{"id":7996,"date":"2017-01-23T09:40:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T09:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=7996"},"modified":"2017-01-23T09:51:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T09:51:03","slug":"in-memoriam-veljo-tormis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/","title":{"rendered":"In memoriam: Veljo Tormis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sad to learn over the weekend of the death of the Estonian composer, <strong>Veljo Tormis<\/strong>, at the age of eighty-six.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7997\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7997\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7997\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/files\/2017\/01\/Tormis.jpg\" alt=\"Choral master: Veljo Tormis (1930-2017)\" width=\"160\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/files\/2017\/01\/Tormis.jpg 220w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/files\/2017\/01\/Tormis-115x150.jpg 115w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7997\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Choral master: Veljo Tormis (1930-2017)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His extensive output of choral music is imbued with his love of native Estonian folksong, in which, within the space of a few bars, with notes carefully scattered here and there, he evokes landscapes and emotional spaces far beyond the often miniaturist scale of his colourful choral writing.<\/p>\n<p>We\u00a0performed his\u00a0<em>Spring Sketches\u00a0<\/em>last year, an exquisite series of tiny portraits of the season for upper-voices. The evocative opening of the <em>St John&#8217;s Day Songs<\/em>, building upwards to short fragments of melody echoing between the upper voices, captures this perfectly; the robust rhythm underpinning <em>Bridge of Song<\/em>\u00a0illustrates his use of dancing rhythm inherited from his native musical tradition. The skittish, semi-chanted <em>St Catherine&#8217;s Day Songs<\/em> for upper voices evokes an almost ritualistic scene, gradually becoming more intense as static chords build to a feverish cry. Here&#8217;s the intimate\u00a0<em>On hilissuvi (It is later summer)<\/em> painting the colours of the season:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"kent-video-wrapper\"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='474' height='297' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/97sRQWeGRIo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>But it&#8217;s the wonderful\u00a0<em>Laulud pulmades opitud<\/em> <em>(Songs learned at weddings)<\/em> that perhaps encapsulates his music; hypnotic, rhythmic, dancing, powerful yet tinged with a wisp\u00a0of melancholy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"kent-video-wrapper\"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='474' height='297' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nqLJNLoDqV8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>A teacher at the Tallinn Music School, Tormis included Arvo P\u00e4rt amongst his students.\u00a0As Tormis once remarked, &#8216;It is not I who makes use of folk music, it is folk music that makes use of me.&#8217; His choral legacy stands as a testament both to the energy and power of folk music and to his exquisitely crafted choral writing.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/&amp;t=In memoriam: Veljo Tormis' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=In memoriam: Veljo Tormis%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/&amp;title=In memoriam: Veljo Tormis' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/&amp;title=In memoriam: Veljo Tormis' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sad to learn over the weekend of the death of the Estonian composer, Veljo Tormis, at the age of eighty-six. His extensive output of choral music is imbued with his love of native Estonian folksong, in which, within the space of a few bars, with notes carefully scattered here and there, he evokes landscapes and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2017\/01\/23\/in-memoriam-veljo-tormis\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">In memoriam: Veljo Tormis<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1110],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7996"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8005,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996\/revisions\/8005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}