The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

<strong>The</strong> Dynamics of the Evolution of One Song (on the example of patara Saqvarelo – My Little Love)
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when the number of the performers is not sufficient; very rarely, by two or three singers who do not perform
the trio part (ex. 2).
Such a diversity of the performing forms of “Patara Saqvarelo” presents a clear picture of the changes
going on in the performing sphere of Georgian folklore in the course of the twentieth century. First of all these
changes were conditioned by the social environment of folklore music, when it was always connected with
stage, with forming large choirs as prompted by the Soviet authorities, sometimes even with the failure to
collect the sufficient number of singers and so on.
2. Structure:
<strong>The</strong> song has a couplet form. Within the couplet there are: 1. <strong>The</strong> first singer (only in the first couplet); 2.
Gadadzakhili; 3. Trio a (the musical material of the a trio is built on the melodic structure of the introduction
and b (ex. 3).
<strong>The</strong> Imeretian variant possessing the plainest musical language is the only one of all the specimens I
have analyzed, where the b portion of the trio is absent completely and is built only on the alternation of
gadadzakhili and a parts. In my opinion this simplest formula (gadadz.-a. gadadz. a…) must have been the
earliest stage of the evolution of this specimen. In general, it should be noted that in the sound recordings
and specimens written down in musical notation that are in my possession, the Imeretian variants of Patara
Saqvarelo are much simpler that its Gurian variants.
In the middle there are different variants of the formal structure (sch. 1), a trio performing once more.
<strong>The</strong> b trio part built on the intonational motifs of the a, as to its variants greatly differ even in the number of
the measure (there are variants with 4-,6-,8- and 10-measures). It is noteworthy that everywhere, where the b
part is ten-measured, its first two measures sound parallel with the gadadzakhili part. This time in the vertical
four-part texture is present (sch. 2, ex. 3).
As a rule, according to the number of measures, each part is square, but a and b parts sometimes sound
three measures longer throughout the second half of the homophonic gadadzakhili part.
Very rarely, even within one variant the composition of the couplet varies. For instance, the first and the
last couplets differ by the sequence of the parts present in the song.
Most of the couplets finish by the a trio part at the end of the song, sometimes by gadadzakhili.
3. Melodics:
In each part the melodics is descending. In the introduction and a trio part the basic melodic formulas are
represented in the b trio parts the working process on the melodic intonations is brought out.
4. Chords:
From the viewpoint of chords there are all the consonances, which, in general are characteristic of
Imeretian and Gurian music In this connection I will only note that in the comparatively plain Imeretian
variants the third parallelism is leading, while in the developed Gurian specimens the chords are constructed
on dissonance vowels.
5. Verbal Text:
Together with the form of the song I am going to touch upon the issue of the verbal text of the song. It
is no mere chance that the verbal text, given at the end of the song transcription, is not distributed equally on
the corresponding notation material.
In the process of analysis it was evident from the viewpoint of the verbal text, that the only features that
are stable are the beginning of the introducing part with one and the same text (Patara Saqvarelo or Patara
Saqvareli Khar) and the alternation of glossolalias and the verbal text in every following part (gadadzakhili