Toivo Tulev

WORKS FOR THE STAGE

Operas

• Beatrice

  opera
  2010
  soloists, choir, organ, instrumental ensemble
  Libretto: Toivo Tulev and Mare Raidma on the basis of Dante's "La Vita Nuova"
  

Ballets

• Cruz

  short ballet
  2002
  25'
  symphony orchestra, tape
  Libretto: Choreographer Vladimir Arkhangelsky
  Fp: Estonian National Opera, choreographed by Vladimir Arkhangelsky, conductor Erki Pehk; April 27, 2002, Tallinn, Estonian Music Days Festival
  

WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA

• Q

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

  2001
  10'
  orchestra: 1110, 1110, percussion (0+2), piano, 1st and 2nd violin, viola, cello, double bass
  Fp: BIT 20 Ensemble (Bergen), conductor Jeffrey Milarsky; October 15, 2001, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  Manuscript

Works for symphony orchestra

• Three Symphonies [Kolm sümfooniat]

  • Audio

  • Three Symphonies: To Agnes / Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  “Three symphonies”
  
  My tiny grandmother Elisabeth (Elisabeth Oksermann, 1904–1984, we called her Thumbelina) loved flowers. Her little garden was one big sea of flowers. Elisabeth had an amazing handwriting, she had worked as a parish secretary in her youth. Later in her life she dreamed about painting but there were always obstacles.
  I never met Agnes (Agnes Martin, 1912–2014). I find it sad. I know her through her paintings that she herself defined stylistically as “abstract expressionism”. It sometimes seems like I’m looking at the world through her eyes, or, into her eyes through her paintings. My three short symphonies borrow titles from her works of different periods: “White Flower”, “Falling Blue” and “With My Back to the World”.
  Those relatively independent soundscapes following an introduction hide in the middle of the second movement and are to be performed attacca. Is this perhaps a reference to Agnes’s hidden hermit years in a desert of New Mexico?
  Eleanor (Eleanor Coffey) is my good friend from West-Lebanon by the River Connecticut. Eleanor, a psychotherapist by profession, is in her eigthties, extremely youthful, adventurous and eager to learn. Recently she went horse-riding in Mexico to see this hidden valley from where the monarch butterflies start their long journey to her garden in New England. All those ladies have taught me to see the world and life in their fresh, personal manner. For that I am endlessly grateful. 
  
  ***
  
  Three symphonies, three orchestras – symphony as a composition, symphony as a sound object. The main soundscape of the introduction of the prelude is made up of the sound from five Tibetan chakpurs. Perhaps this sound will create a temporary mandala from virtual sand in the virtual space… I wish it to be colourful.
  
  The second movement consists of three symphonies preceded by an introduction. In addition to the division by three, it uses as a structural basis the network borrowed from Agnes Martin’s paintings, gently pushing the boundaries of the abstract with its repetitive framework.
  
  The third movement, as the title suggests, contains a word. I guess I had in mind the phenomenon of being awake, being alive. H.D. Thoreau once said, “I have never met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?” Apparently, I have been luckier than Thoreau.
  
  Ideally, the three orchestral groups should stand separately in space. When I started composing I had in mind a much broader stage. But sometimes even imagination can broaden the space.
  
  ***
  
  “Wake, awake, for night is flying.”
  The watchmen on the heights are crying;
  “Awake, Jerusalem, arise!”
  Midnight hears the welcome voices
  And at the thrilling cry rejoices:
  “Oh, where are ye, ye virgins wise?
  The Bridegroom comes, awake!
  Your lamps with gladness take!
  Hallelujah!
  With bridal care Yourselves prepare
  To meet the Bridegroom, who is near.”
  
  (Philipp Nicolai “Wachet auf”,
  English translation Catherine Winkworth)
  
  Toivo Tulev (from the booklet of the Estonian Music Days 2018)

  I "Prologos". To Elisabeth
  II Three Symphonies. To Agnes
  - Symphony "White Flower"
  - Symphony "Falling Blue"
  - Symphony "With My Back to the World"
  III "Logos". To Eleanor
  2017-2018
  35'
  symphony orchestra
  Fp: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Helen Lepalaan (vocal), conductor Risto Joost; April 13, 2018, Estonia Concert Hall, Estonian Music Days Festival
  
• Returns to the Beginning [Pöördub algusse]

  2012
  15’
  symphony orchestra: 2222, 2210, 3, prepared piano, strings (8-6-5-4-2)
  Fp: Holland Radio Chamber Orchestra, conductor Martyn Brabbins; 14.06.2012, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam
  Commissioned by: Stichting Holland Festival
  
• Future Continuous

  Musical gift to the Kingdom of Sweden on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia
  2008
  symphony orchestra: 3333, 3231, percussion (3), piano, harp, strings  
  Fp: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Olari Elts; May 22, 2008, Pärnu Concert Hall, May 24, 2008, Berwaldhallen, Sweden
  Commissioned by: Republic of Estonia
  
• Ambra

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

    “Ambra”, for symphony orchestra, was written in spring 2002. Once, while writing the piece, a wondrous aroma wafted past my nose. It seemed to come out of nowhere, a smell that I identified later on the basis of an old memory as the scent ambergris. A very subtle, fine aroma, which I smelled for the first time on the endless narrow streets of medieval Fez. Now it seemed to flow like eternal sunshine, the far echo of a distant memory.
  
  Toivo Tulev    

  2002
  12'
  symphony orchestra: 2222, 4231, 1+2, synthesizer, strings
  Fp: Symphony Orchestra of Estonian Academy of Music, conductor Arvo Volmer; August 17, 2002, Berlin, Konzerthaus, Young Euro Classics Festival
  FpEst: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Paul Mägi; April 16, 2004, Tallinn, Estonia Concert Hall, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Academy of Music
  CD "young.euro.classic. Europäischer Musik Sommer Berlin 2002", Deutscher Freundeskreis europäischer Jugendorchester (2002); Symphony Orchestra of Estonian Academy of Music, conductor Arvo Volmer
  Manuscript
• Woo

  1995
  16'
  symphony orchestra: 3333, 3231, 3, piano, strings
  Fp: Symphony Orchestra of Estonian National Opera, conductor Paul Mägi; November 27, 1995, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  
• Signum

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

  1990
  11'
  symphony orchestra: 3333, 4331, 1+5, celesta, harp, piano, strings
  Fp: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arvo Volmer; 1991, Tallinn, Nordic Concert Series
  Manuscript

Works for chamber orchestra

• Emptiness [Tühjus]

  Part of the joint composition "Hiroshima - Nagasaki" by Malle Maltis, Liisa Hirsch, Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes, Helena Tulve, Toivo Tulev and Eugene Birman
  2017
  8'
  chamber orchestra
  Fp: Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, conductor Andrus Kallastu; July 10, 2017, Tartu St. John's Church, Glasperlenspiel Festival
  
• Wind [Tuul]

  Part of the joint composition "Hiroshima - Nagasaki" by Malle Maltis, Liisa Hirsch, Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes, Helena Tulve, Toivo Tulev and Eugene Birman
  2017
  8'
  chamber orchestra
  Fp: Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, conductor Andrus Kallastu: July 10, 2017, Tartu St. John's Church, Glasperlenspiel Festival
  
• Symphony [Sümfoonia]

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

  
  
  2013
  25'
  symphony orchestra orchestra: 2222, 2200, 1, strings
  Fp: Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost; December 7, 2014, Tallinn Methodist Church
  
• Opus 21

  • Audio

  • Opus 21 / NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  1994
  10'
  chamber orchestra: flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, percussion, harp, strings
  Fp: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; March 22, 1994, Tallinn, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  CD "10 years after. Estonian Authors' Society", Estonian Authors' Society (2003); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  Manuscript

Works for string orchestra

• Cadenza II

  • Audio

  • Cadenza II / Pärnu City Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  2008
  11'
  string orchestra
  Fp: Pärnu City Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost; June 18, 2008, Tartu St. John's Church, Estonian Young Composers' Festival
  

WORKS FOR SOLO INSTRUMENT(S) AND ORCHESTRA

Works for flute and orchestra

• Deux

  • Audio

  • Deux / Monika Mattiesen (flute), Kädy Plaas (soprano), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste

  -

  +

  /

  To paraphrase St. Bernard: “La mesure d’aimer, c’est d’aimer sans mesure” – “The measure of love is to love without measure” (though the original in fact is: “La mesure d’aimer Dieu, c’est d’aimer Dieu sans mesure”), for when we love without measure we are closer to Him than we can even imagine.
  The text draws on excerpts from a prayer of Charles de Foucauld, “Mon Pere, je m’abandonne a toi”.
  
  Toivo Tulev

  flute concerto
  I Un
  II Deux
  2004
  20'
  solo flute, soprano, chamber orchestra: 1212, 0000, 2, synthesizer, strings
  Text: Prayer “Mon Père, je m´abandonne à toi” of Charles de Foucauld (in French)

  I Un Sans mesure,
  Sans mesure,
  Sans mesure,
  Sans mesure,
  Sans mesure, Fais de moi ce qu’il te plaira,
  Quoi que tu fasses de moi,
  Je te remercie.
  Je suis prêt à tout,
  J’accepte tout.
  Quoi que tu fasses de moi,
  Je te remercie. II Deux Je te la donne, mon âme,
  mon âme,
  Je te la donne, mon Dieu,
  Je te la donne, mon âme,
  Je te la donne, mon âme, Avec tout l’amour de mon cœur,
  Avec tout l’amour de mon cœur,
  Avec tout l’amour de mon cœur,
  Tout l’amour de mon cœur.

  
  Fp: Monika Mattiesen (flute), Kädy Plaas (soprano), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste; January 20, 2005, Pärnu Concert Hall
  

Works for percussion and orchestra

• Flow

  • Audio

  • Flow / Vambola Krigul (percussion), Athelas Sinfonietta, conductor Erik Jakobsson

  -

  +

  /

  percussion concerto
  2008-2009
  27'
  solo percussion, sinfonietta (14 players): flute/piccolo flute/alto flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano/synthesizer, percussion, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
  Fp: Vambola Krigul (percussion), Athelas Sinfonietta, conductor Erik Jakobsson; April 24, 2009, Tallinn Methodist Church, Estonian Music Days Festival 2009
  Commissioned by: Estonian Music Days Festival 2009, Athelas Sinfonietta
  

Works for violin and orchestra

• Concerto for Violin and Orhestra [Viiulikontsert]

  • Audio

  • Violin Concerto, 2nd movement / Arvo Leibur (violin), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Toomas Vavilov

  -

  +

  /

  2001-2002
  24'
  solo violin, symphony orchestra: 3323, 3331, 4, piano, harp, strings
  Fp: Arvo Leibur (violin), Estonian National Symphony Orhcestra, conductor Nikolai Alexeev, November 30, 2001, Tallinn
  Publisher: Edition 49
  

Works for cello and orchestra

• Before

  Before received its musical form in 2005/2006. A text known by the name of Bede’s Death Song played an important role in the birth of this piece. The song is from the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae. The Venerable Bede (672–735) was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Wearmouth-Jarrow, which is in Northumbria. His life and work are responsible for his status as the only English Doctor of the Church. He is the only Englishman mentioned by Dante in his Paradiso. The historian of science George Sarton called the eighth century the Age of Bede. The above-mentioned epistle has the following regarding the death of Bede:
  Having fallen ill the day before and sensing the end of his life approaching, Bede taught the entire morning and thereupon commenced to work on his half-finished translation of the Gospel of John. After translating the final sentences of the Gospel, Bede lay down on the floor of his cell, exhausted and began singing the Gloria. When he reached the words Holy Spirit, he died.

  cello concerto
  2006
  25'
  solo cello, chamber orchestra (13 players): flute/piccolo/alto flute/maracas, oboe/english horn/rainstick/sleigh bells, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon/double bassoon/triangle/big drum, trumpet/sleigh bells/big drum/triangle/tam-tam med, trombone/tam-tam med/triangle, percussion (marimba, thai gongs, vibraphone, big drum, crotales, 3 cymbals, linebells, tam-tam gran), piano/organ (synthesizer), 2 violins, viola/sleigh bells, cello, double bass, fixed media
  Text: Bede’s Death Song (whispered throughout the whole piece; in English)

  Bede’s Death Song
  
  Before the unavoidable journey there, no one becomes
  wiser in thought than him who, by need,
  ponders, before his going hence,
  what good and evil within his soul,
  after his day of death, will be (judged)  …before…
  
  
  The Venerable Bede (673-735)
  Original text: “Epistola Cuthberti de Obitu Bedae” in St. Gall MS 254
  The English translation is modified from that in A Literary History of England, ed. by Albert C. Baugh, New York 1948.

  
  Fp: Teet Järvi (cello), NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; September 7, 2006, University of Tartu and September 10, 2006, Tallinn St. Nicholas’s Church
  

Works for guitar and orchestra

• Floating, Falling... [Hõljub, laskub...]

  • Audio

  • Floating, Falling... / Tõnis Leemets, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mihhail Gerts

  -

  +

  /

  2011
  14'
  electric guitar, symphony orchestra
  Fp: Tõnis Leemets (electric guitar), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mihhail Gerts; March 25, 2011, Estonia Concert Hall, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Music Days Festival
  

Works for two or more soloists and orchestra

• lost, lost

  lost, lost
  
  There is just a comma, a tiny speck, that separates us from the void, from being lost and bereft of hope. And being lost is separated by a comma from being lost, again… Lost in this world, lost in the next one to come.
  
  The piece is inspired by a story by Tajik writer Latzabali Kudratov, “What Makes Nay Crying”.
  
  Although the title of the story calls for Tajik nai, it is the sound of plaintive Turkish ney played by Ayca Arin which acts as the source for sonic inspiration and finds a visual counterpart in the noble art of Korean salpuri, the dance of grief and reconciliation.
  
  Toivo Tulev

  2017
  3 flutes, Turkish ney, salpuri dancer, symphony orchestra
  Fp: Young-Soo Chung (salpuri dance), Ayca Arin (ney, from phonogram), Asian Classical Players Orchestra, conductor Park Jiyong; September 22.09.2017, Gwangju, South Korea
  
• Black Mirror

  • Audio
  • Video

  • Black Mirror / Trio Hoca Nasreddin, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Michael Wendeberg

  -

  +

  /

  2016
  17'
  vocal soloist, saxophone, Turkish flute kaval, symphony orchestra
  Text: Nick Hobbs, Richard Wagner

  Toivo Tulev “Black Mirror”
  Tekst: Nick Hobbs, Richard Wagner
  
  Back to zero
  In sheep-state
  
  Back to zero
  Inflicters of shock
  A bad kind of bliss
  Reflected in the black mirror
  
  Worthless souls
  Be erased or exterminated in the name of mass-murdering
  Lord, Lord of, Lord of the humans
  And thus, and thus, thus very dangerous
  I, I, I decide the day you die
  And I decide the way
  
  He cries
  He has form and likes not your face
  Likes not your face, face
  And, and, and they like not your face
  
  Back to, back to, zero
  Back to zero
  
  Be erased, be erased, be erased, razed, be erased
  Or exterminated in the name of mass-murdering
  Lord God
  Lord of the humans
  And thus, thus very, very, thus very dangerous.
  
  I decide the day you die
  I decide the way
  He cries, cries. Needing no help
  
  I decide the day you die
  I decide the way
  He cries, needing no help
  
  I decide the day you die
  I decide the way, the way, the way, the way, the way
  
  Back to zero
  Be erased
  He cries, he cries, he cries, needing no help
  
  Back to zero, back to zero, back to…
  
  Welch Licht, Welch Licht leuchtet dort?
  Welch Licht, Dämmert der Tag schon auf?
  Noch ist's Nacht, ist's Nacht,
  Nacht, Nacht, Nacht,
  noch ist's Nacht,
  noch ist's Nacht.

  
  Fp: Trio Hoca Nasreddin: Robert Reigle (saxophone), Nikolai Galen (vocal) Serkan Şener (Turkish flute kaval), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Michael Wendeberg; October 21, 2016, Estonia Concert Hall, International Contemporary Music Festival Afekt
  Commissioned by: International Contemporary Music Festival Afekt
  
• Descendit

  • Audio

  • Descendit / Harry Traksmann (violin), Aleksander Hännikäinen (oboe), Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann (piano), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  2011
  15'
  violin, oboe, piano, string orchestra
  Fp: Harry Traksmann (violin), Aleksander Hännikäinen (oboe), Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann (piano), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost; April 16, 2011, Tallinn Methodist Church
  
• Moradas

  • Audio

  • Moradas / Weekend Guitar Trio, Old Town Barock Orchestra, conductor Aivo Välja

  -

  +

  /

  1995
  14'
  3 solo electric guitars, chamber orchestra: flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, strings
  Fp: Weekend Guitar Trio, Old Town Baroque Orchestra, conductor Aivo Välja; January, 1996, Tallinn, Guitar Music Days
  
• Music for Two Pianos and Orchestra [Muusika kahele klaverile ja orkestrile]

  • Audio

  • Music for Two Pianos and Orchestra / Nata-Ly Sakkos and Toivo Peäske (piano), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arvo Volmer

  -

  +

  /

  1993
  23'
  2 solo pianos, symphony orchestra: 3333, 3331, 1+3, strings
  Fp: Tallinn Piano Duo: Nata-Ly Sakkos, Toivo Peäske, The Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, conductor Arnold Katz; 1993, Novosibirsk
  Publisher: Edition 49
  Manuscript

WORKS FOR ENSEMBLE

Duos

• a way, away

  “A way, away was written in the spring of 2022 for Virgo Veldi and Ulla Krigul.
  The path that leads up, that leads down, that leads away, that leads nowhere. At one point there is only the path and then, nothing at all.”
  
  Toivo Tulev

  2022
  10'
  saxophone, organ
  Fp: Ulla Krigul (organ), Virgo Veldi (saxophone); April 16, 2022, Tartu St. Paul's Church, Estonian Music Days
  Commissioned by: Ulla Krigul, Virgo Veldi
  
• Partial Burqa Ban, Total Burqa Ban

  2019
  7'
  percussion (2 players)
  Fp: Vambola Krigul (percussion), Madis Metsamart (percussion); May 4, 2019, Estonian Academy of Arts, World Music Days 2019
  Commissioned by: Estonian Music Days/World Music Days
  
• Two Without the Third [Kaks kolmandata]

  2017
  8'
  alto saxophone, accordion
  Fp: Virgo Veldi (saxophone), Jaak Lutsoja (accordion); May 16, 2017, Tallinn, Great Guild Hall
  
• He Rejoices in This World and He Rejoices in the Next World

  • Audio

  • He Rejoices in This World and He Rejoices in the Next World

  -

  +

  /

  1999
  7'
  cello, percussion
  Fp: Ardo Västrik (cello), Rein Roos (percussion); April 28, 2000, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  
• Music for a While

  1996
  8'
  2 pianos
  Fp: Tallinn Piano Duo: Nata-Ly Sakkos, Toivo Peäske; April 18, 1996, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  
• Recollectio

  • Audio

  • Recollectio / Nata-Ly Sakkos, Toivo Peäske

  -

  +

  /

  1986
  12'
  2 pianos
  Fp: Tallinn Piano Duo: Nata-Ly Sakkos, Toivo Peäske; January 25, 1987, Tallinn, Estonia Concert Hall
  Publisher: Edition 49
  

Trios

• Dé ta ché

  • Audio

  • Dé ta ché / Monika Mattiesen (flutes), Martti Raide (piano), Toomas Vavilov (bass clarinet)

  -

  +

  /

  2004
  8'
  3 players: flute, piccolo flute, bass flute, bass clarinet, piano
  Fp: Monika Mattiesen (flute), Martti Raide (piano), Toomas Vavilov (bass clarinet); June 27, 2004, Tallinn, Kadriorg Palace
  Commissioned by: Association of Estonian Professional Musicians
  
• Amid

  • Audio

  • Amid / Arvo Leibur (violin), Terje Terasmaa (vibraphone), Heiki Mätlik (guitar)

  -

  +

  /

  2001
  7'
  violin, guitar, vibraphone
  Fp: Heiki Mätlik (guitar), Arvo Leibur (violin), Terje Terasmaa (vibraphone); December 2, 2001, Tallinn, Swedish St. Michael's Church
  
• Du, ewig Du

  • Audio

  • Du, ewig Du / Monika Mattiesen (flute), Aare Tammesalu (cello), Ene Nael (harpsichord)

  -

  +

  /

  Many composers have some pattern, principle or source of inspiration that like an idée fixe they carry from one work to the next, opening new perspectives and opportunities for development. One such thread in the work of Tulev is certainly the Martin Buber poem “Due ewig Du”, which has been used directly, as a text, or more indirectly been used in a number of works.
  The work itself is the quintessential Tulev combination of restlessness and easing, historical allusions and modern sounds, the spectral and the modal. The work was finished in May 2001, commissioned by the Kuressaare Chamber Music festival, and it is dedicated to the Baltic Trio.
  
  Märt-Matis Lill

  dedicated to the Baltic Trio
  2001
  13'
  flute, cello, harpsichord
  Text: Martin Buber

  Wo ich gehe, Du,
  Wo ich stehe, Du,
  Du, Du,
  Wieder Du, ewig Du,
  Du, Du, Du.
  
  Wenn’s geht mir gut, Du,
  Wenn’s weh mir tut, Du,
  Du, Du,
  Wieder Du, ewig Du,
  Du, Du, Du.
  
  Himmel, Du, Erde, Du,
  Oben, Du, Unten, Du,
  Wohin ich mich wende, Du,
  Am jeden Ende, Du,
  Du, Du, Du.

  
  Fp: Baltic Trio: Algirdas Vizgirda (flute), Aina Kalnciema (harpsichord), Teet Järvi (cello); August 9, 2001, Kuressaare Castle, Kuressaare Chamber Music Days, Estonia
  Commissioned by: Kuressaare Chamber Music Days
  CD „Monika Mattiesen. Manuscript”, Estonian Radio (2006); Monika Mattiesen (flute), Aare Tammesalu (cello), Ene Nael (harpsichord), Ensemble Vox Clamantis
  
• Consummatum est

  • Audio

  • Consummatum est / Meelis Vind (clarinet), Leho Karin (cello), Toivo Tulev (piano)

  -

  +

  /

  1990
  7'
  clarinet, cello, piano
  
• Three Little Trios [Kolm väikest triot]

  1989
  piano, percussion (2 players)
  Manuscript
• Fit brevis pausa silentii

  • Audio

  • Fit brevis pausa silentii / Marje Lohuaru (piano), Toomas Nestor (violin), Leho Karin (cello)

  -

  +

  /

  1988
  10'
  violin, cello, piano
  Fp: Leho Ugandi (violin), Leho Karin (violoncello), Marje Lohuaru (piano); 1988, Stockholm
  

Quartets

• Early Music

  • Audio

  • Early music / Ensemble 2E2M

  -

  +

  /

  “Early music” – because the most important part of the material for this quartet is from 1976; also because most of the current pages of the score were conceived in the early hours of lovely summer days – the first birds singing and the morning light were part of this landscape. And also because that here there are concealed hints regarding what we are traditionally used to considering “early music”. And finally, because in the final moments of the quartet you can hear, intertwined with other musical material, tiny fragments from the Earle Brown’s work Music for Violin, Cello and Piano (1952) – this, too, is early music. “Early Music” was commissioned by the NYYD Festival and is dedicated to the ensemble 2E2M.
  
  Toivo Tulev

  2007
  12'
  clarinet, piano, violin, cello
  Fp: Ensemble 2e2m; October 20, 2007, Kanuti Guild Hall, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: NYYD Festival
  
• Opus 18 (Hommage to the Setting Sun)

  1993
  8'
  4 players: flute, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 pianos
  Fp: 1993, Sydney Spring Festival
  FpEst: Mihkel Peäske (flute), Toomas Vavilov (clarinet), Tanel Joamets (piano), Jana Peäske (piano); 1993, Tallinn House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads
  Commissioned by: Sydney Spring Festival
  Manuscript

String quartets

• Inbetween the Air Fulfils With the Fragrance of Promises [Vahepeal õhk täitub tõotuste lõhnaga]

  2002
  13'
  string quartet
  Fp: Tallinn String Quartet; November 13, 2002, Tallinn
  
• Neither This nor the Further Shore

  • Audio

  • Neither This nor the Further Shore / Tallinn String Quartet

  -

  +

  /

  2000
  9'
  string quartet (II vers.: string quartet, tape)
  Fp: Tallinn String Quartet; April 22, 2001, Tallinn Town Hall
  CD Tallinn String Quartet (2005); Tallinn String Quartet
  
• String Quartet No. 1 [Keelpillikvartett nr. 1]

  • Audio

  • String Quartet No. 1 / Tallinn String Quartet

  -

  +

  /

  1991
  12'
  string quartet
  CD "Estonian Contemporary Classics. Estonian Composers I", Estonian Radio (2001), Tallinn String Quartet
  Publisher: Edition 49
  

Quintets

• And I Loved You Like a Branch Breaking Under the Snow

  • Audio

  • And I Loved You Like a Branch Breaking Under the Snow / Age Juurikas (piano), YXUS Ensemble, conductor Kaspar Mänd

  -

  +

  /

  And I Loved You Like a Branch Breaking Under the Snow
  
  There are two versions of this work, one for solo kamancheh and a second for kamancheh, violin, viola, cello, and piano. In the latter version, the kamancheh may be replaced by a violin tuned one tone lower, as has been done for tonight's performance.
  
  The composer's first meeting with kamancheh took place through Iranian classical music around thirty years ago. „It was like falling in love at first sight,“ he says. „There are encounters, which do not loosen their grip even years after.“
  
  The work takes its name from an early poem by the Iranian poet Bijan  Elahi (1945–2010).
  
  (From the booklet of Toivo Tulev’s composer recital in November 20, 2021)

  2021
  15'
  kamancheh (or violin tuned one tone lower), violin, viola, cello, piano
  Fp: Age Juurikas (piano), YXUS Ensemble, conductor Kaspar Mänd; November 20, 2021, Estonian Academy of Music and Theare Concert Hall
  
• To a Distant Friend

  2020
  14'
  flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
  Fp: Ensemble Fractales; December 21, 2022, Espace Senghor, Brussels, Belgium
  
• Nada

  • Audio

  • Nada / Age Juurikas (piano), YXUS Quartet: Juta Õunapuu-Mocanita (violin), Robert Traksmann (violin), Laur Eensalu (viola), Leho Karin (cello)

  -

  +

  /

  Nada is hope, nada is morning dew, nada is a sound, nada is a noise, nada is nothing. Juan described his journey to the Carmel mountain top: „nothing, nothing, nothing... even on the mountain – nothing.“ The work was completed in 2015 and is dedicated to Age Juurikas.
  
  Toivo Tulev

  Concerto for Piano and String Quartet
  1. nada  
  2. nada  
  3. nada
  2015
  30'
  piano, string quartet
  Fp: Age Juurikas (piano), YXUS String Quartet: Juta Õunapuu-Mocanita (I violin), Robert Traksmann (II violin), Laur Eensalu (viola), Leho Karin (cello); April 2, 2016, Vanemuine Concert Hall
  

Sextets

• Seven Antiphons for Pierre Boulez

  2015
  piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano
  Fp: Ensemble U:; November 12, 2015, Tallinn, Kultuurikatel, French Culture Festival Accord
  
• Swing Low

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

  2003
  9'
  flute/piccolo flute, clarinet in B/bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano/synthesizer
  Fp: Ensemble U:; October 16, 2003, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  Manuscript
• Gare de l'Est

  • Audio

  • Gare de l´Est / NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  "Gare de l’Est" is distinguished by a disjointed-expressionistic soundscape that the alternately slow-moving and ecstatically vibrating second intervals infuse with notions of waiting and weakening. One unresolved sonic complex lingers in the air until the final bars.
  
  Toivo Tulev: “Gare de l’Est is a name that carries a flavour of departure, arriving at home. It’s a Paris railway station. From there the trains leave for the east. In the hot summer of 1999, when I completed this piece, I once again came across these lines that I had read as a child – “The traveller has reached the end of his journey! In the freedom of Infinite he is free from all sorrows…” What a joy! “…The fetters that bound him are thrown away, and the burning fever of life is now more…” The last lines, in English, are taken from Juan Mascaro’s translation of the Dhammapada.
  
  Text by Evi Arujärv on the CD “Be Lost in the Call”

  1999
  11'
  6 players: flute, piccolo flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano
  Fp: Ensemble Court-Circuit, conductor Pierre-Andre Valade; November 27, 1999, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  CD "Be Lost in the Call", Estonian Radio (2004); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  

Septets

• White House, Blue Shutters – Blue House, White Shutters

  • Audio

  • White House, Blue Shutters – Blue House, White Shutters / YXUS Ensemble

  -

  +

  /

  White House, Blue Shutters – Blue House, White Shutters
  
  There are many light blue houses with white shutters in New England, and equally many white houses with light blue shutters. It was pleasant to view them and it was pleasant to think about them afterwards. To an extent, this piece for seven instruments is like yin and yang, where the light blue and white have their own scales, both with an equal number of six notes. Time-wise, the world of pitches is controlled by three numbers: nine, seven and five. Their contradictions and rotations create numerical sequences and their occasional symmetry also impacts the temporal structure as well as the independence of the pitches. The composition has three movements. Its second, untitled part might be construed as a free sequence of tropes and cadences.
  
  Toivo Tulev

  3 movements
  2020
  16'
  2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion
  Fp: YXUS Ensemble, conductor Kaspar Mänd; September 20, 2020, Chamber Hall of Estonian National Opera
  
• Isopo

  • Audio

  • Isopo / NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  2003’s "Isopo", premiered at the Est-Ovest festival in Turin, was commissioned by the NYYD Ensemble. Here an agitated and distinctly oriental-tinged pattern of wind instruments and percussion encompasses bright cadence-like motifs.
  In modern Italian, “isopo” denotes a tender plant of graceful appearance and pleasurable fragrance. According to the composer, while writing the piece he was reflecting upon these particular passages – “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7); “Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth” (John 19:29).
  
  Text by Evi Arujärv on the CD “Be Lost in the Call”

  2003
  7'
  7 players: flute, piccolo flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, synthesizer, violin, cello, double bass
  Fp: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; November 20, 2003, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy, Est-Ovest Festival
  FpEst: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; November 17, 2003, Viljandi Music School
  Commissioned by: NYYD Ensemble
  CD "Be Lost in the Call", Estonian Radio (2004); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  

Works for large ensemble (8+)

• Now Comes Good Sailing

  • Audio

  • Now Comes Good Sailing / Leonora Palu, Meelis Vind, Aarne Ots, Vambola Krigul, Age Juurikas, Tihhon Lukjanenko, Andres Kaljuste, Levi-Danel Mägila, dirigent Andrus Kallastu

  -

  +

  /

  2014
  12'
  flute/bass flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, trumpet/flugelhorn, percussion, piano/organ, violin, viola, cello
  Fp: Leonora Palu (flute), Meelis Vind (clarinet), Aarne Ots (trumpet), Vambola Krigul (percussion), Age Juurikas (piano), Tihhon Lukyanenko (violin), Andres Kaljuste (viola), Levi-Danel Mägila (cello), conductor Andrus Kallastu; February 18, 2014, Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
  
• Vexations/Consolations

  2007
  3 flutes, piano, viola, cello, double bass, percussion
  Manuscript
• In You, Void of Yourself

  Toivo Tulev: In You, Void of Yourself for Asian and European instruments derives its heading and flow from the five lines of the Secret Rose Garden by Mahmud Shabistari (1288 – 1340): When you depart out, He will enter it. In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauties. (translated from Persian by E. H. Whinfield) Mahmud Shabistari from Tabriz is perhaps one of the most esteemed Sufi poets writing in Persian. I began to love his songs as much as those of Jalaluddin al Rumi, my first companion on that path, his older soul mate, and another poet writing in Persian, but coming from Balkh, Afghanistan. The notable closeness of their poetic thought to the longings and sometimes austere spiritual fervour of their 16th century Spanish equal and my guide San Juan de la Cruz, has made me think of the ever presence of that invisible torrent filling the hearts of those who seek love regardless of time, space and circumstances. And because of the company of those noble men, I find myself, if not in the shadows of my beloved’s rose garden, then on my way there. The piece, dedicated to the Atlas Ensemble, was composed in autumn 2006.

  2006
  oboe, duduk, duduk/recorder, zheng, harp, percussion, erhu, cello, double bass
  Fp: Atlas Ensemble, conductor Ed Spanjaard; January 23, 2007, Amsterdam Muziekgebouw, Holland
  Commissioned by: Atlas Ensemble
  
• Waking up I Am still with Thee [Veel ärgates ma olen Sinu juures]

  • Audio

  • Waking up I Am still with Thee / NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  2004
  8'
  16 players: flute, piccolo flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, triangle, trombone, percussion, piano, 2 synthesizers, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
  Fp: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; April 14, 2004, Tallinn, St Nicholas's Church, festival Estonian Music Days
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  CD "Be Lost in the Call", Estonian Radio (2004); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  
• Be Lost in the Call

  • Audio

  • Be lost in the call

  -

  +

  /

  According to Toivo Tulev, the title was borrowed from the closing lines of an English translation of a poem by Persian poet Mevlana Jalaluddin al-Rumi (1207–1273). – “Remember God so much that you are forgotten. Let the caller and the called disappear, be lost in the Call.”
  In this composition a measured gradual movement, characteristic of western liturgical music, commingles with oriental tone-colours and disjointed modernistic melodies. All the tensions eventually fade away in the phonogram-sounded phrase, “Cor Jesu Sacratissimum” – “the Most Sacred Heart of Christ”…
  
  Text by Evi Arujärv on the CD “Be Lost in the Call”

  2003
  11'
  14 players: flute, piccolo flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion (1 player), piano, synthesizer, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, tape
  Fp: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; March 21, 2003, Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic, MaerzMusik Festival
  FpEst: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; April 10, 2003, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: MaerzMusik Festival
  CD "Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre 90", ERR, EMTA (2009); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  CD "Be Lost in the Call", Estonian Radio (2004); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  
• Don't Call Him Too Early

  • Audio

  • Don´t Call Him Too Early / Nieuw Ensemble, conductor Ed Spanjaard

  -

  +

  /

  2002
  13'
  12 players: alto flute, piccolo flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, percussion (1 player), piano, mandolin, guitar, harp, violin, viola, cello, double bass
  Fp: Nieuw Ensemble, conductor Jurjen Hempel; October 9, 2002, Vilnius Town Hall, Gaida Festival
  FpEst: Nieuw Ensemble, conductor Micha Hamel; October 22, 2003, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: Nieuw Ensemble & Gaida Festival
  
• Quella sera

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

  “Quella sera” was written for the festival London Baltic Arts. In the polyrhythmic texture, quivering strings and the ring-and-tinkle of percussion are rendered prominent. In the latter half of the composition dreamlike shadows of Baroque melodies engender a calmer mood.
  “Quella sera” is the Italian for “that night”. Tulev refers to the following lines – “That night when he submitted himself to his persecutors, he took bread and gave you thanks. He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples and said…”
  The text that originally inspired Tulev comes from the Eucharistic Prayer II and alludes to the mystery of communion in Christ and to the corresponding part of Mass.
  
  Text by Evi Arujärv on the CD “Be Lost in the Call”

  1996
  9'
  12 players: flute, alto flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion
  Fp: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; October 20, 1996, London, Baltic Arts Festival
  FpEst: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; September 26, 1996, Tallinn, Winter Garden of the Estonian National Opera
  CD "Now", Elwood Muusik (2001); NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  CD "Be Lost in the Call", Estonian Radio (2004), NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts
  
• Thou Art

  • Audio

  • Thou Art / NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  1993
  12'
  flute, 2 clarinets, percussion (2 players), piano, 2 violins, viola, 3 cellos, double bass
  Fp: NYYD Ensemble, conductor Olari Elts; November 27, 1993, Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  Manuscript
• Amictus nube

  • Audio

  • Amictus nube / Aleksander Jõgi, Viljar Kuusk, Mart Laas, Rein Roos, Madis Metsamart, Urmas Vulp, Toomas Nestor, Tarmo Pajusaare, Toomas Vavilov, Heili Vaus, conductor Margo Kõlar

  -

  +

  /

  1991
  11'
  2 clarinets, percussion (2 players), piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
  Fp: Instrumental ensemble, conductor Margo Kõlar; November 26, 1992, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  Manuscript

WORKS FOR SOLO INSTRUMENT

Works for percussion

• Legatissimo

  • Audio
  • Pdf
  • Video

  • Legatissimo / Heigo Rosin (percussion)

  -

  +

  /

  Obligatory piece at the Republican Wind and Percussion Players’ Competition 2012
  2011
  11'
  solo percussionist: 2 tam-tams, 4 piatti, gran cassa, marimba, vibraphone, Thai gongs
  Fp: March 23, 2012, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Republican Wind and Percussion Players’ Competition 2012
  CD "Toivo Tulev. Magnificat", Naxos (2018); Heigo Rosin (percussion)
  Publisher: Estonian Music Foundation
  Distributor: EMIC EMF 006
  

Works for violin

• Stringendo

  2014
  violin
  Fp: Stanislav Pronin (violin); September 25, 2014, Tallinn Great Guild Hall, Autumnfest of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
  

Works for piano

• Synchronistic Afternoon with a Freshly Tuned Ukulele, Some Distant Rumblings of Thunder and a Couple of Rabbit Holes

  2023
  7'
  piano
  
• Shining Through

  • Audio

  • Shining Through / Irina Zahharenkova (piano)

  -

  +

  /

  shining through
  afternoon
  neither me nor you
  shining through
  light upon light
  
  afternoon
  light upon light
  neither me nor you
  shining through
  
  (Translation Hosein Azimi)
  
  
  عصرگاهان
  نه من، نه تو،
  درخشش نور، تابان به درون
  نور بر نور
  
  عصرگاهان
  نور بر نور
  نه من، نه تو،
  درخشش نور، تابان به درون
  
  (al-Hamadani)

  I
  II
  III
  2022
  23'
  piano
  Fp: Irina Zahharenkova (piano); April 19, 2022, Arvo Pärt Centre, Estonian Music Days
  Commissioned by: Estonian Music Days
  
• Augmented Realities

  • Audio

  • Augmented Realities: I / Age Juurikas (piano)

  -

  +

  /

  Augmented Realities was written during a relatively long period stretching from autumn 2020 to late summer 2021. The first movement of the piece was conceived as a gift to the concert program of Dizionario Musicale Multidisciplinare Integrato meant to take place originally in Trento last year. During the process of composition, Age Juurikas proposed that I write a longer piece to accompany the performance of the piano concerto Nada. After a process of gradual expansion/augmentation, the score is now divided into three distinct movements spanning around 25 minutes.
  
  
  The title, referring perhaps slightly misleadingly to the experience of the digitally enhanced version of reality, has its roots in something rather simple – the process of augmentation of different elements of the musical texture – durations, chains of rhythms, intervals, phrases etc. Augmentation as a governing principle and rule, is, in many ways, at the heart of inspiration for almost everything we hear in this music. Although purely technical in nature, the use of the principle of augmentation was inspired by my own gradual change of perception of the world, both the inner and the outer one, as I experienced it during these months. In a covert way, previously unknown realities and spaces opened up while the known ones expanded often into unforeseen and at times rather incredible territories.
  
  
  At the very end of the third movement the musical material opens up to a tiny quotation from a quintet by Liisa Hõbepappel, a student of mine, On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. The quoted musical phrase kept ringing in my mind and seemed to serve well for an imaginary pair of pillars bridging the ever expanding time starting from my adolescence readings – the very poem by Tagore the title borrows from, used to be one of my favourites in my youth – through into the ever evading present and future.
   
  (From the booklet of Toivo Tulev’s composer recital in November 20, 2021)

  I
  II
  III
  2021
  29'
  piano
  Fp: Age Juurikas (piano); November 20, 2021, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Concert Hall
  Commissioned by: Age Juurikas
  
• Cadenza

  • Audio

  • Cadenza / Peep Lassmann (piano)

  -

  +

  /

  Dedicated to Peep Lassmann
  2008
  10'
  piano
  Fp: Peep Lassmann (piano); March 18, 2008, Tartu University Assembly Hall, March 19, 2008, Estonia Concert Hall
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  
• Bridge [Sild]

  • Audio

  • Bridge / Lauri Väinmaa

  -

  +

  /

  “Uji” and “Bridge” were written down in 2000. In hindsight, and by way of explanation, the following could be said: Uji is a river that flows through the corner of my studio. Over this tranquil watercourse, a bridge arches. One morning, footprints on freshly fallen snow could be seen leading across to the other bank. It was very quiet. Lightly touching the water, near soundlessly, the Bird flew upstream. I could hear the first ice forming on the stones of the bank.
  
  Toivo Tulev

  2000
  6'
  piano
  Fp: Lauri Väinmaa (piano); January 6, 2001, Tallinn, Estonia Concert Hall
  
• Uji

  • Audio

  • Uji / Lauri Väinmaa

  -

  +

  /

  “Uji” and “Bridge” were written down in 2000. In hindsight, and by way of explanation, the following could be said: Uji is a river that flows through the corner of my studio. Over this tranquil watercourse, a bridge arches. One morning, footprints on freshly fallen snow could be seen leading across to the other bank. It was very quiet. Lightly touching the water, near soundlessly, the Bird flew upstream. I could hear the first ice forming on the stones of the bank.
      Toivo Tulev    

  2000
  4'
  piano
  Fp: Lauri Väinmaa (piano); January 6, 2001, Tallinn, Estonia Concert Hall
  

Works for organ

• Ines

  • Audio

  • Ines / Ines Maidre (organ)

  -

  +

  /

  2008
  8'
  organ
  Fp: Ines Maidre (organ); August 4, 2008, Tallinn St. Nicholas's Church, Tallinn International Organ Festival
  
• Gladius (feria sexta)

  • Audio

  • Gladius (feria sexta) / Ines Maidre (organ)

  -

  +

  /

  1995/2003
  10'
  organ
  Fp: Ines Maidre (organ); September 9, 1995, Rakvere Church, Arvo Pärt Festival, Estonia
  
• Lancea (feria sexta)

  1996
  11'
  organ
  Fp: Ines Maidre (organ); 1996, Tallinn, St Nicholas's Church
  
• Trans torrentem Cedron

  1996
  10'
  organ
  Fp: Jaanus Torrim (organ); 1996, Tallinn, Organ Days of St. Charles's Church
  

Works for other instrument

• And I Loved You Like a Branch Breaking Under the Snow

  2021
  kamancheh
  
• Aycale

  2021
  10'
  mansur ney
  Fp: Studio recording: Ayca Arin
  
• Synchronistic Afternoon With a Freshly Tuned Ukulele

  2020
  7'
  ukulele
  Fp: Giovanni Albini (ukulele); April 28, 2023, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Concert Hall
  Commissioned by: Giovanni Albini
  CD "A Contemporary Ukulele", Da Vinci Classics (2021); Giovanni Albini (ukulele)
  

VOCAL AND CHORAL MUSIC

Works for choir, (soloist or soloists) and orchestra

• Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt II

  • Audio

  • Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt II / Risto Joost (counter-tenor), Harry Traksmann (violin), Jorma Toots (piano), Nargen Opera Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste

  -

  +

  /

  2003
  6'
  counter tenor (+choir) (a-f1), violin, piano, string orchestra
  Text: Psalm 23 (in German)

  Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt,
  dem ich mich ganz vertraue,
  Zu Weid er mich, sein Schäflein, führt,
  Auf schöner grünen Aue,
  Zum frischen Wasser leit’ er mich,
  Mein Seel zu laben kräftliglich
  Durchs sel’ge Wort der Gnaden.

  
  Fp: Risto Joost (counter tenor), Harry Traksmann (violin), Jorma Toots (piano), Nargen Opera Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste; January 20, 2005, Pärnu
  CD "Songs", Harmonia Mundi (2008); Harry Traksmann (violin), Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann (piano), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier
  Publisher: Theatre of Voices Edition
  

Works for mixed choir and orchestra

• So Shall He Descend

  So Shall He Descend speaks about descent. Descent here has a double if not a triple meaning – first, reflecting the descent of the Spirit to his people (ecce, ego declinabo), then reflecting the descent of Jesus to the Holy City from the Mount of Olives as it is revealed in the story of New Testament and celebrated during Palm Sunday.
  
  Lastly, we are reminded of being the descendants of the very people who rejoiced (hosanna…) while seeing the Saviour approaching the city and soon thereafter demanding his death (crucifige eum…).
  
  The old French dance tune (sur le pond d’Avignon on y danse – they dance on the Bridge of Avignon), heard shortly in the very endof the piece, marks the preceding events’ soft anti-climax. And indeed, in order to come to the city Jesus had to descend first from the Mount and then cross the bridge over a valley, which was by the tradition regarded as an unholy place.
  
  As a side remark – the original words of the mentioned tune about the Bridge of Avignon were sous le pond (under the bridge) instead of sur le pond (on the bridge) as we all know it. It was under the bridge, in the unholy valley, where the after-party of crucifixion in my imagination once took place.
  
  Most of the texts heard today come from a poem by Kahlil Gibran punctuated by the verses from today’s readings of the New Testament with some added lines from the Book of Isaiah and a Gregorian antiphon of the day. The piece is commissioned by Brno Philharmonic for Easter Festival of Sacred Music 2019.
  
  Toivo Tulev
  
  

  2018
  32'
  soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass, mixed choir, symphony orchestra
  Text: Kahlil Gibran, Gospels of St Matthew and St. John, Book of Isaiah, Gregorian antiphon
  Fp: Soloists Ivana Rusko, Bettina Schneebeli, Jaroslav Březina and Jiří Hájek, coro piccolo: Aneta Bendová Podracká, Jana Vondrů, Pavla Radostová, mixed choir Ars Brunensis, Brno Philharmonic, conductor Dennis Russell Davies; April 14, 2019, Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, Brno, Czech Republic, Easter Festival of Sacred Music
  Commissioned by: Brno Philharmonic
  
• Magnificat

  • Audio

  • Magnificat / Heigo Rosin, Vambola Krigul (percussion), Latvian Radio Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Kaspars Putniņš

  -

  +

  /

  2013
  13'
  2 sopranos, mixed choir, 2 percussionists, string orchestra
  Text: from Gospel of Luke (in Latin)

  Magnificat anima mea Dominum,
  et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salvatore meo,
  quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae.
  Ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes,
  quia fecit mihi magna, qui potens est,
  et sanctum nomen eius, et misericordia eius
  in progenies et progenies timentibus eum.
  Fecit potentiam in brachio suo,
  dispersit superbos mente cordis sui;
  deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles;
  esurientes implevit bonis
  et divites dimisit inanes.
  Suscepit Israel puerum suum,
  recordatus misericordiae,
  sicut locutus est ad patres nostros,
  Abraham et semini eius in saecula.

  
  Fp: Latvian Radio Choir, Vambola Krigul and Heigo Rosin (percussion), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Kaspars Putninš; October 23, 2013, Tallinn Methodist Church
  CD "Toivo Tulev, Magnificat", Naxos (2018); Latvian Radio Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Ieva Ezeriete (soprano), Inga Martinsone (soprano), Heigo Rosin (percussion), Vambola Krigul (percussion), conductor Kaspars Putniņš
  
• Lamentations [Lamentatsioonid]

  • Audio

  • Lamentations / Kädy Plaas (soprano), Iris Oja (mezzo soprano), Love Enström (tenor), Rainer Vilu (bass), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Daniel Reuss

  -

  +

  /

  2011
  80'
  5 soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, counter tenor/soprano/alto), 2 mixed choirs, chamber orchestra: 1111, 0000, 0, harp, strings
  Text: Hebrew alphabet, The Lamentations of Jeremiah (in Latin), Dhammapada (in English, translated by Juan Mascaró)
  Fp: Kädy Plaas (soprano), Iris Oja (mezzo-sopran), Love Enström (tenor), Rainer Vilu (bass), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Daniel Reuss; April 5, 2014, Tallinn St. Nicholas's Church
  Commissioned by: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
  
• Sans mesure

  • Audio

  • Sans mesure / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  2004
  13'
  mixed choir, chamber orchestra: percussion (2 players), strings
  Text: Holy Week Responsories, The Lamentations of Jeremiah (in Latin), prayer “Mon Père, je m´abandonne à toi” of Charles de Foucauld (in French)

  Tradidit me quem diligebam
  et terribilibus oculis plaga percucientes,
  aceto potabant me.
  
  Inter iniquos proicerunt me
  et non perpecerunt animae,
  animae, animae meae, animae meae.
  
  Mon Père,
  Mon Père,
  Je m’abandonne à toi.
  aceto…
  Mon Père,
  aceto potabant...
  Mon Père,
  me...
  
  Mon Père,
  et non perpecerunt...
  Mon Père.
  
  Animae meae,
  Animae meae,
  Animae meae,
  Animae meae.
  
  Posuerunt me in lacu inferiori,
  in tenebrosis et in umbra mortis.
  
  Je suis prêt à tout,
  J’accepte tout.
  Fais de moi ce qu’il te plaira,
  Fais de moi...
  Quoi que tu fasses de moi,
  Je te remercie.
  Je suis prêt à tout,
  Mon Père.
  Je m’abandonne à toi.
  Fais de moi ce qu’il te plaira.
  
  Quomodo obscuratum est,
  quomodo obscuratum est aurum,
  mutatus est color optimus,
  dispersi sunt lapides sanctuarii.
  Je remets mon âme entre tes mains,
  Je te la donne mon Dieu,
  avec tout l’amour de mon cœur.
  Je te la donne mon Dieu,
  Parce que je t’aime,
  sans mesure,
  avec une infinie confiance.
  
  Je m’abandonne à toi.
  Fais de moi...
  Aceto potabant me/ ce qu’il te plaira.
  
  J’accepte tout.
  Et non perpecerunt animae meae...
  
  Aceto potabant...
  Mon Père.
  Aceto potabant me.
  Parce que je t’aime,
  sans mesure,
  potabant...
  Car tu es mon Père,
  sans mesure,
  Mon Père,
  Parce que je t’aime,
  sans mesure.

  
  Fp: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost; April 18, 2004, Tallinn, Methodist Church, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  

Works for female choir and orchestra

• Cecilia

  2013
  12'
  2 female choir, soprano, chamber orchestra: 1111, 0200, percussion, organ, strings
  Text: Antiphona “Cantantibus organis”; Litany of St. Cecilia; C.C.Pise, Hymn “Let the deep organ swell” (in Latin and English)
  Fp: Danish Radio Girls' Choir, vocal ensemble, Danish Radio Chamber Orchestra (DR UnderholdningsOrkestret), Ditte Højgaard Andersen (soprano), conductor Titus Engel; November 22, 2013, Christiansborg Slotskirke, Copenhagen
  Publisher: Theatre of Voices Edition
  

Works for male choir and orchestra

• The Beauty of Warfare

  • Audio

  • The Beauty of Warfare / Estonian National Male Choir, Police and Border Guard Orchestra, conductor Mikk Üleoja

  -

  +

  /

  2017
  8'
  male choir, wind orchestra
  Text: text is based on names of military operations in 21th century and selected paragraphs from Bhagavad Gita
  Fp: Estonian National Male Choir, Police and Border Guard Orchestra, conductor Mikk Üleoja; May 10, 2017, Pärnu Concert Hall
  

Works for mixed choir and instrument(s)

• I Heard the Voices of Children

  2019
  19'
  mixed choir, soloists, instrumental ensemble
  Text: Words of William Blake, a Ballyeamon cradle song, and names of the lost children of Tuam
  Fp: Chamber Choir The Crossing, conductor Donald Nally; June 1, 2019, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA
  Commissioned by: The Crossing and Los Angles Philharmonic
  
• Ah, ne güzelsin! (Behold, thou art fair!)

  2014
  2 tenors, kemençe, kanun, 2 bendirs, chamber choir (version also for 2 tenors, kemençe, kanun and chamber choir)
  Text: Song of Songs (in Turkish and Latvian)
  Fp: Original version: Latvian Radio Choir, Rūdolfs Bērtiņš (tenor), Jānis Kokins (bendir), ensemble Sarband: Mustafa Doğan Dikmen (tenor), Efstratios Psaradellis (kemence), Salah Eddin Maraqa (kanun), Vladimir Ivanov (bendir), conductor Kaspars Putniņš; November 6, 2015, Riga St. Peter's Church. The second version: Latvian Radio Choir, Rūdolfs Bērtiņš (tenor), ensemble Sarband: Mustafa Doğan Dikmen (tenor), Sokrates Sinopoulos (kemençe), Salah Eddin Maraqa (kanun), conductor Kaspars Putniņš; March 11, 2015, Oslo Cathedral, Oslo International Church Music Festival
  
• Farewell, Good-bye

  • Audio

  • Farewell, Good-bye / Chamber choir Voces Musicales, Maris Oidekivi-Kaufmann (organ), conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  2005
  8´
  mixed choir, organ
  Fp: Voces Musicales Chamber Choir, Maris Oidekivi-Kaufmann (organ), conductor Risto Joost; June 20, 2005, Tartu St. John´s Church Days, Estonia
  
• Songs

  • Audio
  • Video

  • Songs / Soloists: Kädy Plaas, Eha Pärg, Iris Oja, Taniel Kirikal, Toomas Tohert, Rainer Vilu, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, ensemble, conductor Paul Hillier

  -

  +

  /

  1. By night
  2. Where have you hidden, Beloved
  3. This life that I live
  4. Nigra sum
  5. Behold, thou art fair
  6. I am come into my garden
  7. Reveal, reveal your presence
  8. Mira que la dolencia de amor
  2005
  30´
  soprano, alto, mezzo-soprano, counter tenor, tenor, bariton + 3 vocal groups: 3 sopranos (coro lontano); mixed choir (coro I), mixed choir (coro II) + 3 instrumental groups: flute/piccolo flute/dolce/duduk, oboe/duduk, bassoon, organ, percussion; flute/alto flute, oboe/English horn, bassoon/contrabassoon, organ, percussion; 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos, double bass
  Text: Song of Songs (in English and Latin), St. Juan de la Cruz (in Spanish and English)

  I
  By night on my bed I sought him
  Whom my soul loveth:
  I sought him, but I found him not.
  
  I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets,
  And the broad ways / surgam et circui bo, surgam
  I will seek him whom my soul loveth...
  
  By night on my bed I sought him
  Whom my soul loveth:
  I sought him, / quaesivi illum / but I found
  him not. / et non inveni II
  Where have you hidden,
  Beloved, and left me moaning?
  You fled like the stag
  After wounding me;
  I went out calling you, but you were gone.
  /Cantico espiritual 1/
  
  Seeking my Love / Buscando mis amores
  I will head for the mountains and for
  watersides / iré por esos montes y riberas
  I will not gather flowers,
  Not fear wild beasts;
  I will go beyond strong men and frontiers.
  /Cant. Esp. 3/
  
  O woods and thickets, / iré, iré...
  Planted by the hand of my Beloved!
  O green meadow,
  Coated, bright, with flowers,
  Tell me, has he passed by you?
  /Cant. Esp. 4/ III
  This life that I live
  Is no life at all,
  And so I die continually
  Until I live with you; you...until...you
  Hear me, hear me, my God: ...you
  I do not desire this life,
  I am dying because I do not die.
  /Coplas de Alma 2/
  
  I am dying because I do not
  die...die...beacuase I do not...
  You...beacuase I do not...where have you hidden?...
  This life that I live...
  I do not desire...
  This life...desire...is no life...
  And so I die until I live with you...
  Until I live...you...you...you...
  
  Esta vida que yo vivo
  Es privación de vivir...
  Que esta vida no la quiero
  Que muero porque no muero
  
  Esta vida que yo vivo
  Es privación de vivir
  Y así es continuo morir...continuo morir
  Hasta que viva contigo
  Oye mi Dios...
  /Coplas de alma 2/ IV
  Nigra sum sed formosa,
  Filiae Ierusalem,
  Nigra sum sed formosa
  Filiae Ierusalem,
  
  Look not upon me,
  Look not upon me,
  Look not because I am black,
  Because the sun hath looked upon me:
  Looked upon me...
  Look not upon me...upon me...
  /Cant 1:6/
  
  Nigra sum...
  As the tents of Kedar,
  As the curtains of Solomon.
  /Songs of Songs 1:5/
  
  This life that I live...
  Look not upon me...
  Is no life at all...
  And so I die until I live with you...
  /Coplas 2/
  
  Look not upon me... V
  Behold, thou art fair, behold, my love;
  Behold, thou art fair;
  Thou hast doves´ eyes within thy locks:
  Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that
  Appear from mount Gilead.
  /Song of Songs 4:1/
  
  Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,
  And thy speech is comely:
  Thou temples are like a piece of a pome-
  granate within thy locks.
  /Song of Songs 4:3/
  
  Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins,
  Which feed among the lilies.
  /Song of Songs 4:5/
  
  Thy two breasts...
  Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet,
  Thou art all fair, my love
  
  Awake, awake, O north wind;
  And come, thou south; blow upon my garden,
  That the spices thereof may flow out.
  
  Let my beloved come into his garden,
  And eat his pleasant fruits...fruits...pleasant fruits...
  Awake...awake,
  Blow upon my garden...
  /Song of Songs 4:16/ VI
  I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse:
  I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
  I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
  I have drunk my wine with my milk:
  Eat, O friends; drink, yea, /
  Veniat dilectus meus
  Drink abundantly, O beloved. /
  in hortum suum.
  
  I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: / et comedat fructus eius            
  I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; / optimos.
  I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; / Veniat
  I have drunk my wine with my milk: / dilectus meus
  Eat, O friends; drink, yea, / in hortum
  Drink abundantly, O beloved. suum... VII
  Veniat / Reveal, reveal,
  Reveal your presence,
  Reveal your presence, reveal,
  Reveal your presence,
  Reveal your presence
  And may the vision of your beauty be my death,
  For the sickness of love is not cured
  Except by your very presence and image.
  Reveal, reveal,
  Reveal your presence / By night on my bed I sought Him
  Reveal your presence
  And may the vision of your beauty,
  And may the vision of your beauty be my / I
  sought Him / death / whom my soul loveth
  And may the vision of your beauty be my
  death / I sought Him but I found Him not
  And may the vision of your beauty be my
  death.
  /Cant. esp. 11/ VIII
  Mira que la dolencia
  De amor, que no se cura
  Sino con la presencia y la figura.
  /Cant. esp. 11/
  
  My beloved is the mountains,
  And lonely wooded valleys,
  Strande islands
  And resounding rivers,
  The whistling of love-stirring breezes,
  
  The tranquil night
  At the time of the rising dawn, / hear me
  Silent music,
  Sounding solitude / hear me
  The supper that refreshes, / hear me/ and
  deepens love / hear me.
  /Cant. esp. 15-16/
  
  Mi amado, las montanas,
  Los valles solitarios nemorosos,
  Las ínsulas extranas,
  Los ríos sonorosos,
  El silbo de los aires amorosos.
  
  La noche sosegada
  En par de los levantes del aurora,
  La soledad Sonora,
  La cena que recrea y enamora,
  Y enamora,
  Y enamora.
  /Cant esp. 15-16/
  
  How fair is the love / y enamora
  My sistes, my spouse!
  How much better is thy love than wine,
  Wine! /Cant 4:10/
  Thou hast ravished my heart,
  My sister, my spouse. /Song of Songs 4:9/
  
  How much better is thy love than wine…
  Thou hast ravished my heart,
  Heart,
  My heart,
  Heart,
  Heart,
  Thou hast ravished.

  
  Fp: Kädy Plaas, Eha Pärg, Iris Oja, Taniel Kirikal, Toomas Tohert, Rainer Vilu, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, chamber ensemble, conductor Paul Hillier; October 20, St. Nicholas’s Church, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: Paul Hillier
  CD "Songs", Harmonia Hundi (2008); Robin Blaze, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Paul Hillier
  Publisher: Theatre of Voices Edition
  Manuscript

Works for male choir and instrument(s)

• O, Oriens

  • Audio

  • O Oriens / Estonian National Male Choir, Iris Oja (alto), double wind quintet: A. Ots, N. Ots, Ivar Kiiv, O. Ainomäe, R. Rea, E. Raik, R. Sepalaan, J. Kiik, G. Kongas, M. Jõeleht, cond. K. Putninš

  -

  +

  /

  2005
  11´
  counter tenor (or alto), 2 male choirs, 3 instrumental ensembles: 2 trumpets, trombone; 2 oboes, English horn, bassoon; 2 trombones, contrabassoon
  Text: Magnificat antiphons
  Fp: Iris Oja (alto), Estonian National Male Choir, Arne Ots, Neeme Ots (trumpets), Ivar Kiiv, Johannes Kiik, Guido Kongas (trombones), Olev Ainomäe, Reet Rea (oboes), Ele Raik (English horn), Rene Sepalaan (bassoon), Marko Jõeleht (contrabassoon), conductor Kaspars Putninsh; December 8, 2005, Võru, December 9, 2005, Tallinn Methodist Church
  Commissioned by: Kaspars Putninsh
  

Works for voice(s) and orchestra

• En purpura tendido

  2010
  8'
  female voices, string orchestra
  Text: Juan de la Cruz
  Fp: Young Female Choir Miina, Estonian Academy of Theatre and Music Chamber Orchestra, conductor Veronika Portmuth; March 25, 2012, Tallinn St. Nicholas's Church
  
• I said, Who are You? - He said, You

  • Audio

  • I said, Who are You? – He said, You / Risto Joost (counter-tenor), Virgo Veldi (saxophone), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  “I said…” is a collection of excerpts of various poems and sayings of Mansur al Hallaj translated into English. Only his well-known sentence – “Ana al-Haqq”/”I Am the Truth”, is in the original Arabic – a sentence that cost the utterer his life. Similarly to Jesus, who died on the cross nine centuries earlier for a similar utterance, Mansur was executed in 922 in Baghdad. Al-Haqq is one of 99 names for Allah, God, and its self-referential use was construed as the greatest possible blasphemy. The title of the music, “I said…” comes from a verse, the full version of which is approximately the following: “I saw my Lord with the eyes of my heart and I asked, who are you? He said – I am you.”
  The equation of one with God was something very essential to the mysticism of Mansur, the supreme goal of his efforts. It is a consolation to know that that equivalency based on forsaking oneself to such an extent that only the divine remains, also found an outlet in the manner in which he went to his death and reconciled himself to his torture – radiating only conciliation and forgiveness as it once was with the King of Kings Himself.… At once, in the middle of these thoughts, a line of verse from T.S. Eliot, inspired by St. Juan came to mind: “I said to my soul, be still and let the dark come over you”. Tying this verse to that of al-Hallaj does not place the sensibility of Manur in a new light. Instead, it shows the extreme kinship of two ostensibly distant worlds, at the same time pointing sincerely and in a heartfelt manner to the similar destinies (even Juan, although he did not die a violent death, suffered the worst possible spiritual punishment, excommunication, and before that, bodily tribulations caused by his close relatives). And no doubt, in addition to the similar paths, it also attests to the beatification that these devotees have been allowed to experience happily, and overflowingly, regardless of time and space.
  
  
  Toivo Tulev

  2007
  12'
  counter tenor, alto saxophone, organ, string orchestra
  Text: Mansur al-Hallaj, T. S. Eliot (in English)

    I said, Who are You - He said, You
  
  Now stands no more between Truth and me … Truth…
  For your sake, for your sake, for your sake,
  For your sake I cross the desert and split the mountain in two… two…
  And turn my face from all… All…
  
  Ana al-Haqq, ana al-Haqq, ana al-Haqq…
  
  Now stands no more between Truth and me… me,
  Now…kill me my faithful,
  Kill me my faithful friends,
  For in being killed is my life.
  
  For your sake, for your sake I cross the desert…
  For your sake.
  
  Ana al-Haqq, ana al-Haqq,
  For your sake…
  
  I said, who are You?
  He said… come upon me, come, come…
  
  I said to my soul, be still and let the dark come upon You,
  I said, who are You?
  He said… You,
  He said, You… You,
  He said…
  You.

  
  Fp: Risto Joost (counter tenor), Virgo Veldi (saxophone), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost; March 31, 2007, Tallinn, Swedish St. Michael's Church
  CD "Toivo Tulev. Magnificat", Naxos (2018); Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Ka Bo Chan (countertenor), Virgo Veldi (alto saxophone), Age Juurikas (positive organ), conductor Kaspars Putniņš
  CD "Estonian Composers (IV). Risto Joost", Estonian Public Broadcasting (2010); Virgo Veldi (saxophone), Ene Nael (portative organ), Risto Joost (counter-tenor), Jaan Varts (electric guitar), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Monika Mattiesen (flute), Petteri Pitko (harpsichord), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Vox Clamantis, artistic director Jaan-Eik Tulve, conductor Risto Joost
  
• Tunc venit

  • Audio

  • Tunc venit / Anne-Liis Treimann (soprano), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  1997
  25'
  soprano, chamber orchestra: 1111, 0210, 2, harp, piano, strings
  Text: The Gospel of St. Matthew (in Latin)
  Fp: Anne-Liis Treimann (soprano), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Olari Elts; March 15, 1997, Tallinn, Rotermann's Salt Storage, Vox Nova Concert Series
  

Works for voice(s) and other instrument(s)

• Beloved

  2023
  15'
  soprano, piccolo, piano, percussion, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
  Text: The piece is based on Inayat Khan's text from his "Ragas" cycle.
  Fp: Iris Oja (voice), Janika Lentsius (flute), Tähe-Lee Liiv (piano), Heigo Rosin (percussion), Olga Voronova (violin), Mari Targo (violin), Laur Eensalu (viola), Leho Karin (cello), Regina Udod (double bass), conductor Mihhail Gerts; November 26, 2023, Viimsi Artium
  Commissioned by: Kammermuusikud NPO
  
• Fana

  2023
  6'
  mezzo-soprano, viola
  
• nani mo nashi – there is nothing more

  2019
  13'
  countertenor, brass quintet (2 trumpets, trombone, French horn, tuba), electronics
  Text: Issa, Bosha, Basho, Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, Kaga no Chio

  I yama yaki no akari ni kudaru yobune kana
   
  lit by mountain fires
  floating downriver...
  night boat
  
  Issa (1763–1828)
  
  II Kongo no tsuyu hito-tsubu ya ishi no ue
   
  a drop of dew
  sits on a rock
  like a diamond
   
  Bosha (1897–1941)
   
  III kono michi ya yuku hito nashi ni aki no kure
   
  along this way
  no travellers
  dusk in autumn
   
  Basho (1644–1694)
   
  IV
   
  lie hidden within
  the super-luminous gloom
  of the silence, re-
   
  vealing hidden things,
  which in its deepest darkness
  shines above the most
   
  super-brilliant, and
  in the altogether im-
  palpable and in-
   
  visible, fills to
  overflowing the eyeless
  minds with glories of
   
  surpassing beauty
   
  Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita (5th–6th century)
   
  V Shimizu suzushi hotaru no kiete nani mo nashi
   
  clear water is cool
  fireflies vanish –
  there’s nothing more
   
  Kaga no Chiyo (1703–1775)

  
  Fp: Sean Bell (countertenor), Brass Quintet NyNorsk; October 23, 2019, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Concert Hall
  
• Six Last Words of Henry David Thoreau

  • Audio
  • Video

  • Six Last Words of Henry David Thoreau / Kädy Plaas-Kala (soprano), Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, conductor Arash Yazdani

  -

  +

  /

  2016
  20'
  soprano, clarinet, string quintet (2 violins, viola, cello, double bass)
  Text: Henry David Thoreau
  Fp: Kädy Plaas-Kala (soprano), Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, conductor Arash Yazdani; October 20, 2016, Tartu, Estonian National Museum, International Contemporary Music Festival Afekt
  
• Why? [Miks?]

  2013
  voice, kannel, flute, cello
  Text: Inayat Khan
  Fp: Ensemble Resonabilis; April 11, 2013, Estonia Concert Hall
  
• Flow I, II, III, IV

  • Audio

  • Flow I / Risto Joost (counter-tenor), gamba ensemble Little Circle

  -

  +

  /

  (III - solo of viola da gambas)
  2008
  26'
  counter tenor, lute, viola da gamba ensemble
  Text: Toivo Tulev, John Dowland (in English)
  Fp: Risto Joost (counter tenor), Richard Sweeny (lute), viola da gamba ensemble Väike rinG; January 20, 2009, Tartu St. John's Church, concert series Vocalissimo
  Commissioned by: Risto Joost
  
• Leave, Alas, This Tormenting

  • Audio

  • Leave, Alas, This Tormenting / Kädy Plaas (soprano), Paukenfest Trio

  -

  +

  /

  2005
  12'
  soprano, percussion (3 players), tape
  Text: Thomas Morley’s madrigal

  Leave, alas, this tormenting,
  Leave, alas,
  And strange anguish,
  Leave, alas,
  And Strange anguish.
  Or kill my heart,
  For thus I will not:
  Live in Love and languish,
  Strange anguish,
  Or kill my heart oppressed.
  Languish, my heart,
  For thus I will not:
  Live in Love and languish,
  Strange anguish.

  
  Fp: Kädy Plaas (soprano), Paukenfest Trio: Vambola Krigul, Anto Õnnis, Madis Metsamart; April 11, 2005, Chamber Hall of Estonian Academy of Music, Tallinn, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  CD "Songs", Harmonia Mundi (2008); Robin Blaze, Kädy Plaas, Raul Mikson, Toomas Tohert, PaukenfEST Trio
  
• Adiós (Śri Rāma in Memoriam)

  • Audio

  • Adiós (Śri Rāma in Memoriam / NYYD Ensemble, Vox Clamantis, conductor Olari Elts

  -

  +

  /

  The work is dedicated to the memory of the Estonian-born philosopher, tutor and Yogi, Mihkel Tamm aka Śrī Rāma (1911–2002).  The instrumental and vocal melodies join in gentle heterophony. The intervallic tensions are discontinued by halts and dispersed amid the splitting-into-motifs melody line – like the ever-shifting limits of human cognition, slipping out of reach…
  The composition’s first two lines of text are taken from an illustration from a book “Subida del Monte Carmelo” by St. John of the Cross (1542–1591), the little poem “Nada te turbe…” comes from the diary of St. Theresa of Avila (1515–1582). Toivo Tulev: “Rāma spent most of his life seeking the way to the liberating Null. He gave his quest the name of Theory-Hypothesis-Null. One could argue that Rāma, similarly to St. John of the Cross (“nada, nada, nada…”), devoted nearly all his life to a persistent pursuit of nothing. When he was asked in his final years, ‘Rāma, have you reached the limit of knowledge?’ he could reply, ‘Yes and no. I have reached the limit but not the knowledge’. And now, one of the limits has been transcended again. ‘Y en el monte nada.’ Adiós!”
  
  Text by Evi Arujärv on the CD "Be Lost in the Call"

  2003
  10'
  2 counter tenors (or sopranos), chorus, flute, oboe, bassoon, sleigh bells, organ, synthesizer, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
  Text: St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila (in Spanish)

  Nada, nada, nada,
  y  en el monte nada.
  
  Nada te turbe;  
  nada te espante;
  todo se pasa;
  Dios no se muda,
  la paciencia
  todo lo alcanza.
  Quien a Dios tiene,
  nada le falta.
  Solo Dios basta.
  
  Nada te turbe;  
  nada te espante;
  todo se pasa;
  Dios no se muda,
  la paciencia
  todo lo alcanza.
  Quien a Dios tiene,
  nada le falta
  Solo Dios basta.
  
  Solo Dios,
  Solo Dios basta.
  La paciencia... 
  Dios no se muda,
  todo lo alcanza.
  
  Nada, nada,
  y en el monte nada,
  Nada, 
  ye en el monte
  Nada, 
  Nada.
  
  Nada te espante;
  Solo Dios basta. 
  Dios no se muda,
  Dios...
  Solo Dios basta.
  Dios...
  Solo Dios basta.
  Dios... Dios no se muda,
  Dios no se muda,
  Solo Dios basta.
  Solo Dios,
  Solo Dios,
  Solo Dios.

  
  Fp: Vox Clamantis, Ensemble Voces Musicales, Veronika Portsmuth (soprano), Taniel Kirikal (counter-tenor), conductor Risto Joost; April 8, 2003, Tallinn, St. Nicholas's Church, festival Estonian Music Days
  Commissioned by: Estonian Composers' Union
  CD "Be Lost in the Call", Estonian Radio (2004); NYYD Ensemble, Vox Clamantis, cond. Olari Elts
  
• Leaving the Deep Lane

  • Audio

  • Leaving the Deep Lane / Pille Lill (soprano), Neeme Punder (flute), Aare Tammesalu (cello), Eda Peäske (harp), Lea Leiten (piano)

  -

  +

  /

  2002
  10'
  soprano, flute/alto flute, cello, harp, piano
  Text: Thomas Stearns Eliot (in English), Martin Buber (in German)

  Du, Du, Du,
  Wieder Du,
  Du, ewig Du.
  
  In my beginning is my end.
  In my beginning is my end, end. Now the light falls, falls
  Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
  Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon,
  afternoon, afternoon…
  Leaving the deep lane, lane…
  deep lane…
  
  Du, ewig Du,
  Ewig Du…
  
  Out at sea the dawn wind
  Wrinkles and slides. I’m here
  Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning.
  I’m here, or there, or elsewhere.
  In my beginning…
  
  Wohin Ich mich wende,
  Du, ewig Du,
  Wieder Du, Du.
  
  Be still and let the dark come upon you.
  Be still and let the dark come upon you.
  Be still…
  Be still and let the dark come upon you.
  Be still and let the dark come upon you, upon you…
  Be still…
  Be still…

  
  Fp: Pille Lill (soprano), Reval Ensemble; September 26, 2002, Tallinn Town Hall
  Commissioned by: Reval Ensemble
  
• El Silbo

  • Audio

  • El Silbo / Moonika Sutt (mezzo soprano), Toomas Vavilov (clarinet), Meelis Vind (bass clarinet), Urmas Kõiv (tuba), Rein Roos (percussion)

  -

  +

  /

  2000
  20'
  mezzo-soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet, tuba, percussion
  Text: Spanish poets from 16th century, St. John of the Cross (in Spanish)
  Fp: Moonika Sutt (mezzo-soprano), Toomas Vavilov (clarinet), Meelis Vind (clarinet), Urmas Kõiv (tuba), Rein Roos (percussion); December 10, 2000, Tallinn Town Hall
  
• Sin otra luz…

  • Audio

  • Sin otra luz / Moonika Sutt (mezzo soprano), Urmas Vulp (violin), Aare Tammesalu (cello), Rein Roos (percussion), Heili Vaus (piano), conductor Erki Pehk

  -

  +

  /

  1999
  12'
  mezzo-soprano, violin, cello, piano, percussion
  Text: St. Juan de la Cruz
  Fp: Moonika Sutt (mezzo-soprano), Urmas Vulp (violin), Aare Tammesalu (cello), Rein Roos (percussion), Heili Vaus (piano), conductor Erki Pehk; August 23, 1999, Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn Summer Music Festival
  
• Du

  1991
  10'
  soprano, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, cello, double bass, percussion (2 players), piano
  Text: Martin Buber (in German)
  
• Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt I

  • Audio

  • Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt I / Risto Joost (counter-tenor), Harry Traksmann (violin), Jorma Toots (piano)

  -

  +

  /

  1989
  4'
  soprano, violin, piano
  Text: K. Becker based on the Psalm 23 (in German)

  Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt,
  dem ich mich ganz vertraue,
  Zu Weid er mich, sein Schäflein, führt,
  Auf schöner grünen Aue,
  Zum frischen Wasser leit’ er mich,
  Mein Seel zu laben kräftliglich
  Durchs sel’ge Wort der Gnaden.

  
  Fp: Kaia Urb (soprano), Ivo Sillamaa (piano); May 4, 1993, Tallinn House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads
  CD "Songs", Harmonia Mundi (2008); Robin Blaze (tenor), Harry Traksmann (violin), Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann (piano)
  Publisher: Theatre of Voices Edition
  

Works for mixed choir a cappella

• Ek het jou lief

  • Audio

  • Ek het jou lief / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš

  -

  +

  /

  2018
  12'
  mixed choir
  Text: Toivo Tulev
  Fp: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš; May 4, 2019, Tallinn. St. Nicholas's Church, World Music Days 2019
  Commissioned by: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kaspars Putniņš
  
• A Child Said, What Is the Grass?

  2015
  15'
  mixed choir
  Text: Walt Whitman
  Fp: Chamber Choir The Crossing, conductor Donald Nally; June 21, 2015, The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, USA, Month of Modern Festival
  Commissioned by: The Crossing
  CD "The Tower and the Garden", Navona Records (2021); The Crossing, conductor Donald Nally
  
• Car j'ai vécu de vous attendre

  2011
  14’
  mixed choir (16-voice chamber choir)
  Text: Paul Valéry's poem „Les Pas“
  Fp: Nederlands Kamerkoor, conductor Risto Joost; September 16, 2013, Marseille, MuCEM, festival „20 Lieux sur la mer“
  Commissioned by: Netherlands Chamber Choir
  
• Tanto gentile

  • Audio

  • Tanto gentile / Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš

  -

  +

  /

  2010
  10'
  mixed choir
  Text: Dante Alighieri (in Italian)

  Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare
  La donna mia quand’ella altrui saluta,
  Ch’ogne lingua deven tremando muta,
  E li occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare.
  
  Ella si va, sentendosi laudare,
  Benignamente d’umiltà vestuta;
  E par che sia una cosa venuta
  Da cielo in terra a miracolo mostrare
  
  Mostrasi sì piacente a chi la mira,
  Che dà per li occhi una dolcezza al core,
  Che ‘ntender no la può chi no la prova;
  
  E par che de la sua labbia si mova
  Un spirito soave pien d’amore,
  Che va dicendo a l’anima: “Sospira”.

  
  Fp: Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Kaspars Putninsh; September 18, 2010, Uranienborg Church, Oslo, Ultima Festival
  FpEst: Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš; October 23, 2013, Tallin Methodist Church
  CD "Toivo Tulev. Magnificat", Naxos (2018); Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš
  CD "Mythes Étoilés", Aurora (2013); Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Kaspars Putninsh
  
• Light, My Light [Valgus, mu valgus]

  • Audio

  • Light, My Light / Voces Musicales, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  Dedicated to Risto Joost and Voces Musicales
  2009
  mixed choir
  Text: Toivo Tulev after Henrik Visnapuu and Rabindranath Tagore (translated by Uku Masing) (in Estonian)

  Valgus, mu valgus
  Silmi suudlev valgus
  Aamen
  
  Valgus, mu valgus
  Mu silmi suudlev valgus
  Südant sulnistav valgus
  Aamen
  
  Valgus, mu valgus
  Taevajõgi on ujutanud üle oma kaldad
  Aamen
  
  Suud suruden su käele
  helluden su ette
  Aamen
  
  Valgus, mu valgus
  Valgus
  Aamen
  
  Siis oled vaikusen mu ligi üksi sina
  Aamen
  
  Valgus, mu valgus
  Aamen
  
  Suud suruden su käele
  Helluden su ette
  Aamen
  
  Siis oled vaikusen mu ligi üksi sina
  Oled vaikusen mu sina
  Aamen
  
  Sina
  Aamen
  Sina

  
  Fp: Chamber Choir  Voces Musicales, conductor Risto Joost; September 19, 2009, Estonia Concert Hall, Voces Musicales 10
  
• Sonnets [Sonetid]

  • Audio

  • Sonnets: O voi che per la via d’Amore passate / Kamber Soloists, conductor Risto Joost

  -

  +

  /

  vocal cycle
  I O voi che per la via d’Amor passate
  II Tutti li miei penser parlan d’Amore
  III Spesse fiate vegnonmi a la mente
  IV Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare
  V Dannomi angoscia li sospiri forte
  VI Quantunque volte, lasso! mi rimembra
  VII Oltre la spera che più larga gira
  2007
  30'
  mixed choir
  Text: from Dante Alighieri's „La vita nuova"

  I O voi che per la via d’Amor passate
  
  

  O voi che per la via d’Amor passate, Attendete e guardate S’elli è dolore alcun, quanto ‘l mio, grave; E prego sol ch’audir mi sofferiate, E poi imaginate                                              S’io son d’ogni tormento ostale e chiave.

  You, who along the road of Love proceed, stop, and pay kindly heed if there be any grief as grave as mine. I beg you but to listen to my plea, and then you will agree                                 that to all torment I am door and key.

  
  II Tutti li miei penser parlan d’Amore
  
  

  Ond’io non so da qual matera prenda; E vorrei dire, e non so ch’io mi dica:             Così mi trovo in amorosa erranza. E se con tutti voi’ fare accordanza, Convenemi chiamar la mia nemica, Madonna la Pietà, che mi difenda.

  Thus, with no subject wherefrom to commence, I wish to speak, and know not what to say,           in such a lovely labyrinth am I! And if for peaceful living now I sigh, invoke I must my only foe today— my Lady Mercy in my sole defense.

  
  III Spesse fiate vegnonmi a la mente
  
  

  Spesse fiate vegnonmi a la mente Le oscure qualità ch’Amor mi dona, E venmene pietà, sì che sovente Io dico: “Lasso! avviene elli a persona?”

  Often within my mind come back to me all the dark qualities that Love makes mine; and, in great pity, oftentimes I pine, saying, “How can all this in one man be?”

  
  IV Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare
  
  

  Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare La donna mia quand’ella altrui saluta, Ch’ogne lingua deven tremando muta, E li occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare. Ella si va, sentendosi laudare,                       Benignamente d’umiltà vestuta; E par che sia una cosa venuta Da cielo in terra a miracolo mostrare Mostrasi sì piacente a chi la mira, Che dà per li occhi una dolcezza al core,      Che ‘ntender no la può chi no la prova; E par che de la sua labbia si mova Un spirito soave pien d’amore, Che va dicendo a l’anima: “Sospira”.

  So winsome and so worthy seems to me my lady, when she greets a passer-by, that every tongue can only babble shy and eager glances lose temerity. Sweetly and dressed in all humility,                       away she walks from all she’s praisèd by, and truly seems a thing come from the sky to show on earth what miracles can be. So much she pleases every gazing eye, she gives a sweetness through it to the heart,       which he who does not feel it fails to guess. A spirit full of love and tenderness seems from her features ever to depart, that, reaching for the soul, says softly “Sigh.”

  
  V (Li occhi dolente… XXXI)
  
  

  Dannomi angoscia li sospiri forte, Quando ‘l pensero ne la mente grave Mi reca quella che m’ha ‘l cor diviso: E spesse fiate pensando a la morte, Venemene un disio tanto soave Che mi tramuta lo color nel viso.

  Ah, so much anguish nearly halts my breath when the least thought to this my grievous mind brings back the one who split my heart in me;       and oftentimes, when thinking but of death, so sweet a longing does all of me bind, the color from my face fades utterly.

  
  VI Quantunque volte, lasso! mi rimembra (6)
  
  

  Quantunque volte, lasso! mi rimembra Ch’io non debbo già mai Veder la donna ond’io vo sì dolente, Tanto dolore intorno ‘l cor m’assembra La dolorosa mente, Ch’io dico: “Anima mia, ché non ten vai?        Ché li tormenti che tu porterai Nel secol, che t’è già tanto noioso, Mi fan pensoso di paura forte ”. Ond’io chiamo la Morte Come soave e dolce mio riposo,                   E dico: “Vieni a me” con tanto amore, Che sono astioso di chiunque more. E’ si raccoglie ne li miei sospiri Un sono di pietate,                                      Che va chiamando Morte tuttavia: A lei si volser tutti i miei disiri, Quando la donna mia Fu giunta da la sua crudelitate…

  Always—unhappy me!—when I recall that nevermore shall I behold my lady (O distressing thought!), such is the sorrow gathered ‘round my soul by this sad fancy brought,                                    that, “My poor soul,” I say, “why don’t you go? The torments you will be escorted by through this already boring century makes me foresee a terror far more strong.” Therefore for Death I long,                                    the only sweet and easeful rest to me, and, “Come! Oh, come!,” with ardent love I say, all envious of those who pass away. A sound of mercy gathers in my sighs, a sound that more and more                                Death, only death is calling none the less: To her all of my longings wished to soar the very day my Lady was overcome by all her cruelty…

  
  VII Oltre laspera che più larga gira
  
  

  Oltre la spera che più larga gira Passa ‘l sospiro ch’esce del mio core; Intelligenza nova, che l’Amore Piangendo mette in lui, pur su lo tira. Quand’elli è giunto là dove disira,                  Vede una donna, che riceve onore E luce sì, che per lo suo splendore Lo peregrino spirito la mira. Vedela tal, che quando ‘l mi ridice Io no lo intendo, sì parla sottile                     1 Al cor dolente che lo fa parlare. So io che parla di quella gentile…

  Even beyond the widest-wheeling sphere a sigh can soar, that has my heart for sire: a new intelligence that, weeping, Love deposits in it, makes it climb still higher. When it attains the goal of its desire,                      it sees a lady that all men revere, a lady whose new splendor is so dear the pilgrim spirit cannot but admire. Such it beholds her, its report I fail to comprehend, so subtly it addresses                  the very grieving heart that bids it speak. I know, of that sweet one it longs to tell…

  
  Fp: Kamber Soloists, conductor Risto Joost; October 2, 2013, Tartu St. John's Church
  Commissioned by: Risto Joost
  CD „New Estonian Choral Music“, Estonian Music Information Centre (2017); Kamber Soloists, soloist Marianne Pärna, conductor Risto Joost (only parts VI and VII)
  
• Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!

  • Audio
  • Video

  • Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice! / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Mai Simson

  -

  +

  /

  To Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
  2006
  7´
  mixed choir
  Text: compiled from “Centuries of Meditations” by Thomas Traherne (1637-1674) (in English)

  Rejoice!
  Rejoice!
  Rejoice!
  
  The Sun … the Sun is but a little spark of His infinite love...
  
  Rejoice!
  
  The Sea…the Sea is but one drop of His goodness …
  
  But what flames…. what flames of love ought that spark to kindle in your soul./You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins.
  
  … what seas of affection ought to flow for that drop in your bosom. /till you are clothed with the heavens…
  
  Rejoice!
  
  The heavens… the heavens are the canopy and the earth is the footstool of your throne: /till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars…
  
  … who reign in communion with God./Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God,… you never enjoy the world.
  
  Rejoice!
  
  The Sun, the Sea, the Heavens,
  
  Rejoice!
  
  Till you remember how lately you were made, and how wonderful it was when you came into it:
  
  Rejoice!
  
  and more rejoice in the palace of your glory, than if it had been made but today morning.

  
  Fp: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier; October 19, 2006, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn
  Commissioned by: British Embassy on the occasion of Her Majesty the Queen´s State Visit to Estonia
  CD "Songs", Harmonia Mundi (2008), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier
  Publisher: Theatre of Voices Edition
  
• Jusquez au printemps

  • Audio

  • Jusquez au printemps / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier

  -

  +

  /

  2005
  10'
  mixed choir
  Text: from the chansons

  Jusques au printemps
  
  Milles regretz
  de vous habandonner,
  Et d´eslonger vostre fache amoureuse
  J´ay si grand deuil
  et paine douloureuse
  Qu´on me vera
  brief mes jours definer.
  
  Adieu mes amours,
  A dieu vous commend.
  Adieu je vous dy jusquez au printemps,
  Jusquez au-delà.

  
  Fp: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier; February 25, 2006, Tartu St. Johns’ Church, February 26, 2006, Tallinn St. Nicholas’s Church
  CD "Songs", Harmonia Mundi (2008); Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier
  
• Upstream, Upstream

  The words upstream, upstream – against the current – could among other things signify the stream which appears to be moving with the current around Palm Sunday (the Gates of Jerusalem and “Hosanna Son of David!”), then, decisively moving against the current, reaches its source in seven days.
  
  Toivo Tulev  

  2001
  11'
  mixed choir
  Text: Holy Week Responsories, Psalm 148 and The Lamentations of Jeremiah (in Latin), Dhammapada (in English, transl. by Juan Mascaro), Hindu mantras (in Sanskrit)
  
• Miserere (Psalm 51)

  1996
  8'
  mixed choir
  Text: Psalm 51 (in Latin)
  Publisher: SP Muusikaprojekt
  

Works for male choir a cappella

• Aglow [Hõõgvel]

  • Audio

  • Aglow / Estonian National Male Choir, conductor Mikk Üleoja

  -

  +

  /

  2012
  14'
  male choir
  Text: Text consists of the names of 51 Tibetans who inflamed themselves during 27.02.2009–27.09.2012 and single words and fragments in English
  Fp: Estonian National Male Choir, conductor Mikk Üleoja; November 22, 2012, Tallinn Methodist Church
  

Works for vocal ensemble

• Aufstieg

  2020
  8'
  8 female voices
  Text: Richard Wagner
  Fp: Vocal ensemble Putni; October 29, 2022, Tartu St John's Church, festival AFEKT
  
• Flow, My Tears

  • Audio

  • Flow, My Tears / Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš

  -

  +

  /

  2007
  vocal ensemble (12 voices)
  Text: John Dowland, Holy Week Improperia, Toivo Tulev

  Flow, my tears,
  fall from your springs,
  flow my tears, fall from your...
  Flow my tears,
  fall from your springs,
  fall, fall, fall,
  flow, flow, my tears, flow.
  Down, vain lights,
  shine no more,
  no nights are dark enough,
  no lights,
  shine no more,
  flow now more,
  no more.
  Flow down vain lights,
  shine no more,
  shine you no more.
  I led you in a pillar of cloud
  but you led me to...
  I gave you saving water,
  but you gave me gall
  and you gave vinegar.
  My people what have I done to you?
  What have I done to you, answer me.
  How have I offended you, you, you?
  I opened the sea before you,
  I opened the sea,
  but you opened my side with a spear.
  Flow, flow, flow down.
  Rain, drop down,
  cover the ground,
  drop down, my blood,
  flow, flow down,
  drop down,
  drop down, drop,
  flow, flow, flow,
  shine, flow, flow, shine!
  Flow, my blood, flow,
  flow, drop, flow down.
  My blood spills from your wounds,
  drop, drop, drop,
  your wounds,
  flow, flow, flow down,
  flow, shine, drop, flow.
  Flow my tears, fall from your springs,
  flow, my blood.
  My blood, my blood spills from your wounds,
  my wounds,
  my blood,
  flow, blood, flow, flow,
  shine!
  Spills from your wounds
  my blood, shine!
  My wounds, my wounds,
  drop down, shine!
  From your, from my wounds,
  shine!
  Flow, drop down,
  shine!
  Flow, shine!
  my, your blood,
  shine!
  my blood,
  flow, shine, flow,
  shine! shine!
  fall, shine, fall, shine
  fall from your...
  flow, fall...
  Shine!
  Shine!

  
  Fp: Ars Nova Copenhagen, conductor Paul Hillier; March 27, 2008, Humlebæk Church, Denmark
  FpEst: Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš; October 23, 2013, Tallinn Methodist Church
  Commissioned by: Paul Hillier and Ars Nova Copenhagen
  CD "Toivo Tulev. Magnificat", Naxos (2018); Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš
  
• Missa Fons bonitatis

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

    The mass cycle for five voices entitled “Fons bonitatis” was commissioned by the Heinavanker ensemble in autumn 2006 and the winter of 2007. The ordinary textual parts of the mass are complemented here by excerpts added to the Kyrie from the Fons bonitatis trope and the song of communion quoting Manur al-Hallaj, which flows out of the Agnus Dei.
  By way of an explanatory note to Mansur – when Mansur says, “I am who I love and the one I love is I”, he means the state where a person is so one with God that the boundaries between them disappear. In loving himself, he loves God. By speaking to God, he speaks to himself, as it is expressed in his verse. “I ask him, who are you? – And he answered, I am You”. Possessed of this feeling, Mansur once said: “Ana al-Haqq” – “I Am the Truth”. And this was the utterance for which he was crucified in 922 in Baghdad, as Jesus was before him, in Jerusalem, for saying: “I am the Way, the Truth and Life…”
      Toivo Tulev    

  1. Kyrie
  2. Gloria
  3. Sanctus
  4. Agnus Dei et Communio
  2007
  13'
  vocal ensemble
  Text: text of the Mass (in Latin), Mansur al-Hallaj (in English)
  Fp: Vocal Ensemble „Heinavanker”, artistic director Margo Kõlar; April 14, 2007, Tallinn, Swedish St. Michael's Church, Estonian Music Days Festival
  Commissioned by: Vocal Ensemble
  Manuscript
• Summer Rain [Suvine vihm]

  • Audio

  • Summer Rain / Vox Clamantis, conductor Jaan-Eik Tulve

  -

  +

  /

  2006
  7´
  8 voices
  Text: Toivo Tulev (in Latin and Estonian)

  Summer Rain
  
  Rorate cæli desuper
  et nubes pluant justum.
  The arithmetics of pain,
  calculation of destruction.
  Rorate cæli desuper
  et nubes pluant justum.
  The arithmetic of pain,
  of death, of children killed,
  of endless hatred.
  Rorate cæli desuper
  et nubes pluant justum.
  Calculation of destruction,
  of buried and of the unburied,
  of rain, endless rain,
  of death, of destruction,
  of pain, of pain, of pain,
  pain of the born and of the unborn.
  Be not angry, O Lord,
  and remember no longer our iniquity:
  behold the city of thy sanctuary / Sitio
  is become a desert.
  Jerusalem, Jerusalem is desolate.
  Rorate cæli desuper
  et nubes pluant justum. / Sitio
  Be not angry, O Lord,
  and remember no longer our iniquity:
  behold we have sinned
  and we are become as one unclean,
  and we have all fallen as a leaf;
  and our iniquities, like the wind,
  have taken us away.
  Thou hast hid thy face from us,
  and hast crushed us
  by the hand of our iniquity. / et nubes
  Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, / pluant justum
  and let the clouds rain Just One.
  Sitio, sitio, sitio.
  Pain, pain,
  pain of the born and of the unborn.
  Drop down dew, ye heavens,
  drop down dew.

  
  Fp: Vox Clamantis, conductor Jaan-Eik Tulve; November 24, 2006, St. Paul’s Church, Basel, Festival Culturescapes
  FpEst: Vox Clamantis, conductor Jaan-Eik Tulve; December 8, 2006, Tartu St. John’s Church
  CD "Toivo Tulev. Magnificat", Naxos (2018). Latvian Radio Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš
  CD "Summer Rain", Vox Humana (2011); Chamber Choir Vox Humana, conductor Brian Wismath
  Publisher: Theatre of Voices Edition
  
• And Then in Silence There with Me Be Only You [Siis oled vaikusen mu ligi üksi Sina]

  • Audio

  •  

  -

  +

  /

  “And then in silence there with me be only You” was composed in 2001–2002. The text used is the Prayer of Mary in Malayalam and Italian and a small Spanish poem from St. Juan de la Cruz.
  These three languages – Malayalam, which is spoken in Kerala, in southern India, in one of the world’s oldest Christian areas, Italian, and Spanish, are languages that I frequently heard around me in the winter months of 2001–2002. The music is dedicated to the nuns of the St. Bridget order in Tallinn.
  
  Toivo Tulev    

  2002
  12'
  12 voices
  Text: Hail Mary (in Malayalam, in Italian), St John of the Cross (in Spanish)

  Nanma niranya Mariame,
  nanma niranya Mariame susti!
  Kartav angayodkude.
  Strigalil ang anugrahikapattavalagunnu.
  Nanma niranya Mariame susti!
  
  Del Verbo divino
  La Virgen preñada
  Viene de camino:
  Si le dais posada.
  
  Del Verbo divino
  La Virgen preñada
  Viene de camino.
  
  Tu sei benedetta fra le donne / angayude udaratil falamaya
  e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno Gesù, Iśo
  anugrahikapattavanagunnu falamaya Iśo
  anugrahikapattavanagunnu/ falamaya Iśo
  anugrahikapattavanagunnu/ angayude udaratil falamaya
  anugrahikapattavanagunnu
  
  e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno
  e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno
  Iśo, Gesù, Gesù, Iśo, Gesù, Gesù, Iśo, Iśo, Gesù,
  Iśo, Gesù, Iśo, Gesù, Gesù, Gesù,
  Iśo, Iśo, Iśo, Iśo, Gesù, Gesù
  e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno/ falamaya
  Gesù, falamaya Iśo, Gesù, Iśo
  
  Del Verbo divino
  La Virgen preñada
  Viene de camino:
  Si le dais posada.
  Iśo, Iśo, Gesù, Gesù
  
  Pariśutta Maria(me) Tampurante amme
  paapikalaya ñangalkuveendi
  ipoolum ñangalude maranasamayattum
  Tampuranood apeśikaname/ Santa Maria
  Madre di Dio
  prega per noi peccatori
  adesso e nell` ora della nostra morte.
  Madre di Dio, prega per noi Gesù
  adesso e nell` ora….Gesù….morte.
  
  Gesù….viene de camino:                                       
  Si le dais posada.
  Iśo, Iśo viene de camino /Iśo, Iśo,
  Si le dais posada.
  
  Gesù, Gesù, Gesù, Gesù,
  Iśo, Gesù, Iśo, Iśo, Gesù, Gesù,
  Gesù, Gesù, Gesù, Gesù, Iśo,
  Gesù, Gesù, Gesù, Gesù, Iśo, Iśo,
  Gesù, Gesù, Iśo,
  Gesù, Gesù

  
  Fp: Musicatreize, conductor Roland Hayrabedian; April 9, 2002, Tallinn, Estonia Concert Hall, Estonian Music Days Festival
  CD „Baltic Voices “, Harmonia Mundi (2018); Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier
  CD "Baltic Voices 2", Harmonia Mundi (2004); Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Paul Hillier
  Manuscript

ELECTRONIC, ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC AND MULTIMEDIA WORKS

• Above

  2008
  11'
  flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano, fixed media
  Fp: ensemble eighth blackbird; November 8, 2008, University of Richmond, The Practice Electroacustic Music Festival
  FpEst: Ensemble U:; February 15, 2014, The Great Guild Hall of the Estonian History Museum, Tallinn Winter Festival
  Commissioned by: The Practice Electroacustic Music Festival 2008
  
• velum, aftertouch

  • Audio

  • velum, aftertouch / Monika Mattiesen (flute), Vambola Krigul (MIDI percussion), Margo Kõlar (live-electronics)

  -

  +

  /

  2007
  30'
  flute, midi-percussion, fixed media, video
  Fp: Ensemble Cyberstudio: Monika Mattiesen (flute), Vambola Krigul (midi-percussion), Margo Kõlar (electronics); October 7, 2007, Tallinn Art Hall
  Manuscript
• Further Shore, Rain, Silence [Teine kallas, vaikuses hommikune vihm]

  • Audio

  • Further Shore, Rain, Silence / Cyberstudio

  -

  +

  /

  “Further Shore, Rain, Silence” is among Tulev’s works perhaps one of furthest extensions of an attempt to create something that could be grasped immediately. The work, characteristically for Tulev, is like a vision rendered into sounds, except that the vision is just that, insofar as a visual image from a definite place occupies a central place here. The music appears to evolve out of this image and ultimately flows back to it – so the work as a whole is almost like a breath of air. The accessibility and “palpability” of the work are emphasized by the alabaster bells with their almost visceral sound, which are the basis for the electronic part. Precisely these bells create the especially poetic environment, rich in multiple meanings, which remains between the sound and image on one hand and the music and natural depiction on the other.
  
  Märt-Matis Lill

  2003
  25'
  flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, cello, piano, percussion, tape, video
  Fp: Küberstuudio; October 21, 2003, Tallinn, NYYD Festival
  Commissioned by: State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert
  

MUSIC FOR CHILDREN

Instrumental works for children

• For My Little Brother [Vennakese eest]

  • Audio
  • Pdf

  • For My Little Brother / Kristjan Veermäe

  -

  +

  /

  2003
  4'
  piano
  Fp: Mati Mikalai (piano); October 25, 2003, Tallinn
  Commissioned by: Estonian Piano Teachers’ Association
  CD "For My Little Sister", Tallinn Music High School EMIC, ERR (2008), Kristjan Veermäe (piano)
  Distributor: EMIC TT 002
  
• For My Little Sister [Õekese eest]

  • Audio
  • Pdf

  • For My Little Sister / Kristjan Veermäe

  -

  +

  /

  2003
  4'
  piano
  Fp: Mati Mikalai (piano); October 25, 2003, Tallinn
  Commissioned by: Estonian Piano Teachers’ Association
  CD "For My Little Sister", Tallinn Music High School, EMIC, ERR (2008); Kristjan Veermäe (piano)
  Distributor: EMIC TT 001
  Manuscript