Tormis’s Curse Upon Iron has always been a bucket list piece for me and I felt like now was the perfect time to perform it. This Estonian masterpiece from 1972 blends ancient storytelling with modern choral techniques. With text taken from the Finnish folk epic Kalevala as well as contemporary Estonian poetry, Curse Upon Iron serves as a cry against the destructive power of iron. We’re experiencing so much rage and fear in our world today, uncertain of what will become of us, the people we love, and the traditions we hold dear, and yet it ends with a small message of hope that we can find common ground even with that which threatens us most. Our performance today is a unique one with the soloists performing in the original Estonian and the choir performing in English, something that Tormis preferred so that audiences can understand what the piece is truly about. "“The idea of Raua Needmine (‘Curse Upon Iron,’ 1972) was on my mind for years before I found a perfect form for it in an enchanting repetitive ostinato accompanied by a shamanic drum. I combined those elements with modern choral techniques. The idea of the composition derives from shamanism: in order to acquire power over a material or immaterial thing, one communicates knowledge to the object. Thus the describing and explaining of the birth of iron to iron itself forms a part of the shamanic process. The magical rite is performed to restrain the evil hiding inside iron. Each and every thing created by man may turn against man himself when used without respect for the living. The lyrics composed in Estonian by August Annist were based on the ritual incantations of the Finnish epic Kalevala, whereas current Estonian poets Paul-Eerik Rummo and Jean Kaplinski added elements from modern reality.” --Veljo Tormis Ohoi cursed, evil iron! Flesh consuming, bone devouring, Spilling blood, devouring virtue! Whither comes your cruel cunning, Haughtiness so overbearing? Fie upon you, evil iron! Your beginnings reek of malice. You have risen from villainy. From above the earth appeared Fiery maidens in the heavens, Heavily with milk a-laden, Spilling milk upon the marshes. Black, the liquid from one maiden, Turning into ductile iron. White milk flowing from the other, Tempered steel from this arising. From the third a crimson liquid, Cursed, rusty ore created. Ohoi cursed, evil iron! Ohoi evil, cursed iron! Then you were not high and mighty, Not so mighty, not so haughty, When you slumbered in the swampland When you suffered in the marshes. Fie upon you, evil iron! Your beginnings reek of malice. You have risen from villainy. Then a wolf came running hither, Bear a-rambling over yonder. Footprints stirring in the swampland, Traces from the swamp arising Giving rise to iron seedlings, In the shadows of the wolf prints In the traces of the bear tracks. Ohoi wretched child of bogland, Born of rust and milk of maidens! Tell me who made you so angry! Who set you to evil doings? Death came riding through the marshes, Plague along the wintry byways, Finding seedling steel in swampland Rusty iron in a boghole. Then great death began to utter, Killer plague began intoning, In a pinegrove on a hillside, In a field behind the village, Far beyond the farmer’s granges. Here will be the fateful forging! Here a furnace I will fashion, Mighty fanning bellows anchor! Here I’ll set the iron boiling! Blast the rusty ore to flaming! Pound the iron full of fury! Iron quaked and iron quivered, Quaked and quivered, tossed and trembled, When he heard the call for fire, Heard the iron’s angry summons. Ohoi cursed, evil iron! Then you were not high and mighty, Not so mighty, not so haughty! Moaning in the blazing furnace, Whining under beating anvils. Droned the old man on the oven Groaned the greybeard from the furnace: Iron stretches out like tallow, Dripping down like oozing spittle, Flowing from the blazing furnace, Seeping from the scalding fire. Yet the iron, soft and gentle, Must be toughened, must be tempered, Turned into steel defiant. Get the spittle from a serpent! Bring the venom from a viper! Iron would not harbor evil, If it had no serpent spittle Had no murky viper venom. Droned the old man on the oven, Groaned the greybeard from the furnace: Shelter us, Supreme Creator! Grant us safety, God Almighty, so that mankind will not perish, Future children be protected From destruction, From extinction. Changing eras, modern deities. Cannons, airplanes, Tanks, armed warfare. New steel and iron, Transformed into precise Evil, powerful killers Armed with automated guiding devices, Armed with nuclear warheads Useless against all defenses Knives, spears, Axes, halberds, sabers, Slings, tomahawks, boomerangs, Bows and arrows, rocks and clubs, Claws and teeth, sand and salt, Dust and tar, napalm and coal. Innovations, far-reaching, technical, Electronic, ultimate, Ready to fly in any direction, Stay undeflected, striking target forcefully. Annihilate, knocking out of action, Obliterate, Render hopelessly impotent, Killing, killing, with steel and iron! Killing, steel and iron, chromium, Titanium, uranium, plutonium and Multitudes of elements. Ohoi cursed, evil iron! Sword, begetter of all warfare! Golden guardian of the swamp ore, Steel that’s kith and kin to evil. Fie upon you, evil iron! You and I are from the same seed, From the same earth we have sprouted. From the same good soil we harken, You and I, we share this planet, Bound to share the earth together, Earth that will us all recover, Earth enough for all, forever.