Paper short abstract:

Concentrating on contextual data of fieldwork in Kodavere, the runo song heritage recording process and the creation of textual corpus are observed; different recording strategies and policies are analyzed along with researcher-informant relations.

Paper long abstract:

Kodavere is a parish in the county of Tartumaa, Eastern Estonia, located on the border of northern and southern Estonian language and song regions. The runo song (regilaul) heritage of Kodavere is undoubtedly extraordinary and also rather methodically recorded. The corpus of runo songs of Kodavere was published in 2014 as an academic publication "Vana Kannel. Kodavere regilaulud" (Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae: Estonum Carmina Popularia).

The earliest runo song collection from Kodavere was probably written down by reverend Everth and published in 1825. The last runo songs were digitally recorded in 1997.

Focus of the paper is on the heritage recording process that has continued for almost 200 years, as well as on the creation of textual corpus.

Earlier field trips were mainly conducted by students and enthusiasts, stipendiaries of various cultural/national societies and organisations, e.g. Koik & Härms in 1887, Liiv & Raja in 1905, Simson in 1920, and Ariste in 1929; later field-work was conducted by professional researchers, e.g. Mägi in 1947, Tampere, Niinemägi et al in 1954-1955, Oras & Saarlo in 1997.

Concentrating on contextual data of field work, like logs, diaries, notes, maps etc, the differences in recording strategies and policies are analyzed along with relations between researchers, their subjects and other local people, eventually having an impact on recording results. Compendiously, to what extent did recording and archiving policies of 19th and 20th centuries impact substantially the runo song corpus of 21st century.