Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Singing Revolution by Maureen Castle Tusty, James Tusty, Thor
Halvorssen, Mike Majoros and Mountain View Productions
Review by: Jeffers Engelhardt
Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 53, No. 1 (WINTER 2009), pp. 179-181
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25653059
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Vol. 53, No. 1 Ethnomusicology Winter 2009

Film, Video, and Multimedia Reviews

The Singing Revolution. Produced by Maureen Castle Tusty, James Tusty,

andThor Halvorssen. Directed by Maureen Castle Tusty and James Tusty.
Written and edited by Mike Majoros. DVD format, 94 minutes. 2006. Dis
tributed by Mountain View Productions, 426 State Street, Third Floor,
Schenectady, NY 12305; (518) 346-2034 or (800) 345-8439; website:
http://www.singingrevolution.com.

Between 1987 and 1991, people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania ex

perienced in different, often contrary ways the events that registered the
disintegration of the Soviet Union and made it possible for the Baltic states
to re-establish political independence. However, in the rehabilitated national
narratives, public memory, and historical consciousness of Estonians, Latvians,
and Lithuanians, this period is commonly glossed as the "Singing Revolution"
(laulev revolutsioon in Estonian, dziesmota revolucija in Latvian, and dai
nuojanti revoliucija in Lithuanian)?a term coined by the Estonian artist
and activist Heinz Valk in response to the massive, impromptu singing rallies
that took place in Estonia during the spring and summer of 1988. In Estonia,
the Singing Revolution was a period of economic reform, open debate about
the legitimacy of Soviet rule, environmental and cultural activism, grassroots
political mobilization, nonviolent resistance, nationalist ascendancy within
the Communist Party, and public musical gatherings of as many as 300,000
people that translated national sentiment and collective political will into
forms of popular musical expression. Amplified by the Soviet military failures
in Afghanistan, systemic economic collapse, and the pressure of international
law and global media, all of this demonstrated that Moscow was no longer
able to exercise political and symbolic control in Soviet Estonia to the degree
it had previously.
The Singing Revolution, a documentary film expertly crafted by James
and Maureen Tusty and something of an underground sensation during its
2007 to 2008 North American run, offers a valuable interpretation of this
eventful time. Most of the film is devoted to documenting the Estonian na
tional narrative in its conventional form, beginning with the first song festival

? 2009 by the Society for Ethnomusicology

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 180 Ethnomusicoiogy, Winter 2009

organized by Estonians in 1869 and continuing through the achievements

and tragedies of the twentieth century and the apotheosis of the Singing
Revolution. As The Singing Revolution tells us early on, this is the story of
"how culture saved a nation," how the expediency of culture during per
estroika and glasnosf facilitated the restoration of Estonian independence.
That much of the film deals with politics, war, and social change, and only
tangentially with music-making per se, highlights the special status of singing
in Estonians' national consciousness.
One of the best things about the film is the wealth of historical materials
it draws together so effectively?images of Republican-era (1920 to 1940)
Estonian life, evidence of the destruction and trauma of war, Soviet-era (1944
to 1991) propaganda films, television footage from the Singing Revolution, and
documentary material from the 2004 Estonian Song and Dance Celebration.
Interspersed throughout are interviews with amateur singers, professional
choral conductors, members of the underground resistance during the early
decades of Soviet rule, and the main protagonists of the Singing Revolution.
These voices are invaluable for their emotional immediacy and the ways they
relate singing to experiences of personal and sociopolitical transformation.
In so doing, they both reproduce and modulate the conventional historical
narrative set forth in The Singing Revolution.
The film does a good job representing the signature music of the Singing
Revolution?rock anthems like Alo Mattiisen's "Eestlane olen ja eestlaseks
jaan"(IAm and Will Remain an Estonian) andTonis Magi's "Koit" (Dawn) and
"Palve" (Prayer); traditional choral repertoire like Mihkel Ludig's "Koit" and
Peep Sarapik's 'Ta lendab mesipuu poole"(It Flies Towards the Beehive); and
Gustav Ernesaks's "Mu isamaa on minu arm" (My Fatherland is My Love), the
unofficial Soviet-era national anthem. In watching The Singing Revolution,
one comes to understand how these songs (and many others like them) were
an essential, animating force of mass protest and grassroots political mobili
zation. The soundtrack is particularly effective, binding together the narra
tive and emotional content of the film by returning frequently to a (slightly
edited) performance of Rein Rannap's "Ilus maa" (Beautiful Land) recorded
at the 2004 Estonian Song and Dance Celebration by a choir of thousands.
For ethnomusicologists, the Singing Revolution is a compelling example
of a cultural logic that metaphorically and synecdochally relates music and
music-making to a moment of historical rupture and transformation. Drawing
on the Herderian idea of Estonians'"national awakening" (arkamise aeg) as a
"singing nation" (laulev rahvas) in the nineteenth century, the film celebrates
the entirely nonviolent nature of these events in Estonia. At the same time,
the ideological potency and emotional force of the Singing Revolution make
critical historical interpretation a complicated affair, and a host of questions
emerge in documenting the Singing Revolution and interrogating its mean

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 Film, Video, and Multimedia Reviews 181

ings: What causal relationships existed (if any) between music and revolu
tionary sociopolitical change in Estonia between 1987 and 1991? To what
extent were experiences of the Singing Revolution (particularly collective
musical experiences) alike? How have memories of the Singing Revolution
been transformed by dominant social ideologies and historical interpretations
since 1991? What sense do those living in Estonia make of the Soviet lega
cies they encounter? What does it mean to sing the anthems of the Singing
Revolution today (Engelhardt 2006)? Although the film implicitly addresses
these questions, it does so without much explicit critical engagement.
The Singing Revolution is technically polished and very well produced,
and the filmmakers document with conviction and sympathy historical events
whose impact was global. It is also an object lesson in how music can shape
historical consciousness, how nationalist) narratives can efface historical
contingencies, and how music-making can drive revolutionary sociopolitical
change by enacting that to which it aspires. Ideally, the filmmakers would
have found time for more critical reflection on the complexity of the story
they tell, including how Baltic Germans influenced the early Estonian song
festivals, how participation in choral singing actually expanded within the
Soviet system, how lionized figures like Gustav Ernesaks accomplished what
they did by accommodating Soviet ideologies, and how Russian-speakers
living in Estonia experienced the Singing Revolution. All told, however, The
Singing Revolution is an important resource for students and scholars inter
ested in music, cultural history, and sociopolitical transformation in Eurasia
and the (post)socialist world.

Jeffers Engelhardt Amherst College

References
Engelhardt, Jeffers. 2006. "Intangible Heritage, Tangible Transformations: UNESC
the Rescaling of Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations." Paper presented at the
Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Honolulu, Hawai'i.

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Box 280, Oaks, PA 19456; (800) 888-0486; http://www.mvdb

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