Muusika

Conductor Notes:

SSAA a cappella
Sung in Estonian

I used this as the opening piece in a concert about music. It asks , “Where did the first musical sound happen?” Estonian composer Pärt Uusberg has made an impression across the world’s choral circles in recent years with stunningly beautiful works such as this one.

Estonian, Poem by Juhan Liiv (1864-1913)
English Translation by Peter Lohuaru

Somewhere there must be the first harmonic sound,
somewhere in the vastness of nature, hidden.
It is in its mighty spread and breadth,
in the distances between galaxies,

it’s in the brilliance of the sun,
in small flowers, in the breezes through forests,

in a mother’s voice speaking the music of the heart, or in the water of tears.
Somewhere there must be immortality.
Somewhere the first harmonic sound exists.

How else into the heart of a person could it have arrived as music?