The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

177
MANANA SHILAKADZE (GEORGIA)
GEORGIAN AND ADIGHE MUSIC IN THE CONTEXT OF
POLYPHONY (TYPOLOGICAL PARALLELS)
In the forms of “traditional musical thinking” (I. Zemtsovsky), present in the instrumental music
(instrumental tunes and song accompaniment), the type of polyphony, the forms of accompaniment, the
mode-intonational features and others are most important. This paper will deal with corresponding forms of
accompaniment in relation with polyphony that reflect the early stages of the development of instrumental
culture. I should mark in advance, that the departing point is the traditional (and not modern, though even when
constructed on the tradition) culture, whose lower chronological border can be reached by the ethnographic
material and corresponds to the situation of about the end of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century.
In Georgian music and that of North Caucasian peoples, the Adyghes among them, the leading role
is played by singing. In comparison with vocal music the role of instrumental music in less important. In
Georgian instrumental culture the much higher artistic-musical value of accompanying the song is more
noticeable.
Both in Georgian and Adyghe instrumental culture the central place is occupied by stringed instruments.
In Georgia they are plucked and bow instruments, with the North Caucasian peoples – the Adyghes among
them, they are bow instruments.
<strong>The</strong> Adyghe is a common name of the language and culture of the linguistically and ethnically related
aborigine population of the Northeast Caucasus – the Adyghes, Circassians and Kabardians. <strong>The</strong>y live in the
Russian Federation in Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Circassia. <strong>The</strong>y call themselves “Adyghe”.
Several ethnographic groups can be singled out: Bzhedughs, Abadzekh, Shaphsugh, Besleney and others,
who speak the dialects of the Adyghe language. In the 60s of the nineteenth century the greater part of
the population was resettled. Now they are considered to be dispersed ethnic groups, scattered in about 50
countries of the world.
For a typological comparison I have taken the early forms of accompaniment, accordingly, the genres in
which these forms are supposed to occur.
<strong>The</strong> old Georgian terms shebaneba // dabaneba are derived from the word bani. According to Ivane
Javakhishvili in the Georgian translation of the Old Testament (eleventh cent. – turn of the twelfth cent.) the
term shebaneuli denoted the harmonious adjustment, combination of voices (Javakishvili, 1938: 302-303).
<strong>The</strong> same scholar concludes “… originally bani, in fact, was not so much the name of a definite low-pitched
voice as the name of accompaniment, voice adjustment (shebaneba) or combination of voices in general. It
became the name of the low-pitched voice after the three-part singing-chanting had emerged” (Javakhishvili,
138: 305). In this connection he emphasized one important point – the interrelation between the terms bani and
ebani, their sound and semantic similarity (Javakishvili, 1938: 315).
Accompaniment is the primary and basic function of Georgian stringed instruments. Its origin is
associated with the early stages of the evolution of the epic (heroic and historical verses) genre and their
performing traditions, which have been preserved in the highland regions of eastern Georgia until recent times
(Shilakadze, 2008). Georgian material revealed the forms of instrumental accompaniment corresponding to