The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

On the Change of Three-Part Songs into One-Part Songs in Georgian Traditional Music (Racha and Svaneti)
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For instance, Rachan Mindor-mindor, with the chianuri (stringed bowed instrument) accompaniment and Sa–
nadiro (without accompaniment), Kvatsikhiselo Ivane (with the chianuri) and Qurshao (without accompa–
niment), Svan Dala kojas khelghvazhale (with the chianuri and without) and so on. According to V. Akho–
badze, these songs are in fact the same songs, sung in a new manner, and not the new ones” (Akhobadze, 1957:
22), and b) songs, in which the instrument performs the soloist’s function; they are sung without alternation
between two choirs, and are performed without the round-dance. <strong>The</strong>refore, the specimens of group a express
the first stage of the changes introduced in the most ancient songs, while the songs of group b represent the
following stage of the changes. In them the instrumental part is inserted in such a natural manner that it changes
the structure of the song and makes it lose its round-dance character.
<strong>The</strong> 3 rd group of the songs mentioned above, includes specimens of solo songs accompanied by a musical
instrument. Informants from Svaneti and Racha say that such songs are the most recent (audio ex. 3, 6, 9). <strong>The</strong>y
basically retain the musical content and emotions of the ancient three-part variant, a certain closeness is felt in
their melodies as well, though freedom in the improvisation both in the verbal and musical texts is quite obvious.
<strong>The</strong> verbal text is much longer and elaborate, performers may render it in a free form enriching it with the details
they know, and the same can be said about the melodic side, which, due to the improvisatorial talent of the
performer, may undergo such changes that it would be hard to identify the primary source (for example, Svan
Dala kojas khelghvazhale (audio ex. 1, 2, 3), Bail Betkil (audio ex. 4, 5, 6), Simghera monadireebze, Rachan
Shavo Qurshao (audio ex. 7, 8, 9) and others).
In the Racha province of such improvisers the most famous was Osia Metreveli. As Tornike Skhiereli,
a young descendant of Osia Metreveli, who was born and brought up in Racha, and is a great expert on
Rachan musical folklore on his own right told me, Osia Metreveli sang almost all Rachan songs as soloist,
with the accompaniment of the chianuri (interview, 2010). Of such performers in Svaneti David Niguriani is
well-known; in materials recorded during my fieldworks he performed quite a few three-part Svan songs in
monophonic, solo versions, accompanied by the bowed chianuri.
It is interesting to consider what caused the emergence of the homophonic (solo) variants of three-part songs,
and how they gained popularity in people’s everyday life: 1) One of the reasons for performing a three-part song
as homophonic is the lack of voices at the moment of performing. As we know, fieldworks to the highland regions
of Georgia were regularly undertaken during the summer, when most of the young people were away working
and members of the fieldwork often could find only women, children and old people at home. According to
Tornike Skhiereli, in such cases, the old people tried to perform three-part songs in solo, homophonic versions.
<strong>The</strong>y sang one part (middle, the leading part of the song), and the lack of other parts was supplemented by the
musical instrument, which could perform all the parts, including the absent bass part and the top parts. If it was a
success, such a version would became as popular as the three-part one; 2) It is noteworthy that the greater part of
the above-mentioned solo-homophonic specimens are created on the basis of very well-known and popular threepart
folk songs. <strong>The</strong>refore it can be presumed that creating such versions was prompted by the wish of separate
singers, who had a unique talent of improvisation, to share “the possession” of the song and express their own
feelings in them; all-this can be more successfully achieved by non-group, more intimate music-making, by a solo
performer with the self-accompaniment of a musical instrument. <strong>The</strong>refore, originally it was the “compulsive”
turning of a three-part song into a homophonic one that caused the fact that an individual, when performing the
song, was able to realize the possibility of revealing his or her creative potential which, finally, resulted in creating
the highly artistic specimens of homophonic songs, accompanied by a musical instrument.
As we can see, both cases were caused by the changes that had taken place in the social environment. In
the first case it is a syndrome of modern times – when there is a demand in society, and certain institutions
which should meet such a demand and record during fieldworks surviving monuments of non-material culture