Cyrillus Kreek

Cyrillus Kreek was an important figure in the development of a national Estonian school of composition. He collected Estonian folk songs in the field and composed settings and elaborations of them for choir. Kreek was born Karl Ustav Kreek in Võnnu, Estonia, then part of the Russian Empire, on December 3, 1889. He grew up partly on Vormsi Island and later in Haapsalu, where he was allowed to practice piano at the offices of a local temperance society, and to play the organ at two local churches. In the 1890s, Russia's Tsarist regime mandated Russian names for all its subjects, and Kreek's first name was changed to Kirill; he later adopted the Latinized form, Cyrillus. Kreek attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1908 to 1916, studying not only composition but trombone. He worked as a music teacher in Haapsalu at the Lääne County Teachers' Seminary (1921-1932) and also taught at the Tartu Music College and at the Tallinn Conservatory, where he headed the music theory department from 1947. In 1911, he made his first folk song collecting trip in the Haapsalu region, emulating Bartók in taking a phonograph recording apparatus into the countryside; he was the first Estonian to make mechanical recordings of folk songs. Of the thousands of songs he collected, Kreek made choral settings of about 1,000, many of them religious songs. These range from simple harmonizations to more elaborate treatments using the song as a kind of cantus firmus. Many of these remain staples of home music-making in Estonia. Kreek also wrote some larger works, again often showing a folk influence. These include a Suite for zithers and orchestra, the Musica sacra for orchestra, and a Humoreske for orchestra, as well as an Estonian-language Requiem (1927) for tenor, mixed choir, organ and symphony orchestra; it was the first setting of the Requiem mass in Estonia. Even this work showed folk influences. Some 20 of Kreek's compositions have been recorded as the success of contemporary Estonian music has stirred listeners to explore some of its roots. Kreek died in Haapsalu on March 26, 1972.
© James Manheim /TiVo