Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Eino Tubin RAHVUSVAHELINE EDUARD TUBINA ÜHING1 INTERNATIONAL EDUARD TUBIN SOCIETY Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY 2 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN A Biography INTERNATIONAL EDUARD TUBIN SOCIETY RAHVUSVAHELINE EDUARD TUBINA ÜHING TALLINN 3 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Design and Tiina Sildre digital photo processing Editor Eino Tubin Sources for photos and archive items Eino Tubin’s private collection Estonian Theatre and Music Museum Estonian Maritime Museum Digital archive Digar Archive of National Opera Estonia Archive of Vanemuine Theatre Eduard Tubin Museum Photographers Beyhan Tubin Eino Tubin Eduard Tubin Erika Tubin Rickard Neider August Zimmerman Heidi Laanemäe Joel Reis Harri Rospu ©Eino Tubin, 2017 ISBN 978-9949-81-825-9 www.tubinsociety.com 4 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Table of Contents Sources for photos and archive items Preface 7 Eino Tubin’s private collection 9 Estonian Theatre and Music Museum Chapter 1. Prélude Estonian Maritime Museum Chapter 2. Swineherd with a flute 14 Digital archive Digar Chapter 3. The young composer 27 Archive of National Opera Estonia Chapter 4. Excessive density of sound 39 Archive of Vanemuine Theatre Eduard Tubin Museum Chapter 5. Occupations 52 Chapter 6. The dance of the goblin 67 Photographers Chapter 7. Last years in Estonia 81 Beyhan Tubin Chapter 8. A new country 95 Eino Tubin Chapter 9. Like an engraving on copper 112 Eduard Tubin 131 Erika Tubin Chapter 10. A country of stone Rickard Neider Chapter 11. The composer in the sixties 149 August Zimmerman Chapter 12. One dares to laugh as well as cry 166 Heidi Laanemäe Chapter 13. Eros the Slayer 180 Joel Reis Harri Rospu Chapter 14. Summing up 194 Chapter 15. Postlude 209 ©Eino Tubin, 2017 Appendix: The composer’s voice 217 ISBN 978-9949-81-825-9 5 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY 6 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Preface After Eduard Tubin’s centenary in 2005, I started to draft a bio- graphy of my father. Showing it to the Swedish Royal Music Aca- demy, I was commissioned to write a biographical text for a series of portraits of Swedish composers. Actually, the Academy was already looking for somebody who could do it. Since I have no musical education, the Academy asked PhD. Tobias Lund to add descriptions of my father’s most important works. I enjoyed excel- lent cooperation with Lund as well as with my editor, professor Thomas Anderberg. “Svenska tonsättare, Eduard Tubin” was prin- ted in 2011 by Atlantis. I then translated the book into Estonian and started looking for an editor and a publisher. Professor Urve Lippus, a member of the board of the Tubin Society, took an interest. She cleaned up my old- fashioned Estonian, checked all dates and added many facts. Since Tubin’s works do not need descriptions for an Estonian audience, Lund’s texts were replaced mostly with contemporary reviews. However, I quoted him liberally, especially when his opinion differs from the conventional view in Estonia. The book was printed in 2015 as “Ballaad, Eduard Tubina lugu” (Ballade, The Story of Eduard Tubin) by the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum with publisher SE&JS. Sadly, both my mentors passed away soon after completing their work; Thomas Anderberg of a brain tumour while Urve Lippus fell victim to a domestic accident. 7 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY The present text is mostly adapted from “Ballaad”, while his- torical facts meant for a foreign audience are taken from previous versions. Beside prefaces in English to the Collected Works, occasional Yearbooks from the Tubin Society, CD booklets and a few reviews, all sources are in either Estonian or Swedish. The first chairman of the Society, Vardo Rumessen (1943– 2015), collected and commented all father’s letters in two volumes, his articles and lectures in “Rändavate vete ääres” (At the wandering waters) and his conversations and interviews in “Vestlused Tubinaga” (Conver- sations with Tubin). Rumessen also compiled the catalogue “The Works of Eduard Tubin, ETW” and a large picture album with a valuable timeline for the centenary,”Tubin and His Time”. Quotes from Herbert Connor’s groundbreaking article in Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning 1978 are frequently used (Connor). Quotes from CD booklets carry the company record number and from Collected Works the volume number. Most photos can be found at the Theatre and Music Museum. The text and most quotes are translated by myself. Any errors and inconsistencies are my own fault. Eino Tubin 8 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Chapter 1. Prélude Once, my father took us to a Western named “The Professionals”. He liked the title and the charismatic characters that Burt Lancaster brought to the screen. Indeed, it was about some professional gunfighters, making short work of Mexican bandits but at the same time keeping a strong integrity. That’s how Eduard Tubin wanted to see himself, as the man who knew his trade and who would stick to his ideals. He refused to ask for favours or even to promote his own works. There were fellow professionals in the music world, whose example to follow. With his revered teacher Heino Eller he had studied Palestrina and Bach. In later life he was ever more impressed with Joseph Haydn and the subtle humour with which the prolific master could vary his themes. Of 20th century composers, he mostly liked Stravinsky and Bartók. On the other hand, he was quite cold to Shostakovich, to whom he was sometimes compared by critics. On the wall he had a small picture of Mozart and on his piano a signed portrait of Prokofiev, cut from a concert poster when he visited Estonia in 1934. A sign of the true professional is the ability to let the brain rest and charge its batteries. Eduard Tubin’s interests and hobbies were very varied. He built model airplanes; he was interested in photo- graphy and film making, good cooking, chess and art. He read a lot, often in the original Swedish, Estonian, Russian, German or Eng- lish. He enjoyed walking in nature, picking mushrooms, talking to 9 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY animals and feeding birds. He had a strong sense of humour, was a calm person and never raised his voice. Like most Estonians, he was not keen on showing his feelings. He preferred to let them loose in his music. Regarding Eduard Tubin’s life and work, two questions emerge, which can be endlessly debated. Was he an Estonian or a Swedish composer? Did he write “pure” music or does it contain hidden programs? Some Estonians and Swedes have put much weight on the nati- onality question. In fact the issue is irrelevant. The music writer Herbert Connor, himself a war refugee, offered a sympathetic alter- native in his article from 1978: Eduard Tubin: Estonian, Swede, Cosmopolitan. Perhaps both Estonia and Sweden were too small for him, most royalties always came from abroad. What Sweden could offer him, beside the basic condition of being a free country ruled by law, was the position of “archive worker” that enabled him to devote a sizable part of his working time to his own music. With time, Eduard and Erika Tubin became as well integrated as possible for people who have to change countries at a mature age. They did not live in a bygone world or isolate themselves from local life. They had an active interest in Swedish cultural life and politics, read the morning papers and voted at every election. Tubin enjoyed good relations with his Swedish colleagues, took a keen interest in their work and went regularly to the activities of the Composers’ Union. When at the end of his life he got some prestigious awards and was elected member of the Swedish Royal Music Academy, he deeply appreciated it. In fact, half of his entire life and two thirds of his creative life were spent in Sweden. One could well compare this with Handel, who in a similar way divided his time between Germany and England and is claimed as “our” composer in both countries. But Handel was of course not a refugee. 10 Eino Tubin EDUARD TUBIN – A BIOGRAPHY Certainly he didn’t turn his back on Estonia. He frequently used Estonian folk tunes in his works; often in unexpected places. His greatest loss in the beginning was the contact with fellow musicians, who had remained behind. For more than ten years all relations were broken; during Stalin’s time even correspondence was banned. He deliberately took the risks involved with visiting occupied Estonia in 1961, such as being called a traitor by right-wingers, for the urgent needs of seeing old colleagues and to encourage and inspire a younger generation of composers isolated behind the Iron Curtain. Neither is there a simple answer to the question of programmatic content in his music. His attitude changed with time. At school he liked to tell tales in connection with music. His Symphony No. 2 Legendary comes to mind, but is certainly an exception. The Ballade on a Theme by Mart Saar written during the last months of the war could well be compared to Chopin’s most passionate pieces, reflec- ting the Polish uprising of 1830. He liked Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and Respighi’s Roman triptych. In Rome he made a film of the fountains that inspired Respighi. Tubin had worked as a film musician and written hours of incidental music to plays, gaining knowledge how music can enhance the emotional impact of a story. But is it possible to describe something only by music? With time he became increasingly critical, when eager compatriots tried to find programmatic content in his works.