Vocal Music of The Republic of Georgia

Polyphony and tradition merge with the modern era

May 14, 2024

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Today’s article includes videos of lectures and films.

Georgia

You can’t talk about Georgian music without discussing the various historical influences. This territory is directly under modern day Russia, just north of Türkiye, and has had influence from Persian, Mongol, and the Byzantine Empires. It was also consumed by the Soviet Republic until the Soviet Union was dissolved. They initially had their own kingdom in the early 11th century. Today, they are a democratic republic that still has challenges with Russian aggression trying to claim a portion of their land to the north.

Georgia’s unique location and history has created a profound and vibrant musical heritage. Known for his distinguished polyphonic traditions, it is often combined with monophony from the Middle East and influences from European harmonic languages. As a result of this unique combination of historical influences, most Georgian folk music is divided into East and West Georgian music.

Music in the East has a notable drone bass which is accompanied by solo singers. Regions where this music can be found are Khevsuretic, Kartli, and Kakheti. This can be easily heard in Chakrulo as we see in the video below.

In the West, we find contrapuntal polyphony and yodel techniques. This style of music is frequently associated with the regions of Imereti and Guria. We will see various examples of this style of music throughout the article.

Intonation

Due to the influence of the East and the West, Georgia has a very unique system of scales and tuning that isn’t found in traditional Western classical music. The scales are founded on systems of fourths and fifths, which creates many augmented octaves. Listen below to hear these unique tonal patterns.

Music’s Purpose in Georgian Life

Music in Georgia is a communal activity. Social gatherings will always find music, especially during weddings and feasts. Music is a central focus of community and celebration. Themes range from life and death to love and friendship. Participation in the music by the audience is highly valued.

Due to the mountainous regions of Georgia’s landscape, many minority groups found themselves isolated. As a result, their own polyphonic traditions derived. However, the political unification of the regions created instability due to the forced relationship with unrelated groups. There are numerous Caucasian peoples (people who live in the Caucasus mountain ranges) between Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and other Balkan peoples who may share ethnic, linguistic, or religious identities. One such shared identity is the religious focus brought by the Byzantine church. Many in the West consider Gregorian Chant one of the earliest forms of liturgical song. However, it was predated by Georgian Chant. Georgian Chant continues to be sung in Georgian Orthodox Christian churches today.

The isolation of the region also enhanced the richness of their musical and singing traditions. Their own complex harmonies were born in the fields, at home, at festivities, and at funerals. Georgian polyphony always consists of three or more voices. Historic records have given clues as to the earliest dates of their polyphonic singing style. Assyrian King Sargon describes in his annals that the Mana people (one of the conquered groups in the Urtartian regions which consisted of Georgian peoples in 714 B.C.) would sing joyous songs, likely heard during their labors. Sacred music was documented as far back as the 6th and 7th centuries in the region. Numerous historic books refer to the Georgian chants taught and performed in the church. References included The Life of Grigol Khandzteli written by Giorgi Merchule in the 10th century. In the coming centuries, there are numerous documents of hymnographers from the 9th-11th centuries. The construct of the music also held religious significance.

Ganmartebai Proklesatuis Diadokhosisa Da Platonurisa Pilosopiisatuis (The Considerations on Proclus Diadochus and Platonic Phylosophy), written by the 11^th century theo-philosopher Ioane Petritsi, can be regarded as the historical source of remarkable significance. In the conclusion of the book we find very important musical analogies. Here the Georgian names for the three voices mzakhr, zhir andbam are mentioned for the first time. The author likens these three voices to the Holy Trinity. ~International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony

Georgian music is deeply rooted in religion and Byzantine history. The Georgian Empire was founded in 1008 AD. Christianity began in the region during the 4th Century. From the 11th to the 13th Centuries, it became the center of the Christian East. You can click the video below for a deeper exploration of the history of both the folk and liturgical polyphony in Georgian Music by John A. Graham, Ph.D. an ethnomusicologist who specializes in music from this region.

Georgian Chant

The Georgian Orthodox Christian Church has ruled that the church must use the three-voiced polyphonic Georgian Chant in all of its services today. This is performed without instrumental accompaniment. There are sources that claim that it has been sung since around 326 AD when Saint Nino converted King Mirian and Queen Nana of Iberia. Byzantine chant, Gregorian chant, and Russian Znamenny chant are traditionally monophonic. Georgian chant is the only polyphonic chant on record from the early records of the Christian liturgies around the world. Rusudan Tsurtsumia, head of the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony at the Tbilisi State Conservatory states that the three-voice liturgical singing had been fully estabilished in Georgia by the 10th century.

Sung with minimal vibrato, it resembles similar folk music and regional harmonies. As mentioned previously, there are distinct differences between the chants from the East and the West of Georgia. Western chants utilize dense chordal structures with a moving bass line. Eastern chants demonstrate more ornamentation with a steady bass line. The cadences always resolve in unison or intervals of a fifth. The video below discusses the history and preservation of the historic chants.

Invasions

After the invasion of the Mongols and other groups in the 13th century, there is significant loss of any historical, musical, or literary materials from that time period.

Although the music can be heard today, there was a time when they were suppressed. During the Soviet era, churches and monasteries were closed in favor of nationalistic music encouragement as we also saw with the music in Kazakhstan. The reason the music is so well preserved today was due in large part to the efforts of historical societies in the region as explained in the video below. They were also able to obtain UNESCO acknowledgement and preservation under the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

**Video - Georgian polyphony receives recognition on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Polyphonic Singing

Georgian folk music is deeply rooted in vocal polyphony, a practice that predates the 4th century. It has been kept alive by village singers throughout the centuries. Ensembles like Georgian Voices and Rustavi have significantly improved the visibility and popularity of Georgian polyphonic singing on the global stage. Not to be left in the past, it has also found its way to intermingling with modern music genres.

Georgian folk types are divided into three primary forms: homophonic, polyphonic, and synthesized structure. The polyphonic form can be further divided by five compositional principles: drone, ostinato, parallel, complex (synchronous), and free contrasting. The drone principle contains ornamental upper voices performing over a bass drone (homophonic), which we found in the East Georgian polyphony mentioned previously. The ostinato principal is somewhat similar except that the bass has a repeated formulaic pattern. All voices move in an ostinato fashion (ostinato means repeated movement). The parallel principle demonstrates movement in all voices. The complex or synchronous principle has synchronized movement of chordal progressions. The free contrasting principle provides unlimited independent vocal movement within a polyphonic structure. Krimanchuli is a yodel-type ostinato and gamqivani provides a lesser degree of ostinato. Both are significant in the structures of polyphonic singing found in Western Georgia. It is not unheard of to find several of these principles performed within one song.

Traditions

These traditional songs are typically performed by men and contain at least three different voice types. It is also a deep tradition tied to legendary Georgian hospitality. Supra, the Georgian feast, is one common place where singing will always be found. This feast can last for several hours. The different genres of folk songs are: mushuri (work songs), supruli (feast songs), satrpialo (romantic songs), and sagmiro (epic tales). The folk songs are much faster and boistrous than their church-related counterparts.

70 years of Soviet suppression impacted the recollection of many songs. Musicologists have worked tirelessly to revive and collect what songs remain. Rustavi, an ensemble developed by the State Academic Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance, has led the charge as the leading vocal ensemble promoting the cultural heritage of Georgian music.

Listen

The State Folklore Centre has collected samples from across the region in order to make recordings available to everyone through the Audiomack music sharing platform. The Audiomack platform is also available for download on both Android and iOS smartphones.

Sheet Music

Sheet music for download is also available.

Modern Era

Tradition has been combined with a variety of music genres in the modern era. Mixing the East with the West, urban music has created an entirely new addition to the previous 16 different styles of Georgian music.

There are many new varieties of Georgian Polyphony merging with modern music from other countries like Japan, China, and America. Some have done renditions of popular Aerosmith songs or Led Zepplin songs, and others have merged jazz with their vocals.