This year the Estonian Music Days take place for the 21st time and it is the biggest of the music festivals dedicated to original Estonian compositions. This tradition, already 'ancient', has rewarded the Estonian public with numerous premieres of high quality symphonic, chamber and stage music. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this festival has been the prime arena of premieres for new works by many prominent Estonian composers, just as it has been a catalyst for official orders. At the same time, the Estonian Music Days should be considered a part of the development and history of our whole modern musical art (history has its own antecedents, of course).

A glance at the history of the Estonian Music Days
In order to understand better why, at the end of the 1970s, the need arose to organise a big unified festival that would represent the entire Estonian contemporary musical creation, it is necessary to take a look at the cultural map of Europe of that time and realise Estonia's (Estonian SSR then) position on it. Glancing west from Estonia (e.g. at the new music festivals in Donaueschingen and Darmstadt, or at the analogous Warsaw Autumn in the socialist camp), one could see the existence of a notional prospect of evolution. Turning east, there was practically no new music festival to find (with the exception of those in Georgia) - the socialist cultural policies regarded new music as an enemy. It was for that reason that the more alert master composers (Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina et al.) preferred to present their new works first in the Baltics, often in Estonia. Sometimes they were even forced to do so, due to the pressure exerted by the central authorities of the Soviet Union who wished to drive them away from the empire's main stages in Moscow and Leningrad.

Igor Garsnek

Estonia, at the same time, belonged to the eastern European platform of musical modernism and post-modernism, wherein some of the avant-garde phenomena were nominally disfavoured (considering the then socialist cultural policy), yet in reality no greater obstacles were put in their path to the public. This type of cultural situation was undoubtedly one of the preconditions for winning the support of the authorities for the birth of the Estonian Music Days at the end of the 1970s.

Another, and more substantial, precondition was the true renaissance that Estonian (contemporary) music had passed through during the second half of the 1970s. One of the literal initiators of it was Arvo Pärt, who in 1976 introduced his tintinnabuli style. Yet at the same time one should not fail to notice the 'creative invasion' of young composers such as Lepo Sumera and Raimo Kangro, who have taken their rightful position as Estonian contemporary classics. The soil was fertile in every way and it only needed some explicit expressive opportunities to exhibit its creative potential.

It is impossible to tell today when, precisely, the idea of an Estonian music festival was born. It is known, however, that the greatest instigator of it was Jaan Rääts, chairman of the Estonian Composers' Union.

The first of the festivals, the Music Festival of Soviet Estonia, took place in 1979 and was associated with the 11th congress of the Composers' Union of the Estonian SSR. It took place on a grand scale - in 10 days there were 18 concerts and 8 theatrical plays, as well as two taped presentations at the Composers' Union. A very special occasion was an event called Night Music, a predecessor of the current Mammoth Concert (a première night that lasts 5 hours), which took place at the Estonia Theatre . It started at 10 PM. and consisted of simultaneous concerts in various venues: the hall, the basement, the cloakroom and the foyer.

The festival was held every second year. In 1981 it was called the 'Tallinn Music Days'. It is true, though, that by that time the range of works performed had broadened greatly, so much so that in addition to works by Estonian authors, masterpieces of world music classics, e.g. those by Mozart, Rossini, Mahler et al., were also performed. It also included a list of guest performers.

The next festival, once again called the Music Festival of Soviet Estonia, was held in 1984. A year later, in 1985, perestroika and the freedom movement took off in all of the then Soviet republics and by 1988 the poster of the festival was in the blue, black and white of the Estonian national flag. There was so much music written in those days that the next festival, called the Days of New Estonian Music, was arranged for the following year, 1989. Since 1991 the festival has been known as the Estonian Music Days and since 1993 it has been held annually, in the spring.

photo: taavi kull

The meaning of the Estonian Music Days today
It is quite understandable that, at the dawn of the Estonian Music Days, even the organisers did not have a completely clear picture of its profile: what should the precise proportion of Estonian and Western compositions be, should the earlier works from the Estonian 'gold reserve' also be performed or not etc.? The profile formed itself in the course of the festivals and today it has become an occasion that can be called the main forum of novel works of Estonian composers.

In order to better understand what real meaning the Estonian Music Days hold in our general cultural context, we should take a look at the Estonian concert scene, arranged mostly by Eesti Kontsert, Tallinn Philharmonics and, in recent years, the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians. Considering that, when compared to the number of guest performers, the role of Estonian musicians is not a dominant one and that it is not often that Estonian musicians include contemporary works of local composers in their programmes, it is quite clear that not all Estonian composers (about 100 in total) find a way to present their new creations to the public. Moreover, there are several gifted young composers who are just at the onset of their creative careers and who are still students of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Thus the need for a grand festival of Estonian music is clear.

This does not mean, however, that the Estonian Music Days are an arena for novel works of absolutely all Estonian composers. There is probably not a need for that for the public, for the performers, or even for the composers themselves. Of greatest importance is the fact that the Estonian Music Days open a path for every musically creative spirit, every wakeful project and every interesting idea, regardless of the name and former experience of the composer.

It is likely that not every project included is exceptional and that not every young composer whose new creation is performed at the festival will develop into a contemporary classic. Yet that is not what is important about the occasion - it is rather the fact that the Estonian Music Days form the foundation from which new and intriguing projects of performers' and composers' cooperation can grow. The joint thinking process between a musician and a composer is precisely the thing that has made the festival possible since its inception. It is a peculiar 1+1=N sort of occasion, where N stands for the unique quality of thought and composition which is new and special every year. This is what guarantees the continuity of the festival and listeners' interest, as well as compelling composers and performers to take part in this great event again and again.

Prospects for the future
Before speaking of future visions in regard to the Estonian Music Days, we should first recall the past. Professional music is only a little more than a century old in Estonia. Within this century, however, such great symphonists as Eduard Tubin (1905-1982), Lepo Sumera (1950-2000) and Erkki-Sven Tüür (1959), along with the renovator of the old folk song tradition (regi-song), Veljo Tormis (1930), and the prolific author of instrumental concerti and operas, Eino Tamberg (1930), have helped to put Estonia on the cultural map. An Australian culture journal once wrote about the musical Estonia of today that 'even though Estonians are so few that they would all fit in a suburb of Sydney, their composers outnumber our swimmers.' It is difficult to compare the number and worth of Australian swimmers with that of Estonian composers, yet it is nevertheless true that the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre has recently produced a multitudinous and worthy set of progeny for the Estonian authors of past and present. This again means that Estonian music, as well as the Estonian Music Days, will survive and remain vigorous for the foreseeable future.

Igor Garsnek (1958), music theorist and composer