Tuta Tutela lyrics and meaning

Pritarinys:

Tūta, tūta.

Rinkinys:

Tūta, tūtela,
Tūta, tūta.

Mes dvi sesiulas,
Tūta, tūta.

Tūta, tūtela,
Tūta, tūta.

Žalioj lunkelaj,
Tūta, tūta.

Tūta, tūtela,
Tūta, tūta.

Šienelį grėbjam,
Tūta, tūta.

Tuta Tutela: sutartinė interpretation

This sutartinė with the refrain "tūta, tūta" can be understood as a work song about two sisters raking hay. The text is very brief: two young sisters in a green meadow rake the hay. The image gives a calm picture of shared summer work.

The repeated structure, in which the refrain "tūta, tūta" constantly enters between meaningful lines, is typical of sutartinės: the main point is not a developed story but the weaving of voices and rhythm. The refrain works as song that accompanies labor and holds the beat.

A second reading places the song within haymaking and raking traditions, where the work of sisters or young women often blends with images of feeling, love, and longing, and the meadow becomes a place where young people meet. The brief image of two sisters raking can therefore be heard not only as work, but as the beginning of a song about companionship and youth. The sounding voices of "tūta tūtela" become the rhythm of the work and the sound of the sisters' bond. The sutartinė's form itself, with one part leading and another answering, mirrors paired, coordinated work in the meadow: as the two sisters rake together, their voices sound together.

Tuta Tutela: symbols and phrases

Two sisters
Two sisters working together. They mark harmonious women's work, companionship, and coordinated voices.
Green meadow
The green field where hay is raked. It marks summer work and a possible space of youth gathering.
Raking hay
The sisters' shared haymaking work. It stands for everyday agrarian labor.
Refrain "tūta, tūta"
A repeated sound-word refrain. It marks the rhythmic base of the sutartinė and the beat of work.

Tuta Tutela: sutartinė history

"Tūta tūtela" is a work sutartinė with pritarinys and rinkinys parts and the asemantic refrain "tūta." The text is very short: two sisters rake hay in a green meadow. According to the Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija, work sutartinės are the most numerous group, and haymaking and raking songs form an important part of them.

Sutartinės flourished in north-eastern Aukštaitija from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; in 2010 they were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The exact place and collector of this variant could not be confirmed in the publicly accessible Slaviūnas index.

sources

  • Z. Slaviūnas. Sutartinės, vols. 1-3 (1958-1959)
  • D. Račiūnaitė-Vyčinienė. Sutartinės: Lithuanian Polyphonic Songs (2002)

Tuta Tutela: sources