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, traditional songs in the poetic metre
regivärss that are shared by all
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. The best known active Estonian composers is
Arvo Pärt.
Folk music Estonian
epic poetry (Estonian:
regilaul) has been extensively recorded and studied, especially those sung by women. They can come in many forms, including
work songs,
ballads and sung legends. Much of the early scholarly study of epic poetry was done in the 1860s by
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, who used
regilaul themes to compose the Estonian
national epic,
Kalevipoeg. By the 20th century, though,
regilaul singing had largely disappeared from Estonia, with vibrant traditions existing only in
Setumaa and
Kihnu. Traditional
wind instruments derived from those used by shepherds, such as the
karjapasun and
vilepill, were once widespread, but are now more rarely played. Other instruments, including the
fiddle,
zither,
concertina and
accordion are used to play
polka or other dance music. The
kannel is a native instrument that is probably even more popular among the Estonian diaspora in North America than in its homeland, where well-known
kannel musicians include
Igor Tõnurist and
Tuule Kann. A notable example of an Estonian folk song is called "The herring lived on dry land", or simply "The
herring song". According to its lyrics, in the ancient times the herring used to have legs and live on dry land. It used to destroy vermin, like rats and it was kept like a cat. One time a two masted
sailing ship was transporting a large load of
salt. Back then salt was expensive. Some unit of it called
saam cost 100 of something in gold. There was a herring aboard the ship. The specific herring liked to eat salt, so it started to tunnel its way around the salt sacks. Eventually it accidentally chewed its way through the ships wooden
hull, causing it to sink. This angered
Neptune (the god of sea), who said to the herring: "Hey herring, because you chewed a hole into the ship and sunk the new ship, you will now have to live in seawater as punishment." The salt from the ship was released into the sea, resulting in the
seas now having a salt composition.
National awakening '' After the
Estonian national awakening the first professional Estonian musicians emerged. The most significant were
Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918) and
Artur Kapp (1878–1952). Other composers followed, such as
Mart Saar (1882–1963),
Artur Lemba (1885–1963),
Heino Eller (1887–1970) and
Cyrillus Kreek (1889–1962). ==20th century==