Konstantin Tuttav

Songmaker Konstantin Tuttav. Photo: I. Rüütel 1961. ERA, Foto 5858.

The songs by Konstantin Tuttav about the rebellion of 1905 were very popular in the neighbourhood of Pöide in the beginning of the 20^th century. /---/ The song No 17 is one of those. This is really an extract from a longer song, which spread more widely in this shorter form. [On the video "Songmakers, singers and instrumentalists"] /---/ Konstantin Suurtee from Veere village sings a song by Tuttav and tells about how they spread. (From the description of the video "Songmakers, singers and instrumentalists"; Rüütel 2014: 28)

The songs by K. Tuttav were sung to the tunes of men's songs created earlier. Although K. Tuttav was not much of a singer himself, he still performed his songs to others from time to time. (From the chapter "Konstantin Tuttav, the protest singer of Pöide neighbourhood"; Rüütel 2015: 65)

We mostly concentrated on local village song makers and their oeuvre, that is why our informants were often men. A couple of songmakers (Konstantin Tuttav and Aleksander Nõgu) were visited some years before, so we inquired after additional information, recorded with better equipment and also filmed. Unfortunately, the men had grown older. Tuttav could no longer sing /---/. (From the chapter "The situations and purposes of collection"; Rüütel 2015: 20)

We also conversed with the folk singer himself. Despite his illness, he was very eager to talk to us. He also read to us several songs, but singing would have required too much effort. He would have been ready to tell us even more, but we were afraid that he might get too tired. We promised to come back some other time. (From the field work diary of I. Rüütel, June 1, 1961; Rüütel 2015: 168)

See also the chapter "Konstantin Tuttav, the protest singer of Pöide neighbourhood" (Rüütel 2015: 63–65).