HISTORY OF VäIKE HELLERO

Väike Hellero is a folklore ensemble from Tartu, that has existed for twenty years. The singers are children of the members of an older ensemble Hellero, created at the beginning of the folklore movement in Estonia. We are concentrated on a singing style more than 2000 years old – the runosongs. Listening and analysing the archive recordings, we are trying to recreate the soundscapes from different parts of Estonia and also from the villages of the nearest Finno-Ugric nations – the Votes, the Izhorians and the Livonians. In our repertoire, different types of polyphony are represented, from the unisonous and heterophonic songs to Seto archaic polyphony. The wedding and feast songs are performed with movement. Some of our members also play Estonian traditional instruments – bagpipe, Estonian psaltery and accordion.