Slade Carter

Albert Lord and Oral Narratives

The folklorist Albert Lord defined traditional oral narrative songs as songs that have been conveyed by voice over generations. The building blocks for the narratives are particular thematic phrases, around which songs are created during performance. In the oral narrative tradition, what takes place is not merely performance, but composition (Lord 1960: 4, 5, 21, 22). Lord called this process "composition in performance" (ibid.: 4).

In Lord's view, while a printed text is a fixed composition, the traditional oral text is processual (Lord cited in Finnegan 1992: 41). Songs continually evolve through the words of the performers, the singers of tales. In Lord's research, the singers were the oral poet-composers of Yugoslavia, the guslars.

For Lord, when singers begin to memorise songs, they are not true oral composers but mere performers. Performance of memorised texts is, in his opinion, not creative but reproductive (Lord 1987: 313, 314). Literacy usurped the position of tale-teller from the singer of tales. The singers' tradition was buried by the book.

Hypothesis

Lord's theory that the printed word spells the end of the process of composition in performance is, I contend, erroneous. In the context of literacy, the audiences of printed texts (namely, readers and listeners) partially take on the roll of singers of tales (or composers on the point of performance), alongside the text's authors and performers.

Lord believed that the audience may influence a text's formulation and delivery by its presence at and reaction to a traditional performance (Finnegan 1992: 97). Unlike Lord, however, I maintain that the audience receiving a performance using apparently "set", printed texts, can in fact shape and therefore participate in composing texts. The printed text, as an arrangement of signs that are coherently interpretable by an audience (Hanks 1989: 95), is not, in a sense, fixed at all. Textual coherence comes on the point of performance, that is, the enactment of texts. The audience of printed texts takes part in composition in performance not by its utilisation of particular verbal phrases, but by its reception of and reaction to a set of ideas believed to exist in texts and the context of performances.

Composition in performance has continued in two different yet not unrelated realms of Estonian cultural life - the national epic, Kalevipoeg (1857), and the Song Festivals. Kalevipoeg was compiled by the physician Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. The work is a long poem based on Estonian oral literature. It relates the tales of the mythical giant Kalevipoeg, who is portrayed as the last warrior king of independent (pre-Christian) Estonia. But one cannot change the words on the printed page. How then can it be considered part of the ongoing use of composition in performance? The answer lies in the nationalistic ideas expressed in the epic, which were subsequently employed by new generations of Estonians, thereby "extending the text" of Kalevipoeg. The original Kalevipoeg was not a fixed product because it spawned other original works using its formula: the audience of Kalevipoeg were to become composers in the steadily evolving nationalism of the nineteenth century.

In performances at the Song Festivals, which began in 1869, the audience is fundamental to continuing composition in performance. Although pieces sung at the festivals have been written before performance, I will argue that composition continues in the receptions and reactions of an active audience in the context and moment of the performance event.

The function of the audience, with the creation of Kalevipoeg and the establishment of the Song Festivals, has led to what I consider a national oral-literary formula for composition in performance. I use "formula" here to mean a repeated expression of meaning in the context of particular performances. Texts are meaningful because they are received in a particular way by an individual and/or group. The national oral-literary formula combines elements of literacy (printed texts) and orality (the use of Estonian oral literature in Kalevipoeg, the singing at the Song Festivals). It is the formulation and expression of ideas of nation and nationalism (that is, the assertion, reification and celebration of the unity of the nation in the image it makes for itself) through various performances.

The Creation and Performance of Kalevipoeg

After a century-long closure, the re-opening of the University of Tartu in 1802 brought together the first group of nationally-minded, educated Estonians (Kurman 1982: 278). Under the shadow of six centuries of foreign rule, a small but enthusiastic Estonian intelligentsia developed. The publication of the Finnish epic, Kalevala, in 1835, had advanced the Finns into the family of "civilized nations" (Wilson 1978: 51). If an epic could be found among the Estonians, they too, it was felt, could move to the level of other European peoples with national epics (Kurman 1982: 278).

Kreutzwald, who committed himself to Kalevipoeg in 1850, did not find a single great poem of Kalevipoeg's adventures. He therefore had to supplement existing folk materials to make the epic a coherent whole (ibid.: 280-281). About 75% of the work is based directly on Estonian oral traditions. What remains is Kreutzwald's own creation or is based on Finnish material (ibid.: 286-287). Importantly, however, less than half of the data Kreutzwald used was originally connected with the name or figure of Kalevipoeg (ibid.: 287). Hence, the character of the epic Kalevipoeg was considerably invented by Kreutzwald. But whatever its faults as a transcription of oral narratives or as a work pseudo-mythology, Kalevipoeg, as the first major Estonian literary text, earned a place as the classic of Estonian literature that would inspire many creative works.

Although in Estonian folktales Kalevipoeg is often a character of fear (Oinas 1979a: 377), in Kreutzwald's epic he is a heroic warrior king. Kalevipoeg perishes on earth on the eve of foreign occupation. He is sent by the gods to the gates of hell where he is chained to guard the devil until he might manage to free himself (Oinas 1979b: 223). His freedom will herald a new era of happiness for the Estonian people (Kreutzwald 1982: 266).

The problem of Kalevipoeg's return to earth is that, in leaving the underworld, he may release demons and thereby destroy the world (Oinas 1985: 57). Despite this ambiguous predicament, the dream of freedom following Kalevipoeg's release had, in effect, left the text of the epic open-ended. Kalevipoeg at the gates of hades, a metaphor for the enslaved Estonian nation, is imprisoned until he breaks free. The text may thus, firstly, be extended by imagination. It may be extended further by actively working towards the text's alteration. In other words, the destiny of Kalevipoeg might be altered through the pursuit of nationalistic goals.

In his foreword to his early 1853 edition of Kalevipoeg, Kreutzwald forbids future generations to alter the spelling in the work and claims personal copyright of the text (Voigt 1990: 252). Kreutzwald has, it would seem, "fixed" his text. But the inability to change the words on the page does not mean the death of its compositional properties. Authors cannot, after all, control the powers of their readers (Tyler 1986: 135). Readers can compose meaning while reading texts. After all, texts would be boring and unimaginative if everything was clearly laid out and explained to readers (Stern cited in Iser 1980: 51).

Interpreted textual meaning itself may not be what the author intends. This being the case, the printed text is, in a sense, not fixed at all. Kreutzwald did not envisage the nationalistic significance that could be "composed" on the basis of his epic. The fact that Kreutzwald doubted the ability of Estonians to develop independently as a nation (Raun 1987: 56) makes the readers' powers to attach meaning to texts especially pertinent to the case of Kalevipoeg.

The ability to compose meaning from a text does not even necessitate a reading, for its ideas may merely be known to exist through those who have read the work. Indeed, the significance of Kalevipoeg is not in its intrinsic value (as a record of oral literature) but in its incentive effect (Turunen 1982: 280).

The effect of the work was first felt by the Estonian intelligentsia. It prompted Hurt, Eisen and Kallas to record folklore (Laugaste 1990: 272). The thematic material of the epic inspired artists, including the writers Friedrich Kuhlbars and Jakob Tamm and the composer Rudolf Tobias (Rubulis 1970: 67-68; Normet 1987: 690). Kreutzwald's epic thus became an springboard for other songs - hence his title, lauluisa, "the father of song".

Like Lord, Lewis has questioned the possibility of a printed text ever being a processual text. He wrote that oral myths communicate possibilities about the world to their listeners. However, when myths are written down, the author is in a position to control their meaning. This may lead to a "tyranny" of the written text as the meaning of myths are controlled, not communicated (Lewis 1993: 21-22). For Lewis, written literature is a "frozen" text for it can only be told one way (ibid.: 21). But Kreutzwald's writings gave only one interpretation of Estonia's mythical past. Kreutzwald had also left the ending of Kalevipoeg free for the reader to determine. People would extend the text of the epic beyond its sorrowful yet hopeful conclusion of Kalevipoeg's possible release from hell. They would do so when they participated en masse in the Song Festivals. At these events, people would witness representations of collective national aspirations and symbols of which they felt a part.

The Extension of the Text: The Song Festivals

Johann Voldemar Jannsen organised the first Song Festivals. He was the editor of the newspaper, Eesti Postimees. In the press, Jannsen promoted the festivals, which were based on German and Swiss models (Tall 1985: 450). Ten thousand people attended the First Festival (1869), and thousands more were able to read about it in the papers (Raun 1985: 396).

The festivals that followed were staged about five years apart. Audience levels grew rapidly and the festivals became a great source of national pride, taking on an increasingly "national" character. At the Fourth Festival, settings of Estonian folk songs were used for the first time. By the seventh festival, the music was entirely that of Estonian composers (Tall 1985: 453, 454).

The Song Festivals served a sense of national unity. The writer Aino Kallas observed of the participants: "... they are all like brothers, and even the unknown become known" (cited in Tall 1985: 454). They became known not through personal introductions but through a common understanding of a set of notions about Estonian's future (that, ultimately, Estonians might determine their own destiny as a people).

The Song Festival was an ideal forum for the continuation of composition in performance using nationalism as its performance thematic base. National sentiments could be expressed and witnessed by thousands, in the feelings of "brotherhood" described by Kallas. Just as Lord's guslars had used themes in performance-composition, Song Festival performers and audiences came to anticipate displays of nationalism as a theme within the context of performance. In addition, like the guslars' performances, the exact outcome of Song Festival events could not be predicted in spite of the use of printed texts in performance. Thus, the Song Festivals became momentary events using anticipated themes: compositions in performance.

To some extent, Song Festival audiences and performers could by living under a "tyranny of nationalism". But even nationalism, when "performed" (enacted), will be different in its manifestation from earlier events. This is especially evident in the Song Festivals during the Soviet rule.

Under Soviet occupation the Song Festivals were officially oriented away from the notion of a common, united people, culture and destiny that had characterised the festivals of the First Estonian Republic. Instead, the Soviets sought to underline the glories of Soviet Estonia (Clemens 1991: 112). Singers were compelled to carry pro-Soviet placards and pictures of Lenin. Communist officials opened the festivals with long speeches celebrating Estonia's place in the "friendly family of the Soviet Union". Estonian songs were taken from the repertoire and replaced by the Soviet ones (Clemens 1991: 112).

Estonia would be "integrated" into "multi-national" Soviet culture. The Song Festivals would acquire a "truly popular character" and express the "people's innermost feelings and thoughts" (Käbin 1971: 119-120). Thus, as a popular event, the Song Festivals were seen by the Soviet authorities as a means to establish a "Soviet formula" of performance among Estonians.

A similar attitude was taken towards Kalevipoeg. It was portrayed as a great achievement "of the people". It was a popular creation and was thus endorsed (see Laugaste 1951: 319).

Despite the attempts by the authorities to make the Song Festivals events that were "Soviet" in character, they failed to do so. The Song Festival singers of tales (that is, both stage performers and audience members) continued to make use of already-established formulas. They continued to express nationalism openly at the festivals. They did this by dissenting against the authorities. The end of the official program was followed by a series of nationalistic works, sung impromptu. Among these songs was Gustav Ernesaks' version of Koidula's Mu isamaa on minu arm ("My Fatherland is My Love"), which became an unofficial national anthem. Despite the authorities forcing the organisers to exclude the song from the repertoire in the festivals of 1960 and 1965, it was still sung spontaneously by audiences on both occasions. The militia's attempts to force people to sit down or leave were fruitless (Küng 1980: 221, 222).

The significance of the audience meant that compositions became only truly composed on the point of performance. The atmosphere of the performance and the experiences it brought for the individual and the crowd were, in effect, the composition of texts. Composers of printed texts do not merely have themselves in mind, but an audience. Even if two individuals could read musical notation with equal skill, they would not share the experience of the music until it is heard. Texts at the Song Festivals sprang to life in the context of the audience's role. Thus, an Estonian choir performing in Moscow, even though it engages in performance, is removed from the context of the Song Festivals. As the performance event has altered, the audience's reactions cannot be the same, even if the written texts employed are the same. Hence, texts cannot have the same sense of meaning in different performance contexts.

The National Oral-literary Formula

The production of Kalevipoeg was instrumental in the Estonian shift from what Branch calls "micro-identity" to a national identity. Estonian identity altered from its foundation in communities based on ties of kinship and locality to a national identity that embraced larger groups of similar people (the nation) (Branch 1994: 36-37). Nations, Kapferer observed, replicate and promote notions of likeness, not difference, in order to strengthen national identity (Kapferer 1988: 191). As the product of "all Estonians", Kalevipoeg served as a nucleus for the promulgation and reproduction of likeness that otherwise had not existed or, if it had, had not been evident.

Kalevipoeg, in a nationalistic reading, embodies ideals of ethnic unity and independence. The Song Festivals enlisted these themes in the context of performance. The audience anticipated the employment of the themes (such as singing forbidden patriotic verses spontaneously) but could nevertheless not predict the outcome of performance before its occurrence. It was this anticipation of ethnic celebration and anti-Sovietism that made the Song Festivals so important on the path to Estonian independence from the Soviet Union, the so-called "Singing Revolution".

At the Song Festivals, the audience used a set of ideas, a formula, for composing. This formula, the national oral-literary formula, is the public expression of national unity in performances. The formula owes something to themes of Kalevipoeg. The text of Kalevipoeg was extended by granting it a sequel: Kalevipoeg might be feed from the devil's door and return to earth if the reader of the epic could imagine it. The "imaginings" of Kalevipoeg's liberation and the ensuing happiness for all Estonians led people to become active participants in the national movement.

Conclusion

Text is not merely the transmission of meaning intended by an author. Textual meaning awaits realisation until a text is performed or enacted, resulting in the interdependence of text and performance (Bakker 1993). This enactment requires an audience for it to be a true text (that is, weighted with meaning(s)).

Kalevipoeg is not a "frozen" text for it asked its readers to imagine (and from these imaginings compose) something beyond its printed words. Kalevipoeg's predicament would be altered. The text was thus "extended", as people took up its themes (of national survival and liberation), most prominently at the Song Festivals. Predicting the outcome of these performance events was, however, impossible. People used the Song Festivals as a place and a moment in time to continue to sing their tales (of nationhood) on the point of performance.

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