The V. Sarajishvili #1 Tbilisi State Conservatoire International 3 Manana Doijashvili - Greeting 3 Rusudan Tsurtsumia – Introduction Research 7 The V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire Center for 8 Manana Andriadze - The Tbilisi State Conservatoire’s Georgian Folk Music Traditional Department 10 Program of Scientific Works at the Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony Polyphony 11 First English Translation of Essays on Georgian Folk Music BULLETIN 13 Musical Scores 99 Georgian Songs 14 Georgian Traditional Music in 2004 16 Field Expeditions Ethnomusicological Field Expedition in Dmanisi 17 Ethnomusicological Field Expedition in Ozurgeti Region, Guria 18 Ethnomusicological Field Expedition in Lentekhi (Lower Svaneti) and Tsageri (Lechkhumi) 20 Ethnomusicological Field Expedition in Telatgori (Kartli) 21 Georgian Ethnomusciologists Evsevi (Kukuri) Chokhonelidze 23 Georgian Folk Groups The Anchiskhati Church Choir and Folk Group Dzveli Kiloebi 25 Georgian Songmasters “Each Time I Sing It Differently” - An Interview with Otar Berdzenishvili 28 Georgian Folk Song – New Transcription TBILISI. DECEMBER. 2004 Kiziq Boloze 2 This bulletin is published bi-annually in Georgian and English through the support of UNESCO ' International Research Center The for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi V. Sarajishvili State Conservatoire, 2004. ISSN 1512 - 2883 Editors: Rusudan Tsurtsumia, Tamaz Gabisonia Translators: Maia Kachkachishvili, Carl Linich Design: Nika Sebiskveradze, George Kokilashvili Computer services: Kakha Maisuradze Printed by: Polygraph 3 Prof. MANANA DOIJASHVILI Prof. Dr. RUSUDAN TSURTSUMIA, Rector, V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire Director, International Research Center for Today people all over the world are Traditional Polyphony singing Georgian polyphonic songs. The num- ber of scholars interested in this has greatly in- Georgian life has changed greatly since our creased. country has become independent. These However, without the support of UN- changes are evident in all spheres. The transition ESCO it would have been impossible for us to period to independence has been painful, but realize our dream – to create the International freedom has helped Georgian culture to find its Research Center for Traditional Polyphony at place again in the diverse culture of the world. Tbilisi State Conservatoire, where Georgian tra- ditional folk and sacred song is studied in the context of polyphony both in the Caucasus and worldwide. Today, as globalization threatens the world’s cultural diversity, it is essential for mankind to defend and preserve the world’s ma- terial and intangible cultural heritage. We are very proud that in 2001, UNESCO proclaimed Georgian polyphonic song a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” This put Georgian song under UNESCO’s protection. We would like to thank the government of Japan especially, who at UNESCO’s recommendation has been financing a 3-year project called Safeguarding and Promotion of Georgian Traditional Polyphony, since 2003. I have great hope for the future, since in the difficult process of rebuilding our county, the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Monuments Protection and Sport is co-financing this project. This first issue of our bulletin is part of this project. 4 These positive changes are perhaps best Center for Traditional Polyphony at Tbilisi State seen in Georgian traditional polyphony. I cannot Conservatoire and the initiation of the UNESCO say that the Rustavi Choir, directed by Anzor program for its support. Erkomaishvili, and one of the most popular folk In 2004, also under this program, the ensembles, did not tour abroad much in the Second International Symposium on Traditional 1970s. However, whenever they appeared in Polyphony was held in Tbilisi. This further non-Soviet countries they were presented as per- proved that musicologists worldwide, as well as formers of “Great Soviet Culture,” – more pre- foreign performers both amateur and profes- cisely, Russian. Despite this, many foreigners sional, are seriously interested in Georgian folk who heard Georgian singing became interested and sacred song. in learning more about this culture. In this way, It is precisely in response to this interest that Georgian song found its way into Japan in the we have decided to publish this bulletin. With it, 1970s, although it was not until much later that we will share information with our readers con- the Japanese choir Yamashiro-Gumi was able to cerning: visit Georgia, where they sang Georgian folk The state of research progress in traditional songs in their concert program of world choral polyphony; music. What aids or inhibits the study of Georgian Over the past ten years, we can say that secular and sacred music; Georgian polyphony has spread throughout the News in Georgian folk music study; world. Choirs in Australia, Europe, Asia and New material collected in fieldwork expe- America are singing it. This shows us that ditions; Georgian folk and sacred song belongs not only Profiles on famous researchers and per- to Georgia, but to all of the world’s modern civi- formers of Georgian song; lization, and so is a distinguished phenomenon Musical notation for one Georgian song in in the world’s cultural heritage. each issue. Thanks to this, interest in Georgian In short, we hope that this small periodical polyphony has also grown among the world’s will be interesting and informative for both eth- ethnomusicologists. Proof of this is the First nomusicologists and all others interested in tra- International Symposium on Traditional ditional music. Polyphony, held at Tbilisi State Conservatoire in In our first issue, we would like to tell you 2002. Here, together with Georgian researchers, about the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and the tra- many renowned musicologists from all over the ditions of folk music study in Georgia, as well as world participated, including Dieter Chris- the history of this field before our Center was es- tensen (USA), Timothy Rice (USA), Izaly tablished. Zemtsovsky (USA), Simha Arom (France), Tran Quang Hai (France), Franz Foedermayr *** (Austria) and Tsutomi Oohashi (Japan). This Here is a brief summary of the events pre- symposium was of historic importance – it initi- ceding the First International Symposium on ated a new stage of development in ethnomusi- Traditional Polyphony. cological study in Georgia. The roots of Georgian ethnomusicological Also at the symposium was Mrs. Noriko study lie in the second half of the nineteenth cen- Aikawa, then director of UNESCO’s Intangible tury, when eminent Georgians began publishing Heritage Section, who played an important role articles on Georgian church chant (composed in the creation of the International Research music) and folk song. 5 The founder of folk music study in Georgia Garaqanidze, etc. In their works we can learn is considered to be Dimitri Araqishvili, compos- about the peculiar characteristics of multi-di- er, academician, and authority on the new alectic Georgian folk music, its regional styles, Georgian school of composition. At the begin- rhythm and intonation, modes and harmonies, ning of the twentieth century he took Georgian specific forms of cadence, performance manner, folk music outside of Georgia, publishing ap- instrumental music, etc. proximately 500 transcriptions of field record- Since the 1980s, a young generation of eth- ings he made in various parts of Georgia. These nomusicologists has begun complex research of publications were issued by the Musical- Georgian secular and sacred polyphony. Results Ethnographic Commission at Moscow Uni- of their research were presented at international versity’s Society of Natural Science, Anthro- conferences on polyphony held in Borjomi and pology and Ethnography. During the same peri- Tbilisi in 1984, 1986 and 1988. od (1906-1908), Araqishvili’s first works, in- Participants in these conferences included cluding transcriptions, were published in representatives of various schools of ethnomu- Moscow. sicology from the Soviet Union. Concerts per- In the late 1910s, and especially in the formed by Georgian folk choirs after the scien- 1920s-1930s, European researchers became in- tific sessions laid the foundation for the synthe- terested in Georgian traditional polyphony. sis of research and performance components Works on polyphony by Robert Lach, Georg characteristic of later conferences. Schunemann, Marius Schneider, and especially The conferences held in Borjomi in 1986, Siegfried Nadel, are some of the key sources on and especially in 1988, had broader internation- Georgian polyphonic song. The first fundamen- al representation than the preceding period. One tal work published in Europe in 1933 was of the key initiators of these conferences was Siegfried Nadel’s Georgische Gesange Joseph Jordania. Gia Kancheli and Anzor (Georgian Songs), which included transcription Erkomaishvili, then heads of the Georgian of musical examples. In this work, he also as- Composers’ Union, also greatly assisted the serts the local origin of Georgian polyphony, Conservatoire in organizing the conferences, as suggesting that it may have influenced the de- did Rusudan Tsurtsumia, Vice-Rector of the velopment of European polyphony. This view is more clearly stated in Marius Schneider’s works Conservatoire, and Kukuri Chokhonelidze, published in the 1940s-1960s, among them the Head of the Georgian Folk Music Department. exceptional History of Polyphony. The conference was