COMPOSER

Veljo Tormis

1930 - 2017

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Veljo Tormis (7 August 1930 – 21 January 2017) was an Estonian composer, regarded as one of the great contemporary choral composers and one of the most important composers of the 20th century in Estonia. Internationally, his fame arises chiefly from his extensive body of choral music, which exceeds 500 individual choral songs, most of it a cappella. The great majority of these pieces are based on traditional ancient Estonian folksongs (regilaulud), either textually, melodically, or merely stylistically. His composition most often performed outside Estonia, Curse Upon Iron (Raua needmine, 1972), invokes ancient Shamanistic traditions to construct an allegory about the evils of war. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Veljo Tormis is the 645th most popular composer (down from 585th in 2019), the 57th most popular biography from Estonia (down from 45th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Estonian Composer.

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Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Veljo Tormis ranks 645 out of 1,451. Before him are Pierre Henry, Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Sullivan, Johann Friedrich Agricola, Antoine Forqueray, and Hermann Levi. After him are Oskar Nedbal, Ludwig Thuille, Ernesto Lecuona, Kurmangazy Sagyrbaev, Karol Lipiński, and Basil Poledouris.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1930, Veljo Tormis ranks 192. Before him are Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy McLane, Sa'dun Hammadi, Babushka Lady, Barbara Lawrence, and Anerood Jugnauth. After him are June Almeida, Tanya Savicheva, Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Guy Ligier, Yi-Fu Tuan, and Anthony Steffen. Among people deceased in 2017, Veljo Tormis ranks 158. Before him are Shadia, Heinz Kessler, Frank Vincent, Pierre Henry, Étienne Tshisekedi, and Linda Nochlin. After him are Cy Young, John Wetton, Stephen Paddock, Michael Parks, Predrag Matvejević, and Maryam Mirzakhani.

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In Estonia

Among people born in Estonia, Veljo Tormis ranks 57 out of 351. Before him are Friedrich Martens (1845), Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878), Karl Ernst Claus (1796), Jaan Kaplinski (1941), Friedrich Akel (1871), and Paul Ariste (1905). After him are Jaan Anvelt (1884), Johannes Vares (1890), Ene Ergma (1944), Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven (1914), Lionel Kieseritzky (1806), and Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden (1750).

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Among COMPOSERS In Estonia

Among composers born in Estonia, Veljo Tormis ranks 3. Before him are Arvo Pärt (1935), and Evald Aav (1900). After him are Eduard Tubin (1905), Heino Eller (1887), Alexei Lvov (1798), Käbi Laretei (1922), Ester Mägi (1922), Juhan Aavik (1884), Miina Härma (1864), Artur Kapp (1878), and Rudolf Tobias (1873).

Estonian born Composers

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