Foreword

Publication “Traditional Music, Song Games and Dances of Muhu Island” is a compilation of chosen songs, song games and dances that are part of the collection of the Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum. They were recorded by Ingrid Rüütel and her colleagues during 1974–1994. Sound recordings give an overview of Muhu islanders’ songlore of the beginning of the 20^th century. The recordings were made during folklore collection expeditions in 1974 and 1975. Videos were made in 1975, 1984 and 1994. Song games were filmed in Suuremõisa village during the 1975 year expedition. In 1984 were captured Muhu songs and song games with the Tallinnfilm crew; in 1994 the Muhu dancers’ performance was filmed during Kihnu island festival with the crew from the Estonian Television.

The e-publication is based on 2015 year publication “Traditional Music, Song Games and Dances of Muhu Island” that consists of a CD, a DVD and a brochure.

Publication “Traditional Music, Song Games and Dances of Muhu Island” (2015). Compiler Ingrid Rüütel.

The song lyrics and sheet music of the songs from the CD and DVD can be found in the book “Songs and Tales of Muhu”, that gives a more detailed overview of the songlore of Muhu islanders in the beginning of the 20^th century, folk singers, singing situations etc.

The book “Songs and Tales of Muhu” (2016), compiled by Ingrid Rüütel.

This publication unites the material from the disk set and the book. The song lyrics and sheet music from the book are added to the song tracks from the disk set. Extracts from the book’s introduction were used for characterizing performers of the songs.

The overview part of the publication contains introduction and description of sound and video recordings by Ingrid Rüütel from the publication “Traditional Music, Song Games and Dances of Muhu Island” (2015), followed by the introduction of the performers presented in the publication. The performers can be found by name (in alphabetic order) and by names of the villages. Some performers can be found under several villages because their place of residence and birthplace were not the same. The page of each performer contains his/her photograph and extracts, introducing him/her, taken from the book “Songs and Tales of Muhu”. Then comes the list of recorded pieces or the title of the video with the person’s performance. At the end of the page, there is information about the performer’s dates of birth and death or his/her age at the time of the recording and his or her place of residence, followed by name of the collector and the year of collection.

The order of songs and videos corresponds to that of the 2015 set of disks. Songs can also be browsed in alphabetical order either according to their first lines or titles. The page of each song contains the name of the performer and his/her place of residence with the year the recording was made, the recording itself, sheet music and lyrics, and occasionally some comments from the performer. Some of the song lyrics are expanded with songs’ complete lyrics from the book “Songs and Tales of Muhu”. The parts that are not present in the sound recording are marked in italics. There are also short summaries of the content of the songs. At the end of the site, there is a more detailed information about the performer, recording data and the reference to the original recording in the Estonian Folklore Archives. At the end of the source reference, the serial number of the piece in square brackets indicates its location in the book “Songs and Tales of Muhu”. Special markings in the sheet music.

Each video page contains names and places of residence of those, who appear in the movie (if known) and the year the recording was made. In addition to the entire video, some videos offer opportunity to watch clips with stand-alone songs, song games and dances. Each song is located on a separate page with sheet music and lyrics. At the end of each page, one can find the reference to the location of the original recording in the Estonian Folklore Archives.

We are very grateful to all folklore collectors, who took part in the recording of the material the publications based on. We want to thank from the bottom of our hearts the community of people of the Muhu island, those, who gave permission to publish their own or their relatives’ heritage and those Muhu islanders, who helped with details of performers’ personal information: Mihkel Jürisson, Martin Kivisoo, Meelis and Marti Mereäär, Muhu Pärandikool, Helmut Noot, Airi Nõmm, Leena Peegel, Ago Rullingo, Irena Tarvis, Heiske Tuul, Tiiu Tuust, Kadri Tüür, Viia Väli. We would like to thank all publication financial supporters, especially folk ensemble Trad.Attack! with whose help Saaremaa and Muhu compilations became available online. And finally, deep bow to all Muhu folk singers, musicians, connoisseurs of old dances and games, who through the years shared without reservation their knowledge about Muhumaa rich culture.

26.06.2018
Ingrid Rüütel
Janika Oras
Kadi Sarv