize for Eesti kalendrilaulud.
In Estonian culture choral music has had outstanding role as a popular movement of amateur choruses with all-national song festivals in every five years, a movement very important for supporting Estonian identity against forceful Russification around the turn of the century and again during the Soviet years 1944–1991. That has certainly contributed to the prestige of choral music in concert life and composers interest in this medium. Sophisticated choral compositions demanding a large and well-trained chorus formed a distinguished part of Estonian music already in the 1930s. Tormis continued the tradition and his music would have been impossible without a number of choruses, addressees and often commissioners of his works. Estonian National Male Chorus (formerly State Academic Male Chorus), or RAM as it is usually called, has a special position among them. The power and colours of a large body of trained male voices is not often used in music, probably because of the lack of appropriate performance forces. Veljo Tormis has learned much during his more than 35 years of cooperation with RAM and the result of this work amounts to about 60 cycles, compositions and shorter songs for a large male chorus, among them some of the masterpieces of choral repertory like Laulja (The Singer, 1974) or Kalevala seitsmeteistkümnes runo (The Seventeenth Rune of Kalevala, 1985). In the 1970s, Tõnu Kaljuste won recognition as the conductor of a small youth chorus that later became the nucleus for The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, perhaps the most acknowledged performers of Tormis' works in the world. They have made famous his most important work Unustatud rahvad (Forgotten peoples, 1970-1989), the series of song cycles based on the ancient folk songs of Balto-Finnic peoples.
In the 1970s the scope of Tormis' search for archaic material widened, first including the closest Balto-Finnic people, but soon some commissions led him to different traditions – Russian (Põhja-vene bõliina [North Russian Bylina], 1976), Bulgarian (Bulgaaria triptühhon [Bulgarian triptych], 1978), Latvian (Läti burdoonlaulud [Latvian Bourdon Songs], 1982) and several others. From one side, the driving force has been his attention to the quality of text, his care that the meaning of the text should be essential for singers. But not less important was a deep conviction that the ancient song traditions of different people have something in common, they all belong to a way of life that was more close to nature, they contain old beliefs, morals and ethics. Tormis often encourages foreign choirs to sing his compositions in translation. Yes, the perfect relationships between text and music will be spoiled. However, for him, the meaning of the text is more important. Words do have their musical aspect, music is designed according to the rhythms and accents of verse prosody. But the worst for Tormis is a singer for whom syllables are only carriers of beautiful vocal sound. Therefore, the situation that singers struggle with pronouncing hundreds of lines in Estonian, Finnish or some other language without understanding the words does not seem him good either. In the 1990s Tormis has composed several works using the English and Latin translations of the Finnish epic Kalevala like Kullervo's Message (1994, Kalevala XXXVI, English translation by W.F.Kirby, commissioned for The Hilliard Ensemble) or Incantatio maris aestuosi (1996, Kalevala XVIII; XLII, translated by Tuomo Pekkanen, commissioned by two students' men's choruses, the Helsinki and Uppsala university singers). An interesting work in the same line is Piispa ja pakana/ The Bishop and the Pagan (1992) the text of which, in Latin, Finnish, and English, combines a medieval sequence from Finland and a Finnish old folk song reflecting the same event (commissioned for The King's Singers).
In 1980, one of Tormis' greatest works was premiered at the Estonian National Opera, a ballet-cantata Eesti ballaadid (Estonian Ballads). According to his principles, that was music for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, the stories of the ballads were represented by dancers in abstract and modern style. That is a powerful work and can be also performed on concert stage. This period itself was hard time in Estonian life, the political climate in the Soviet Union had hardened during the late 1970s. As a reaction, Tormis wrote several series of songs that brought him almost the aura of a dissident: Dialektilisi aforisme (Dialectical Aphorisms, 1978), Juhan Liivi sarkasmid (Juhan Liiv's Sarcasms, 1979), Lojaalsed laulukesed (Loyal Little Songs, 1981) and several others. He has always to say out, although in musical terms, what he thinks about life around him. Some of the most serious compositions are also related to the new turning point in Estonian life, reestablishment of independence in 1991 – Nägemus Eestist (A Vision About Estonia). While his great works based on traditional material deal with more existential problems, those songs are sometimes ironic, but always painful. It is possible that all the meanings and musical symbols composed into those songs can be grasped only by people who have some experience of that life. But the message of other compositions has demonstrated its power independent of language or time.
Urve Lippus
Professor of musicology,
Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre