The Choral Arts Society of Washington, the largest choral ensemble in the U.S. capital, will perform two songs in Estonian this season in addition to its usual repertoire. ERR caught up with members of the choir as they got to grips with the tricky task of mastering Estonian pronunciation.
This season, the Estonian Embassy in Washington is a cultural partner of Choral Arts, the largest choral collective in Washington, D.C. As a result, American audiences will be able to hear performances of the Estonian favorites “Mu isamaa on minu arm” and “Ta lendab mesipuu poole.”
“The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has always impressed me. I know his music very well. Now that we have delved into songs like “Mu isamaa on minu arm,” it is as if your (Estonian) national pride has been captured in song form,” said Marie Bucoy-Calavan, principal conductor and artistic director of Choral Arts.
Choral Arts choirs have sung in many languages in the 60 years since it was founded. Singing in Estonian has proved an exciting challenge for the current group of singers.
“There’s one particular vowel ‘õ,’ or o with a roof on. For me, it’s the most difficult because there’s nothing like it in English, so the letter ‘õ’ is quite tricky,” said Choral Arts assistant conductor Shannon Arnold.
To make sure the singers’ pronunciation is correct, a local Estonian mixed choir was also invited along to help out and give advice.
“I’ve never understood or noticed how many ‘õ’s’, ‘ä’s’, ‘ö’s’ and ‘ü’s’ there are at the end of phrases or notes in our songs that you have to hold for a long time. But when I got up to the conductor’s booth, it was like there was a hall full of Estonians singing – no accents at all, the result was really superb,” said Tjorven Hair-field, conductor of the Baltimore Washington Estonian Chorus (Baltimore Washingtoni Eesti Segakoor).
Despite the challenge in pronouncing of some words, the choir singers are undeterred by the difficulty of the Estonian language. They are now looking forward to performing Estonian choral music in front of live audiences.
“It’s clear that this music was written for choirs. It’s written for the human voice and there are a lot of fantastic melodies. It’s a joy to sing and really beautiful to listen to,” said Choral Arts singer Ed Hoover.
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