{"id":12447,"date":"2017-07-05T12:22:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T09:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/2017\/07\/estonian-choir-channels-emily-brontes-windswept-blues\/"},"modified":"2017-07-17T13:55:06","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:55:06","slug":"estonian-choir-channels-emily-brontes-windswept-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/2017\/07\/estonian-choir-channels-emily-brontes-windswept-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"An Estonian Choir Channels Emily Bront\u00eb’s Windswept Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people love to sing, but in Estonia, they take their singing very seriously. At the\u00a0Estonian Song Festivals<\/a>, for example, over 30 thousand singers routinely show up to form one gigantic chorus. Among the Baltic country’s smaller, professional vocal ensembles, the Grammy-winning\u00a0Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir<\/a>\u00a0is considered one of the world’s best. When the group releases a new album, fans of choral music listen up.<\/p>\n

The choir comprises just over two dozen voices, but those voices can produce a complex blend of sounds that is luminous, supple and surprisingly strong. The group can sing Gregorian chant,\u00a0Mozart<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Stravinsky<\/a>\u00a0just fine, but throughout its three-decade history, the choir has earned its stripes singing new music.<\/p>\n

For this new album,\u00a0Moorland Elegies<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>the music is homegrown. Composer T\u00f5nu K\u00f5rvits, one of Estonia’s rising stars, can pare the choir down to wisps of smoke or paint with bold, swirling, van Gogh-like strokes.<\/p>\n

Raising voices in song is central to Estonians. In the summer of 1988, 100,000 people gathered for five nights to sing patriotic and protest songs aimed at the Soviet Union. Those\u00a0long nights of song<\/a>\u00a0were a key part of a movement that won Estonian independence three years later.<\/p>\n