ESTONIAN SYMPHONIC MUSIC. THE FIRST CENTURY 1896-1996.
1
Tormis can be seen as a radical, using contemporary devices; heterophony,
polytonality, poly-rhythms and clusters, however, their application is conditioned by the
need to reflect the national psyche. Tormis is an innovator and restorer simultaneously.
Acknowledging his merits Tormis was elected Honorary Doctor of the Estonian
Academy of Music (1992) and Professor of Liberal Arts of Tartu University (1997).
The Overture No. 2 in C minor2, though not a programme piece, the images are
vivid, energetic and create visions of a battle under leaden skies. It is considered as the
best of Tormis’s scant orchestral output. The Overture is in sonata allegro form. The
first bars indicate a kinship with Tubin’s Fifth Symphony. The main theme (Violin)
proceeding in narrow and oppressing second-thirds, spinning around an axis, sounds
like a cry for help:
Example 83.
A common atmosphere binds all that follows
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