Children's Album

(Originally emailed 15 October 2007)

In my (some might say misguided) attempt to learn Estonian, I have taken a couple of occasions to purchase Estonian children's books from Apollo Raamatud (think the Eesti version of Angus & Robertson) to get a feel for the language at a simple, easily translated level.

This has proven to be an interesting exercise, as I have been buying books based purely on the cover art. I have no idea what the titles mean, I can't tell what the books are about or what ages they are aimed at. They have written descriptions on Apollo's web site, but I can't read them. I just decide the cover looks about right and part with money.

This has had mixed results. I'd say about eighty percent of the time I've managed to accurately gauge the reading levels of the books. I have been landed with a few books that I probably won't be able to read for quite some time, but most of them were more or less exactly what I was after - picture books which are designed for being read to children.

There are some very nice poems and rhymes in a number of these books. I have no idea what most of them mean, but I love the sound of them when I try to pronounce them.

I have, however, been slightly thwarted by the Estonian Grammar. I spent months trying to figure out why I couldn't find these words (supposedly aimed at small children) in any dictionaries, but now that I've got a decent self-study book on Estonian Grammar (also bought based purely on the cover), I'm starting to work it out. It's slow going, but it's happening.

There is one random purchase that I have to say I'm particularly pleased with (apart from the grammar book, which is very handy indeed): Võluvitsa vägi.

I apologise if the Estonian vowels didn't manage to cross the electronic divide. They looked okay on my screen.

Now, I can't tell you exactly what the title means. Something about charms and magic (maybe wands). I can't tell you if Diana Liiv wrote the story herself or adapted it into Estonian. I can't even tell you what the story is about, really, although I'm looking forward to finding out.

I can tell you that it comes with a CD that features a guy with a fabulous speaking voice (who may or may not be Indrek Sammul) reading the story, interspaced with music from Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album".

Man, I love listening to that story. I have no idea what he's saying, but I love hearing him say it. He has such a clear, expressive voice that seems so perfectly intoned for reading a children's story. And, of course, Tchaikovsky's music is always a pleasure to listen to.

Plus, there are children's toys and toy instruments threaded throughout the musical pieces. I don't know if they were meant to be there, or if Liiv put them in for this particular production. All I know is that it's great to hear a rubber ducky in the orchestra - where it truly belongs.

From my best estimations, I think Diana Liiv wrote the story to provide a narrative for the set pieces of music in Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album" in order to give young children an introduction to the wonders of classical music. At the end of the book are instructions for making your own musical instruments out of stuff lying around the house (although you'd have to have a pretty weird house to have some of that stuff lying around).

It took me a little while to notice, but the book also has the musical notation for the toys written in, so you can play along. I thought the bars of music were just there to show you different timings (after all, they only have one note), but I managed to pick up on the fact that the ducky squeaks or the castanets clack right on that note every time. Kind of cool, really.

Allow me to write the words 'Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album" on more time. It took me days to figure that out. In the book they refer to Pjotr Tšaikovski's arrangement "Lastealbum". Now, I knew that laste meant children, but I couldn't find lastealbum any where. I was convinced the last half of the word must have been one of those insane portmanteaus Estonian seems to be littered with.

It was only after I found a list of Tchaikivsky's works that I realised it was actually exactly what it looked like: "album". Laste album - lastealbum - "children's album". I spent two days trying to work out what the word "album" was. I could have kicked myself.

Anyway, it's a great little story-book. I've listened to it several times (not always with the book in front of me), and I get the same sort of buzz from it that I got from watching the Nutcracker a couple of years back. It makes me want to stage the darn thing, with an orchestra on stage (so you can see the musician playing the toys), a narrator and a couple of dancers fleshing out the story for people who aren't familiar with Estonian.

It has to be narrated in Estonian. I'm sure the story (whatever it is) will hold up to a translation into some other language (heck, it could have been translated from another language into Estonian, for all I know), but it sounds fabulous in Estonian.