3. Expert Meeting on Inventorying Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO

4. A Century of Georgian Sacred Chant

6. Festival of Folklore and Sacred Mu-sic in Batumi

7. The Third National Festival of Chil-dren's and Youth Choirs

7. "Art-Geni" Folk Festival in Tbilisi8. The Second International Festival

"Song of Samegrelo - 2005"9. New Anthology of Georgian Sac-

red Chant10. New Website for the IRCTP11. Information Database for Georgi-

an Folk Music12. Presentation of the State Folk Cen-

ter12. Preservation of Wax Cylinder Recor-

dings in Georgia14. Musical Fieldwork Expedition in Zemo

Alvani, Tusheti16. Fieldwork Expedition in huakhevi,

Achara17. Georgian Ethnomusicologist. Edisher

Garaqanidze 21. Georgian Women's Folk Ensemble

Mzetamze23. Ernst Emsheimer - Friend of Cauca-

sus Folklore28. "In Our Village Alone There Were

Eleven Krimanchuli Singers at One Time" Interview With Famous Song-master Vazha Gogoladze

31. Georgian Folk Song - New Transcrip-tion. Aslanuri MravazhJamieri

TheV. Sarajishvili

Tbilisi StateConservatoire

InternationalResearch

Center forTraditionalPolyphony

BULLETIN

T B I L I S I . J U N E . 2 0 0 5

#2

This bulletin is published bi-annually in Georgian and Englishthrough the support of UNESCO

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

ISSN 1512 - 2883

Editors:Rusudan Tsurtsumia, Tamaz Gabisonia

Translators:Maia Kachkachishvili, Carl Linich

Design:Nika Sebiskveradze,Giorgi Kokilashvili

Computer services:Tamaz GabisoniaKakha Maisuradze

Printed by: Chokhi

Email: polyphony@polyphony.ge; geomusic@conservatoire.ge www.polyphony.ge

The V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire, 8/10, Griboedov Str., Tbilisi, 0108 Georgia Tel. (+995 32) 299-89-53, Fax (+995 32) 298-71-87

4

From March 17-19, 2005, a group ofexperts from UNESCO met in Paris to discussproblems with inventorying UNESCO's IntangibleCultural Heritage. Since 2003, the IRCTP hasbeen working on a 3-year project called "Safegu-arding and Promotion of Georgian TraditionalPolyphony." Thanks to the successful comple-tion of the first two stages of this project, I wasinvited to participate in the meeting as directorof the IRCTP. The festival was held at the ini-tiative of Mr. Ricks Smeets, director of theUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section.

Among the 25 countries represented atthe meeting were Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria,Cambodia, Columbia, France, Georgia, India,Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Nicaragua, SouthAfrica, the United States, and Uzbekistan.

There were four main parts to the meet-ing. Participants debated issues related to method-ology for inventorying intangible cultural her-itage, and ways to solve problems associatedwith this process. UNESCO had sent specialquestionnaires in advance to collect informationfrom participating countries, including Georgia.

During the meeting, I had the opportuni-ty to give Mr. Smeets a proposal from the GeorgianMinistry of Culture, Monuments Protection andSport, to hold a regional conference on issuesof inventorying intangible cultural heritage inthe Caucasus. Additionally, during the discus-

sions, I spoke about the conditions for preserv-ing, reconstruction and promotion of cultural tra-ditions, especially of musical folklore, in Georgia.

The safeguarding of Georgia's intangiblecultural heritage is just beginning to become aserious political issue. The first step towardsrealizing this is to create a legal basis for suchwork, and to identify traditions in need of pro-tection. If we don't know the value of our ownculture, we cannot hope to look after it.

Of course, this idea is nothing new. InGeorgia, as in many other countries, there haslong existed a developed system for identifyingand documenting both general and specific formsof cultural heritage. In the spheres of Georgianlanguage and music, this began in the late nine-teenth century, when folk poetry and song wasfirst collected. By the late Soviet period, therewas a system of institutes devoted to the studyand research of folk poetry, folk music, craftsmaking, etc. where both old and new materialswere added to create sizeable archives. Later,these institutes focused on inventorying andstudying this material.

These institutes function to this day, andare pioneering the use of new technology forcontinuing their work, such as computer inven-torying. One such inventory was completed in1996 by Elguja Dadunashvili, the head of thefolklore archive at the Georgian Institute of

Expert Meeting onInventorying

Intangible CulturalHeritage atUNESCO

Literature. An Internet version of this databasewas created in 2003 under the Goethe Institute'sDAAD program.

At a time when Georgia was in especial-ly dire straits, the Open Society - GeorgiaFoundation helped the Georgian Folk MusicDepartment at TSC to transfer recordings fromits archives to digital format. Simultaneously,we began thinking about creating a special data-base program, which we were able to start work-ing on in 2004 with the support of UNESCO.

Unfortunately, Georgia's state archiveshave had insufficient funding to inventory theircollections. Private foundations and internation-al organizations like Open Society - Georgia andthe World Bank have financed certain projectsfrom time to time, but this has been too occa-sional to affect the sphere to any serious degree.

Georgian society is well aware of thevalue of its folklore and the necessity of itspreservation, but in the last several years, Georgiahas been too occupied to politics for anyone todevote much time to this issue. Fortunately, thosepeople who are continuing these traditions knowhow important it is to preserve them for futuregenerations. This is proven by their active par-ticipation in the process of documentation, whichhas been continuing for decades.

The preservation and promotion of intan-gible cultural heritage will always be supportedby the public. Thanks to the 2003 UNESCOConvention, the Georgian Ministry of Culture,Monuments Protection and Sport plans to beginworking on establishing a legal basis for thissoon. The Ministry has already taken significantsteps towards ratifying the Convention by cre-ating a state commission for safeguarding intan-gible cultural heritage.

Rusudan Tsurtsumia

5

On April 14, 2005, the Tbilisi State Con-servatoire's conference hall hosted a scientificconference called "A Century of Georgian SacredChant: 1801-1921." The following scholars pre-sented papers on sacred music: from the IRCTP,Tamar Chkheidze, Nino Kalandadze, EkaterineOniani, Davit Shughliashvili, Magda Sukhiashvili,and Tinatin Zhvania; from the Batumi Conservatoire,Khatuna Managadze; from the Georgian Patria-rchate's Center for Church Chant, Svimon Jangu-lashvili; Wesleyan University music student andFulbright scholar John Graham; second-year stu-dent in the Music History and CompositionDepartment at TSC, Baia Zhuzhunadze.

Tamar Chkheidze's paper, "The Eight-Voiced System in Chreli Hymn Books," present-ed an overview of the intonational and compo-sitional similarities within a single style ofGeorgian church hymn, researching and com-paring manuscripts that use the chreli symbols.

Davit Shughliashvili presented a papercalled "Musical and Compositional Peculiaritiesof the Eight-Voiced System in Georgian Chant."He illustrated the norms of this system withexamples from various schools of Georgian chant. Each unit of voice construction is des-ignated as a section with different functions, andthe alternation of these functions has very strictorder. The author identifies different eight-voicedgroups, some of which include several differentgenres of chant.

A paper called "On the Semantics of Voices(Ichos) in Divine Service Hymns" was present-ed by Magda Sukhiashvili. In this, the authorattempted to explain some peculiarities of the

A Century ofGeorgian Sacred

Chant

6

artistic aspect of divine service hymns. Her sourcematerials included standard five-line Westernnotation manuscripts handwritten in the 19thcentury by St. Ekvtime Kereselidze, and antholo-gies of sacred hymns collected by Vasil andPolievktos Karbelashvili.

Khatuna Managadze, head teacher at theZakaria Paliashvili Conservatoire in Batumi, pre-sented a paper called "Georgian Hirmi in 'TheGreat Canon' of St. Andrew of Crete as Recordedin 19th Century Manuscripts." The author dis-cussed the peculiarities of the way "The GreatCanon" is performed in the Georgian divine serv-ice. After having studied these transcriptions,she shared her findings related to the generalprinciples of form construction in church canon.

Nino Kalandadze presented a paper called"On Chanting Traditions in Abkhazia (WesternGeorgia)." She spoke at length about variousaspects of Abkhazian history, and based on var-ious sources she confirmed that the westernGeorgian mode of chant was once sung in church-es and monasteries in the Abkhazian diocese.Despite the difficult situation from 1801-1921,Georgian singer-chanters from Abkhazia's neigh-boring province of Samegrelo did their best topreserve traditional Georgian chant in Abkhazia'sorthodox churches.

Ekaterine Oniani's presentation, "AmbrosiNekreseli - a True Chanter," offered interestinginformation on this important church figure.According to the author, Ambrosi Nekreseli, who

was a brilliant theologian, preacher and poet,made a substantial contribution to the develop-ment of Georgian church chant.

In her paper, "Song and Chant - the Rulesof Erkomaishvili Family Life," Tinatin Zhvaniadiscussed the traditions of this famous family ofsingers and their contribution to the preserva-tion of the great legacy of their ancestors - west-ern Georgian chant.

Svimon Jangulashvili offered a papercalled "Handwritten Musical Manuscripts fromthe Archive of Bishop Stepane (Vasil) Karbelashvili."The author discussed several interesting aspectsof this material. At the end of his presentation,the choir of Holy Trinity Cathedral performedseveral hymns from the archive. These hymnswere in 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 voice parts.

Based on press material from the 1860s-1890s, Baia Zhuzhunadze discussed the activi-ties of the Georgian Church Hymn RevivalCommittee, which was founded in Tbilisi in1860, and the work of Pilimon Koridze duringthis same period.

John Graham spoke at length about thelife of Maksime Sharadze, an eminent Georgianpublisher in the 19th and 20th centuries, and ofhis contribution to the revival of traditionalGeorgian church chant.

While TSC has hosted several confer-ences and symposia dedicated to both secularand sacred polyphony, this event was devotedexclusively to sacred music. The event was organ-ized by Prof. Manana Andriadze, Head of theGeorgian Folk Music Department at TSC. In heropinion, the diversity of themes and great inter-est of the audience prove that such conferencesshould certainly be held again in the future. Thereare still many unanswered questions in sacredmusic. It is hoped that the results of researchcompleted by scholars in this field can be sharedannually, and that more material will be pub-lished to acquaint all interested readers.

Nino Nikoleishvili

From May 12-13, 2005, the First Festivalof Folklore and Sacred Music was held at the Z.Paliashvili Batumi State Conservatoire. Thisevent, which was organized by the Conservatoireand the Batumi City municipality, included a sci-entific conference and concerts of traditionalmusic.

Among the participants of the scientificconference dedicated to issues of Georgian sec-ular and sacred music were representatives fromthe IRCTP, from the Georgian State Folk Center,from the Center for Sacred Chant at the GeorgianPatriarchate, and from the Music History Departmentat Batumi State Conservatoire, as well as JohnGraham, a young American scholar of Georgiansacred chant and Fulbright scholar.

Nino Kalandaze from the IRCTP present-ed a paper on the funeral dirge in western Georgia.This included information on the various func-tions, semantics, and peculiarities of articulationin the various forms of traditional polyphoniczari (funeral dirge) song.

Natalia Zumbadze from the IRCTP offereda work called "Children's Repertoire and FolkEnsembles," which addressed issues related toworking with children's ensembles, and the ten-dency of certain repertoire to be forgotten inrecent years.

IRCTP member Magda Sukhiashvili pre-sented a paper called "One Ancient GeorgianMusical Term." She provided a definition for theterm mortulebi, which is found in medievalGeorgian manuscripts, and which was used todescribe polyphony.

Nana Valishvili from the Georgian StateFolk Center presented a paper called "DetailsFrom Razhden Khundadze's Biography," in which

she highlighted facts concerning Khundadze'slife that had been unknown until today. Khundadzewas a famous church chanter, historian of sacredchant, and public figure.

Luarsab Togonidze from the Center forSacred Chant at the Georgian Patriarchate offeredhis paper, "Georgian Sacred Chant on Mt. Athosin the 19th-20th Centuries." In it, he spoke aboutBenedikte Barkalaia, the abbot of the Georgianmonastery on Mt. Athos during this period, withwhose help a whole generation of Georgianchanters was raised at this holy place.

Khatuna Managadze from the BatumiConservatoire presented her paper, "Voice Partsin Church Chant According to the GeorgianTranslations of The `Great Canon of St. Andrewof Crete,` in which she spoke about changes invoice parts as described in the works of Giorgiand Ekvtime Mtatsmindeli. She also explaineddifferent esthetic and artistic characteristics ofthe chanting voice.

Tamar Chkheidze's paper, "The Eight-Voiced System in Chreli," dealt with the ancientGeorgian notation system in the late period, andspecifically the interrelationship between thechreli system and the canonical eight-voiced sys-tems in the Orthodox Church.

Other participants, including Tinatin Zhvaniaand Ekaterine Oniani from the IRCTP and JohnGraham, presented the same papers that they hadread at the Conference on Sacred Music in Tbilisiseveral days earlier.

Following the scientific conference, therewere concerts of folk and sacred music by theAnchiskhati Church Choir, Mzetamze, Basiani,and the women's ensemble from the GeorgianPatriarchate, who made their public debut.

On the first day of the conference, a photoexhibition prepared by Luarsab Togonidze wasopened. Among other materials presented in thisexhibition were photos of Georgian church chantersand others who were involved in the preserva-tion of Georgian sacred music.

7

Festival of Folklore andSacred Music in Batumi

8

From May 8-9, 2005, Georgia's thirdNational Festival of Children's and Youth Choirswas held in Batumi. The festival was organizedby the Acharan Ministry of Culture, Educationand Sport, and the Acharan Musical Society. Theparticipants included both folk and profession-al choirs from Achara (Shuakhevi, Batumi, Chakvi,Kobuleti, Chakhati, and Kedi), and from otherplaces throughout Georgia (Kutaisi, Ruisi, Poti,Zugdidi, Kareli, and Tbilisi). Natalia Zumbadzeof the IRCTP was a member of the jury.

The majority of the children's folk choirsthat participated in the festival were almost indis-tinguishable copies of their male choir counter-parts, both in terms of repertoire and perform-ance manner. The only exception was the groupNai-Nai from the Kutaisi Music School, direct-ed by Ketevan Bantsadze. The jury highly approvedof this group, as their performance was quite tra-ditional and natural.

Natalia Zumbadze

From June 20-26, 2005, at the TbilisiOpen Air Ethnographic Museum, the "Art-Geni"festival of folk arts was held at the initiative ofthe Union for Community Protection and CulturalDevelopment. The chief aim of this organiza-tion is to help people establish healthy socialrelations with their environment and nationalheritage.

This is the second year that the annualfestival has been held. While last year's festivalwas devoted to surviving singing traditions amongGeorgian families, this year's was focused onfolk crafts. Famous crafts makers and artisansfrom all parts of Georgia gathered at the OpenAir Ethnographic Museum, and throughout theweek of the festival they exhibited and sold theirworks. Every evening there were concerts ofGeorgian folk music as well as modern "folk-fusion" compositions.

The aim of "Art-Geni" is to present tra-ditional folklore in the most authentic contextpossible, thus revealing processes of social change.

The organizers of the festival, Zaza Korinteliand Giorgi Baramidze, plan to publish a cata-log-map of the festival, which will include detailedinformation on the participating crafts makersand authentic folk performers.

Baia Zhuzhunadze

The Third NationalFestival of Children's

and Youth Choirs

"Art-Geni" FolkFestival in Tbilisi

The organizers of the festival hope thatit will become a regular event. This will helpsupport the development of sacred music researchat the Batumi Conservatoire, thus continuing thegreat work begun by A. Mskhaladze and J.Noghaideli. The Georgian Folk Music Departmentwill soon be established at the Batumi Conservatoire,and currently two graduate students are work-ing on theses pertaining to the history of researchon Acharan folk music.

Nino Naneishvili

From June 17-19, 2005, the SecondInternational Festival "Song of Samegrelo - 2005"was held in the town of Khobi in Georgia's west-ern province of Samegrelo. The festival wasorganized by the International Centre for GeorgianFolk Song (president: Niko Lekishvili; head ofartistic council: Anzor Erkomaishvili) and by theInternational Charity Foundation "Khobi" (pres-ident: Khobi's majority deputy MP, GoderdziBukia).

As part of the festival, concerts were heldin Zugdidi, Poti and Senaki, and the same eveninga pop music show was held in Khobi. The nextday, at the Khobi Culture House, a presentationwas held for new publications from the InternationalCentre for Georgian Folk Song (ICGFS): "GeorgianFolk Songmasters: Samegrelo" (three volumes);two anthologies of musical notation called"Georgian Folk Music - Samegrelo" (volumesone and two) and "Teach Yourself Georgian FolkSong - Megrelian Songs" (book and four com-pact discs). This presentation may be consideredthe most important event at the festival, and wehope that these books will be made easily acces-sible for the public. Additionally, a special book-let was issued for the festival.

After the presentation, a concert of clas-sical music was held with performances byGeorgian opera singers Maqvala Kasrashvili,Zurab Sotkilava, Temur Gugushvili, the Moscow

Chamber Orchestra (directed by VladislavBulakhov), etc.

On June 18, the festival was officiallylaunched at the Khobi Stadium. Alongside popsingers from Georgia and Moscow, the follow-ing Georgian folk ensembles performed in theopening concert: Tsinandali (from Telavi), Kolkhetiand Momavali Kolkheti (from Khobi), Lazare(from the former Hereti region in modern-dayAzerbaijan), Harira and Odoia (from Zugdidi),Riho (from Mestia), Imereti (from Kutaisi), Lomisi(from Akhalgori), Guria (from Chokhatauri),Shvidkatsa and Iadoni (from Ozurgeti), Racha(from Oni), Samurzaqano (from Gali), Poti (fromPoti), Batumi (from Batumi), Rustavi, Mtiebi,Alilo, and Kelaptari (from Tbilisi), and Pankisi(from Duisi). Also participating were the choirof the Tbilisi Church of the Ascension, choirsfrom the Tbilisi Art Academy, the towns ofChkhorotsqu and Akhalkalaki, and Tbilisi's all-foreigner ensemble, Okros Stumrebi.

On June 19, a gala concert was held inKhobi, which was attended by Georgian PresidentMikheil Saakashvili.

The festival in Khobi showed that the sta-dium is no place for concerts of folklore, at leastin Georgia. Our folk singers typically sing with-out any amplification, and so most of them didnot know how to use the microphones on stage,often making it difficult for the audience to hearthem. This has been a problem at all such festi-vals. Additionally, joint performances by folkand pop singers is completely unjustifiable, espe-cially when those folk songs are sandwichedbetween such base lip-synched performances oflowbrow pop music, after which the audience -mostly screaming teenagers - drowned out thefolk melodies. This put the folk singers on thesidelines and greatly disappointed anyone whohad gone there to hear folk singing. The imagesof famous Megrelian singers and songmasterssuch as Dzuku Lolua, Kitsi Gegechkori, Elene

9

The Second International Festival "Song of Samegrelo - 2005"

EnsembleRihofrom

Svanetiat thefestival

:

Chubabria, Noko Khurtsia and other were pro-jected onto giant monitors like useless anachro-nisms. To make things worse, the gala concertprogram was changed spontaneously to meet theneeds of the pop stars, due to which one folkensemble was unable to perform. In fact, anoth-er famous ensemble directed by a famous song-master was almost scratched from the program.

Unfortunately, a festival like this couldnever show young people the true value ofGeorgian folk culture. We should not allow somany different genres and styles of music to bepresented under the general and prestigiousumbrella of a "folk festival." This is a disgraceto folklore, whether intentional or not. Georgiansmay be used to having concerts or events starttwo or three hours late, but this is not somethingcharacteristic of "international" festivals.

In conclusion, the festival proves just howurgent and necessary it is to hold a true, well-organized festival of authentic folk music inGeorgia. We have hopes of realizing such festi-vals, especially given the obvious enthusiasmand willingness to do such work that the organ-izers of this festival have displayed

Ketevan Matiashvili

The Anchiskhati Chuch Choir has pub-lished the third volume in the series KartuliGaloba (Georgian Sacred Chant), which is calledAghmosavletis Skola / Kartl-Kakhuri Kilo (EasternSchool / Kartli-Kakhetian Mode). This includesnotation for the morning and evening matins ofdivine Orthodox service, which was originallypublished by the Karbelashvili brothers andAleksandre Molodinashvili at the turn of the 20thcentury. There are 239 church hymns in the

anthology, and it includes a compact disc withperformances by the Anchiskhati Chuch Choir.The material for the anthology was assembledand the preface was written by Malkhaz Erkvanidze,director of the Anchiskhati Choir and IRCTPmember. The transcriptions and texts were pre-pared for publication by Levan Veshapidze.Comments and proofreading were done by IRCTPmembers Ketevan Matiashvili, Tinatin Zhvania,and Magda Sukhiashvili.

It is worth mentioning that the Karbelaantmode, which was preserved in the Karbelashvilifamily, is directly linked to the AnchiskhatiChurch, as there was once a school of chant therethat was under the supervision of the Catholicosof Georgia. From this school, teachers and per-formers of Georgian chant traveled and workedthroughout eastern Georgia. In the 1980s, theAnchiskhati Chuch Choir began working onreviving this tradition of Georgian chant.

Apart from the material taken from theKarbelashvilis, this new anthology also includesan essay called Eklesiuri Galoba (Church Chant)by Aleksandre Molodinashvili. The original man-uscript of this essay, as well as the Karbelashvilimaterial, is kept in the K. Kekelidze Institute ofManuscripts.

New Anthology ofGeorgian Sacred

Chant

At the beginning of 2005, the IRCTP'snew website was launched at the followingaddress: www.polyphony.ge

The site is bilingual (Georgian and English)and includes the following:

Home Page. Map of Georgian MusicalDialects with corresponding interactive audio-visuals; Center. Information on the IRCTP, onthe TSC, on the history of Georgian folk musicstudies, and on fieldwork activities; News. Recentactivities in Georgian folklore study and per-formance; Symposium. Information on theIRCTP's symposia and international conferences;World Polyphony. Text to be included on thispage is featured in this bulletin. The page itselfis currently under construction; Secular Polyphony.Information on Georgian folk polyphony, histor-ical sources on Georgian folk music, Georgian

musical dialects, forms of polyphony, genres ofGeorgian folk music, forms of Georgian folkmusic performance, Georgian urban folklore, andGeorgian folk instruments; Sacred Polyphony.The history of Georgian sacred music, Georgianschools of chant, and information on Ioane Petritsi;Science/Research. This page is under construc-tion; Performance. This page is under construc-tion; Database. This page is under construction;Useful Links. This page is under construction;Contact Information.

The website was designed and created byLevan Tsurtsumia from "Design Studio." Thecontent editors are Rusudan Tsurtsumia and TamazGabisonia. The English translation was done byNino Khidesheli and the English text was edit-ed by Maia Kachkachishvili. The informationfor the site was assembled by the IRCTP staff.

The website is not yet complete. In thefuture, we plan to finish the site, make a Russianversion of it, and add an electronic version ofour information database for Georgian folk music.We will gladly consider any comments or sug-gestions concerning our site.

21

New Website for theIRCTP

22

At the end of 2004, with the help of ElgujaDadunashvili, Head of the Folk DepartmentArchive at the Georgian Institute of Literature,the IRCTP staff established the criteria for build-ing a software program for the center's databaseof Georgian folk music (the program is called"DS_Fololkore_2M"). The program was creat-ed by Lasha Tskhadadze.

It took a long time to establish these param-eters. It includes the following search options:

numerical order, code, title, initial phrase(both for poetic and asemantic texts), theme andgenre, performance attributes (use of candles,coal, knives, masks, animal skin, etc.), authen-ticity of performance (how close it comes totraditional folk performance), type of perform-ance (vocal, instrumental, movement), numberof performers (solo, duet, trio, choir), form ofperformance (antiphonal, non-antiphonal), num-ber of voice parts, form of polyphony (drone,ostinato, parallel, contrast, complex), instru-

ment, tuning of instrument, type of repertoire(women's, men's, mixed, children's, open), per-formance group (women, men, mixed, chil-dren), ethnic source of the song, musical dialect,choir director, name of performer, place ofrecording, date of recording, recording engi-neer, technical remarks (fast, missing begin-ning, missing end, unclear passages, noisy back-ground), names of those who have worked onthe material, notes, and song text (a separatefile for verbal text, musical notation, and audio-video examples).

We are still working on these criteria todayin an effort to make the database as comprehen-sive as possible. However, we feel that what wehave developed thus far clearly presents morethan 2,000 examples of Georgian folk songs,instrumental melodies, and other audio materi-als. Our previous database, which was not designedfor the Internet, also helped us with this process.In the near future, we plan to create an Internetversion of the new database, which will be includ-ed on the IRCTP's official website: www.polyphony.ge

With the help of IRCTP staff, any visitorwill be able to access the database via the indexfor viewing only.

Information Database forGeorgian Folk Music

"The State Folk Center is the leader inGeorgian folklore," said Georgian Minister ofCulture, Giorgi Gabashvili on December 29, 2004at a presentation for the newly named center.Prior to this, the center was called the Folk ArtCenter.

The State Folk Center is almost 70 yearsold. Its founders and early supporters includedVakhtang Kotetishvili, Mikheil Chikovani, KseniaSikharulidze, Dimitri Araqishvili, Shalva Mshvelidze,Tamar Mamaladze, Sergi Makalatia, IvaneJavakhishvili, Davit Javrishvili, Lili Gvaramadze,Avtandil Tataradze, Mikheil Shubashikeli, GrigolChivadze, Valerian Tsagareishvili, GrigolChkhikvadze, Vladimer Akhobadze, Grigol Ko-keladze, Otar Chijavadze, Kakhi Rosebashvili,etc. Thanks to their efforts, the rich and uniqueGeorgian folk art archive was created, whichincludes Georgian folk song and chant, oral poet-ry, scientific works, etc.

The chief aim of the center is to reviveforgotten traditional songs and bring them backto the Georgian people. The new director of thecenter, young singer and choir director GiorgiUshikishvili from the Lashari Ensemble, decid-ed to pursue this aim with the aid of moderntechnology and new principles of management.

At the presentation, IRCTP director RusudanTsurtsumia expressed her hopes that the fruitfulcooperation between the State Folk Center andthe Georgian Folk Music Department at Tbilisi

State Conservatoire would continue. Other speak-ers included Anzor Erkomaishvili from theInternational Centre for Georgian Folk Song andTbilisi State University Professor VakhushtiKotetishvili. The presentation was enlivened byfolk song performances by Lela Tataraidze andby the Lashari and Mzetamze Ensembles.

The current year is a transitional periodfor the center - it plans to purchase new techni-cal support equipment, prepare an informationdatabase and website, and begin work on newprojects. One of the most important projects is"The 21st Century Gold Fund," which will includejoint fieldwork expeditions, festivals, and pub-lications. As Georgian Prime Minister ZurabZhvania stated at the presentation, "A new chap-ter is beginning in the preservation of Georgianfolklore, which will help us share it with the restof the world."

Scholarly collection of Georgian oral folk-lore (poetry, stories, song, etc.) began in the1870s. In 1901, Dimitri Araqishvili made thefirst sound recordings in Georgia using a waxcylinder machine. These cylinders survive to thisday in the Georgian State Archive, the Historyand Ethnography Institute, the State Theater,Music and Film Museum, and the Tbilisi StateConservatoire. Only a few of these recordingshave been transcribed. Today there are no longerany cylinder machines in Georgia. For this rea-son, for almost 50 years this priceless material hasbeen inaccessible. We are certain that if we couldlisten to these recordings, we would learn moreabout Georgia's national musical heritage and thenature of its unique traditional polyphony.

23

Presentation of theState Folk Center

Preservation of WaxCylinder Recordings

in GeorgiaCollaborative Project with

the ViennaPhonogrammarchiv

24

In the 1990s, Kukuri Chokhonelidze andAnzor Erkomaishvili asked Georgian scientiststo construct a special apparatus to play these oldcylinders, but due to lack of funding, this proj-ect was never realized.

In November of 2004, Tbilisi StateConservatoire Rector Prof. Manana Doijashviliand International Research Center for TraditionalPolyphony (IRCTP) Director Prof. RusudanTsurtsumia submitted a request to the ViennaPhonogrammarchiv at the Austrian Academy ofSciences. The archive director, Dr. DietrichSchueller, took great interest in the cylinders sur-viving in Georgia, and he promised to help ussalvage these recordings using the latest tech-nology, with which his archive has great expe-rience. One participant in the discussions relat-ed to this idea was Nona Lomidze, a Georgianmusic historian who lives in Vienna. With herhelp, we initially sent one cylinder from theGeorgian Folk Music Department archive at theConservatoire to Austria.

Given the urgent nature of transferringthese irreplaceable cylinders, despite problemswith funding, the Tbilisi State Conservatoireinvited Franz Lechleitner, a technical sound con-sultant from the Vienna Archives. He visitedTbilisi from June 7-14. Mr. Lechleitner is anexpert who has worked for 20 years in transfer-ring cylinder recordings to modern media. Duringthis time, he has worked on collections in Leiden,St. Petersburg, Prague, Barcelona, etc.

Mr. Lechleitner reviewed and document-ed a number of collections in Tbilisi: 198 cylin-ders recorded by Dimitri Araqishvili and ShalvaMshvelidze, 163 cylinders at the History andEthnography Institute, and 68 at the State Archive.Additionally, he documented 54 cylinders at theTbilisi State Conservatoire. Most of these arestandard sized, although there are also severalmedium and large-format cylinders, which wereused for recording concert performances. Theseare the only cylinders of this size known to existin Georgia. The condition of all these cylindersvaries, and the best preserved are those at theHistory and Ethnography Institute.

According to Mr. Lechleitner, 44 cylin-ders are broken, and will need special restora-tion before they can be transferred. On most stan-

dard format cylinders there are up to three songsrecorded.

During his visit, Mr. Lechleitner met withmembers of the IRCTP and discussed his work,including a special apparatus that he has devisedto play cylinders. He looked over the variouselectronic equipment at the IRCTP that was pur-chased under the UNESCO program. He agreedto return to Tbilisi and help realize the transferof these cylinders together with IRCTP staff,who will help determine the correct playbackspeed for the recordings. Archil Kharadze, aphysicist who is currently working on the restora-tion of the Conservatoire's archival recordings,will help with technical aspects.

On June 12, together with Prof. RusudanTsurtsumia and IRCTP manager Maia Kach-kachishvili, Mr. Lechleitner met with Mr. NikolozVacheishvili, Deputy Minister of Culture, Monu-ments Protection and Sport, who oversees thecultural heritage sphere. Mr. Lechleitner statedthat he was ready to come to Tbilisi for a monthand transfer all the cylinders to compact discformat free of charge on the condition that Georgiacover the transportation costs for his apparatusand his personal expenses during his stay. Inexchange, the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv willbe given copies of all these unique recordings.All rights for access to this material will bereserved by the owners of the collections. Mr.Vacheishvili agreed to establish a special proj-ect for the safeguarding of the intangible cultur-al heritage of Georgia, and expressed his hopesthat the Georgian Ministry of Culture, MonumentsProtection and Sport would help finance this.

Franz Lechleitner with membersof the IRCTP

From December 16-20, 2004, a fieldworkexpedition was carried out in the village of ZemoAlvani, which is located in the Akhmeta Region.This was done as part of the UNESCO program,and the following IRCTP representatives partic-ipated: Natalia Zumbadze, Ph.D., director of theexpedition; Ketevan Matiashvili, supervisor ofthe Georgian Folklore Study Room; and OtarKapanadze, laboratory assistant.

Zemo Alvani is populated chiefly by Tsova-Tushetians. To date, very little Tushetian - andespecially Tsova-Tushetian - musical folklorehas been recorded. Our expedition was an attemptto change this.

We believe that our expedition was verysuccessful. On the very first day we recordedsongs in the Georgian and Tsova-Tushetian lan-guages and instrumental works on the garmonias performed by Marika Chagoshvili (born in1976). Her pronunciation and performance man-ner were very tense, loud, and piercing, whichshows the influence of Chechen and Kist women'smusic. Many of the songs that Marika sang areclearly modern compositions, and quite farremoved from traditional Tushetian folklore.However, it seems that these songs are very pop-ular among young people there.

We next met with Lela Jamarashvili (born

in 1935). Although she is Pshavian, she grew upin Zemo Alvani. She is a poet and sings songsonly with her own poems. She also plays thegarmoni (accordion) quite well. Although werecorded very little from her at our first meet-ing, at subsequent meetings we recorded a num-ber of songs and instrumental melodies.

In Zemo Alvani we met the son of famouschianuri player Mose Shavkhelishvili, who wasnamed Nikoloz (Nikala) Shavkhelishvili (born in1946). He played a number of melodies for uson the balalaika and panduri. At his home, Nikalaalso showed us a chianuri that his father hadmade, which is considered a family treasure. Thisinstrument no longer has strings, a bow, or abridge, and it hadn't been played for 20 years.Nikala promised that he would restore the instru-ment, and two days later we returned to find theinstrument ready to be played. We recorded sev-eral instrumental melodies as played by Nikala,but only one of these was played with the bow- the rest were played by fingering. We also record-ed a number of songs and instrumental melodiesas performed by Nikala's son, Giorgi (born in1988). Additionally, Nikala's nephew, DavitShavkhelishvili, showed us some sound record-ings of his grandfather, Mose, which were madeon recycled x-ray plates (a curious technologyfrom the Soviet era). Unfortunately, as we hadno device for playing these recordings, we wereunable to transfer them. According to Nikala, theoriginal recordings of these songs are in Tbilisiat the State Television and Radio Archive.

We had a most interesting meeting withLevan Baikhoidze (born in 1931). He played

At the end of his visit, Mr. Lechleitnerand representatives from each collection metwith Tbilisi State Conservatoire Rector Prof.Manana Doijashvili, and they agreed to contin-ue discussion pursuant to drafting a contract withthe Vienna Phonogrammarchiv.

Nino Nakashidze

25

Musical FieldworkExpedition

in Zemo Alvani(Tusheti)

LelaJamarashvili

from Zemo Alvani

26

several instrumentals for us on the balalaika,including some Kist melodies. His virtuoso per-formance of such works as Tsiplovana (a melodythat is exclusively Tsova-Tushetian) and ShamilisDachera left a strong impression on us.

Our next meeting was with Elene (Elane)Tsiskarishvili (born in 1936). We went to a funer-al and recorded her performance of a dirge thatis traditionally sung during burial. After this, shealso sang other songs for us, including a lulla-by that consists of several musical motifs. In ret-rospect, we believe that these two songs - thedirge and the lullaby - are the most interestingexamples that we recorded during the expedi-tion.

Another interesting musician we met wasRepko Alkhanaidze (born in 1926). Years agohe was a famous singer and garmoni player. Atthe Tbilisi Conservatoire Folk Music Departmentarchive, we found several recordings of perform-ances by Repko, which had been made by KakhiRosebashvili in 1967. Unfortunately, Repko nolonger plays on the garmoni, but she sang a lull-aby and a dirge for us. Her remarkable region-al dialect and pronunciation left a strong impres-sion on us; this is something that is rarely heardin Georgia today.

There is a folk ensemble in Zemo Alvanicalled Tsovata. In 2004, this group participatedin the Second International Symposium onTraditional Polyphony in Tbilisi. The group isdirected by Bela Shavkhelishvili, a linguist, towhom we are extremely indebted for having

made all the arrangements for our expedition.She traveled with us to Zemo Alvani and helpedus find musicians there. She arranged to havepeople come visit us where we were staying,which made our work process much easier. Belaherself provided us with much useful informa-tion on Tsova-Tushetian and Kist-Chechen ritu-als and music. With her help, we recorded songsin the Georgian and Tsova-Tushetian languagesas sung by several members of her ensemble:Natela Charelishvili (born in 1948), TsitsinoDingashvili (born in 1951), Asmat Longishvili(born in 1948), and Lali Sagishvili (born in 1961).In is interesting that the same song performedby different singers had striking differences inperformance manner.

Bela also directs a second ensemble calledAznash. We met with one member of this group,Lali Imedashvili, a Kist (born in 1978). She sangGeorgian and Kist songs for us, both with andwithout instrumental accompaniment.

We recorded a number of instrumentalmelodies performed by Givi Kalatozishvili (bornin 1945) and Eter Tsotoidze (born in 1949). Givi'sperformance of Tsiplovana on the garmoni wasexceptional.

Apart from musical material, we also col-lected some very useful information on tradi-tional Tushetian melodies, methods for makinginstruments, and on such rituals as Berikaoba,traditional weddings, and weather and healingrituals.

Although we worked intensively for fivedays, we were unable to record several famouslocal performers, including one well-known chi-anuri player. We also failed to record any melodieson the salamuri. We hope to realize this on afuture visit.

We would like to thank Bela Shavkhelishvili,our hosts - the Dingashvili family, the directorof the Zemo Alvani Culture House - RevazOrbetishvili, and all the performers who tookthe time to provide us with these valuable record-ings.

Otar Kapanadze

Field Expeditions

NikolozShavkhelishvili

fromZemoAlvani

In January and March of 2005, a two-partexpedition was realized in Achara by the OpenSociety - Georgia Foundation and by the IRCTP.This expedition brought together musicologistsand linguists for joint research, including NinoKalandadze and Ketevan Matiashvili from theIRCTP, Elguja Dadunashvili and Gizo Chelidzefrom the folklore archive at the Shota RustaveliInstitute of Georgian Literature, and ElgujaMakaradze and Giorgi Makharashvili from theGeorgian Literature Department at Batumi StateUniversity.

During the expedition periods, the teamrecorded eleven 80-minute minidiscs and six 60-minute digital videocassettes, and took 408 pho-tos. This material, with complete documentation,is kept in three archives.

Despite difficult working conditions dueto heavy snow in January and landslides in March,the team managed to work in twelve locations:Shuakhevi, Ghoreketi, Baratauli, Chvana, Khabe-lashvilebi, Chanchkhalo, Purtio, Lomanauri,Goginauri, Zvare, Kvashta, and Batumi.

The team recorded more than 40 oral per-formers of various age, four choirs (from Chvana,Purtio and Lomanauri, and the Tarieladze fam-ily choir from Baratauli), and shot video footageof local instrument makers (four chiboni mak-

ers, as well as panduri, doli and saz makers).In Ghoreketi, the team observed a tradi-

tional engagement ritual in the Davitadze fami-ly, collected information on the traditions ofLazaroba, house building, mourning, and wed-ding rituals. At the Chvana Gorge, the teamobserved that to this day people use musicalinstruments while engaged in farming activities.They documented the traditional methods formaking and caring for the chiboni, chonguri,panduri, doli, salamuri, saz, garmoni, accordion,and stviri, and learned the names of the variousparts for these instruments. They also document-ed choreographic terminology and made videorecordings of dances, chiefly performed by oldervillagers.

Among the songs recorded were tradition-al, Soviet-era, and modern folk songs: Orira,Qaranai Qanashia, Oisa, Khertlis Naduri, EvriDa Maspindzelsa, Qachaghis Leksi, DaukarChemo Cheguro, Khorumi, Gandagana, SimgheraBakhmaroze, Acharav Chemo Samshoblo, andGhorjomeli Viqav Gana. Additionally, videorecordings were made of daily activities, craftsmaking, and other trades such as how to makea drop spindle for spinning yarn, how to makea sleigh, various traditional types of houses, ablacksmith's workshop, etc.

27

Field Expeditions

Fieldwork Expedition in Shuakhevi, (Achara)

Sevie Dumbadze

fromPurtio

Kazim Tarieladze

fromBaratauli

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Unfortunately, none of the singers fromany of the local folk groups can manage to prac-tice anymore, whether formally or informally.This certainly threatens the preservation ofGeorgian polyphonic singing traditions in Achara.It is also unfortunate that many performers donot have chibonis, nor do they have the moneyto buy them.

Scholars studying Georgian-Turkish,Georgian-Russian, Georgian-Caucasian andGeorgian-Jewish links will find fairly rich mate-rial, chiefly bilingual texts, in Achara. In ouropinion this is very important from the stand-point of cultural dialogue.

The team was surprised to see a tradi-tional Kurdish dance called Kurtbari, completewith local character and forms of performance.Another interesting and unusual event which theteam documented on video was vocal incanta-tions and readings from the Koran by GeorgianMuslims, which to our knowledge had neverbeen documented before.

On May 20, 2005, a presentation of thematerials collected during the expedition washeld at the Open Society - Georgia conferencehall. A photo exhibition was arranged, as wellas video screenings of excerpts from the mate-rials prepared by Elguja Dadunashvili and ImedaMaghlakelidze. It is hoped that the materials ofthe expedition will be useful for both researchand practice.

The members of the expedition wouldlike to thank Mr. Temur Zoidze, the local admin-istrative head of the Shuakhevi district, and Mr.Vaso Khimshiashvili, head of the local culturaloffice. They would also like to thank everyonewho helped realize this project.

Nino Kalandadze

When I decided to write a letter aboutEdisher Garaqanidze, my colleague and kindredspirit, I realized that it was my professionalresponsibility to take another look at his life andwork. I was amazed at what I found: the ideasand themes that he worked on then remain astopical and problematic today as ever before.We sorely miss his civic, professional, and per-sonal merits.

When someone dies in Georgia it is some-thing that stirs special attention. We often lookback at the life and work of the deceased, andin many cases we exaggerate the achievementsand good aspects. Sometimes people even saythings that are completely untrue. For this rea-son, it is often difficult to see the dividing linebetween truth and fable. In this respect, EdisherGaraqanidze is an exception - his work needsno exaggeration, invention, or embellishment.In his short lifetime, he contributed greatly to

Edisher Garaqanidze(1957-1998)

Georgian Ethnomusicologist

the collection, study, teaching, and performanceof Georgian folk music. In losing him, Georgiahas lost a true patriot.

Edisher Garaqanidze was a devoted sonof his country, and this is easily seen in his lifeand work. He was distinguished from many ofhis colleagues by his extreme devotion to hisprofession.

His activity was built on the experienceof his own expeditions and on those of otherresearchers. He was extremely well acquaintedwith archival materials, and he greatly respect-ed all the scholars who had collected this mate-rial. This respect was mutual.

Edisher began collecting Georgian folkmusic when he was a student at Tbilisi StateConservatoire. His graduate dissertation wasdevoted to material he had collected in Kartli.He went on many fieldwork expeditions through-out Georgia together with his colleagues and stu-dents, with his fellow singers in the Mtiebi ensem-ble, and with his pupils from the Amer-Imerichildren's studio. Among his many expeditions,he worked in Kartli, Meskheti, Imereti, Samegrelo,Kakheti, Svaneti, Guria, Pshavi, Achara, Racha,Tusheti, Khevi, and Daghestan. Some songs thathe recorded have never been found by anyoneelse. One such example is the Kartlian Mze Shina.

For Edisher, the research of Georgian folkmusic was his life's mission. His talent, diligence,and honesty are the defining features of his pro-fessional character. Along with his high level ofprofessionalism, his deep knowledge of Russian,Polish, German and English greatly helped himin national and international symposia and con-ferences. He published much material in Georgiaand abroad; he wrote approximately fifty arti-cles on research and teaching methodology alone.

Despite the great need for it, to this dayEdisher's dissertations have never been published.

His master's dissertation, which was calledGeorgian Musical Dialects and Their Interrela-tionships, is a remarkably comprehensive studyof Georgian folk music that is used as supportmaterial for the folk music program at TbilisiState Conservatoire. His doctoral dissertation,Georgian Folk Song Performance, is especiallyvaluable from a practical standpoint. Unfortunately,he did not live to defend this dissertation. Hadthis been published, many positive changes wouldhave occurred in Georgian folk song perform-ance.

Edisher paid attention to every aspect ofGeorgian folk song and problems associated withit; he was always willing to listen to opposingopinions from other professionals in hopes offinding the truth through debate.

Despite the fact that Georgia does nothave a strong tradition of folk music criticism,and that even those few that criticize are not wellrespected by the public, Edisher never hesitatedto give constructive criticism to such famousgroups as the Georgian State Ensemble of Songand Dance, the Georgian State Television andRadio Folk Ensemble, Shvidkatsa, Gordela,Rustavi, and Pazisi. Always objective, he alsotried to stress the positive aspects of what heheard. Among the things that he opposed were:calling something "folklore" that was neither tra-ditional nor performed in a traditional manner;the use of professional classically-trained vocal-

29

2:

ists in folk ensembles; the teaching of Georgianfolk song with the aid of piano or Western nota-tion; the constant repetition of folk songs thathad been sung countless times by countlessensembles; the performance of contemporary"folk-style" compositions presented as "folkmusic"; excessive arrangement of folk songs bychoir directors; the artificial substitution of voiceparts; academic performance manner; ballet orother classical elements in Georgian dances andround dances, etc.

Edisher knew very well that everything -including Georgian folk song - changes, evolves,and grows ever distant from its original sourceover time. It's impossible to stop this process,but "the loss of the elemental principles of nation-al culture" is equal to assimilation. In his words:"Changing that which has developed over somany centuries demands a tremendous amountof care and responsibility!"

It is interesting to look back at youngEdisher's ideas concerning the Borjomi ScientificConference on Folk Polyphony (1986). He likedfact that so many respected scholars participat-ed in the conference, and that musicians tried toanswer theoretical questions through live per-formance demonstration. He approved of the factthat much attention was given to the work ofyoung folklorists, and that their more experi-enced peers and senior colleagues were ready togive them advice and direction. Edisher expressedhis hopes that the themes of future conferenceswould be better selected; that comprehensiveinformation on the key aspects of Georgian folkmusic would be addressed. His comments andcriticism of the folk ensembles that participatedin the concert program of the conference werealways professional and constructive.

Edisher supported the promotion and teach-ing of Georgian folk music worldwide, and he

paid much attention to its popularization. In thisrespect, he felt it essential that information andscholarly views on Georgian folk music be madeavailable internationally. He also considered itvery important to find and support young researchersand their work, as they are hard to come by. InEdisher's opinion, the Conservatoire spent toomuch time teaching general topics and not enoughon specialized research. He agreed that it wasessential to learn from the positive experienceof foreign educational institutions.

One of the most important aspects ofEdisher's work was his pedagogy. He did notsimply teach his students - he brought them alongon fieldwork expeditions throughout Georgiaand acquainted them with Georgian villagers andtheir traditions, building a love between them.The result of this was that his student's disser-tations, written under his supervision, are dis-tinguished both for timeliness of the theme anddeep knowledge of the subject. He always encour-aged his students to express their own opinions.

Edisher was one of the first to teach Geo-rgian folk songs to foreigners, working in suchplaces as the Netherlands, Germany, the UnitedKingdom and France. All those who worked withhim were delighted by his professional and per-sonal qualities, and to this day they rememberhim with great respect and love. Thanks to Edisher,many of these people learned about Georgia, andbecame good friends of Georgia and its people.Georgian folk song has spread so far across theglobe and earned so many devotees because ofpeople like him. In 2004, a collection of Georgianfolk, church and urban songs called 99 GeorgianFolk Songs was published by the Black MountainPress of the Centre for Performance Research(CPR) in Wales. This proves how deeply Edisher'swork is respected by his friends in the UnitedKingdom.

Edisher paid a great deal of attention toperformance manner. His men's choir, Mtiebi,founded in 1980, paved the way for a new erain the history of Georgian folk song perform-ance. The group's chief professional principle isto offer the most authentic performance possi-ble. Edisher's level of professionalism was clear-ly seen in his direction of Mtiebi - his deepknowledge of the true folk traditions in all regionsof Georgia, and their forms and manners of per-formance. No other ensemble anywhere in Georgiahas done as much to promote Georgian folkmusic as Mtiebi, especially in regions whereGeorgians are in the minority.

In 1986, Edisher suggested an idea to hiscolleagues to create a women's ensemble calledMzetamze. This ensemble is the only group ofits kind, seeking out, reviving, and performingtraditional women's repertoire. He was alwaysattentive and encouraging to this group.

In the end of the 1980s, Edisher found-ed and directed the folklore-ethnographic chil-dren's studio Amer-Imeri. This was an extensionof the work he had already begun with Mtiebiand Mzetamze, and was the first attempt to teachGeorgian children's repertoire in a formal set-ting.

In the last years of his life, Edisher direct-ed the Folklore Theater of the Young Artists'Union. In 1998, he staged a performance withthis group, in which its artistic mission wasrevealed.

Those who saw and heard them will neverforget Edisher's television and radio programs,which supported and promoted Georgian folksong.

We know almost nothing of Edisher'scomposition work, and much research needs tobe done in this respect. What we do know, how-ever, includes wonderful songs, music for the-ater performances, church hymns, and works inother genres.

Edisher Garaqanidze's life is an idealexample of how someone can serve the inter-ests of his country with his profession. A tire-less devotee of Georgian folk music, he earnedan honored place as a national folklorist duringhis lifetime.

Natalia Zumbadze

Edisher Garaqanidze's Chief Scientific,Educational, Methodological and OtherPublications

1. Polyphony in Kartli today (1985), in the col-lection Aspects of Traditional Polyphony, Joseph Jordania(editor), Tbilisi, Sabchota Sakartvelo publishing, pp.33-35 (in Russian with English annotation)

2. Thoughts on Georgian Folk Song Performance(1985), Journal Sabchota Khelovneba, No. 1, pp.72-83

3. A Great Contributor to Georgian Song (1985),Journal Sabchota Khelovneba, No. 6, pp. 108-113

4. From the Moscow Festival Diary; Results ofFolk Studio Activities (1986), Journal Sabchota Khelovneba,No. 1, pp. 123-129

5. At the Borjomi Conference (1987), JournalSabchota Khelovneba, No. 2, pp. 43-47

6. On Some Georgian Musical Dialects (1987),Journal Sabchota Khelovneba, No. 6, pp. 91-96

7. Search is the Basis for Success! (1987), JournalSabchota Khelovneba, No. 12, pp. 56-62

8. Answer to the Respected Opponent (1988),Journal Sabchota Khelovneba, No. 12, pp. 36-42

9. Types of Improvisation in Georgian FolkSongs in the collection Questions of Georgian MusicalPolyphony (1988) N. Gabunia, R.Tsurtsumia et al. (edi-tors), Tbilisi: Tbilisi State Conservatoire, pp. 62-76

10. Some Aspects of Georgian Folk SongPerformance and the Ensemble Mtiebi in the collectionFolklore and Folklore Studies, Vol. II., TraditionalFolklore and Modern Folk Choirs and Ensembles (1989),V. Lapin (editor), Leningrad, LGITM&K Publishing,pp. 124-132 (in Russian).

11. Georgien. Dreistimmizkeit, Voklsmusik,Stadtische Muzik in the collection Muzik aus Kaukasus(1991), Berlin (in German)

12. Georgische Kirchengesange (1992), NanaKalandadze (co-author), Tbilisi (Preface in German)

13. Mixed Performance in Georgian Folk SingingArt (1994), Journal Khelovneba, Nos. 1-3, pp. 24-29

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32

In a country where respect of women wasa matter of honor for men, it is remarkable thatthe musical aspects of Georgian women's livesremained unknown to the general public until1986. Of course, there were many famous womenin Georgian folk music - singers and instrumen-talists such as Maro and Ekaterine Tarkhnishvili,Ana Vardiashvili, Nino Togonidze, MariamArjevnishvili, Luba and Vera Shelegia, EleneChubabria, and others. However, most of themsang either men's repertoire or modern Sovietfolk-style compositions, or sometimes they sanglove songs in duets with men. They rarely sangany women's solos or group songs. Despite thehigh artistic level of certain performances, thiswas all designed exclusively for concert presen-tation.

Indeed, at this time, all sorts of men'ssongs were presented on the concert stage: worksongs, round dances, ritual songs, mourningsongs, ballads, etc. Any comparable women'srepertoire remained hidden in the shadow of themen's music. One of the reasons for this was thatmost of the people involved in collecting folk-lore were chiefly focused on complex men's

repertoire, such as table songs. For this reason,women's and children's repertoire was neglect-ed, as were many comparatively simple men'ssongs. Among the Georgian ethnomusicologistswho paid equal attention to both men's andwomen's musical folklore, whether simple orcomplex, were Mindia Zhordania, Kakhi Rosebashvili,and later, Edisher Garaqanidze. Edisher's workprovided the impetus to create an ensemble exclu-sively for women's traditional repertoire.

It was almost twenty years ago that Mze-tamze made their public debut at a concert cel-ebrating the 100-year anniversary of the birth of

14. Wein, Tisch und Gesang (1995), booklet forcompact disc, Hamburg, Sony Music Entertainment,pp. 6-20 (in German)

15. On One Early Stage in the Development ofGeorgian Folk Song in the collection Aspects of Musicology(1997), R. Tsurtsumia (editor), Tbilisi, Meridiani pub-lishing, pp. 18-38 (annotations in Russian and English)

16. On the Meaning and Etymology of SomeGeorgian Musical Terms in the collection Aspects ofMusicology (1997) R. Tsurtsumia (editor), Tbilisi,Meridiani publishing, pp. 39-50 (annotations in Russianand English)

17. Several Views on Children's Musical Education(1997), Journal Khelovneba, Nos. 1-2-3, pp. 154-157

18. About Gurian Musical Dialect in the collec-tion Guria: Results of a Regional Study, Vol. II (1997),V. Sadradze (editor), Tbilisi, Metsniereba publishing,pp. 187-196 (annotations in Russian and English)

19. Folk Song Performance - Yesterday andToday in the bulletin of Georgian Musical InformationCentre Musical Georgia (1999), No. 1, pp. 15-17

20. 99 Georgian Songs. ACollection of TraditionalFolk, Church and Urban Songs from Georgia (2004),Aberystwyth, Black Mountain Press (in English)

Georgian Women's Folk Ensemble Mzetamze

Mzetamze's original membership

Georgian Folk Groups

Georgian language scholar Akaki Shanidze. Fromthe start, the ensemble had a number of guaran-tees for success: all of them were ethnomusicol-ogists, and some of them had sung with ShalvaMosidze in the women's academic choir at TSC.

The ensemble soon became successful,and with Mzetamze's help, Georgian audiences"discovered" the musical aspect of Georgian wo-men's life - and by referring to "life," we meanthat the ensemble does its best to mirror fieldrecordings, which are often those they have madeon their own expeditions. For example, they per-form round dances, play traditional instruments,and imitate the peculiar articulation of villagewomen, giving us the impression that we are inthe home of a Georgian peasant and the man hasgone off somewhere.

Until Mzetamze, Georgian listeners hadnot experienced the warmth of the Georgianmother's song, which is no less pleasant than thejubilant Mravalzhamier or the boisterousKhasanbegura. The Svan zari (funeral dirge)gives us a sense of elevated emotion, but this issomething quite different from the Mokhevianwomen's lament, Khmit Tirili. Would a youngGeorgian man grow up with the same Georgiansoul without hearing the song Mze Shina (a spe-cial women's song for the birth of a son)?

Initially, Mzetamze had six members:Natalia Zumbadze, Ketevan Baiashvili, KetevanNikoladze, Nino Kalandadze, Nunuka Shvelidze,and Nana Valishvili. At various times, they werejoined by Baia Asieshvili and Dodo Taktakishvili.Recently, Tea Kasaburi also joined the ensem-ble. Today, two members of the ensemble - Nataliaand Nino - are members of the IRCTP, whileNana, Tea and Nunuka work at the GeorgianState Folk Center. The name Mzetamze, whichwas chosen by Nino Kalandadze, is a metaphorfor the word "god."

The ensemble has toured many countriesin Europe, and everyone interested in tradition-al music in Georgia knows them. Mzetamze hasalso been featured in several films, and has par-ticipated in various charity and educational events. Despite the fact that the ensemble's repertoire isquite popular with their audience, they alwaysstrive to find new repertoire, not just for concertpresentation, but also for the preservation of suchtraditional material for future generation and sci-entific study. The members of the ensemble areactively involved in fieldwork, and each of themdirects children's folk ensembles, where they tryto instill a sense of Georgian spirit and traditionin their young pupils.

Tamaz Gabisonia

33

Mzetamze on stage with Edisher Garaqanidze

Mzetamze Discography

1. Ensemble Mzetamze, Georgian Women'sTraditional Songs, Vol. 1, Face Music Switzerland -FM 50016, © 1996

2. Ensemble Mzetamze, Georgian Women'sTraditional Songs, Vol. 2, Face Music Switzerland -FM 50016, © 2000

3. Mzev Shin Shemodio, Georgian FolkMusic for Children, IRCTP, Bank Republic, Tbilisi,2004

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I believe that my work in musical folk-lore would have taken a completely differentdirection had it not been for the kind advice andprofessional assistance of Ernst Emsheimer. Somequestions would have remained unanswered forme. It is very interesting to look at how suchfriendship began between this great ethnomusi-cologist, director of the Stockholm Music HistoryMuseum, and a young scholarly researcher atthe Pushkin House.

In 1967, after completing my studies atthe Conservatoire, I started working in Kalinin(modern-day town of Tver). After returning toLeningrad, I was hired at the Russian LiteratureInstitute Phonoarchive (Pushkin House) at theUSSR Academy of Sciences. In the early 1970s,my graduate thesis advisor, Prof. M. Druskin,made a request. He told me that he had a friendin Sweden named Ernst Emsheimer, whom hehad met before World War II, and who had workedin the Phonoarchive in the early 1930s. Amongother things, Emsheimer made transcriptions ofsongs from Georgia's province of Guria, whichwere recorded on wax cylinders.

Six or seven years had passed since theMinistry of Internal Affairs had handed over thearchives to public institutions. After this, the sen-ior employees of the archives - especially thosewho had been involved in safeguarding the mate-rials - were liable to the strict regulation of theministry. For this reason, Emsheimer's requestseemed quite extravagant, as we had never beforebeen asked to send any phonoarchive materialsabroad. I told Prof. Druskin that I was skepticalthat this would be possible. As I was new at the

phonoarchive, Prof. Druskin told me, "You'renew here - let's see what happens."

At this time, the temporary director of thePushkin House was P. Prima, who was a win-ner of the Lenin Prize. He was an austere fig-ure, and people said that he always seemed toavoid making decisions. I translated Emsheimer'slatter from German into Russian and gave it tothe director. To my great surprise, he authorizedthe request.

The material that Emsheimer was inter-ested in was safe and well preserved. I had noproblem making copies of his transcriptions, butI had to get special permission to work on theGurian songs from Ioseb Megrelidze, who hadbeen Niko Marr's secretary in the early 1930s,had also worked with Gurian singers. Legally,we needed his permission to make copies of thismaterial. Emsheimer also sent a request toMegrelidze for this purpose. I wrote the letterfrom Pushkin House to Tbilisi. Prof. Megrelidzegranted us permission, sending his best wishesto us in his letter.

Archive official V. Korguzalov was chargedwith transporting more than 90 wax cylinders to

Ernst Emsheimer -Friend of Caucasus

Folklore

the Radio, where they were transferred to mag-netic tape, which was the finest quality at thetime. Emsheimer's request was fulfilled to themaximum degree possible in the USSR at thetime and the transferred recordings were sent toSweden.

Following this, we continued correspon-ding almost until his death. He sent me a num-ber of his works, and so I have an excellent ideaof his ethnomusicological activities.

Ernst Emsheimer was born in Germanyin 1904. He studied with Guido Adler, WillibaldGurlitt, and Heinrich Besseler. He worked as anorganist and wrote his dissertation on music his-tory when he was young. In 1933, at the age of28, Emsheimer began working at the RussianInstitute of Art History and at the State HermitageMuseum. Parallel to this, he worked at theKunstkamera (present-day Peter the Great'sMuseum of Anthropology and Ethnography).This institute was home to the phonoarchivedirected by Evgeny Gippius. During this period,a folklore commission was established at theinstitute, led by M. Azadovsky. Druskin, whohad just returned from Germany, also workedwith this commission. He participated in thepreparation of a comprehensive collection of rev-olutionary songs.

Emsheimer was not a full-fledged mem-ber of the staff, but still he made great contri-butions - he transcribed multi-voiced songs fromthe Caucasus. His first assignment was to tran-scribe 100 Ossetian songs recorded by B. Galaevin 1929. These transcriptions together with histranscriptions of Gurian songs were preservedin the phonoarchive as finished drafts. Years later,in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gippius andGalaev made new transcriptions of most of theserecordings. These were published as an anthol-ogy called "Osetinskie Narodnie Pesni, sobran-

nie B. Galaevim, M., 1964" (Ossetian folk songs,collected by B. Galaev, Moscow, 1964). Musichistorians have often referred to this work, espe-cially since Gippius included his own statementconcerning analytical notation in the preface tothe collection.

I decided to compare the transcriptions inthis anthology with those that Emsheimer hadmade, and I published my findings in an article,"Folklor Narodov RSFSR v FonogramarkhiveInstituta Russkoi Literaturi (Pushkinski Dom)AN SSR" (Foklore of the Peoples of RSFSR atthe Phonogram Archive at the Institute of RussianLiterature [Pushkin House] AS SSR // theFolkloristics of the Russian Federation - ChiefEditor, O. Alekseeva, Leningrad, 1975, pp. 182-183). Gippius' and Galaev's rhythmic construc-tion was more complex than Emsheimer's, andaccurately reflected the tempo rubato of perform-ance, and the quantitative peculiarities of Ossetianpoetic structure. Like K. Kvitka, Gippius usedthe bar line to separate melodic sections fromsemi-couplets in Ossetian song. This principlecomes from the collection "Pesni Pinezhia" (Songsfrom Pinezhie) and allows for larger bar lengthsto accommodate such time signatures as 19:8,etc.

It seems that Emsheimer believed thatOssetian song was performed freely, and that themusical phrases were based solely on the dic-tates of the verbal text. He used bar lines onlyto indicate poetic or melodic elements. InEmsheimer's transcriptions, he typically used 2:4and 3:4 time signatures. There are no irregularor unusually long bars. Without considering therhythmic nuances of the solo voice, two tran-scriptions of the same song by Emsheimer or byGippius and Galaev are virtually identical, i.e.the melodic construction and polyphonic expres-sion show only slight differences.

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If we consider the quality of the soundrecordings on the cylinders and the difficulty ofthe transcription process, we see that Emsheimer'swork is very important and influential.

One question remains today concerningthe comparison of these two sets of transcrip-tions: what actual source was used for the tran-scription in “Osetinskie Narodnie Pesni”? It couldhave been the actual cylinders or their copies,as it takes much time to work using cylinders.Gippius lived and worked in Moscow, and hecould not have stayed in Leningrad for long.There is no information about this in his person-al archive, which is quite exhaustive (Materialii Statii k 100-Letiu So Dnia Rozhdenia E. V.Gippiusa [“Materials and Articles Dedicated tothe 100th Birthday of E. V. Gippius”] Edited byPashina, Moscow, 2003, pp. 193-214). For thisreason, we do not know whether Emsheimerused copies of the cylinders made by Galaev. Itis possible that Galaev himself sang on theserecordings to indicate rhythmic transcription.Emsheimer could have made his transcriptionsbefore Gippius and Galaev, or at the same time.For now, this remains unknown. The fact remainsthat both sets of transcriptions are remarkablysimilar.

Emsheimer praised the anthology ofOssetian song published by Gippius and Galaev,but stated, "The division of melodic phrases inbars does not accurately reflect the free recita-tive style of the melody. I think that the authorswould have benefited from using other transcrip-tion methods that have become standard ethno-musicological practice in the past 50 years(Emsheimer, E., "Ossetian Folk Songs Collectedby Galaev," // Journal of the International FolkMusic Council, Vol. 19, 1967, p. 131). It is regret-table that Emsheimer did not cite these "othermethods," as I believe that the interrelationship

of length in Gippius' and Galaev's transcriptionsonly party reflects the speech rhythm in songsfrom the Caucasus.

The next big project in the archive forEmsheimer was recordings of Gurian song. In1933, a group of ten singers from Georgia trav-eled to Leningrad, including Ioseb Megrelidze.Niko Marr's relatives were living in Guria at thetime, and it's possible that this visit was the ini-tiative of Marr, and that Megrelidze helped himrealize it. Although they were obliged to singsongs like "Gurian Song to Lenin," they focusedon recording traditional songs.

Gippius decided to use three separatecylinder machines to record the singers, witheach machine devoted to a single voice part. Itwas very difficult to separate voices this way atthe time, but he managed nonetheless. This wasthe first attempt at "multi-track" recording in thehistory of Soviet folklore, and aimed to facili-tate the most accurate transcription.

The group performed 30 songs for therecording session, and as each song required sev-eral cylinders for the various voice parts, morethan 90 cylinders were used. Emsheimer wasassigned with transcribing the recordings. Wedo not know who helped him transcribe the text,but it could have been Megrelidze. Neither do

Prof. Mikhail Lobanov

we know whether Emsheimer ever finished thisproject, or whether something may have prevent-ed him from publishing the songs. His transcrip-tions remained in the Pushkin House until hewrote and asked for them to be sent to him inSweden.

As soon as he received them he passedthem to his student, Susanne Ziegler, to preparethem for publication. By this time, Emsheimerwas quite old, and could no longer realize hishopes of undertaking new fieldwork projectswith the aim of starting new research into Guriansong. He wanted to visit Georgia and find thesingers who had visited Leningrad years earlierto make new recordings using modern equip-ment, etc. Unfortunately, despite the fact thatmore than 30 years have passed since Emsheimerreclaimed his transcriptions, their publication hasstill not been realized to this day.

Gippius said that Emsheimer sensed thechanging political situation, and had he not fledthe Soviet Union in 1936, he would have beenexiled like so many other foreign specialists whohad worked in the Soviet Union. As he did notwish to return to fascist Germany, he choseSweden as his new home.

Emsheimer was trained as an ethnomusi-cologist in Leningrad; before coming to the SovietUnion he had never worked in musical folklore.The four years he spent in Leningrad were filledwith stressful work, as we can see by his tran-scriptions of Ossetian and Georgian song. Whenhe arrived in Sweden he was hailed as a greatexpert. He began working in the EthnographicMuseum, where there was a great collection ofmusical instruments.

In 1939, a joint Chinese-Swedish field-work expedition in Asia was completed. One par-ticipant was Danish scholar Henning Haslund-Christensen, who first joined the group in Mongolia

in 1928, and for the next eleven years he record-ed a great collection of folk and sacred musicusing an Edison phonograph. In Stockholm in1943, with the financial support of a Danish foun-dation, the first volume of "The Music of theMongols" was published. Haslund-Cristensen wasan ethnographer, and so he entrusted his materi-als to a musicologist and a linguist to prepare forpublication. The poetic texts were included in thebook using Buddhist graphemes, and were trans-lated into English by K. Gronbech. The musicalmaterial was prepared by Emsheimer, who tran-scribed more than 90 complex Mongolian songswith lengthy annotation on traditional Mongoliansongs and instruments. This was Emsheimer'sfirst major work in ethnomusicology, and I believethat it shows his knowledge and experience gainedin Leningrad. Emsheimer was well versed in theworks of Russian scholars on Mongolian musicand general Mongolian studies. This was quiteuncommon for a Western ethnomusicologist atthis time, and Emsheimer included references tothe many variants of Mongolian song that heknew from these Russian works.

In the anthology "The Music of the Mon-gols," the songs are grouped according to localtraditions in Mongolia's various historical provi-nces. This is similar to the structure in "PesniPinezhia," in which the material is classified thesame way, although according to village groupsrather than provinces. Emsheimer specially select-ed this method, which was different from the com-mon principles used in German, Finnish, and otherfolk music collections, in which melodies aregrouped "according to musical principles ratherthan lexicology." ("The Music of the Mongols,Part 1 - Eastern Mongolia," Stockholm, pp. 73-74).

In this collection, Emsheimer presentsmaterial in a manner that was unheard of in

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Soviet publications of the 1930s. He includesnotation of multi-versed examples in the formof "comparative scores" (this was Emsheimer'sown term). This principle became firmly estab-lished later, after analytical notation becamestandard in the Soviet Union. With this method,Emsheimer gives us a complete picture of thefirst verse, followed by variants for subsequentverses, placing them in the corresponding placesin the "comparative score.' In these later verses,he does not indicate passages that are identical.This method is certainly useful for studying versevariants, as it allows us to see the differencesclearly. However, the musical notation of suchoral traditions raises many questions, such ashow to deal with the text.

Emsheimer found himself facing a seri-ous dilemma. In the collection "The Music ofthe Mongols" includes no song texts. It is truethat the Buddhist graphemes are impossible touse with Western notation, as they are writtenvertically. However, Emsheimer could have usedphonetic transliteration in the scores. Even if itwere only approximate, it would have been bet-ter than having no texts at all.

Despite the obvious shortcomings of thiscollection, "The Music of the Mongols" is nonethe-less a great contribution to the traditional cul-ture of this nation. It is unfortunate that the sub-sequent volumes of this series were never pub-lished.

Emsheimer's subsequent work was focusedsolely on the study of musical instruments. In1949, he was appointed as director of the StockholmMusic Museum, where he continued workingfor the rest of his life. Proof of Emsheimer's suc-cess at the museum is the publication of a seriescalled "Studia Instrumentorum Musicae Popularis."

All aspects of these volumes are of the highestquality, both in terms of printing and content.During this period, Emsheimer did not writemuch. Chiefly he worked on small research arti-cles with detailed analysis of the sources, tak-ing advantage of fundamental scientific concepts.

Upon his retirement, Emsheimer returnedto the first great work of his career: Gurian songs.It was in this way that we became acquainted,although we met in person only once. In 1974,a conference on the history of music instrumentswas held in Moscow. Some of the guests expressedtheir desire to visit Leningrad. Emsheimer wasamong them. As soon as he arrived in Leningrad,he went directly to the Pushkin House archive.The entire day had been planned in advance, andmy supervisor had ordered me to leave the prem-ises. I was on my way out the door when I raninto a group of foreign guests who were hurry-ing in the direction of the phonoarchive. I wasintroduced to Emsheimer and we shook hands.Then we both continued on our way. Of course,this brief meeting did not change the officialnature of our relationship - we simply contin-ued our written correspondence.

In 1989, I received a letter from some-one at the Stockholm Music History informingme that Emsheimer had died. About two yearslater in Leningrad - or rather, St. Petersburg -Emsheimer's student, Suzanne Zeigler, came andasked me to give her the letters that Emsheimerhad written to me. She was preparing a book onEmsheimer's correspondence. I agreed gladly,but since then I have no idea whether this bookhas ever been published, or what has become ofthe collection of Gurian songs.

Mikhail Lobanov

Vahza Gogoladze has been singingGurian songs since his childhood, and hasdirected numerous choirs throughout his life-time. He is recognized as one of the greatestsurviving Gurian singers and songmasters,and in 2004 he traveled to Australia at theinvitation of Georgian ethnomusicologist JosephJordania. He now has invitations to travel toFrance and England as well, and so it seemsthat he has achieved some international recog-nition. We spoke with him about his life andhis musical activities.

Q: Can you please tell us about yourfamily?

A: Our name comes from the village ofGogoletubani in the Chokhatauri district. Mymother was from the Jibladze family and shewas a good singer. Her father was involved inthe church, and was known as a great master ofsacred chant. My father was also a good singer.He had a clear voice and sang krimanchuli. Hewas one of four brothers, and they had a greatvariety of voices: two krimanchuli singers, onemiddle voice, and one bass. My father was a car-penter and a prosperous farmer. He was arrest-ed on November 27, 1937, and after that wenever saw him again. My mother was left withher three children - two daughters and a son. Myoldest sister, Shura, sang bass. Our middle sis-ter, Margalita, like our father, sang all three partsin the regional ensemble. I sang middle voice.In short, my sisters and I made a good little team.

Q: What can you say about the histo-ry of sacred chant in Guria?

A: Despite the fact that the Soviets pro-hibited church hymns, sacred chant still man-aged to survive in Gurian singers' repertoire.Many Gurian chants were passed down to us byArtem Erkomaishvili, one of the greatest mas-ters of sacred chant. Ozurgeti has one of the old-est schools of chant. The Dumbadzes, Nakashidzes,and Chavleishvilis were all singers and chanters.Many people traveled from Chokhatauri and else-where to study song and chant with SamuelChavleishvili, for example.

In my childhood, I listened to sacred chantin the church at Shuaganakhleba. I often wentto visit my godmother at the Jikheti Convent,where nuns sang church hymns.

Once, when I was in the tenth form, mywhole class was sent to shuck corn for the col-lective farm. It was raining, and so we stoppedat the Jikheti Convent. At noontime, we heardthe sound of beautiful chanting - Meupeo Zetsatao,Movedit Da Vsvat. So many years have passedand I still remember those voices.

Q: Who taught you Georgian folk song,and what famous songmasters have you hadcontact with in your lifetime?

A: I had just graduated from school whenChokhatauri began preparing for the Ninth RepublicSong and Dance Competition. Chokhatauri's

39

"In Our Village AloneThere Were Eleven

Krimanchuli Singersat One Time"

Interview With Famous Songmaster Vazha Gogoladze

Tbilisi, 23 February 2005

Georgian Songmasters

3:

newly-formed regional choir was being direct-ed by Vladimer Berdzenishvili, a legendary Guriansinger and incomparable bass. I was appointedas his assistant. At the end of the competition,Vladimer Berdzenishvili was awarded the titleof Honored Cultural Worker, while several otherchoir members and I were given certificates.Although Vladimer and I came from the samevillage, I never knew him in my youth. He heardme sing once at a school function and said tome, "Come with me, my boy." He sang some-thing to me and asked me to repeat it, which Idid. Everything he sang I repeated… and so hebecame my teacher.

Vladimer Berdzenishvili's singing part-ner in the Georgian State Ensemble, ErmaloSikharulidze, a remarkable middle voice, was inChokhatauri at the time. The third member oftheir trio was Samuel Chkhikvishvili.

Once when I was young, Varlam Simonish-vili performed together with Vladimer Berdzenish-vili in concert. I asked Vladimer if he could pos-sibly bring Varlam to my house, saying that Iwould ask my mother to arrange a banquet forhim. Vladimer was quite surprised, and askedme how I could afford this. I told him that athome I had wine from the village of Bukistsikhe,which my aunt had sent to me. The guests came- Vladimer, Varlam, Ermalo Sikharulidze,Shalva Makharadze, Domenti Karchava, andVladimer's little son Otar. "What's this boylike?" Varlam asked, referring to Otar. "He's stillvery young," they said. "I can see that - I mean,can he sing?" Varlam replied. Vladimer said,"Start singing something and he'll join in." Varlamsaid, "You start." Otar would not sing. A littlewhile later Otar and I began singing, and Vladimersang bass with us - his voice was so sweet, youcouldn't imagine anything better.

I would also mention Shalva Makharadze,Ladiko Jincharadze, and Arsena Paichadze, allfrom Chokhatauri, and all of whom were greatsingers and choir directors. I'd like to make spe-cial mention of Artem Erkomaishvili, who camefrom a family of great singers. He was a bril-liant songmaster and singer, and a wonderful

person. I was also good friends with eminentsongmaster Vaso Makharadze.

In recent years we've lost many of them:Dimitri Imedaishvili, an excellent master ofGurian song; Shota Dolidze, a krimanchuli singer;Sandro Kalandadze, first voice; Givi Atsanelidze,who was a great singer…

Q: What can you say about the stateof Gurian song today and the way it's beingtaught?

A: No one can possibly learn, sing, orrecord everything in a single lifetime. Over theyears, only a few people have come forward withexceptional talent to learn and sing. It takes a lotof work - nothing will come otherwise. Last yearI went to Australia to teach Gurian songs. Youshould have seen how eager they were! Each ofthem wanted to learn not just one, but all threevoice parts. This is not the case in Georgia today.They learn one voice part and then they want tosing in choirs. Years ago, things were much dif-ferent. When someone had a guest, before thecornbread was ready or the meat was cooked,they would have little "practice" singing sessions.They could spend the entire night by the fire witha bottle of wine for each singer, working out vari-ants for just one or two songs. For example,Samuel Chavleishvili would go to Shuamta andtake Kotsia Shilakadze or Nikipore Chavleishvili,drop in on Ermalo and Vakhtang Sikharulidze,and spend the whole night on two or three songs.

Varlam had private students. ShalvaMakharadze also wanted to study with him buthe couldn't afford it. He and his friend DimitriImedaishvili would sneak over to Varlam's house,creep into the space under the foundation, andlisten in on the lessons. Sometimes they'd spendthe whole night there. Shalva once told me,"Sometimes the pigs would wake us up, some-times a dog's barking. We'd just lie there in thedirt."

Today we teach - sometimes we even helpour pupils out with their needs - but still they misstheir lessons, and in the end they learn nothing.

Today in Guria, people consider some-one who knows ten or fifteen songs in three voic-

es to be a "good" singer. You have to search farand wide to find someone that can really singall three parts well. For example, Otar Berdzenishvilisometimes sings with one choir in Ozurgetibecause they don't have a good bass. We callone of our basses in Tbilisi to sing with our choirin Chokhatauri when we have a concert becausethere's no one else who can sing his part. Thisis the state of things today, but in our villagealone there were eleven krimanchuli singers atone time.

Q: Can you recall any forgotten Guriansongs that you wish people still sang?

A: When people go to Guria they shouldhear Chven Mshvidoba, Maspindzelsa, ShaviShashvi, Dalotsva, Madlobeli, Tamadebs Gaumarjos,Latariis Simghera, Khasanbegura…

Dimitri Imedaishvili taught me an oldsong called Sazeimo Simghera, which I workedup with my choir. We should also revive churchhymns like Tsmidao Ghmerto, Movedit Da Vsvat,and the song Nepe-Dedoplis Dalotsva, which hasthe following text:

Glory to God! I have a drinking horn in my hand.God bless you, O groom, and you too, O bride.May you have twelve sons and may they grow up to be great heroes.I am not drunk, and I'm in no hurry to drink wine.Let's start our poetry contest quickly!Glory to God, and I'll drink again.

Q: Have you ever heard one-voiced ortwo-voiced Gurian songs?

A: Only if there are not enough singers -then sometimes Gurian song is sung in two voic-es, but only then. Otherwise, Gurian song isalways in three parts.

Q: Which would you say came first?Krimanchuli or gamqivani?

A: In the oldest Naduri work songs, wesing gamqivani. Krimanchuli is something thatdeveloped later. However, it also depends on thesong. For example, some songs really need kri-manchuli, while others need gamqivani.

Q: How were songs sung at the supra?Could you sing any song you liked?

A: Work songs were never sung at thetable, and neither were healing songs.

Q: What do you think of Surebis Naduri,the work song from the village of Surebi inChokhatauri discrict? Otar Berdzenishvilisays that this is the best naduri from Chokhatauri.

A: Yes, this is true. In the 1983 film GuriisMtebi, Krimanchuli (The Mountains of Guria -Krimanchuli) this naduri is performed by oldsingers from the Mamaladze family, who werefrom the village of Khevi.

Q: Can you share your thoughts on folkinstruments in Guria?

A: It's a sad situation. You can't find asingle chonguri maker in any of Guria's threedistricts. We still have instruments, it's true, butthere's no longer anyone who can make them.As for the Gurian soinari (panpipe), there's noone left who knows how to play. 90-year-oldVaso Makharadze remembers that his grandfa-ther used to play.

Q: Do you remember any dances fromGuria? Did you ever dance?

A: Gurians danced Perkhuli, Khorumi,Kartuli, and the Abkhazian dance Otlarchoba,which was performed together with song.

Q: We've heard that you have a fami-ly archive.

A: Yes - the most significant part of it isabout 300 photos I have pertaining to the histo-ry of Gurian song.

Interviewed by: Nino Kalandadze, GiorgiDonadze, Malkhaz Erkvanidze

Prepared for publication by: Tinatin Zhvania

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Next issue will be published in December, 2005

42

Georgian Folk Song - New Transcriptiontranscribed by

Vladimer Gogotishvili

Table songe

Aslanuri Mravalzhamieri

Georgian Folk Song - New Transcription