Golden Anniversary Choral Spectacular - The Grant Park Music ...

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soñemos sueños activos de río we must dream the dreams of a river buscando su cauce, seeking its course, sueños de sol soñando sus mundos, of the sun dreaming its worlds, hay que soñar en voz alta, we must dream aloud, hay que cantar hasta que el canto eche, we must sing till the song puts forth roots, raíces, tronco, ramas, pájaros, astros, trunk, branches, birds, stars, hay que desenterrar la palabra perdida, we must find the lost word, recordar lo que dicen la sangre, and remember what the blood, la marea, la tierra y el cuerpo, the tides, the earth, and the body say, volver al punto de partida … and return to the point of departure … raua NEEdMINE (“curSE upoN IroN”) (1972; rEViSED 1991) Veljo Tormis (born in 1930) Veljo Tormis was born on August 7, 1930 into a musical family in Kuusalu, near the Estonian capital city of Tallinn, and received his early music instruction from his father, the organist and choir director at a local Lutheran church. Tormis began his formal studies at the Tallinn Conservatory in 1943, but illness and the exigencies of World War II interrupted his education. He resumed his training at the Conservatory in 1949, studying organ and choral conducting and beginning to compose, and won his first composition prize the following year for Ringmängulaul (“Circle Game Song”) on a text by the historian and critic Lea Rummo, who later became his wife. Tormis continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory from 1951 to 1956, where his teachers included Vissarion Shebalin and Yury Fortunatov; Dmitri Shostakovich was chairman of the jury for his graduation examination. From 1956 to 1960, Tormis taught theory and composition at the Tallinn Conservatory, where the gifted Arvo Pärt was among his students. He also served as a consultant to the Estonian Composers’ Union between 1956 and 1969 and as the organization’s vice-president from 1974 to 1989. He announced his retirement from composition in 2000 on his seventieth birthday, thereafter calling himself “Composer Emeritus” and placing a plaque to that effect over the doorbell to his flat in Tallinn. Tormis’ many distinctions include the titles of Estonian SSR Honored Worker in Arts, ESSR People’s Artist and USSR People’s Artist, and winning the Soviet Estonia Prize, USSR State Prize, ESSR Annual Prize for Music, Estonian State Cultural Award, Composition Prize of the Estonian Music Council and the order of Friendship of Peoples; in 1998, he received the Estonian National Culture Foundation Prize for his life’s work, and in 2009, he was granted the First Class order of the National Coat of Arms. Tormis wrote, “The most essential part of my work is choral music, the most essential part of which, in turn, is connected with the ancient folk song of Estonians and other Finnic peoples. My music can by no means be labelled as folk or world music. It is rather an attempt to preserve the authenticity of the source material, making a compromise with the forms and performing opportunities of modern music…. My best-known compositions in the choral field are the incantation Raua Needmine (‘Curse Upon Iron’) and the extended series Eesti Kalendrilaulud (‘Estonian Calendar Songs,’ 29 runic songs about the peasant’s work throughout the course of the year) and Unustatud rahvad (‘Forgotten Peoples,’ on motifs from Livonian, Votic, Izhorian, Ingrian Finnish, Vepsian and Karelian folklore). All in all, I have written about sixty cycles or series, about forty extended choral works and about eighty songs for a cappella choir. In other genres, the overture No. 2 for orchestra, the opera Swan’s Flight (‘Luigelend’) and the cantataballet Estonian Ballads (‘Eesti ballaadid’) have gained wide critical acclaim. “The idea of Raua Needmine (‘Curse Upon Iron,’ 1972) was on my mind for years A28 2012 Program Notes, Book 2 Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June 30, 2012 before I found a perfect form for it in an enchanting repetitive ostinato accompanied by a shamanic drum. I combined those elements with modern choral techniques. The idea of the composition derives from shamanism: in order to acquire power over a material or immaterial thing, one communicates knowledge to the object. Thus the describing and explaining of the birth of iron to iron itself forms a part of the shamanic process. The magical rite is performed to restrain the evil hiding inside iron. Each and every thing created by man may turn against man himself when used without respect for the living. The lyrics composed in Estonian by August Annist were based on the ritual incantations of the Finnish epic Kalevala, whereas current Estonian poets Paul-Eerik Rummo and Jean Kaplinski added elements from modern reality.” Ohoi sinda, rauda raiska, Ohoi cursed, evil iron! rauda raiska, rähkä kurja, Ohoi evil, cursed iron! liha sööja, luu pureja, Flesh consuming, bone devouring, vere süütuma valaja! spilling blood, devouring virtue! Kust said kurja, kange’eksi, Whither comes your cruel cunning, üleliia ülbe’eksi? haughtiness so overbearing? Hurjuh sinda, rauda raiska! Fie upon you, evil iron! Tean ma sündi su sõgeda, Your beginnings reek of malice. arvan algust su õela! You have risen from villainy. Käisid kolme ilmaneitsit, From above the earth appeared taeva tütarta tulista, fiery maidens in the heavens, lüpsid maale rindasida, heavily with milk aladen, soo peale piimasida. spilling milk upon the marshes. Üks see lüpsis musta piima, Black, the liquid from one maiden, sest sai rauda pehme’eda, turning into ductile iron. teine valgeta valasi, White milk flowing from the other, sellest tehtud on teraksed, tempered steel from this arising. kolmas see veripunasta, From the third a crimson liquid, sellest malmi ilma tulnud. cursed, rusty ore created. Ohoi sinda, rauda raiska, Ohoi cursed, evil iron! rauda raiska, rähkä kurja! Ohoi evil, cursed iron! Ei sa siis veel suuri olnud, Then you were not high and mighty, ei veel suuri, ei veel uhke, not so mighty, not so haughty, kui sind soossa solguteldi, when you slumbered in the swampland vedelassa väntsuteldi. when you suffered in the marshes. Hurjuh sinda, rauda raiska! Fie upon you, evil iron! Tean ma sündi su sõgeda, Your beginnings reek of malice. arvan algust su õela! You have risen from villainy. Susi jooksis sooda mööda, Then a wolf came running hither, karu kõmberdas rabassa, bear arambling over yonder. soo tõusis soe jalusta, Footprints stirring over swampland, raba karu käpa alta. traces from the swamp arising Kasvid raudased orased, giving rise to iron seedlings, soe jalgade jälile, in the shadows of the wolf prints karu käppade kohale. in the traces of the bear tracks. Ohoi rauda, laukalapsi. Ohoi wretched child of bogland, rabarooste, pehme piima! born of rust and milk of maidens! Kes su küll vihale käskis, Tell me who made you so angry! kes pani pahale tööle? Who set you to evil doings? Surma sõitis sooda mööda. Death came riding through the marshes, taudi talveteeda mööda, plague along the wintry byways, leidis soost terakse taime, till they found the iron seedlings raua rooste lauka’alta. resting in the lowly swampland, 2012 Program Program Notes, Book Notes 2 A29 A1
Page 1 and 2: Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus Car
Page 3 and 4: Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June
Page 15: Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June
Page 29: Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June

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