Setomaa, Estonia

Seto Leelo, Seto Polyphonic Singing Tradition

Also known as Seto polyphonic singing, Setu Leelo, Leelo, Seto singing, Seto polyphonic singing tradition

Setomaa's ancient communal singing tradition combines improvised poetry, piercing polyphony and call-and-response performance.

Origins and context

Seto Leelo grew within the agrarian, orally transmitted culture of the Seto people and was traditionally integrated into work, ritual, family life and community celebrations. Its antiquity is substantial but cannot be assigned a securely documented inception year.

Setomaa, Estonia

The sound

Characteristics

Unaccompanied voices
Lead singer
Torrõ choir part
Killõ high voice
Two-part and three-part polyphony
Heterophonic melodic variation
Improvised verse
Strong bright vocal timbre

History

Seto Leelo is an old oral singing tradition of the Seto people, whose historical homeland lies around present-day southeastern Estonia and the neighbouring Pechory area. Its precise age cannot be established securely; Seto cultural sources regard it as potentially several thousand years old, but documentary evidence does not allow a reliable founding date. Traditionally, songs accompanied work, weddings, herding, celebrations, mourning and other parts of everyday village life. Leelo is normally led by a singer who delivers a line that is then repeated and developed by a choir. The distinctive polyphony includes the main torrõ voices and a high killõ part, and accomplished lead singers are valued for their ability to improvise new verses using established poetic structures. Social change during the twentieth century shifted much of the tradition from everyday work and ritual settings into organized choirs and cultural events, but Leelo remains an important marker of Seto identity. UNESCO inscribed the tradition on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.