Traditional melody variations in Karksi parish (South-Estonia)

Estonian regilaul (a special folk song), also runo song or Kalevala-song, has developed in deep connection with language. The prosodic qualities of the language should have left traces into old recitative melodies, which are the very musical language of Estonia in its literal sense. The melody is of the descending contour like the Estonian speech intonation. (ex. *1) (ex. *2) The songs I have used in my present paper have been sung by the persons who had been born in Karksi parish, Southern Estonia, in the end of the previous century, and who had still experienced the unbroken tradition of runo song in their childhood. I have analysed 180 runo songs recorded in 1960-70s

Ethnology · Geography · Diverse Musicological Studies · History