Since it was only a two hour ferry ride away from Helsinki, I took a couple of days to visit Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia. Old Town Tallinn is a well preserved medieval city that was quite interesting to visit. But, as you'll see, music and the vibrancy of a recently freed country (from Russia, in 1991) were the emotional highlights for me during this quick visit
Here's a view of the walled Old Town section of Tallinn. Established as a "real" town in the 1200s, Tallinn became an important and wealthy port city in the 1500s through its participation in the Hanseatic League, a network of partner cities in northern Europe that controlled much of the shipping and trading throughout the region. A few of the very old buildings have survived the ravages of repeated fires that destroyed much of the Old Town. Most of what you see in the picture was built in the 16th through 18th centuries. It is well maintained and very visitor friendly, and earned a UNESCO World Heritage listing as "an outstanding, exceptionally complete and well preserved example of a medieval northern European trading city" (from the UNESCO citation).
Here's an example of the wall and the gate of this heavily fortified city. The round structure on the left was an ammunition storage building that has walls up to 5 meters / 16 feet) thick! It was built to store gunpowder and cannonballs, and the walls had to be sturdy enough to resist cannon fire
Here's the town square, where the traditional merchant "business" of Tallinn was conducted. Now it's mainly good restaurants and souvenir shops, the most important modern "business" of Old Town Tallinn
And here's a typical street view along Pikk Street, the main drag between the city gate and the town square
More about Old Town Tallinn: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tTS2XEJTHVadAFyJA
While I was in Tallinn I visited Lauluväljak, the place where Estonian and other singers from around the world gather every five years for a weekend of mass choral singing and dancing. The event has become world famous, and is recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2003). The festival, along with similar ones in Latvia and Lithuania, is part of what is called the "Baltic Song and Dance" celebrations. Read more about it here:
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/baltic-song-and-dance-celebrations-00087
This is what Lauluväljak looks like during a Song Festival (called Laulupidu), which is held every five years. Estonia has a long and rich history of large group choral singing, starting in 1869, when 845 singers from 51 choirs got together to sing traditional folk songs, religious hymns, and patriotic anthems. In the last Laulupidu in 2019, more than 30,000 singers from over 1000 choral groups spent a weekend singing to an audience of over 100,000 spectators. Many of the spectators sang along with the performers.
This is a sculpture of Gustav Ernesaks. He was a widely recognized inspirational leader of what Estonians call "The Singing Revolution." Estonians gathered together in Lauluväljakin 1988 to sing Estonian folk and patriotic songs in protest of Soviet domination and in defiance of Soviet rules forbidding it. Gustav Ernesaks conducted much of the singing and composed or arranged a series of six songs which became rallying songs for Estonian independence. Mass singing events continued here and in other parts of the Baltic States for about three years, leading to Estonia declaring its independence from the USSR in 1991. There was clearly more to it than just a nation singing together, but this tradition of mass singing, and the worldwide press coverage it received, has become part of the Estonian national story about independence.
Lauluväljak: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ke3XMwxDpMayiH2m9
Those of you who know me will know that I really enjoy choral singing, especially of music written by young modern composers. Likely no other composer has influenced modern choral music more than Arvo Part, a deeply spiritual and gifted musician from Eatonia. His music offended the occupying Soviet regime enough that he decided to flee Estonia and lived mainly in Germany until it was safe to return to his beloved Estonia. During that time, however, his simple, pure, and haunting music became well known in the musical world (even now, his music is sung more by choral groups than any other composer, living or dead). The Arvo Part Center is in Laulusmaa, about 30 miles / 45 km west of Tallinn. As you can imagine, I had to go there.
The center itself feels like a retreat; it is surrounded by a forest of large pines and is very close to the coast in the far north western part of Estonia. You walk along a quiet forest path to get to the center. The building is an architectural marvel. It has lots of long low lines with curved space and a tall tower that looks over the surrounding forest and on to the Gulf of Finland. The center includes a theater, a concert hall, a library with all of his works, places for listening to music, places to chat with other visitors from around the world, places for music students and scholars to study his manuscripts, a cafe and book shop.... You get the idea.
In addition to his Orthodox spirituality, Part was and is heavily influenced by nature. As you can see, the center was designed to let nature in and let music out!
A music theater, with superb accoustics
The library, with books and music that influenced him as well as music and writing he produced
The tower seen through an atrium. An amazing place!
The Arvo Part Center: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tTS2XEJTHVadAFyJA
Finally, there is a moving and thought provoking museum in Tallin called the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom. This museum describes the centuries of foreign control and domination experienced by Estonians and celebrates the country's relatively new-found freedom when it declared its independence from the USSR on August 20, 1991
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