This top quality box set is sort of the music-ethnological Jaw Harp treasure chest of Estonia. Compiled and edited 2011 by Cätlin Jaago (now Cätlin Mägi), a well known folklore musician and ethno-musicologist in Estonia in cooperation with the "Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum" (Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiiv, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum), the "Estonian Traditional Music Center" (Eesti Pärimusmuusika Keskus) and others.
In the cardboard box you will find one book covering the history of jaw harp music and portraits of famous old masters of Estonia, a song book with sheet music and an audio CD with archive recordings. The set is produced very professionally and appealing in terms of content and appearance. The texts are bilingual: Estonian and English.
Book: Eesti Parmupill - Estonian Jaw Harp
• contains texts about the Jaw Harp tradition and culture in Estonia generally; detailed portraits of 15 traditional jaw harp masters of the 20th century; and Jaw Harp playing instructions
• exciting stories
• comprehensive references
• lots of archive photographies of parmupill players
• very beautiful design, layout, typography
• 204 pages
• bilingual: Estonian and English
Song Book
• sheet music for 74 tunes with references to the track numbers on the CD
• traditional tunes: polkas, waltzes, dances
• 80 pages
• wire binding
• bilingual: Estonian and English
Audio CD
• 49 recordings from the Estonian Folklore Archives (Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiivist) from the years 1922 till 1994
• runtime: 43:14
Get more background information in our blog
The earliest jew's harps found in Estonia was an instrument dug out from Otepää town hill dating back to the beginning of the 13th century. There are several more findings from the 15th and 16th century. It can be suggested that at that time the mouth harp was a popular instrument among peasants. An excursion to the history of Parmupill, the estonian Jaw Harp. By Cätlin Mägi.