Friday, November 17, 2006
The Oregonian
Veljo Tormis is a rock star -- if you can call a choral composer a rock star.
In Estonia, you can. Everybody sings or listens to singing. Singing festivals draw hundreds of thousands to hear multitudes of choirs. It's as if the national soul breathes from its diaphragm.
Like his more famous compatriot, Arvo Part, Tormis writes mostly choral music -- hundreds of songs, song cycles and works for chorus and orchestra. Also like Part, his music resonates far beyond Europe.
On Monday, 300 Oregon singers come together in Portland to perform some of Tormis' greatest works. Tormis will attend the concert, which will be conducted by another distinguished Estonian, Hirvo Surva. Tormis and Surva are spending the fall as visiting professors at the University of Oregon's music school. Surva is known for leading the 30,000-voice choir during the massive song festivals in Estonia every five years.
During the decades of Soviet occupation, Tormis tried to save his native music and verse through settings of traditional music. He frequently based his work on ancient Estonian folk songs or runic songs, with rich overlayering of vocal textures in a contemporary musical language. Runic songs date back thousand of years and come from the tradition of Baltic-Finnish folk music. Thus his famous quote: "It is not I who make use of folk music, it is folk music that makes use of me."
Monday's concert features some of the region's finest choirs, so anyone who loves choral music won't want to sit this one out. Participating groups include Oregon Repertory Singers, Pacific Youth Choir, Unistus and the UO's University Singers and Chamber Choir.
"Bridge of Song: A Concert in Honor of Veljo Tormis," 7:30 p.m. Monday, First United Methodist Church, 1838 S.W. Jefferson St., $6-$10; 541-346-3766.
-- David Stabler