Traditional songs, dances and song games of Muhu island

In preparation to record Muhu men’s songs. Photo by E. Kivaste 1974. ERA, Foto 10850.

The DVD contains examples of the Muhu islanders’ songs, song games and dances, the recording of which I arranged and managed in 1975, 1984 and 1994. The sound recordings give us an idea of the sound of the songs and the DVD adds the visual aspect. And only audiovisual recording can show us the games.

Video “Song games in Suuremõisa village” contains song games recorded on black and white mute film in Suuremõisa village during the expedition in 1975. For the sake of this edition the video recordings have been joined with the separately recorded sound. The cameraman was Vello Ojanurme from Estonian National Museum, the sound was recorded by the sound engineer Olav Kiis from the Estonian Literary Museum.

Video “Songs and song games of the Muhu islanders” contains examples from Muhu folklore that were recorded together with the Tallinnfilm film crew. The collected material served as the basis for a newsreel “Soviet Estonia” no. 11 (1311), 1984: “In the Muhu singing circle”. The newsreel was made by Ingrid Rüütel, Mark Soosaar, Henn Eller and Heikki Aasaru. The recordings of 1984 are unique. We can see the facial expressions, gestures and immediate communication of the singers during the performance of the songs. In the newsreel some irrelevant material is inserted between the songs, it was removed from the present edition. There are also examples of song games, among which are some variants of games recorded in 1975. Unfortunately, both times the game “Ätsemäng” (Flower game) was recorded only partially.

Video “The Muhu islanders in the Kihnu festival” introduces the performance of the Muhu islanders during the Kihnu festival in 1994. The recordings have been made together with the Estonian TV film crew. The director was Ruti Murusalu and the cameraman was Rein Lillmaa. These recordings offer viewers the traditional culture in the present-day context, for here we can see an organized performance during a present-day festival. The event is an authentic Kihnu celebration with nothing staged especially for the filming. We can see traditional Muhu dances performed by the group “Ätses” who is accompanied by a singing and instrumental group “Laulusõbrad” that also performs some songs on their own.

The group “Laulusõbrad” was founded in 1985. They had been active for 25 years. In Kihnu the following musicians were part of the group: solo singer Herje Vilto, solo singer and accordion player Mihkel Mereäär, an accordion and clarinet player and the leader of the group Vello Tikerpalu, the player of the chord harp Leena Peegel, the double-bass player Indrek Keert, and the percussion instrument jauram player Aivo Opp.

In addition to the folk songs well-known in Muhu the group performs the song “Kodusaar Muhu” (“Home island Muhu”). The author of this song is Arno Kask, who played in the national orchestra of conductors together with Vello Tikerpalu, the leader of the group “Laulusõbrad”. Having heard that Vello comes from Muhu, Arno Kask decided to present him with a song that “Laulusõbrad” included in their repertoire. The song “Muhu kalurivalss” (“The Muhu fisherman’s waltz”) is composed by a Muhu islander Vassili Kask who took part in the Liberation War and who has also been considered the author of songs “Kupu Kaarel” and “Muhulase noomitus” (“An admonition of a Muhu islander”). These songs tell of changes in the life of Muhu at the end of World War I and in the early years of independent Estonia. The author of the song “Two famous mills in the south of Muhu” (“The man of Vesiaa”) is a Muhu islander Mihkel Toom. The text of “Muhumaa” is by a Saaremaa islander Antonina Klaas with the tune composed by her husband Andres (Andrei) Klaas, a Russian Orthodox priest and choir conductor.

The dance group “Ätses” performs social dances which were popular in Muhu at the beginning of the 20^th century. Apart from Muhu islanders the dance group of Viinistu civic centre was also invited to the Kihnu festival. The dancers came from the former Kuusalu parish. During the performance of the Muhu group they performed their versions of the same dances on the grass in front of the bandstand. This gives us an opportunity to compare different variants of the same dances. The Kihnu islanders also joined the waltz performed at the end of the event. It is noteworthy that differences of dancing style can be detected during spontaneous dancing (in the video “Song games in Suuremõisa village”) and in the performances.

Ingrid Rüütel