Peeter Süda

Peeter Süda (born Lümanda, on the island of Saaremaa, 30 January 1883; died Tallinn, 3 August 1920) was an Estonian composer and organist whose work, largely written for the organ, placed Estonia on the map of early twentieth-century music in the contrapuntal tradition. He was part of the nationalist group that also included Mart Saar and Cyrillus Kreek.

He studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1911. There his teachers included Louis Homilius and Jacques Handschin for organ, and Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Solovyov for composition. After returning to Tallinn in 1912, he made a living giving private lessons and organ recitals. In 1919 he was appointed to a post at the newly founded Tallinn Conservatoire.

His interest in polyphony gave rise to a style that combines dense counterpoint with complex, colourful harmonies, influenced by the Estonian folk music he collected over six summers between 1905 and 1911. Among his organ works, the Prelude and Fugue in G minor and the Ave Maria stand out. His best-known choral piece, Linakatkuja ('The Flax Reaper', 1913), is a large-scale polyphonic composition based on a folk melody.

The Tallinn music museum founded in his memory in 1934 holds a collection of manuscripts that has become the principal archive of Estonian music.