People of the present and songs of the past: collecting folk songs in Estonia in the 1950s and 1960s

This paper discusses musical folklore-collecting practices in Estonia in the 1950s and 1960s. My aim is to observe folkloristic encounters that took place 50 years ago { to do ethnographic Fieldwork in the ethnomusicological past, as called for by Philip Bohlman (Bohlman 1997). The objects of my research are the folkloristic Fieldwork culture from half a century ago (one of the cultural processes characteristic of that era) and its representatives: the folklorists and their interviewees. 'Fieldwork in the past' is a key phrase which allows us to study the persons operating at the time as equally historical Others without focusing too much on the deconstruction of past disciplinary practices, but rather attempting to assume the position of an understanding and sensitive listener to the voice of the Other