Recordings from the Estonian Folklore Archives 3

Kadri Asu

Kadri Asu and Marie Sepp at a recording session in Tallinn in 1937. Photo by P. Parikas. ERA, Foto 773.

Kadri Asu’s (1870–?) home was in the community of Uue-Võidu in Kolga-Jaani Parish. All of Kadri Asu’s female relatives were good singers and her uncle played the buckhorn. In 1937 the National Radio made recordings of 14 regilaul from her. In the collection survey she answered that she considered singing in the choir to be important and stated that her favourite songs were the newer folk songs. August Pulst described her as a lively and cheerful woman quick in her speech. Kadri talked about her days as a herder when she with her eight or nine animals would communicate with other herders, who were half a kilometre away, by singing herder calls either with happy or sad tunes.