Kuressaare Gymnasium

EstoniaNational music portrait

The earliest mentioning of Estonian singing and dancing dates back to Saxo (1179)Saxo speaks of Estonian warriors who sang at night while waiting for an epic battle

The older folksongs are referred to as runic songs songs in the poetic metre regivrss the tradition shared by all Baltic-Finnic peoples

Runic singing was widespread among Estonians until the 18th century, when it started to be replaced by rhythmic folksongs

Folk music

Estonian runo-song (Estonian: regilaul) has been extensively recorded and studied

They can come in many forms, including work songs, ballads and epic legends

Much of the early scholarly study of runo-song was done in the 1860s by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, who used them to compose the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg

In the 1860s, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald used regilaul as the basis for the national epic poem "Kalevipoeg"

National awakening, song festivals

After the Estonian national awakening the first professional Estonian musicians emerged

In 1896 the tradition of the song festival was born along with Estonian national awakening

The first national song festival was held in Tartu

The Estonian Song Festival (In Estonian: Laulupidu) is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world

Famous musicians

The most known Estonian composers are Ren Eespere, Ester Mgi, Arvo Prt, Urmas Sisask, Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tr

The girl band Vanilla Ninja are one of the best-known Estonians in popular music, Kerli has had moderate success in the United States

Estonia has won the Eurovision contest once with Dave Benton, Tanel Padar Everybody

Tanel Padar, Dave Benton

Arvo Prt

Veljo Tormis

Erkki-SvenTr