2

Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire 2005.

This bulletin is published semi-annually in Georgian and English

Editors: Rusudan Tsurtsumia, Tamaz Gabisonia

Translator: Maia Kachkachishvili

Design: Nika Sebiskveradze, Giorgi Kokilashvili

Computer services: Tamaz Gabisonia Valeri Jugheli

Printed by: Chokhi

© International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi V. Sarajishvili State Conservatoire, 2005.

ISSN 1512 - 2883 3 Echoes from the Past

Dr. Prof. Rusudan Tsurtsumia, Director of the IRCTP

Ethnomusicologists are well aware of the dis- cussion between the followers of two different scientific viewpoints, which continued through- out the 20th century. According to one, ethno- musicology is a science, which is based on per- sonal experience obtained in field expeditions; according to the other, ethnomusicology, as a sci- ence, emerged thanks to sound recordings. Most scholars agree that ethnomusicology or comparative musicology, as it was called from implies creation of an information database i.e. the 1880s until the 1950s, deals with both “live documentation of the music of oral traditions. music of oral tradition” and folk music (accord- Being a participant of UNESCO Experts Meeting ing to Bruno Nettl, this is found not only in on Inventorying Intangible Cultural Heritage Europe and America, but in Africa and Asia too). (17-19 February, 2006, Paris), I was convinced When researching this kind of music, ethnomusi- that the only way for safeguarding and transmis- cologists give priority to the experience of their sion of this tradition is its teaching. Hence, mate- personal expeditions. This enables them to con- rialization and replication are necessary today for sider the impressions which they obtained when the preservation of oral tradition. listening to the audio material performed in its It is not surprising that the interest of both natural environment, as well as the context of practicing performers and scholars to folk song performance or ritual-magic function - in short recordings has significantly grown. Ronda L. the social, ethnological and culturological con- Sewals writes about the factors which create the- text of the audio example. oretical barriers for ethnomusicologists in the use It must be admitted that two technical innova- of archival recordings (Ronda L. Sewald, Sound tions turned to be significant factors for the Recordings and Ethnomusicology: Theoretical development of comparative musicology in the Barriers to the Use of Archival Collections, in: 1880s – Edison’s gramophone and Ellis’s nota- Resound, A Quarterly of the Archives of tion of cents for musical intervals. The former Traditional Music, Vol. 24, #1,2). Scholars can gave the possibility for repeating the perform- consider these barriers and use both methodolo- ance, the latter – to compare various musical tun- gies, i.e. the synthesis of already existing record- ings. ings and personal field experiences. The current The first phonogram-archives of Vienna situation in Georgia provides a wonderful possi- (1899), Paris (1900), Berlin (1900) and Moscow bility for this; here we can still find a number of (1901) gave an incentive to the comparative true “homo-polyphonicuses” (Zemtsovsky) and, study of the oral musical traditions of various at the same time, have at hand audio recordings peoples. of Georgian polyphony, the earliest of which was For the preservation of the world’s musical made exactly a century ago - in 1907. diversities UNESCO adopted the “Convention The Third International Symposium on for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Traditional Polyphony confirmed the increased Heritage”. The adoption was preceded by much interest in the collections of audio recordings. work. I would like to make a mention of special The following presentations on this topic were projects, thanks to which the inventorying of tra- presented: Dieter Christensen (USA) - “Sound ditional culture, including musical folklore, start- Archives, Technology, Research, State”; Susanne ed in many countries of the world. This also Ziegler (Germany) – “Polyphony in Historical 4

Sound Recordings of the Berlin Phonogramm- Archiv”; Gerda Lechleitner & Nona Lomidze (Austria) – “Georgian and Bukharian Jews in Vienna”; Franz Lechleitner (Austria) – “The Georgian Wax Cylinder Collections - Recording Technology and Recommendations for Restoration”; Rusudan Tsurtsumia (Georgia) – “Georgian Wax Cylinder Collection”. The readers of our Bulletin already know, that the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi State Conservatoire has car- ried out two projects on phonograph wax cylin- der collections. One project involved the trans- mission of the material from wax cylinders onto digital media, which was realized together with Vienna Phonogrammarchiv and with the person- also suggest the introduction to the “Catalogue of al help of Dr. Franz Lechleitner; the other Wax Cylinder Collections in Georgia” for the involved the publication of the catalogue of Catalogue was published in small quantities. Georgian wax cylinder collections, as part of the Those who would like to familiarize themselves Program for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage with it can do so at the following places: Georgian of the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Monuments State Museum of Theatre, Film, Music and Protection and Sport. In addition to this 4 CDs Choreography; Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of with the audio material have been published; History and Ethnology; Central Archive of Film- publication of the remaining examples has also Photo-Phono Documents of the State Department been planned. of Archives and Records Management of This volume of Bulletin includes the paper by Georgia; State Museum of Art and Culture of Dr. Susanne Ziegler, which she presented at the Achara Autonomous Republic; Simon Janashia Third International Symposium. The paper will Georgian National Museum and Vano Sarajishvili also be published in the book of proceedings for Tbilisi State Conservatoire. the Symposium, but we think that wider group of Rusudan Tsurtsumia our readers would also be interested in it. Here we INTRODUCTION Rusudan Tsurtsumia From the beginning of the 20th century up Georgia (1909-1913), and Georg Schunemann until the early 1950s, when it ceased to be used, and Robert Lach recorded from Georgian war Edison’s phonograph rendered prisoners in 1915-1918. A similar collection is a significant service to researchers in the preserved at St. Petersburg Institute of Russian world of sound. Indeed, it was thanks to Literature (Pushkin House), magnetic copies of gramophone and phonograph recordings that which are at the State Department of Archives Georgian polyphony became known outside and Records Management of Georgia. Georgia and the rest of the world got to hear In the 1970s Vladimer Babilua, a renowned Georgian polyphony for the first time. We song-master and head of the then Georgian know that the Berlin and Vienna archives State Archive Audio Department, copied this include collections of wax cylinders and valuable material. This archival stock includes gramophone records of Georgian music record- examples recorded in Guria by Nikolai ed by Adolf Dirr during his expeditions in Derzhavin (1910), in Dusheti and Batumi by 5

Tbilisi State Conservatoire approached the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv for help. This well- known institution immediately responded to the request and Mr. Franz Lechleitner was invited to Tbilisi for preliminary investiga- tions. Support from the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Monuments Protection and Sport enabled us to invite Mr. Lechleitner for a longer period of time. In November 2005 he transferred the content of wax cylinder collec- tions onto digital media with a special appara- tus that he has devised to play cylinders. By this time the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony had gathered all avail- Josef Shilinger (1927) and Evgeni Gippius able wax cylinder collections in Georgia – 528 (1930 and 1935). When recording Gurian cylinders in total. It is not improbable that songs, Gippius used a new technique for those there are more cylinders in some private col- times, which he developed himself for this lections. The process of transfer turned out to purpose – each voice part being recorded sep- be fairly arduous. The poor quality of the orig- arately. inal material complicated the issue. This, in its In the aforementioned Audio Department turn, affected the sound quality of the trans- can also be found magnetic copies of expedi- ferred examples. tion recordings made by Shalva Aslanishvili Thus the project “Echoes from the Past” (Racha, 1928), Ioseb Megrelidze (Guria, 1932) came into existence through the efforts of and Grigol Chkhikvadze (Guria, 1933, and Tbilisi State Conservatoire with the support of Pasanauri, 1934). There are few examples of the Georgian Ministry of Culture, Monuments studies conducted by native ethnomusicolo- Protection and Sport and the Vienna gists into the history of the collection of Phonogrammarchiv. Available data suggests recordings that Dimitri Arakishvili was the first Georgian of Georgian folk music. Until recently we musician to use a phonograph in 1901. Over a were better aware of the collections outside period of fifteen years he transcribed recorded Georgia, than those in our country. material and published it in the publications of At the Georgian Folk Music Department of the Musical-Ethnographic Commission of Tbilisi State Conservatoire one could find bro- Moscow University. After returning from ken phonograph and wax cylinders; these had Moscow in 1903, Zakaria Paliashvili traveled been here for years and were regarded as cher- around Georgia with his phonograph. Later he ished relics of past times for there was no pos- transcribed his recorded material and pub- sibility of listening to their content. Moreover, lished it as separate collections of transcrip- nothing was known about the exact number of tions. Phonograph was widely used until the wax cylinders in Georgia or their owners until early 1950s. According to Grigol 2005. Chkhikvadze, the professors and students of The efforts of Prof. Kukuri Chokhonelidze, Tbilisi State Conservatoire actively started to former Head of the Georgian Folk Music apply phonograph for recording folk music Department at Tbilisi State Conservatoire, and examples in 1927. Conservatoire students Prof. Anzor Erkomaishvili, Artistic Director of Shalva Mshvelidze, a composer, and Shalva the Georgian Folk Song and Dance State Aslanishvili, a music historian, visited every Ensemble Rustavi, to create a device for mak- village in Svaneti for recording purposes. In ing wax cylinders produce sound were unfortu- the 1920s-1940s Georgian composers and folk nately unsuccessful. When all hopes had faded, scholars, including Grigol Chkhikvadze, Ioseb 6

Megrelidze, Tamar Mamaladze, Sergi available for all those interested in Georgia’s Zhghenti, Alexandre Partskhaladze and others, cultural heritage. traveled all over Georgia and recorded almost The information in the catalogue is system- everything currently performed in those times. atized and is presented as a chart: Column 1 – Chkhikvadze states, that in 1927-1934 the All- specimen number 1- 479; Column 2 – the num- Union Institute of Anthropology, Ethnography ber indicated on the cylinder box in pencil or and Archaeology organized field expeditions in pen, presumably written either by the recorder Georgia led by Evgeny Gippius, Zinaida Evald or later by the owner. Sometimes one box pro- and Khristophor Kushnarev (1927), Josef vides two different numbers. In this case both Schillinger (1927), Shalva Aslanishvili (1928), numbers are included in the chart; Evgeny Gippius (1930), Ioseb Megrelidze Column 3 – Date of recording; (1932), Grigol Chkhikvadze, Elene Virsaladze Column 4 – Place of recording; and Shota Dzidziguri (1933) and Grigol Column 5 – Title of song; Chkhikvadze (1934). The last such field expe- Column 6 – Name of performer; dition material in our possession dates from Column 7 – Additional relevant notes. 1952. This current publication includes collec- The above information is extracted from tions from the following sources: Georgian rough paper notes inserted into the cylinder State Museum of Theatre, Film, Music and box at the time of recording, usually by the Choreography, Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of researcher. For example, it is clear in the case History and Ethnology, the State Department of of Shalva Mshvelidze’s collection that it was, Archives and Records Management of in fact, his daughter Nana, who created the list Georgia, State Museum of Art and Culture of of the recorded material based on the paper Achara Autonomous Republic, Simon Janashia information included into the cylinder boxes Georgian National Museum and Vano when the composer was still alive. Recorded Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire. material on the cylinders themselves often con- Included here are a total of 523 wax cylin- tains noteworthy information; the recorder gen- ders; 44 of these are either blank or have sus- erally announces the title of a song and the tained serious damage. Specialists name of a performer, sometimes even names claim, however, that the vast majority of the the instrument played, etc. latter category could be retrieved and made In cases when the information provided on audible, as and when restoration was to take the paper and by the announcer does not coin- place. The audio material from the remaining cide, the latter is included in the column 474 cylinders was transferred onto laser discs “Recorder’s note”. Sometimes the announcer is without computer processing (both, the cylin- inaccurate; for instance, when it is announced ders and their laser copies have been returned that a performer plays the chonguri and in fact to their owners). In addition, full copies of the panduri is clearly heard. In the cases such each collection are preserved at Tbilisi State as this, the correction is presented in the chart Conservatoire and the Vienna Phonogramm “Editor’s Note” archiv with copyright reserved to original In Column 5 the numbers that precede the owners. song titles indicate the order of songs on the This catalogue was prepared for publication cylinder. In Column 6 we indicate in parenthe- by the International Research Center for ses before the performer’s name the songs Traditional Polyphony as part of a program which can be attributed to him / her. Some “Protection of Cultural Heritage” with the sup- cylinder boxes in the collections of the port of the Georgian Ministry of Culture, National Museum (numbers 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 12 and Monuments Protection and Sport. The aim of 15) and the Institute of History and Ethnology the catalogue is to document the wax cylinders, (numbers 33 and 16) contain the full written from which the audio material has been trans- texts of the songs recorded on the correspon- ferred onto digital media and thus make it ding cylinder. These texts remain in the posses- 7 sion of the above-mentioned institutions and tion. It transpired that the material was record- any person interested in these should make ed by Grigol Chkhikvadze in Meskhet- appropriate inquiries to them. Specification of Javakheti (1949) and Khevsureti (1953), and geographical names was a difficult task. by Vladimer Akhobadze in Samegrelo and Sometimes the recorder indicates not only a Zemo Svaneti (1950). province, district and village, but also a com- The catalogue also includes cylinders with munity, which does not always correspond fragments of classical music. We believe that with modern administrative geographical divi- the existence of such cylinders in sion. The original geographical names are the collections of the State Department of included in the atalogue since they are likely Archives and Records Management of to be helpful in providing a historical perspec- Georgia, Achara Museum of Art and Culture tive of those times. and Tbilisi State Conservatoire can be For the most part, the catalogue consists of explained by the use of the socalled “second songs. There are, however, purely instrumental hand” cylinders by the recorders when record- pieces too. In such cases, olumn ing folk material. This may account for the odd 5 provides the name of the instrumentalist. sounding musical variations on some cylin- When the song in question is accompanied by ders, for example, operatic vocal fragments an instrument, the title of the instrument is performed by a woodwind orchestra. We indicated in parenthesis, next to the per- would like to acknowledge the valuable assis- former’s name. Separate mention should be tance of Gocha Bezhuashvili and Temur made of Dimitri Arakishvili’s collection. The Eliava, professors of Tbilisi State daughter of the outstanding Georgian compos- Conservatoire, and Gvantsa Buniatishvili, a er and scholar handed this collection over to third-year the Georgian State Museum of Theatre, Film, piano student with whose help we were able Music and Choreography together with other to piece together some of these musical frag- materials. These include Arakishvili’s report ments. The significance of the field expedition on Ossetian folk songs that he gave in Moscow material preserved on wax cylinders deserves (1923), and later at the Georgian Academy of special mention for future generations. The cat- Sciences in Tbilisi (1944). According to the alogue provides folk songs – from one-voiced manuscript, Arakishvili organized his first examples collected in the East Georgian moun- expedition in the North Caucasus in 1902 and tains to the masterpieces of Georgian multipart recorded 6 Ossetian songs. In 1923, he record- singing collected in Kartli-Kakheti and Guria - ed 38 examples in just created Autonomous as recorded throughout Georgia by Dimitri Region of South Ossetia, in Georgia. All these Arakishvili, Shalva Mshvelidze, Shalva are presented on the 12 wax cylinders included Aslanishvili, Tamar Mamaladze, Sergi in the catalogue. The cylinder boxes provide Zhghenti and Alexandre Partskhaladze, Grigol written data and song 10 titles in Russian, Chkhikvadze and Vladimer which are not always accurate. It turned out to Akhobadze in 1923-1953. These reflect the be extremely difficult to make out verbal notes enormously rich diversity of traditional music, before the songs, which are mostly song titles. which Georgia has retained hrough its history We would like to express our gratitude to Mrs. up until the end of the 20th century. Part of the Naira Betiev of “Caucasian House” for her material (notably from the collections of kind help in clarifying this information. We Mshvelidze and Aslanishvili) has been tran- followed her advice, and since the Ossetian scribed into Western notation and published; language is phonetically much closer to the remainder is in handwritten form. It is our Georgian than to Russian, we included all the hope that this unique catalogue of wax cylinder information in the Georgian language. collections will provide rich material for fur- Investigative work was conducted to identify ther in-depth study of Georgia’s magnificent those who recorded the Conservatoire’s collec- musical heritage. 8 Polyphony in Historical Sound Recordings of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv" Dr. Susanne Ziegler, Phonogramm-Archiv / Department of Ethnomusicology, Ethnographical Museum, Berlin

1. Introduction The subject of my paper are the earliest sound recordings of polyphony in traditional music, which were recorded in the first half of the 20th century and are preserved today in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv. I shall follow the traces of polyphony in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv and discuss some of the wax cylinder recordings with special regard to their presentation (discussion and transcrip- tion) in publications. Numerous publications, 2. Polyphony in historical recordings mostly case studies, but also substantial theo- The recordings in the Berlin Phonogramm- retical papers and books have been published Archiv date back to 1900, when Carl Stumpf, on this subject. Due to the limited amount of professor of psychology at Berlin University, time here, I shall cite only two examples in made the first recordings for the Archive with detail: the first article on polyphony in non- a theatre group from Siam. Recording differ- European music, written by Erich M. von ent kinds of non-European music was success- Hornbostel in 1909, and, second, the compre- fully continued, first in Berlin during presen- hensive book on the history of polyphony, tations for the public of ethnic groups written by Marius Schneider in 1934. ("Völkerschauen"), and later also in the field. I should like to mention that my paper is Due to the good relationship with the Museum related to my first visit in Georgia in für Völkerkunde, and especially with the Bordzhomi in 1988. At that time we discussed director of the African and Oceanic depart- publications about polyphony, among them J. ment, Felix von Luschan, many expeditions Jordania's paper about M. Schneider's book and researchers were provided with phono- and my paper about Georgian polyphony in graphic equipment and asked to record exam- German ethnomusicological literature, which ples of indigenous music in the area of their is published in Sabchota Khelovneba 1989. research or during their extensive expeditions. At the present conference the audience is Erich M. von Hornbostel was of the opin- international, so I shall use the opportunity to ion that all kinds of musical expressions present not only examples from Georgia, but should be collected in order to gain insight also from other areas of the world where into the heterogeneous practises and concepts polyphony is found. in music, including polyphony, which was I would like to share with you some ideas found to play an important role in many musi- and thoughts that emerged from my research cal cultures. in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv since 1993. The "Guidelines for Collectors" ("Anlei- This work has resulted in my recent book on tung für ethnographische Beobachtungen und the wax cylinder collections of the Berlin Sammlungen in Africa und Oceanien") were Phonogramm-Archiv (Ziegler 2006). first published by von Luschan in 1899, and in 9 cooperation with von Hornbostel, who came amount of the historical wax cylinder collec- to Berlin 1901; the section on music was tions in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv. Thus, enlarged and improved. In one of the para- great attention was paid to all forms of poly- graphs it was recommended to pay special phonic singing and multipart instrumental attention to polyphonic music and to record music, which were consequently discussed in this music in a specific way: publications, that is to say, at first in case stud- "Von Musikstücken, bei denen ies, mostly written by Hornbostel himself, and Mehrere zusammen nicht unison musizieren, later in more or less theoretical papers written sind auch die einzelnen Stimmen, jede für by Erich von Hornbostel (1909), Carl Stumpf sich, aufzunehmen, und zwar in der Weise, (1911), Georg Schünemann (1920), dass die eine Stimme unmittelbar vor dem Mieczyslaw Kolinski (1930), Marius Trichter, die anderen im Hintergrund Schneider (1934) and others. aufgestellt werden, so dass bei jeder It is interesting to note that in the first years Aufnahme zwar alle spielen, aber durch den and first publications (up to ca. 1905) jedesmaligen Platzwechsel immer eine andere polyphony was not particularly stressed. Stimme in den Vordergrund tritt." However, in However, the more field recordings from practice it seemed to be very difficult to fol- Africa and the South Seas arrived in the low this instruction. Had von Luschan's archive, the more they required attention and advice been followed, it would have been of scholarly discussion. Polyphony outside of great value for research. Europe was quite unexpected, and the first On his correspondence with collectors, von examples were regarded as incidental or influ- Hornbostel and later Schneider drew attention enced by European music. To give just one to polyphony, vocal as well as instrumental. example, many missionaries recorded Two examples: Hornbostel an Viktor Christian songs, which of course stemmed Lebzelter (Roman Catholic Mission, Windhuk from European sources. The growing amount Afrika), 1927 "...Falls die Leute mehrstimmig of recordings documenting indigenous singen, würde ich bitten, diese Gesänge polyphony led to substantial considerations besonders zu berücksichtigen (vgl. Punkt Bm about the origin of music in general, and of der beiliegenden Anleitung) ... Schneider an polyphony in specific. Researchers were thus Arnold Bake (20.III.32) "... Daß Sie jetzt nach faced with several problems: 1. How should Ceylon kommen, ist besonders wertvoll. Ich the findings be described? (This resulted in a würde mich sehr freuen, wenn es Ihnen gelin- terminological discussion); 2. How should the gen würde, ganz primitive Mehrstimmigkeit findings be classified? (This resulted in theo- zu finden. Letzteres ist nämlich mein retical discussions and hypotheses about the Steckenpferd. Für jede Auskunft, ob origin of polyphony). The discussion was Sekunden, Terzen oder Quinten, wäre ich dominated by the assumption that non- Ihnen recht dankbar!..." European music was basically in unison, and, The fruits of this engagement can still be further, "... all these [exotic] forms of multi- followed in the Phonogramm-Archiv, not only part music ... are clearly different in principle in the overwhelming amount of sound exam- from our harmony, which is based on the con- ples of polyphonic music, but also in the writ- sonance of simultaneously sounded tones" ten archival sources, where we sometimes find (Hornbostel 1905). remarks indicating what kind of polyphony The organization of the material, in some was found. cases quite astonishing new sounds (such as parallel seconds, fourths and fifths in record- 3. Theoretical discussion of polyphony ings from the South Seas and Africa) required Recordings of polyphony from different a special terminology. New terms were neces- musical cultures of the world – vocal as well sary, but naturally the existing vocabulary that as instrumental – make up a considerable was already in use for historical musicology 10 was adopted. A clarification and standardisa- higher musical talents". tion of terms have been undertaken several 2. South Seas. In his article about the col- times with more or less success, but a termi- lection of Dr. Emil Stephan recorded in New nology independent of European musicology Mecklenburg in 1904, Hornbostel does not is not yet in common use, even today. This is mention polyphony at all. Unfortunately the also true for the term "polyphony" itself; for transcriptions in this article do not include polyphony was known only from European polyphonic songs. More information can be music history. Hence, it is no surprice that gained from Hornbostel's short contribution terms were taken from European music histo- entitled "Musik", published in Richard ry, since exactly at that time (around 1900) the Thurnwald's article "Im Bismarckarchipel und study of medieval music was en vogue. For auf den Salomoinseln" (Hornbostel 1910). Medieval, and consequently also non- Hornbostel's observations are based on European polyphony the term Richard Thurnwald's extensive wax cylinder "Mehrstimmigkeit" (multipartite singing) was collection from this area, recorded in 1906 – used in contrast to the term "Harmonie" (har- 1909 and comprising 343 cylinders. In a pre- mony), which was restricted to European liminary report Hornbostel refers to different polyphony only. In fact, the term "Harmonie" kinds of polyphony, some of them resembling is not only a musicological term; it designates yodels of the Alps; others, namely dance much more than music, namely a psychologi- songs from Baluan (Admirality Islands), are cal condition as well. Of course, any kind of totally new and "... most interesting and translation will render the situation even more remarkable...", because they proceed in paral- difficult, especially the translation of vernacu- lel seconds and also finish with this interval lar terms. But I shall not pursue this aspect (Hornbostel 1910:141). (One sound example) here. According to Hornbostel, European influence In the early writings about non-European as well as coincidental use can be eliminated polyphony up to 1910 a difference can be in this region. "The parallel seconds on the recognised in the descriptions of polyphony Admirality Islands represent a new problem from Africa and from the South Seas. Here I for the evolution history, music theory and shall present two examples: psychology; and in the first place they repre- 1. Africa. In his article "Wanyamwezi- sent a crux for general music aesthetics." Gesänge", published in the journal (ibid.) "Anthropos" in 1909, Hornbostel discusses The phenomenon of "harmony" or recordings from East Africa, which were col- "polyphony" in non-European music was first lected mainly by Karl Weule in 1906. In a spe- observed and discussed in case studies, but it cial chapter, entitled "Harmonie" (pp. 1038- took quite a long time before any theoretical 1041), the recordings of non-European discussion about polyphony began. For polyphony are immediately viewed as instance, in Hornbostel's paper "Über den Medieval: "... the harmonies of the gegenwärtigen Stand der vergleichenden Wanyamwezi songs correspond surprisingly Musikwissenschaft", presented at a confer- with the kind of polyphony, which has been ence in 1906, published in 1907, polyphony is used in Europe not today, but 1000 years ago." not mentioned at all. (p. 1038). An initial attempt to summarize the obser- By comparing these examples with others vations on non-European polyphony was from West Africa, Hornbostel does not given at the Third Conference of the Inter- exclude the autochthonous origin of African national Musicological Society in Vienna in harmony. And even if they would be merely 1908 and published in 1909 ("Über Mehrsti- an imitation of European models, they should mmigkeit in der außereuropäischen Musik", be treated as "a separate form and a sign of mit Vorführung von Phonogrammen). 11

Without any introduction Hornbostel theme. All five categories cited are under- begins with the question about the origin of stood as stages of polyphony, culminating in polyphony, which he sees as a logical conse- the European functional harmony. This con- quence that follows the question on the origin cept is continuously repeated in Hornbostels of music. He states that only with the help of articles and in Curt Sachs' publications, and it the phonograph is it now (means 1909) possi- also acts as the starting point for Marius ble to access to material equivalent to Schneider's book, "Geschichte der Mehr- European music history. He sees obvious stimmigkeit" (History of Multipart Music) analogies between the early medieval period (1934/1935). and "exotic forms of polyphony". The exam- Schneider, however, combines the cate- ples found in exotic music should enable a gories with melody and tonality, resulting in chronological order and provide the missing four circles or "Kreise": 1. Primitive Cultures links in the European polyphonic tradition. In in South Asia and South America; 2. South contrast to the pure one-voice harmony Asia and Oceania; 3. Samoa; 4. Africa. His ("reine Einstimmigkeit"), which he calls basic principle is: "Die Form der Melodik bes- "Homophonie", Hornbostel distinguishes two timmt die Harmonik" (the melodic form deter- different kinds of multi-part music, which are mines the harmony). A second edition of this based on two different mental attitudes: book, published in 1969, comprises the first "Harmonie" (harmony) preserves the melody and second volume of Schneiders book, but is in all its entirety, but provides the melody in enlarged with a third part, entitled "Die fuller chords. On the opposite, the term Kompositionsprinzipien und ihre Verbreitung "Polyphonie" (polyphony) should, according (with 115 musical examples). In the first to Hornbostel, be restricted to several chapter Schneider lists 12 basic principles of melodies, which are more or less separate polyphonic compositions; in the second part from one another, but sounding simultaneous- he studies the relationship between European ly. He discusses the different forms of and non-European polyphony. polyphony and illustrates them with sound examples, unfortunately without naming them 4. Critical remarks precisely. So the aim and purpose of this arti- The substantial contributions of the Berlin cle is clearly defined: it is a demonstration School of Comparative Musicology to the that non-European polyphony reveals the dif- study of multipart music in the world were ferent early stages of European medieval valid for a long time, but they were often crit- polyphony. Once this hypothesis had been icized as well. Earlier criticism concentrated stated, all the articles that followed fell into mainly on the following points: 1. The cultur- the same slot. al evolution theory which has become obso- In his publication "Anfänge der Musik" lete in the meantime; 2. The independent ori- (1911:97 -101) Carl Stumpf enlarges the cate- gin of multipart music in different corners of gories and distinguishes aside from the world is no longer doubted; 3. in coopera- Homophonie and Polyphonie three more cate- tion with other disciplines such as ethnology, gories: "Organum" which is parallel cords in anthropology, history, organology, archaeolo- octaves, fifths, and fourths as basic, thirds, gy, etc. the different forms of polyphony have sixths, seconds, only if the interval is not already been or are now being studied in changed according to the scale; "Bordun", detail. These studies will help to enlarge our meaning one or more tones (one or more knowledge about the origin, dissemination chords) sustained during the whole piece or and history of polyphony. constantly changing (ostinato); and My criticism here is not general, but con- "Heterophonie" meaning the simultaneous crete and is based on contextual information. performance of several variants of the same After a long period of silence we only now 12 have the chance to look at the sound record- seinerzeit bis zu 50 Personen singen lassen, ings themselves in combination with all the ohne freilich mehr als ein leises related material, correspondence and papers. Untergeräusch feststellen zu können. Da aber It is a wonderful experience to have the sound die Lieder oft mehrstimmig sind, wäre gerade of the wax cylinders available today, even if von Wichtigkeit, daß der Chor zur Geltung they are not of the best quality. Finally it has käme...", or Hornbostel an Herzog (1930): ..." become possible to listen to the historical Wir haben Ihnen vor einer Weile die 3. recordings, which have often been discussed Walzenserie geschickt und einen Trichter bei- and can now be compared with the music gepackt, den uns Quadfasel (unser spezieller notations, and moreover, be discussed - or Phonograph-Mechaniker) eigens gebaut hat better re-discussed - on the basis of the avail- und den Kolinski gut fand. Er ist doppelt so able sources. breit als hoch, so dass bequem zwei Thus we can better understand how record- Sängerköpfe davor Platz haben und vielleicht ings of polyphony were made in the field. noch ein dritter zwischen diesen Köpfen über Some collectors did not realize that multipart die Schultern ihrer Besitzer weg in den singing was substantial for the music under Trichter hineinsingen kann. " discussion, since "harmony" (meaning the Another problem is that we do not under- European kind of polyphony) did not exist. stand why specific kinds of polyphony were We have evidence that a collector refused to recorded, while others – no less important – record a group singing polyphonic, because he are missing among the recordings. For exam- was not aware that this (in his understanding) ple, in his collection from the Caucasus made "unorganised" polyphonic singing was essen- between 1909 and 1914, Adolf Dirr has no tial. Therefore he asked the people to sing not examples of Georgian polyphony, but he does simultaneously, but one after the other. Since have Ossetian and Svan pieces. What is the it was not expected to find other and different possible reason for this selection? Did he not forms of polyphony in the world besides the have a chance to listen to that kind of music, European harmony, these forms were appar- or did he not realize that it would be important ently regarded as not worth being recorded. for musicology to have examples of polypho- Hornbostel recommended as early as in 1907 ny from Georgia? Or, quite simply, did he not that the choice of what should be recorded be have enough blank wax cylinders? On the left to the indigenous people and not decided other hand, the examples of Georgian by the collector. polyphony among the recordings in Austrian In other cases collectors had great difficul- and German prison camps in World War I ties in recording polyphony due to the techni- caused a musical revolution and led to a new cal restrictions of the phonograph. The horn of understanding and new theories about a phonograph was normally too small for cat- polyphony in Europe (here just to mention R. ching more than one or two voices; so several Pöch, Siegfried Nadel and M. Schneider). techniques were discussed (in the correspon- A special kind of criticism is connected dence with G. Herzog, M. Küsters and others). with M. Schneider, who in his comprehensive For example M. Küsters writes (1934) to "Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit" never pub- Hornbostel: ... "So bin ich für den alten lished the whole piece, but only excerpts Edison schon recht dankbar. Vielleicht ist es which are (coincidentally) polyphonic. If we Ihnen möglich, mir dazu einen grösseren wish to understand polyphony, we must view Aufnahmetrichter anfertigen zu lassen, denn the whole piece and not excerpts of it. A wax mit dem kleinen Trichter muss man die Leute cylinder recording of 2 or 4 minutes can only so nahe herantreten lassen, daß eigentlich nur present a small part of a more extensive piece, die wenigen, die unmittelbar in den Trichter and it is by no means justified to reduce it to hineinsingen, zu Gehör kommen. Ich habe only a few notes. Today by listening to the 13 complete recording on a wax cylinder we can Bibliography finally judge the role of multipart music in the Hornbostel, Erich M. von given context. 1905 "Die Probleme der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft." In: Zeitschrift der 5. Summary Internationalen Musikgesellschaft 7 (3), 1905, It is the first time since World War I, that 85-97. the different materials of the Berlin 1909a "Wanyamwezi-Gesänge." In: Phonogramm-Archiv may be reviewed in Anthropos 4:781-800, 1033-1052 und Noten. entirety. With the unification of Germany the 1909b "Über Mehrstimmigkeit in der auße- wax cylinders were returned to the reuropäischen Musik". In: 3. Kongreß der Phonogramm-Archiv in 1991. Since then we have been devoted to making the collections Internationalen Musikgesellschaft. Wien und accessible to the public, together with the nec- Leipzig 1909, 298-303. essary additional information. Many collec- 1910 "Musik." In: Zeitschrift für tions are now available on digital sound carri- Ethnologie 42:140-142, In: Richard ers; their publication is part of the Archive's Thurnwald "Im Bismarckarchipel und auf den work. Even if the sound quality lacks hifi- Salomoninseln", Zeitschrift für Ethnologie quality, the historical sound examples are 42:98-147. more than (acoustical) sound. They represent Schneider, Marius the individual and personal history of the col- 1934 Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit. lectors as well as of the informants, while they Historische und phänomenologische Studien. also reveal the history of a discipline and its Erster Teil. Die Naturvölker. Berlin: Julius methods at different times. Bard. Thus, examples of multipart music on wax Stumpf, Carl cylinders must be presented against a back- ground of the correspondence and publica- 1911 Anfänge der Musik. Leipzig: Johann tions, in which they have been used and dis- Ambrosius Barth. cussed. The value of the historical sound Ziegler, Susanne recordings is unique, and it increases the more 2006 Die Wachszylinder des Berliner we know about their history and especially the Phonogramm-Archivs. Staatliche Museen zu circumstances surrounding their recordings. Berlin – Ethnologisches Museum. Online Terminological Lexicon of Georgian Traditional Polyphony A new scholarly center for folk polyphony close contacts with the newly established was created in Vienna not long ago. At the ini- organization. As a result of this cooperation tiative of renowned ethnomusicologists the way was paved for the members of the Gerlinde Haid and Ardian Ahmedaja The IRCTP to take active part in the very first Research Center for European Poplyphony project of the Viena scholarly center. Namely, was founded at the premises of Vienna The Research Center for European University. The International Research Center Poplyphony decided to create a lexicon of for Traditional Polyphony, as the institution folk terminology for European polyphony. working on the study of Georgian polyphony Georgian ethnomusicologists Joseph – one of the most important traditional phe- Jordania (from Melbourne University) and nomena in Europe, immediately established Tnaz Gabisonia (from the IRCTP) were pro- 14 posed to participate in the project. As a conse- is planned to be held in Vienna as well as pub- quence of this, the terminological lexicon of lication of its result as a separate volume. Georgian folk music terminology was pre- The terminology of Georgian folk pared. This includes 104 concise articles so polyphony mostly includes the names of sep- far. The suggested material will be added to arate voice parts of traditional three-part other similar data from all over Europe and singing and comparatively small number of will be displayed on the corresponding site. In terms denoting perfromaing peculiarities of a year a scientific forum on folk terminology polyphonic singing. MASTER-CLASSES FOR FOLK ENSEMBLES

To date both ethnomusicologists and the Music Department – Natalia Zumbadze, wide circle of people interested in traditional Davit Shughliashvili, Malkhaz Erkvanidze Georgian music have paid particular attention and Tamaz Gabisonia (project coordinator) - to the problem of how the performance man- conducted master-classes for 25 folk groups. ner of today’s Georgian folk ensembles cor- It is noteworthy that, after having listened to responds to the traditional one. A noteworthy the performance, they offered their remarks project was realized in May-June 2007, as and suggestions to the singers in the form of part of the Georgian President’s Program for recommendations rather than directives. the Support of Folklore. At the initiative of The master-classes were held in the Georgian Ministry of Culture Monuments Akhaltsikhe, Dedoplistsqaro, Sighnaghi, Protection and Sport a program “For the Khashuri, Dmanisi, Kaspi, Borjomi, Revival of Georgian Folk Song” was pre- Zhinvali, Telavi, Akhmeta, Tianeti, Mtskheta, pared. Specialist ethnomusicologists were Qazbegi, Kakhi (historical Saingilo, in directed to different regions of Georgia - Azerbaijan since 1921), Gori, Qvareli, Eastern Georgia in the first instance - to con- Rustavi, Tsalka, Aspindza, Sagarejo and duct master-classes. This aimed to offer the Kareli. singers a traditional manner of performance, Each group had two classes from each which having been formed through the cen- teacher and received gifts as part of the proj- turies, has been remarkably distorted in ect: a CD player; a collection of 5 CDs of recent years. East Georgian folk songs specially prepared The fact is that most of today’s folk for this purpose (these included folk exam- ensembles are estranged from the traditional ples from the archive of Georgian Folk Music folk performance environment and have Laboratory selected by Ketevan Matiashvili, practically turned into scenic collectives. Nino Nakashidze and Nino Makharadze); Thus, the Georgian Folk Music Department and a booklet “Georgian Folk Song of Tbilisi State Conservatoire approved the Performance” written by Natalia Zumbadze. mission, which implied instructing the per- It must be said that both the members of formers on the “rules” of traditional folk per- the ensembles and their instructors were formance. And so we shouldered the respon- happy with the program. The singers would sibility for the realization of this project. carefully listen to the instructions and The teachers from the Georgian Folk immediately tried to follow them at the spot. 15

They also learned new (i.e. unknown to ensembles from Rustavi and Sagarejo, them) songs. As for us, we were granted a mainly of young singers, achieve an active wonderful opportunity to get a better knowl- artistic life without financial support. edge of the ensembles’ repertoire, their In conclusion, the performing mastery of activities and their problems. We recorded regional ensembles can be considered satis- the songs as performed by them as well as factory for now. The project coordinators the master classes. It must be mentioned, apply to the Ministry of Culture, Monuments that the major problem for the choirs is poor Protection and Sport of Georgia with a rec- financial support from local governments. ommendation to pay more attention to the Due to this, the ensembles from Mtskheta, financial support of regional folk ensembles - Khashuri, Tianeti, Borjomi, Tsalka, the most effective means for the support of Aspindza, Dedoplistsqaro, Akhmeta and traditional music in the regions. Kaspi cannot rehearse; they only gather for A similar project is planned to be carried this or that occasion. We found no better out in Western Georgia as well. financial situation in the other ensembles. However, it is a comforting factor that some Tamaz Gabisonia

Georgian Ethnomusicologists Kakhi Rosebashvili (1930-1988)

Kakhi Rosebashvili is one of those who devoted their life to national musical culture. His life was too short to fully express his views and artistic skills. He experienced the kindness and distress of his time; he worked noiselessly, distanced himself from the advantages of career and titles, and made his own path rather than following those of oth- constructor. Then he took great interest in ers. Georgian folk song, which he served devoted- Rosebashvili was different from those peo- ly and selflessly all his life. After completing ple who parade their achievements and strive his studies in music history and folk music in to make an impression. His personality com- 1955, and post-graduate course in 1962 bined knightly appearance, sedateness, multi- (under Professor Grigol Chkhikvadze’s lateral talent, a thoroughly wide education, supervision), Rosebashvili graduated from high professionalism, spiritual purity and the Composition Department at Tbilisi State patriotism. Being an incorrigible seeker with Conservatoire (under Professor Alexi an artistic nature, he upset the stereotypical Machavariani’s supervision), and later com- rectilinear flow of professional self-perfec- pleted post-graduate studies at the Institute of tion. He was a talented child; he played the Archaeology and Ethnography (under violin fairly well; he was a model aircraft Professor Giorgi Chitaia’s supervision). 16

In 1959-1977 Rosebashvili was Head of not result in Rosebashvili’s estrangement Georgian Folk Music Laboratory; from 1970 from his lifetime ideal – folk music. He made he was a senior teacher at Georgian Folk first steps in ethnomusicology when the Music Department, Dean of Faculty, and a pupils of Grigol Chkhikvadze – the patriarch member of the Composers’ Union. of the Georgian school of musical folklore - Rosebashvili’s activities developed in sev- appeared on the scene: Mindia Zhordania, eral directions. He searched for, collected and Kukuri Chokhonelidze and others. performed scholarly studies of examples rep- Beginning from his student years resenting various layers of Georgian folk Rosebashvili took an active part in field music. In parallel with this, he was an enthu- expeditions - first as a member, and later as a siastic and fruitful composer. leader. He collected and documented ancient Folklore was the magic power which cap- pagan and cult examples, ritual hymns and tured him and held him tightly throughout his distinguished variants of songs of various life. But composition, as the new object of genres. It is worth mentioning, that for Rosebashvili’s interests, was determined by recording folk songs he used his own hand- several factors; firstly, the search for novelty made tape recorder, as there was no other and an unquenchable thirst for cognition; recording equipment available in those times. attempts to feel the artistic pulse of contem- He also created a catalogue of the Georgian poraneity, and craving for the elucidation of Folk Music Laboratory and kept records in new compositional technologies. He was the register book which he had started. seriously carried away by Arnold As a teacher and mentor, Rosebashvili was Schoenberg, Samuel Barber, Krzysztof a brilliant example of civil consciousness to Penderecki and, especially, by dodecaphony. his students. He encouraged their boundless He wrote a serious theoretical analysis on the love of national culture, and directed their technique of dodecaphony and created a professional responsibility towards preserva- number of compositions with the use of this tion, care and solution of relevant problems technique, such as: concert for a piano and in the Georgian musical treasury. string orchestra, vocal-symphonic poems Parallel to his lectures in Georgian folk Gmiruli and Vepkhi Da Moqme, piano pieces, music, he led a comprehensive course of gen- one-act television opera Sakhrchobelis eral folklore, which included the musical cul- Tsinashe, symphonies, vocal-symphonic and tures of Africa, America, Asia Minor and the chamber-instrumental pieces (string quartet, Mediterranean, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, polyphonic sonata, Claviphonia for clavecin China, India, Byzantium, the Slavic peoples, and instrumental ensemble), music for vari- Germany, England, Spain, the Baltic peoples, ous plays and telefilms, and a great number the Middle East, etc. For this purpose he of chamber-vocal works, etc. These were pre- studied a number of works of various schol- sented at various contests and were awarded ars from various times as well as Georgian prizes. sources. This kind of professional “bifurcation” did As a researcher Rosebashvili’s focus was 17 lesser-studied problems. His personal archive Schedrin – a famous composer, wrote: “Your includes many significant documents; name- personality and love of this ancient treasury ly, his notes on the original works by Arsen arouses deep interest and admiration”. Iqaltoeli, Giorgi Mtatsmindeli, Ioane Petritsi In 1980-1981 Rosebashvili published the and Ioane Bagrationi; Anania books entitled Otsdaati Khalkhuri Simghera Erkomaishvili’s manuscripts and other valu- (Thirty Folk Songs) and Kartuli Khalkhuri able materials. He was greatly interested in Simgherebi (Georgian Folk Songs). In them ancient Georgian, Russian and oriental nota- he included a number of highly artistic exam- tion systems, and studied Greek manuscripts ples of various musical dialects, such as with the neumatic system. In his works he Khasanbegura, Shavi Shashvi, Kviria, Kalos makes mention of the chanters Shalva Khelkhvavi, Alilo, Imeruli Naduri, Saakadze, Nikoloz Aivazashvili, Vladimer Vakhtanguri, Odoia, etc. Chopurishvili, Nikoloz Khutsidze, Nestor Being a leading specialist in instrumental Jibladze and others, who he himself, found in music, he had a thorough knowledge of con- various parts of the country. struction peculiarities of instruments, tech- Among the central themes of nology of their making, musical tunings, and Rosebashvili’s research activity, as of a acoustic and technical potentials. He made deeply religious person, were then-tabooed efforts to restore and revive ancient musical church chanting and problems of Georgian instruments, which had disappeared from hymnography. The latter consumed a lot of national folk practice. He dedicated special his talent and energy. His personal archives study to such folk instruments as larchem- include a letter written by Ilia II, the soinari, tongued and tongueless salamuri Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia, (flute), gudastviri (bagpipe). addressed to Rosebashvili. In it the Apart from intensive research on chanting Catholicos confirms Rosebashvili’s particular and instrumental music, Rosebashvili’s inter- authority as of a professional. est was drawn to dialectology as well. He Mention should be made of Rosebashvili’s investigated the interconnection between work, in which he presents ten church hymns music and everyday life, and the interdepend- of Easter Liturgy recorded as performed by ence of traditional and modern folklore. Artem Erkomaishvili. Another significant Rosebashvili remains an example of pro- work of his is the work including twenty-one fessional consciousness and honesty. The church hymns of Imeretian-Gurian Mode. musicologist Mikhail Bialik wrote: “There is These were selected with consideration of nothing to be said in consolation, when a per- their artistic value, mode-intonational and son, gifted with such generosity and talent, constructional peculiarities. It is to be noted passes away”. that Erkomaishvili was alone, as his co- Rosebashvili lived an unsullied life, and singers had died; so each voice part was served his favourite work with devotion, recorded separately and then combined. leaving on it a significant trace. In answer to Rosebashvili’s letter, Rodion Tamar Meskhi 18 19 Kakhi Rosebashvili Georgian Panpipe Larchem-Soinari (scholarly work, from the manu- script, 1986)

One of the monuments of Georgian musical culture - a panpipe and the live technique of its playing survived in Georgia he, too, could not play it anymore. In the until the 1970s. high mountain village of Tsalenjikha The territory of its distribution encom- District we met three larchemi players: passes entire Samegrelo and Guria. Some Aronia, 70, in the village of Muzhava and, unofficial data testify panpipe was also pop- Gera and Grigol Kukhilava in the village of ular in Apkhazeti (Abkhazia) and Imereti, Chkvaleri. As they say, Chkvaleri had a rich neighbouring with Guria. According to tradition of playing the larchemi. Here the Iskander Tsitashi, a Laz expert, panpipe instrument had been popular since olden named ostvinon was widely spread among times and the tradition of its playing was the Laz population, who now live within the transmitted from generation to generation. borders of today’s Turkey. The best larchemi players in Chkvaleri were As for Eastern Georgia, not a single evi- the Kukhilavas, Kantarias and Pipias. Here dence of a panpipe has been found so far. we also met Kotsia Kukhilava and Vitsi The name of a panpipe is larchemi in Pipia, who were virtuoso players in the Samegrelo and soinari in Guria. whole of mountain Samegrelo some 20 Here we will discuss both types of the years ago. panpipe basing on musical and ethnograph- We documented noteworthy material ic material collected in Tsalenjikha and about Gurian soinari from Varden Chokhatauri Districts in 1958-1959. Meparishvili in the village of Tsiplnari, Unfortunately, the days of larchem- Chokhatauri District. soinari in Georgia are numbered. The prob- The study of a panpipe one of the most lem is that in these regions young people archaic instruments, which is widely spread had never seen the instrument, and most of in many parts of the world, is hampered due elderly and old people could not play it. to the lack of special monographs and liter- After a long search in the village of Kurzu, ary sources. Kurt Sachs, Felix Behn, Erich Gegechkori (today’s Martvili) District, we Hornbostel, Fritz Graebner, Max Ebert and found one person – Kosta Pirtskhalava, 66, Jacob Reineggs provide stingy, but consid- who could not play the instrument any more erable data about the instrument in their because he was toothless. He only made an works and articles. Another important work instrument for us. Another person – Pavle on this subject is Fleita Pana (“A Poniava could only make the instrument for Panpipe”), a monograph by Valentina 20

Steshenko-Kuftina. Her the author displays in Greece and Europe. The same can be said her opinion about the instrument. In his about Chinese-Japanese, Bolivian-Peruvian, work Kartuli Musikis Istoriis Dziritadi etc. panpipes. This testifies to the ground- Sakitkhebi (“Basic Issues on the History of lessness of the search for the homeland of a Georgian Music”) Ivane Javakhishvili pro- panpipe. In an article from 1913 Felix Behn, vides wide speculation on the terminology a German scholar, writes about a clay pan- of larchem-soinari. pipe discovered on the territory of Lower As has been mentioned, panpipe is found Rein. He believes, that panpipe originated in in many parts of the world. The territory of France. In literature the instrument was first its distribution starts in the equatorial zone documented with Trojans in Iliad by Homer. of South America (Brazil, Bolivia and Others have opinion that it came into exis- Perus), passes onto Oceania – Western tence in Arcadia. In reality panpipe, just like Polynesia and Indonesia, Indo-China and a simple pipe, is a true “folk invention”. China, where it reaches the highest level of Many scholars, including Steshenko- development. Then it passes by / round Kuftina, emphasize two moments when dis- India, where no sign of the instrument has cussing panpipe: ever been documented, and moves to Africa. 1. Panpipe is the very first, initial type of Here the instrument is found in the southern woodwind instrument; a single-stem pipe parts of Congo. Panpipes are also widely with finger-holes is the next stage of its spread in Europe. development. Scholars draw their attention to the cul- 2. Panpipe laid foundation to vocal ture of Asia Minor, from where syrinx - polyphony. Greek panpipe and Georgian larchem- Today it is impossible to claim the sound- soinari originate. ness of the first viewpoint as both a panpipe A Hittite stone slab from Rum Kale and a single-stem pipe with finger-holes (Steshenko-Kuftina, p.63) depicts a male have passed a long way of development. figure dressed in chokha (traditional Undoubtedly, the priority in terms of techni- Georgian male garment today) with a dag- cal peculiarities and timbre should be given ger on the waist. In his right hand he is hold- to a single-stem pipe. The transcriptions of ing a ear of wheat and in the left hand – a musical pieces on both instruments also tes- clearly carved panpipe very much resem- tify to his. More archaism is felt in mode, bling Georgian larchem-soinary. It should meter and melody of the pieces played on a be mentioned that the larchemi on the bas- panpipe. At one glance, this point is decided relief consists of six pipes. Georgian tradi- and needs no more discussion, but entirely tional larchemi has always had six pipes and different picture emerges after the geograph- the players have never heard or seen other ical and historical analysis of the two instru- number of pipes. ments. The territorial difference in the area of The existing material shows, that in the instrument distribution would naturally places where people practice a panpipe, cause the difference in the construction, size there is no knowledge of a single-stem pipe and tuning of instruments as well. This is with finger-holes. Melanesia is an excep- due to the geographical environment, eco- tion; here a panpipe as well as a short pipes nomical and social system and aesthetics of without finger-holes are found at the same the owner community. For instance, the con- time. These two do not condition each other; struction and tuning of a panpipe from moreover, they have nothing in common. Oceania absolutely differs from its confrere Similar interconnection is between them in 21

Georgian too. polyphony and regard Australian musical Steshenko-Kuftina regards a panpipe as culture. We see that the Australians, who the basis for vocal-polyphony as follows: have no multi-tonal instruments, have “The role of a panpipe in the history of developed polyphony chiefly by “building” Georgian folk music is connected with the octave, fourth and fifth on the basic voice initial processes, when tunings and ancient part. types of harmonies were formed. Without Georgian larchemi is distinguished and considering this fact it will be impossible to original type of all panpipes in the world. find the foundations of Georgian vocal This instrument, with all its qualities, comes polyphony. Vocal art based on the change- from Georgia’s ancient history. able / unsteady nature of sounds, could not Unfortunately there are very few written and have worked out clear harmonic abutment other sources about it. Among the latter is without experiencing instrumental inter- the aforementioned Hittite bas-relief, which vallics. depicts a man with a panpipe in his hand. Musical culture originated and developed Basing on this monument, it can be conclud- as soon as musical consciousness emerged ed that a panpipe was very popular among i.e. man became aware of tone, interval our ancestors. and combination of two tones. At the sour- The term larchemi has not been docu- ces of this culture the rhythmic order for mented in Georgian written sources; but the multi-tonal instruments, like panpipe, was name of a similar instrument from Guria being introduced thanks to percussion and called soinari is defined by Sulkhan-Saba plucking instruments.” (Steshenko-Kuftina, Orbeliani as “pipes attached together in har- pp. 3-4) monious order”. We believe that this theory is wide of the In the Georgian translation of “The Holy mark. Bible” a woodwind instrument named Man would make any instrument, includ- sastvineli (pipe) is mentioned several times. ing woodwind instruments, according to his For instance, Chapter 3.5 of “Daniel” reads: requirements and auditory corrections “That when you hear the sound of the horn, (including development and innovations) pipe, lyre . . . “. Sastvineli is also mentioned and not vice versa. in “The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ”. Ivane Musical instrument is a monument of Javakhishvili ( ) explains that intangible heritage. It was made by man sastvineli is the same as syrinx – a popular after preliminary understanding. In the Greek panpipe. Thus, it can be concluded, instrument he developed the knowledge that in Georgian sources there is no direct acquired from his own experience. It must mention of larchemi, but is referred to as a be noted that the surviving tuning and sound similar instrument sastvineli. compositions of larchemi have very little in The Megrelian name for a panpipe – lar- common with the regularities of Georgian chemi comes from the name of a plant vocal style. larchema or larchama from which it is made When claiming this or that point of view, and which is the Georgian word for “reed”. scholars very often turn to the culture of This is a long and narrow, about 10-12mm- lesser developed tribes and looks for the wide, tube. Interior partitions divide its inte- answers to certain questions in their life. rior space into sections. These sections are The best example for this is the rich culture used for making pipe stems. According to of Australian aborigines. larchemi players, they traditionally cut the Let us take this approach to the study of plant at the end of August or beginning of 22

September. This time it is already dry and The existence of a three-pipe larchemi does not crack when processed. For longer can be explained by a certain way of per- flutes i.e. bass pipes, they specially select formance the so-called nirzi or competition the sections closer to the bottom on the - two players would divide the six-pipe plant. The exclusive instrument used by instrument into halves and compete in the instrument masters is a pocket-knife. length / durability of performance and mak- Similar technique is used for Gurian soinari. ing beautiful sounds. Six-pipe larchemi was Each pipe of larchem-soinari has corre- never used during nirzi for it is very difficult sponding name. For example: first pipe from to play on two instruments with different the right, the shortest one, is mechipashe - tunings. Two three-pipe larchemi should, by first voice; second is mebane – bass; third is all means, be made by one master which meshkhuashe, also called gemachqapali – probably means that the tuning of the two beginner. The following three pipes on the instruments creates that of a six-pipe one. left, attached symmetrically, have the same This very fact testifies against the independ- names as those on the right side, but defini- ent existence of a three-pipe larchemi. tion kholo umos meaning “longer” is added The original shape of a Georgian before the name. The musical analysis of the larchem-soinari – a rectangle with a triangu- pipes has shown that indeed kholo umos lar bottom is another noteworthy factor. mechipane, kholo umos meshkhuashe and Instrument of this shape has not been docu- kholo umos mebane produce lower sound as mented in Europe and Asia. The exception is compared to the analogous pipes in the right Bolivia, where they practice a seven-pipe side. Thus larchemi consists of six pipes or instrument, very similar to Megrelian lar- six tubes (stopped at one end). The longest chemi in shape. This is another evidence of pipes are placed in the middle, the shortest – the originality of a Georgian panpipe. at the edges. The pipes are attached to each Larchemi was an essential part of peo- other with a string, called bulishi sartqe in ple’s life; it is shepherds’ instrument, and Megrelian, which was made of the bark of a according to legend, their invention too. cherry tree. Noteworthy is how larchemi Larchemi was also played during various had to be carried. As Gera Kukhilava, a mas- village festivals. According to Lavrenti ter and a player, says nobody would ever put Pipia there were virtuoso performers in the the instrument into the pocket. Larchemi village of Chkvaleri, who would play vari- was carried hanging on the neck / chest with ous dance melodies. Larchemi was an insep- a string gina bunapali. arable part of a hunters’ life too. They would In Guria there were two kinds of use it for both entertainment and signaling. soinari – the so-called pocket soinari and No one in Samegrelo remembers larche- a larger one. mi played in ensemble with other musical In Samegrelo, apart from a six-pipe, there instrument. The only documented ensemble existed a three-pipe larchemi. The pipes performance is nirzi. Indeed, it is hard to were attached to each other in a similar way combine the sound and intonation of this – with a string made from the bark of a cher- instrument with other instruments from ry-tree. At one glance this looked as a differ- Guri, Samegrelo and neighbouring regions. ent instrument, but it cannot be considered Lavrenti Pipia from Chkvaleri claimed to as such, for there are no musical pieces spe- have seen the ritual of evoking the soul of a cially composed for it. Besides, its tuning is hunter, who fell off the cliff, in Abkhazia. exactly the tuning of one side or half of the Four larchemi players from Samegrelo were six-pipe larchemi. taking part in this. As he said, two larchemi 23 players spent the night at the spot where the On the panpipes we had at hand the inter- accident had happened, and played the vals between the pipes were second, third instrument in turns until the soul started to and fourth. The length of these intervals whistle, just like larchemi, at the dawn. depend on the musical taste and perform- Julius Lips describes similar occurrence ance skills of the master, namely what inter- from the life of people from New Guinea in vals and sound combinations he would like his work “The Origin of Things. A Cultural to make in musical pieces. Reasoning from History of Man”: “In the times when people the fact, that the tuning and construction of are being called by the sound of drums, the larchem-sonari relies on the auditory dignity of souls requirements other from of amendments of a player, and that the invitation – the sound of a flute, a sacred Megrelian master obeys the fixed sequence instrument. The New Guineans refer to the of sounds, we have to do with a definite sound of a flute as to a holy spirit”. (this musical system. piece needs to be checked; I will do it later) The distribution of sounds on larchemi is There is a musical piece for larchemi in within fifth or sixth diapason and their Guria and Samegrelo, which is an alteration sequence according to height does not pro- of instrument and outcries. Unfortunately vide an established mode. the meaning of such performance is lost. In musical pieces composed for larchemi Larchemi could have been connected with we come across the germ of mode and tonal- other rituals too, which were eventually for- ity. Here the division of sound order into gotten. two groups should be considered. If we The musical and acoustic peculiarities of regard the larchemi pipes according to the the Georgian panpipe is an interesting mate- length, we will get odd numbers on one side rial for music scholars. The pipes obey the of the bass and even numbers on the other principle of organ pipes i.e. the stopped ones side, which differ from each other in pitch. give a note an octave lower. The figures cal- Such distribution of sounds on larchemi can culated from the acoustic data entirely coin- be explained by two-voiced performance on cide with the theoretical principles of the instrument. Musical pieces for larchemi acoustics; there are some minor diversities in are alterations of parallel seconds, thirds and millimeters, which can be explained by dif- fifths. The player can move within of five ferences between folk and tempered tunings. intervals. Two-voiceness enriches the har- There is a fixed tuning of larchemi- monious side of larchemi on the one hand soinari in Georgia (Steshenko-Kuftina, pp. and makes it more attractive, but reserves its 167-187). But as ethnophores say, this does tonal peculiarity. Naturally, five notes, that not imply accurate intervals between notes, make complex movements towards each however it is based on one general principle. other when played, do not make mode. We compared the tunings of two panpipes It should be noted that the basic tone in made by Dzokia Aronia from Muzhava; one the musical pieces for larchemi is not the larchemi was tuned a semi-tone higher, but sound made by the longest bass pipe, but by there was only a slight difference between its neighbouring maghali bani (high bass). the two instruments. The tuning of larchemi Dabali bani (low bass) is used not as tonics, is as follows: ascending movement in fixed but as the 7th step. In most cases the stanza intervals if started from the middle or bass of a musical piece ends on the 7th step mov- pipe, and descending movement followed ing onto the first step of the third. Thus there by an ascending one if startled from the extreme pipe. is a cadence, which is typical occurrence in 24

Georgian folk music, and which indicated to REFERENCES the phonation of the instrument. The center Javakhishvili, Ivane. 1990. Kartuli of gravity in musical pieces lies on the basic Musikis Dziritadi Sakitkhebi (Basic Issues tone. It is the ending sound and at the same of Georgian Music). Tbilisi: Khelovneba time the “turning” sound, after which the (in Georgian) Stshenko-Kuftina, V.K. 1936. Fleita stanza is repeated. Here the germs of varia- Pana (Panpipe). Tbilisi, State Museum of tion development are observed. Georgia (in Russian) In the repertoire that we have recorded, Behn, F. 1927. Musik. B: Max Ebert, there is not a single case of producing new Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, Bd. VIII, i.e. a duodecimo high sounds by overblow- Berlin ing of larchemi. Violent blowing produces Graebner, F. 1923. Ethnologie. B: semi-tone higher sounds than the basic tone, Anthropologie, Berlin which can be explained by the requirement Hornbostel, E.M. 1922. Notiz über die of the musical piece; at the same time this Music der Bewohner von Süd-Neu- demonstrates high skills of the master. Mecklenburg. B: Sammelbände für ver- All the above-mentioned ethnographical gleichende Musikwissenschaft, Bd. I, and musical elements about larchemi indi- München Reineggs, Jacob. 1796. Allgemeine cate to the ancient origin of the instrument. historisch-topographische Beschreibung In general, ancient melodious, rhythmic and des Kaukasus, Theil 1, Gotha u. St.- harmonious peculiarities of Georgian musi- Petersburg cal culture can be found in the tunings and Sachs, Curt. 1913. Reallexikon der musical forms of Georgian panpipes. Musikinstrumente, Berlin Georgian Folk Ensembles MTIEBI The Men’s folk ensemble Mtiebi was found- ditional tuning. ed in 1980 by a famous musician and folklorist, The “village manner” of performance natural- later to be a well-known ethnomusicologist, ly demanded the balance of voices as is heard in Edisher Garakanidze. Musical circles immedi- the earliest sound recordings and which had pre- ately focused their attention on the pivotal artis- viously been ignored by modern ensembles - tic principles of the group – to sing the songs in namely, one first voice, one second voice and a the authentic manner - i.e. the way they are per- group of basses. Only this kind of performance formed in their traditional context. They enables a singer to improvise, which is the most adhered to the peculiar regional manners of per- organic feature of Georgian folk song. Mtiebi formance and intonation and mode systems. followed this path. “Improvisation is more “Without this it will be impossible to preserve important for us, than balance” – the members of our national identity. Otherwise Tsintsqaro and the ensemble would say. Aka Si Rekisho can be mistaken for the songs They danced just like peasants do. “Falling from the same region” – said Garakanidze in one down on the knees, whirling and acrobatic jumps of his first interviews. – this is all sport” – said Garakanidze. He consid- Mtiebi accompanied their songs with dances ered folklore primarily as a means to express and various musical instruments just like in the personal freedom. This is why he gave prefer- traditional environment. These were real folk ence to the free arrangement of singers on the instruments - the leader of the group considered stage, rather than to the academic style of stand- chromatic instruments to have deviated from tra- ing in a semicircle. 25

Dimitri Gugunava, a film producer, made a film about them. It is of great impor- tance that Mtiebi intro- duced authentic traditions of national folklore to the young. Garakanidze foun- ded the children’s ethno- graphic studio Amer- Imeri, where children learned folk songs, nation- al folk instruments, dance, folk games, etc. This way Mtiebi brought up the fol- lowers of their art. Here is an interview The repertoire of Mtiebei was rich in terms of with Giorgi Garakanidze, Edisher’s Son, who genre and dialectal diversity. It included exam- himself is an alumnus of Amer-Imeri, and the ples of almost all genres from all over Georgia, successor of his father’s work. He has been the as well as “simple” and the so-called “classical” leader of Mtiebi since 2001, two years after folk songs. Thus the ensemble perfectly dis- Edisher’s tragic death. In 2003 he changed played the diversity of national folk music. Mtiebi into a mixed male-female group which, in Mtiebi included the folk tradition of simple 2004, was named “Edisher Garakanidze round-dances and shairi (two singers singing in Ethnomusic Theatre Mtiebi”. turns humorous, teasing couplets with musical accompaniment); they were the first to perform M.K. Great responsibility has fallen to your the folklore of the Georgians living in Turkey. For the realization of their principles, the lot – continue Edisher’s work. What have you members of the ensemble organized field expe- maintained untouched in the ensemble and what ditions to various parts of Georgia. They greatly is that you have changed? benefited from contact with the village life. Their purpose was not only to collect songs, but G.G. As you know, Mtiebi’s elder generation to revive some of the lost traditions in situ - for performed folk art in the authentic way. Modern example they encouraged the villagers to prac- Mtiebi follows Edisher’s creed of “authentic tice the ancient traditions of Alilo and Chona. direction”. The name of the group and member- Their “peasant” style of performance natural- ship have been changed, but not the principles. ly meant wearing corresponding garments. Each On the contrary, this enables us to more fully member of Mtiebi wore a national costume that present Georgian folklore. Since 2003 Mtiebi is he himself had selected from archival ethno- a mixed – male-female group i.e. performs both graphic photo material. men’s and women’s repertoire. Mtiebi had concerts in many countries of the world. Parallel to this they held master classes of M.K. What is so peculiar about “Ethnomusic Georgian folk songs for foreigners. They were Theatre”? laureates of a number of international festivals (Vilnius, Copenhagen, Moscow and Lvov. In G.G. Mtiebi realized the results of Edisher’s 1992 Mtiebi became a laureate of the interna- scholarly research in practice. “Ethnomusic tional festival of sacred music in Germany. In Theatre” is connected with my activities as a 1990 the members of the ensemble were elected scholar (the theme of my theses for Master’s Honorary Citizens of Lowell, Massachusetts. Degree was “Georgian Ethnomusic Theatre”, They have produced five compact discs and which will soon be published). This is a theatre 26 not in its traditional dramatic concept, but as part of everyday life, where song and traditions are inseparable. Ethnomusicology studies folk examples as components of a traditional context. This is why we selected the name “Ethnomusic Theatre”; together with folk songs we revive the traditions and rituals, which accompanied the songs in the original environment. This is the continuation of Edisher’s path. We try to main- tain the character of a folk example in form and manner of performance, and in mode system as much as we can, just like Edisher did. M.K. Mtiebi’s repertoire was rich in the folk examples that Edisher came across during field own financial possibilities. . . expeditions. How do you select the repertoire?

M.K. You are former member of the chil- G.G. As time passes the number of bearers of dren’s studio Amer-Imeri, which was founded by traditions is reducing, together with the number Edisher. As far as I know, this studio still exists. of living folk examples. When seeking for scien- What is the age of children in the studio and tific material I also keep musical material in my what do they study? range of vision. Besides, we often select songs from the anthology of Georgian folklore. G.G. Amer-Imeri is a studio at the Andrew the First Called Church (also called the Blue M.K. As it is known, Mtiebi always led Monastery). The members are of 6-12 years of active educational activity in various parts of age. The studio aims at bringing up children in a Georgia. traditional Georgian environment. They study various dialects of Georgian musical folklore, G.G. One of the meanings of the word folk dances, children’s traditional games, folk “mtiebi”, apart from “morning star”, is “enlight- musical instruments, oral folklore, ethnography ener”. One of the main reasons when selecting and mythology. They also acquire theoretical this name was to “enlighten” and familiarize the knowledge of the peculiarities of folk craftsman- people, distanced from folk culture, with true ship; the examples of the latter, made by various folklore. Mtiebi traveled a lot around the country masters, are displayed for them. They also study and performed in concerts, during which the pro- Georgian chant and attend discussions on theol- grams with annotations for each performed song ogy. In short the studio teaches one general sub- were distributed among the audience. Within the ject – “Study of the Homeland” (my mother limits of possibility, we keep to this tradition. Nino Baghaturia introduced this notion, which Last year we performed in the village of precisely shows Edisher’s outlook as well as Jikhaishi in Imereti. We plan to perform in that of Mtiebi). Besides, this is a kind of Sunday Svaneti in near future. Just recently we had a School for the congregation of the church. Thus concert in Tsnori. Here we created children’s Amer-Imeri continues the traditions and we have group, which is directed by Tinatin hope that the studio will bring up many more Shervashidze, a Mtiebi member. We visit school fans of Georgian folklore. after school, organize concert-lessons, sing for sick children, etc. Unfortunately our wishes do M.K. How much does Edisher’s name and not always correspond to our available heritage help you? resources, as everything that we do is with our 27

G.G. Edisher’s name makes our work easy Mtiebi – With You and Without You wherever we go and whatever we do. We, and (eZRvneba ediSer garayaniZis xsovnas). UK, not just us, practically walk on the road paved by 1998 him. Edisher sowed and we are reaping. Mtiebi – Polyfone zang uit Georgie. Holland, 2000 M.K. I wish you success. Mtiebi – 24 years have passed through Maka Khardziani singing. Rehearsals, performances, studio recordings. Tbilisi, 2004 Mtiebi Discography: Mtiebi – Georgian Ethnomusic Theatre After Edisher Garakanidze. Tbilisi, 2005 Mtiebi – Traditionelle Gesange aus Mtiebi – Edisher Garakanidze Ethnomusic Georgien. Stuttgart, 1996 Theatre. Tbilisi, 2007 A Song Dies When Young People Forget It

Interview with Anzor Erkomaishvili, a songmaster, director of the State Ensemble of Georgian Folk Song and Dance Rustavi

- Batono Anzor, your have made great contribution to the search of the earliest Georgian recordings. What gave you the incentive for this activity? sing at wedding parties or other celebration - My family has borne musical folk tradi- gatherings. The epoch of national folk contests tions for 300 years. I remeber my great-grand- and inspections was coming to end. Nobody remembered the records mentioned above. I father Gigo Erkomaishvili – my grandfather realized that it was urgently necessary to retain Artem’s father - who died at the age of 107. I this heritage and started seeking recordings. learned songs from him too. Gigo directed the First I brought to Tbilisi my family collection. famous folk ensemble from Makvaneti, which Later I obtained a number of recordings, with recorded 49 songs for the Tbilisi office of not only Gurian folk songs, from families in Gramophone Company in 1907. These songs Tbilisi and other parts of Georgia. From were later published and were on sale in many Grandfather Artem I knew a lot about Dedas countries of the world. And also, I still have a 100-year-old Levana, Mikho Jighauri, Maro Tarkhnishvili, family gramophone. As a boy I would listen to Vano Mchedlishvili, Dzuku Lolua, Rema the records of Gigo Erkomaishvili, Samuel Shelegia, Noko Khurtsia and other renowned Chavleishvili and other great folk singers from folk songmasters. I took these recordings for grandfather Artem’s fairly large collection. He restoration to the Melodiya sound recording had great respect for all of the singers. When I studio in Moscow. grew up and became a student at Tbilisi State - Did anybody else apart from you work Conservatoire in the 1950s, Georgian folk song in this direction? was ill-esteemed. Georgian pop music was - These were hard times. I was the only one making its very first steps; but the status folk to work in this field. My conservatoire teacher song was shameful. Only elderly people would Shalva Aslanishvili believed that these record- 28 ings would be of great scientific value. netic material as well. This includes examples Before starting the restoration of this huge of Svan dialect, texts in Megrelian dialect and amount of material, I was given advice to folk poetry recorded by Derzhavin. search for their originals in Moscow. And Separate mention should be made of indeed, they were in the Moscow Phono Georgian recordings in the Leningrad (today’s Archive. I spend a lot of time searching for the St. Petersburg) archive. I was given permission right recordings and finally found a carton box for their recopying only after I persuaded a cer- inscribed: “Babilodze”, “D. Levana” (i.e the tain Korguzalov, head of department, of my renowned song-masters Giorgi Babilodze and intentions. Sometimes it was necessary to pay Dedas Levana); I immediately understood that or give presents (which would often be our I had found what I was looking for. A film pro- records) to people like him in order to get con- ducer Soso Chkhaidze was with me then. He sent. Having the right contacts was extremely was shooting a documentary “Shvidkatsa” and important. included the whole technological pocess into I would like to make special mention of: the film. Givi Enukidze, then director of Georgian Georgian people welcomed the news about Televison Station - without his assitance we the restoration of old gramophone recordings would not have been able to restore the with great enthusiasm; the press and television records and bring them to Tbilisi; Soso broadly covered each new discovery. The Chkhaidze, who absorbed the expenses for sound of Vano Sarajishvili’s voice was met recopying the Georgian material in Leningrad with special interest. Manana Akhmeteli, a into the budget of his film; and renowned eth- renowned Georgian musicologist, published nomusicologists Alan Lomax and Ted Levin, the first article on this topic in the journal whose help in London was invaluable. I hap- Sabchota Khelovneba. On my part I revived pened to visit London after the breakdown of and included the discovered material in the the Soviet Union. This time our finances were repertoire of the newly-established ensemble ample and I recopied Vano Srajishvili’s col- Rustavi. lection together with other material. In addition, I tell my recollections in the Significant recordings were also made by books Babua (“Grandfather” about grandfather Pathé sound recording company, whose office Artem) and Ori Ansamblis Istoria (“The was opened in Tbilisi in 1906. We obtained History of Two Ensembles”). In the 1980s a their collection from the Paris archive. collection of 5 LPs entitled “First All this material is preserved at Georgian Gramophone Recordings in Georgia’ was pub- State Radio and Television Archive, State lished. This collection was also sent to Archive of Georgia, my personal fund and that Moscow archive, where anyone, who is inter- of the International Centre for Georgian Folk ested in old Georgian songs, can get familiar- Song. The Centre also posseses the recodings ized with the folk examples from these record- made by Melodiya, which we are slowly re- ings. releasing. We recently published a book As I know you also carried your activities “Catalogue of Georgian Phonorecordings outside Russia. Abroad”. The book presents all the catalogues Undoubtedly. At that time I had concert of Georgian folk songs, published in Georgia tours with ensemble Rustavi in various coun- and elsewhere, in the beginning of the 20th tries of the century: Riga, London, Vienna, Berlin and world. This enabled me to conduct search- Leningrad catalogues giving a full view of ing activities there too. I worked in the central which song was recorded where and by whom archives of Germany, Britain and France. For as well as where exactly it is kept. instance, in Berlin and Vienna phonoarchives, It took us 40-45 years to collect and publish together with the songs recorded from the pris- this material. I can say that songs which had oners of World War I, there is fairly rich pho- been practically lost were saved and names, 29 long forgotten, were reintroduced. It must also be noted that some of the songs can be found on the Rustavi LPs “60 Georgian Folk Songs” and later on “100 Georgian Folk Songs”. It can be said without exaggeration that these songs were taken up all over Goergia. - On my part, I also learned many songs from these collections. They also included hymns - Georgian sacred chants. - You are right. This was our initiative. Singing sacred hymns was forbidden. I grew up in a family of chanters, but I never learned a single one. Grandfather Artem would conceal even from me the invaluable treasury he owned. He knew more than two thousand church hymns. In the 1970s, when the family members of - But those so-called modern songs also our great singers and chanters were still alive, had some artistic value, did not they? I would write down their recollections. I would - Of course, they did. Some songs are still use them in my TV programs, where I would nice to listen to. Let us not pay attention to the apeak about the performers and play old text and not forget that those songmasters cre- recordings with their performance. These pro- ated their own new variants of folk songs; they grams generated public excitement. Another were somewhat like public composers, this is noteworthy event was the creation of Martve – why they could easily compose songs on new a children’s folk ensemble – in the late 1970s. texts and of course, they would use old intona- Most thrilled were these children’s grandpar- tions in them. ents. Today most of those little boys, now - Batono Anzor, I would like to know skilled singers, sing in various youth ensem- your opinion about the following: there are bles or lead them in Tbilisi and other parts of songs, whose authors are well-known - folk the country. Martve’s biggest contribution was performers, with distinguished talent and that it revived the interest in native folk song. experience. Could the songs be considered The best way to preserve songs, is to teach folk? them to young people. A song dies when young - There were talented musicians, who made people forget it. invaluable contributions to safeguarding and - In your opinion, was the Soviet practice arrangement of many songs. For instance: of folk song contests and inspections any Dzuku Lolua – the saviour of Megrelian songs, good? also composed songs; and Vano Mchedlishvili, - This tradition had both positive and nega- who would walk from village to village and tive sides. Negative was the mass character of collect folk examples. Sometimes it happened performance and the repertoire - songs about so, that he would forget a song, that he had communist party, Lenin, Stalin and Politburo. memorized (as he had no knowledge of notes It was thanks to the wisdom of our songmasters and only relied on his memory); he would go the choirs would first perform the obligatory back to the village and learn the song again. modern songs, and only then true folk songs These people also made new variants of their like Chakrulo, Odoia, Khasanbegura and oth- own. From this viewpoint we can call Samuel ers would follow. For an opportunity like this, Chavleishvili a reformer of Gurian song. His the renowned songmasters themselves com- variants of songs significantly differ from posed songs about tractors, heroes of work, etc. those of Gigo Erkomaishvili. I do not mean, 30 that the latter was a less important figure, but nuances to the newly created variant and even Chavleishvili brought the performance of changed it. Gurian song up to virtuoso level as compared - Batono Anzor, most of today’s ensem- to simpler variants of the same song as widely bles are busy restoring song variants. Does sung by other people. this mean that the songs, performed with - But there are songs such as Dila and such photographic accuracy, will petrify? Tsintsqaro, which are considered folk Maybe a more free approach to old record- despite knowing the names of the authors. ings would do better? These songs have their prototypes, do not - The thing is that the old singers had this they? ability from their ancestors; their knowledge - Of course. One song often resembles and experience was transmitted from genera- another. A talented singer would usually add tion to generation. They could allow them- new intonation to the song. But people are selves to be more audacious in the search of wise; they are the principal measure of quality novelty. Today we must be grateful to the in oral traditions. One person created an exam- young generation for what they are doing; they ple, but others beautified and polished it. Good seek for old examples, to learn and imitate. In variants survived; poor variants were forgot- the present time I regard this as a normal ten. This kind of creativity always went on. We process. The most important thing is that they are lucky to live in times when the recordings have love for folk song. And when they know of our recent ancestors are available. In the the songs well, the desire for new variants will times of oral transmission, the names of emerge. There have already been few attempts. authors were usually lost. - Batono Anzor, most of today’s youg I remember in Soviet times, government singers do their best to approximate their representatives would come to grandfather performance manner to that of old, village Artem and ask him to compose a song to some style. Some of them go even further and communist holiday. In fact this was not a blame you for Rustavi’s non-traditional and request, but an order. And grandfather Artem too “vocal” singing. What would you say to would obey. Other songmasters had the same such reproach? experience. Later, but without any pressure, I - The attitude of such people is understand- also created few songs, for example Khareba able to me. My family holds three hundred Da Gogia for a film, Mival Guriashi (my own years of traditional singing; not many people variant) for the theatre play, Tu Ase Turpa Iqavi might know better than me how a folk song and others. should be sung. The thing is that in the time In general, there are as many variants of a when Shvidkatsa and Gordela were created, song as good performers. Don’t take this as the main purpose was to popularize Georgian boasting, but each time I sing the same song song both in Georgia and elsewhere. By the differently. But this does not mean that this my way, Jansugh Kakhidze’s Shvidkatsa was first own variant. People still remember Vano to pave way for Georgian song abroad. Soon Mchedlishvili’s and Varlam Simonishvili’s Gordelaand Rustavi followed. We must not variants. If a song stands up to the test of time, forget that we lived in the Soviet Union, where people will accept it and then it is a true folk there were such organizations as Goskontsert example. The name of the author might not be and Soyuzkontsert. They would never permit remembered. Though the author sometimes you to go abroad unless the ensemble had an says: “This is my song!”, but other people con- academic manner of performance. But we sider it as theirs. And so the names of the aimed at exporting Georgian song to the big authors were forgotten throughout the cen- cities of the Soviet Union and the West, which turies. Moreover, people added their own clearly explains the academic manner of our 31 performance. When one comes onto the stage to be paid to the genre. With its show Erisioni of Madison Square Garden, Royal Albert Hall brought fame to Georgian culture. or Paris Olympia, where thousands of people - Batono Anzor, I think it it doubtless, have come to listen to Georgian folk song and that Gurian song is distinguished from the are ready to watch the show, it is extremely songs from other regions of Georgia. I do not hard to do with the village style of singing. The mean high artistic merit, but special attitude academic manner of performance was best for to song and inclination to improvisation. better perception. There are many evidences from history on Sometimes this kind of performance is this matter. In the beginning of the 20th cen- not so estranged from the folk one as is tury Gurian singers would specially gather depicted. to sing. What explains such special attitude - I agree. Besides, when a large state ensem- to singing? ble come on stage, it is hard to speak about - It is difficult to say, now when there are authenticity. Exactly this academic manner very few highly skilled singers in Guria. But roused interest of young people to our national probably this was a strong tradition consolidat- treasury. It is not fair to blame Rustavi for its ed throughout centuries. Singing was vitally singing manner. It cannot sing differently. important for Guria. Here everybody tried to Scientific approach is one thing and scenic per- sing. My grandparents used to say, that if a man formance is other. Thanks to Rustavi’s academic could not sing, he wouldn’t be considered a singing, UNESCO proclaimed Georgian poly- desirable groom. A young lady had to play the phonic singing “A Masterpiece of the Oral and chonguri and sing in order to find a good Intable Heritage of Humanity” on May 18, 2001. fiancé. Apolon Tsuladze wrote about one This was declared by the international jury of 19 young lady: ”Her singing with the chonguri members (including me), most of which were accompaniment would revive the dead”. not at all musicians. I believe, that another kind I remember from grandfather Artem, that a of singing might not have resulted in this. singer was highly respected by everybody. I do not propagate that people should sing Such great singers as Varlam Simonishvili and the way Rustavi does. By the way, a number of Samuel Chavleishvili were regarded as public Georgian ensembles, singing in the manner figures: they would be invited to parties and approximated to village style, take part in vari- seated in a special honorary place. They would ous international festivals. But when an impre- behave in a different way too, as they were sario plans commercial concert tour, he takes always in the centre of attention. Everybody into account many things including the taste of strived for a status like that. Such attitudes audiences. There was a big rumor about the greatly determined the success of singing. concert show of another Georgian folk song Thank you for such an interesting con- and dance ensemble Erisioni. Jemal Chkuaseli, versation. Erisioni’s director, is one of those who is well aware of folk performance, but there was price Tamaz Gabisonia

Next issue will be published in December, 2007 Georgian Folk Song - New Transcription

transcribed by Tamaz Gabisonia