Estonia’s musical identity is strongly associated with communal singing and choral traditions, while its composers and performers have earned an international reputation. These examples focus on Arvo Pärt, Estonia’s best-known contemporary classical composer.
The earliest mentioning of Estonian singing and dancing dates back to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (c. 1179). Saxo speaks of Estonian warriors who sang at night while waiting for an epic battle. The Estonian folk music tradition is broadly divided into 2 periods. The older folksongs are also referred to as runic songs, songs in the poetic metre regivärss the tradition shared by all Baltic-Finnic peoples. Runic singing was widespread among Estonians until the 18th century, when it started to be replaced by rhythmic folksongs. Professional Estonian musicians emerged in the late 19th-century at the time of Estonian national awakening. Nowadays the most known Estonian composers are Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia’s “Music of Estonia” article
“Magnificat” introduces Arvo Pärt’s sacred choral writing and his spare, resonant musical language.
“Spiegel im Spiegel” presents Pärt’s internationally influential minimalist style in an intimate work for violin and piano.