The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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Manana Shilakadze
different stages of its evolution: 1) emphasizing the basic consonance (fourth); 2) showing the basic harmonic
functions (after the 2 nd or 7 th degrees of the mode have appeared in the accompaniment); 3) after quite a long
time the instrumental transcription of the song in the form of the accompaniment is attested (Shilakadze,
2007: 221-224)
<strong>The</strong> initial form of accompaniment – showing the basis of the mode on the stringed instrument (first on the
two-stringed instrument in Georgia) – occurs in the form of the consonances (the fourth) produced by the open
strings as can be seen on the example of the panduri in the highland dialects of eastern Georgia, subsequently
three sounds and still further, after the appearance of the four-stringed instrument, as four-sound accords in
the complete and disintegrated forms.
<strong>The</strong> musical characteristic feature of Adyghe music is zhyu – vocal (choral) accompaniment of a soloist
or an instrumental tune, constructed on glossolalias. Zhyu is considered the marker of the identity of the
Adyghe musical culture. I should add that it is a manifestation of “the traditional musical thinking”. Zhyu
(zhu // ezhyu in the Adyghe, ezhu in Kabardian), as an informant explains, means “accompanying by a voice”,
“accompanist”, “accompanying singing by playing an instrument” (informant Khavpachev Khasan, born in
1929. Kabardia, the Urvani District, the village of Kakhun. A journal of a business trip to Kabardia, 1979,
book 1, Musical Archives of Iv. Javakhishvili Institute of History and Ethnology). Functionally zhyu is a vocal
accompaniment of an instrumental tune, an independent melodic formation. It is considered to be a simple
melodic-rhythmic structure. “Zhyu is syncretism of the vocal and instrumental sources, performed by a voice
(voices)” (Sokolova, 2004: 156-166). <strong>The</strong> zhyu tradition is especially firmly preserved with the Shapsughs, but
as the informants say, it was an integral part of any tune. By its essence, nature zhyu is typologically analogous
to the Georgian shebaneba (droning undertone).
In this case I am interested in the latter meaning and the musical material it is reflected by. <strong>The</strong> early forms
of the instrumental zhyu is represented in the repertoire of the Adyghe bow instrument – the shitcha-phshin,
namely in the specimens of the devotional-ritual genre. <strong>The</strong> traditional Adyghe bow instrument shitchaphshin
(Adygea, Kabardia) phshine – pshinner (Karachai-Circassia) is two-stringed, with the fourth tuning.
(Currently, in Kabardia four stings are used, whose modes are: 1) d-g; 2) d-a; 3) a, d, g, c).
<strong>The</strong> genres of the Adyghe musical culture are multifarious. Traditionally the epic genre has always
occupied a significant place. In the epic genre the Narth legends with the prosaic (Harth khibar – the story
of Narths) and the singing (Narth pshinale) forms may be distinguished (Gutov, 1981: 6). <strong>The</strong> latter is often
accompanied by a musical instrument. <strong>The</strong> word phshinale is derived from the word phshine // phshina //
phshin and means a sound, voice, an instrument or a group of instruments in general.
<strong>The</strong> phshinale is performed to the accompaniment of an instrument or an instrumental ensemble (some
phshina and the rattle – phkhadsch), also without the instrument, by a soloist and the choir (a capella). <strong>The</strong>
choir zhyu joins in at the end of every verse line (or half a line) and is performed as a refrain and is constructed
on nom-semantic words (ua, rira, ay-ha-ha, e-ra-sha, e-ray-da and others).
A new stage in the study of the traditional Adyghe music was an academic edition in many volumes
of Folk Songs and Instrumental Tunes of the Adyghe (I – 1980, II – 1981, III – 1986, in Russian), which
represented all the Adyghe musical dialects (Shapsugh, Bzhedukh, Kabardian, Circassian), songs and tunes.
<strong>The</strong> basic form of the polyphony of Adyghe music is drone two-part songs as well, in which the soloist,
the choir and the instrument are participating, where in comparison with the parts of the soloist and the choir,
the part of the instrument is more developed (Chich, 1984: 159, Matsiutin, 1953: 88-90).
<strong>The</strong> Narth epos and songs, whose genre differentiation is based on their everyday function, belong to the