MUSIC OF THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLES - Aquarius & Kuldatsuk

Not just the environment, but also our culture is threatened with extinction. Globalisation suppresses just those minorities that have different cultures to offer. The Estonian composer VELJO TORMIS (1930-2017) visited the borders of his country (Estonia-Finland-Russia) to sample the music of the Livonians, the Vepsians, the Karelians, de Votians and the Ingrian Finns, folk groups that - together with their music and rituals - are dying out. He put these folksongs together into six bundels, marvellously reworking them for choir and giving them the splendid name: MUSIC OF THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLES. You could call Veljo Tormis the Zoltan Kodaly or Bela Bartok of Estonia. Kodaly and Bartok referred to themselves as ethno-musicologists rather than as composers - incorrectly of course! - and Tormis saw them as his main example. Tormis wrote almost exclusively for choir and sought his inspiration equally exclusively in folk culture. His five year younger colleague, Arvo Pärt, is mostly sung abroad. Torm