Ch 29 · Lesson 26Esperanto · Chapter 29 · Lesson 26 · Themed review
Muziko en Esperanto
Anthem, record, album, band. From the first Esperanto records of 1926 to a label that releases nothing else, and the -ist- and -ant- pair that says who is making the music.
Practise this lesson
13-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
Himno, disko, albumo: a century of Esperanto music
You have sung with this course already: La Espero, La Tagiĝo, Al la fratoj. All three have the same claim to fame. In the summer of 1926 they were recorded in a London studio for the Esperanto Institute's own label, the first Esperanto music records. La Espero went down twice, once played by the band of the Honourable Artillery Company in June and once sung by Gladys Cosmetto in July; Maurits Boeren, an Esperanto teacher from Antwerp, sang the other two.
The anthem had become a , and its record a . A century on, the vocabulary has hardly moved.
Making it, and doing it
Two suffixes, and the difference between them is a good one to own.
-- names the person for whom something is a trade or a calling. A is a musician, a a singer: it is what they are. -ant- names the person doing it right now. A is whoever happens to be singing, and in a congress hall at the end of the week that is everybody. The same root, two different people.
is to listen, and you need it twice: you a , and at a you a , a band. If the band is good you , and if the evening is good it becomes a . A is the big organised version, and the -ivalo is not a suffix: the whole international stem is one root, as is.
A label for one language
Esperanto has a record label of its own. Vinilkosmo describes itself as an independent label that produces, publishes and distributes only groups and artists who sing in Esperanto. That is the verb again, the one publishers use for books: a label an the way a press a novel.
The listening ladder names the acts worth starting with.
Put it together
, . - The band released a new album, and I listened to it all night.
, . - She is a musician, but today everyone is a singer.
Post . - After the concert we danced until morning.
Sources
- Preece, T. (2023) 'Esperinst', Esperanto Music History. Available at: https://eomuziko.com/en/posts/esperinst/ (Accessed: 7 October 2026).
- Vinilkosmo (2026) Vinilkosmo. Available at: https://www.vinilkosmo.com/ (Accessed: 7 October 2026).