Vanavanemate Viisivakk [antikvár]

The Grandfather's Chest of Tunes contams a cycle of. schoolchilclren's songs of traditional character a set of typical songs from the author's own primary school days (1938— 1941). No song by a known composer has been used. There is also a deliberate avoidance of popular melodies of other nations, alien to US (e.g. «Do Know the Land?», «My Fatherland My Love», «The Cornfield Sways in the Field»). Thus, it is an attempt to achieve stylistic and musical originality and unity with the reference to a distant relationship with Estonian folk song although only a few of the genuine folk songs (runic songs) have been included. This point enables us to see the present choice as on integral whole. Most of the songs have been taken from Riho Pats' Collections of Favourite Tunes in which the lyrics were edited according to the language usage then (the second half of the 1930s). For the present cycle the melodies and lyrics have been compared with earlier editions and a few alternations have been introduced towards nearing the original version or literary source. As several versions of many of these songs exist side by side, the present choice expresses the author's taste and preference. The cycle has no formal division into parts. But a kind of formal logic has been followed — not of contrast, but of similarity and smooth transition. The songs have been grouped or put in order proceeding from their thematic similarity (songs for boys or girls, shepherds' songs, songs about spring or birds, games) or from the complexity of their choral setting (pp. 28—35). It is advisable to sing these songs in these smaller units. The single songs would fail to create a desired mood. The recorders are not regarded as obligatory on presentation. Their role is to introduce, to join, to tune up. The cycle ends with a central motif called «A Pussycat on the Tree Stump.» The children's choir «Ellerhein» finishes their performance by singing their motto.