Temporal Structure of Estonian Runic Songs

by Ilse Lehiste and Jaan Ross

The Kalevala, or runic, songs is a tradition at least a few thousand years old. It was shared by Finns, Estonians and other speakers of smaller Baltic-Finnic languages inhabiting the eastern side of the Baltic Sea in North-Eastern Europe. This book offers a combined perspective of a musicologist and a linguist to the structure of the runic songs. Archival recordings of the songs originating mostly from the first half of the 20th century were used as source material for this study. The results reveal a complex interaction between three different processes participating in singing: speech prosody, metre, and musical rhythm.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3110170329
• ISBN13: 9783110170320
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: de Gruyter Mouton
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary