The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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MAKA KHARDZIANI (GEORGIA)
ON THE CHANGE OF THREE-PART SONGS INTO ONE-PART SONGS IN GEORGIAN
TRADITIONAL MUSIC (RACHA AND SVANETI)
<strong>The</strong> last century witnessed great cataclysms in Georgia which had a great influence on traditional
music. Of course, traditional music is supposed to undergo “permanent changes”, but it can never get used
to the changes to the principles that regulate these “transformations”. Understandably, here I mean Georgian
traditional music, which has experienced both the positive (e.g. improving living conditions of man,
mechanization of the working process) and negative (totalitarian ideology domineering over every sphere of
people’s activities and thinking), events that took place in public life; all of which found specific expression in
the character of the evolution of traditional music.
It is my goal to define what kind of changes were caused by the new tendencies in public life and how they
influenced the traditional thinking of the communities living in the mountainous regions of western Georgia.
I shall focus my attention only on one issue- the superseding of polyphonic forms of music by monophonic
forms; my paper will be based on the examples of the highland regions of western Georgia, Racha and Svaneti.
It is generally accepted that the full functioning of traditional music (or the music of oral tradition) depends on
several factors: 1) heredity, linking the present with the past; 2) variability, nurtured by the people’s creative impulses
and 3) selectivity, i.e. selecting the forms [not sure of meaning] the specimen that supports existing inner principles.
Unlike the composer’s music, which the public receives in a ready-made form and which usually is not subject to
any changes, folk music gets its traditional character by the re-fashioning and re-creation by the public (Grove, 1995:
693). It is a result of this “permanently changing” process that in different parts of Georgia folk songs are still being
created, both three-part and homophonic variants of the most ancient three-part songs accompanied by a musical
instrument. It has been attested that such cases are most frequent in the highland regions. This time I am going to
dwell upon Rachan Qurshao, Sanadiro (hunting song), Kvatsikhiselo Ivane (Ivane of Kvatsikhe), Svan Dala kojas
khelghvazhale, Bail Betkil, and Simghera monadireebze (a song about hunters). I have compared different variants of
these songs, classifying them into three groups: 1) three-part specimens without instrumental accompaniment (audio
ex. 1, 4), 2) three-part specimens with instrumental accompaniment (audio ex. 2, 5, 8) 3) homophonic specimens
with instrumental accompaniment (audio ex. 3, 6, 9). My paper aims to present the process of changing three-part
songs into homophonic ones in its dynamics, determining the reasons for this process and understanding its nature.
Those who carried out research into the syncretic nature of the earliest period of traditional music
agree that the most ancient forms of traditional music were based on collective activity, and were choral.
According to Garaqanidze, the two-part structure originated from the ancient tradition of responsorial singing
(Garaqanidze, 1998). Some scholars go even further, considering the dialogue to be the primary source of
forming polyphony (Zemtsovsky, 1988, 2006; Jordania, 2006). Besides, the ancient origin of the round-dance
performance is also beyond doubt.
<strong>The</strong> first-group of songs that I have analyzed, are based on responsorial singing, the soloist’s part being
followed by the alternation of two choirs. Such songs are performed with round-dance, without instrumental
accompaniment. <strong>The</strong>y have a strongly pronounced syncretic character (audio ex. 1, 4, 7). In the second group
I have united three-part songs, performed with instrumental accompaniment, since, as most Georgian scholars
agree, the instrumental part must be a later addition to the singing specimens. This group comprises two subgroups:
a) songs, which differ from the most ancient variants only by adding the instrumental accompaniment.