Grateful to Norway for the revival of the Estonian Jew’s harp tradition

After an academic exchange in Rauland, Cätlin Mägi dug the Estonian Jew’s harp tradition up from the archives.

By Veronika Søum
Translated by Lucy Moffatt

– If it weren’t for Norway, the Jew’s harp community in Estonia wouldn’t be what it is today, Cätlin Mägi says.

Cätlin (45) is a musician who lives in Viljandi, a small town in southern Estonia. She works as a researcher and teacher of traditional music at the Viljandi Culture Academy, part of the Unviersity of Tartu. She teaches Jew’s harp, bagpipes and flute. 

She is also an active musician, performing both solo and in various ensembles. In 2018, she released a solo album, Mu pill parmupill, whose title translates roughly as My harp, my heart.

Cätlin first heard the Jew’s harp in the early noughties, when she herself was a student at Viljandi Culture Academy, with bagpipes as her main instrument.

– Everyone played the Jew’s harp there and I thought it was such a cool sound. But no one could play melodies – we just thought we could, she tells me.

Exchange in Rauland

Her music studies took her to Rauland as an exchange student, where she was taught by Ånon Egeland.

– He realised that I didn’t know anything about the opening/closing technique. Ånon taught me that, as well as how to play melodies. That opened up a whole new Jew’s harp world for me. 

The insight Cätlin gained into the Norwegian Jew’s harp tradition made her wonder whether Estonia had an equivalent tradition. Had people once played melodies there too? 

After returning to Estonia, she started to look for answers, scouring the national archives for Jew’s harp recordings.

– I found more than 50 Jew’s harp recordings there. Half of them involved the opening/closing technique, she says.

Cätlin Mägi playing solo.
Photo: Maritta Anton

The start of a new chapter for Estonian Jew’s harp

Cätlin embarked on an extensive documentation project that aimed to reconstruct the Estonian tradition of melodic Jew’s harp playing. She did research, made transcripts and tried to fill in the gaps in a tradition that had clearly been broken.  

This culminated in her master’s thesis Estonian Jew’s Harp Stories: The reproduction and restoration of melody-play tradition, from Rauland in 2009. 

And in 2011 she published a beautifully designed book about the Estonian Jew’s harp tradition, complete with a tune book and a CD containing 49 archive recordings of Jew’s harp playing, dating from 1922 to 1994. 

– That was the beginning of melodic playing in Estonian.

Strong folk music traditions

Along with Katariin Raska and Juhan Suits, Cätlin is at the vanguard of the Estonian Jew’s harp tradition. She holds courses and teaches melodic playing, doing her utmost to share the as much of the knowledge she has rediscovered as she can with her fellow Estonians.

– Estonian and Norwegian Jew’s harp melodies differ in that the Norwegian tunes have more syncopation and different parts, she says.  

Estonia is a relatively small country with a population of around 1.3 million. But traditional music is on a solid footing: folk music is well regarded and appreciated among Estonians.

Playing Jew’s Harp for dance

One of the musician’s many initiatives was to establish an Estonian Jew’s harp festival, which attracted more than 80 participants in its first year. Katariin Raska has now taken over the job of running the festival.

In Estonia, as in Norway, Jew’s harps have been found that date back to the 11 th century. The most common name for the Jew’s harp is parmupill, which literally means horsefly instrument. 

Traditionally, the Jew’s harp was used for dance music and was only played by men. 

Cätlin estimates that around ten Jew’s harp players in her homeland can now play melodies in the Estonian tradition.

– I really admire Norwegian Jew’s harp players, your rich tradition and your Jew’s harp masters. I see you as a great inspiration for all Jew’s harp nations and performers!