The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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Davit Shughliashvili
characteristic feature of the given dialect” (Shilakadze, 1999: 202). In the same article the researcher presents
a table of glossolalias characteristic of Georgian songs, indicating the areas where they are the most popular.
It should be noted that in spite of the great number of articles of Georgian musicologists dedicated to the
interrelation between the text and the tune, glossolalia has never become the subject of a special study. In
this respect M. Shilakadze’s small article is a very interesting beginning, and I do think it very urgent that
musicologists conduct research in this direction.
In Georgian tradition, “wordless” songs, as Georgian folk songs in general, mainly occur as specimens
of multipart (three-part) singing. A line of distinction should be drawn on the one hand between the songs
or their separate parts, where all the parts are sung on non-semantic words and syllables (ex. 1), and on the
other – the songs, in which the parts differ in this type of words and syllables or their separate parts (ex. 2).
It is the latter that I am specially interested in, because apart from the musical polyphonic texture they also
manifest verbal polyphony.
Let us remember motet, a genre that took shape in the earlier period of the development of European
polyphony; there was a special form of its performance, namely, every participating voice sang the verbal text
different in the meaning and theme and quite frequently even in different languages (Musical Encyclopedia,
1976: 693). Though there is no direct example of this phenomenon in the Georgian tradition (if we do not
take into consideration very rare instances of singing short fragments, which usually have a casual character;
ex. 3), a similar principle in performing the developed improvisation in the manner of glossolalia is quite
characteristic of the Georgian singing tradition.
It is noteworthy that in these cases every part is sung with the word-syllables characteristic of only this
particular part. <strong>The</strong>ir composition is strictly limited and is subordinated to a definite system. As an example
of this I should refer to iao uao or iriaho uruaho used in krimanchuli, they never occur in any other parts, the
same as not a single voice will repeat hem va hea, which should be sung only by the bass-part.
From this viewpoint, the presence of the system may be revealed even by only superficial observation.
A similar examination proved that in the traditional Georgian vocabulary of glossolalias the following twelve
consonants of the Georgian alphabet are never used: z, k, p, zh, p’, gh, q’, ts, dz, ts’, ch’, j (collated with
respect to the Georgian alphabet).
<strong>The</strong> most often consonants, there being: d, v, l, n, r, s, h, while t’, k’, ch, kh – are used more rarely.
Generally, of all the five vowels the vowel u occurs most seldom, though in the krimanchuli part it is
quite frequent and as a rule is used with vowel i when singing the upper sound, taking the alto. It also very
often occurs in Abkhazian (and partially in Megrelian songs), though here, as usual, not the vowel u, but the
semivowel o must be meant.
<strong>The</strong> non-semantic syllables and their combinations, formed by means of the usually used consonants,
may be divided into different groups and categories, namely:
1. Dialectal (e.g. arkhalalo – Kartli and Kakheti; Shamarera – Svaneti, vosara da – Samegrelo; Evrida
– Achara, uara dara – Apkhazeti);
2. Belonging to different genres and types (hegi-oga – used during reaping, odoia – in labour songs);
3. Sung by separate voices (iau-uao, iriaho uruaho – krimanchuli; he va hemva hea – bass part; rimtiri
riravo – gamqivani, dsrili (high-pitched voice); jo – Shemkmobari;
4. Common (delia, abarera, ranina…).
<strong>The</strong> non-semantic word which begins the so-called “wordless” song, or occurs most frequently, is often
used as the title. Though, in some cases, in spite of the absence of the verbal text a semantic word serves