JOINT SINGING AS A PHENOMENON OF ESTONIAN CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

The recent decades have been revolutionary in Estonia and in all spheres of life including education, quests and changes have taken place. In the period of globalisation it is the time to find out whether and to what extent Estonia manages to maintain its cultural values and national identity in the process of those dynamic changes. In the Estonian context joint singing can be viewed as a representative of cultural transmission. Joint singing originates from the so-called older folk song, Lutheran hymns and, most recently, powerfully emerged choral singing. Joint singing has developed into an important cultural metaphor of the identity of Estonian nation – song festivals. The current article focuses on the nature of joint singing and its development in the music education of Estonian comprehensive schools, what was founded by the pedagogue, composer, publicist and researcher Riho Päts in 1930s. The methodological basis of the research is the concept of joint singing, one type of which is choral singing, in the cultural transmission of the new generation of Estonians today. In the study participation of pupils in youth song festivals (1962-2007) is analysed to investigate the tendencies of development of joint singing. The results of the study prove that in contemporary Estonia choral singing is the most powerful type of joint singing and carries a phenomenon of cultural transmission based on innovative-traditional approach in music education.