The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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Jeremy Foutz
“root tune” and a “root language”. Joseph Jordania has written extensively on the subject, drawing from a
wide body of knowledge including biology, historiography, manuscript studies, linguistics, speech pathology,
and history in a truly multifaceted, ethnomusicological fashion (Jordania, 2006). Evsevi Chokhonelidze also
investigates polyphonic origins in the Georgian context. In his article from the First <strong>Symposium</strong>, he explores
the intersection of pagan and Christian religious cultures in the fourth and fifth centuries and the subsequent
rise of the individual – both in religious practice and liturgical vocal polyphony (Chokhonelidze, 2002: 107-
108): “<strong>The</strong> prominence given to this individual factor caused significant changes resulting in the appearance
of different structural types of polyphony, stimulated polyphonic thinking development and the countermovement
of parts” (Chokhonelidze, 2002: 107).
As part of his presentation on the origins of Georgian vocal polyphony, Tamaz Gabisonia states that is
it is “our duty, the duty of Georgian musicologists, to select the most solid and best-substantiated models of
development of Georgian traditional polyphony out of existing hypotheses” (Gabisonia, 2004: 73).
Similar attitudes regarding ancientness are found in interviews I conducted in 2009 in central Georgia and
in Kakheti, as illustrated in the following quotation: “You know, for example, in the advertisements I know
of the western sort, you always advertise this is new. Georgians [in advertisements] very often would say, it
is old. <strong>The</strong> old vojovi, the old vine, the old – even coffee, etcetera, etcetera. So the direction of thinking is not
future, but more past. It is again a kind of defense mechanism. <strong>The</strong> future is unpredictable. <strong>The</strong> past is wellknown,
and we were powerful in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries” (Foutz, Interview subject B005, 2009).
In addition to the temporal distance, there is also a description of an experiential distance in how modern
Georgians perceive their past. As we discussed how singing was integral to the life of Georgians of the past,
one Georgian ethnomusicologist used the illustration of naduri (work songs). Instead of people singing as they
worked in the fields as they did in the past, the machines now do the singing. “Material and technical progress”,
as he described with an ironic smile. When I point out his smile, he elaborates: “It was not progress, but
regress. It was the people’s choice. People like to more comfortable, to have cars – it was [a] big mistake in my
opinion” (Foutz, Interview subject B007, 2009). He goes on to note that in many villages, these experiences are
still present and are preserved, and that people try to reconnect to village life even in urban areas. I referenced
the folk song, Tshkenosnuri, which is about riding on horseback, and knowingly asked a somewhat irreverent
question. Why not sing or write songs about riding – waiting – on the marshutka (a small bus)? After laughing,
he countered with the assertion that in the past, people sang as a community, and who could claim the riders
of a marshutka are a community? <strong>The</strong>y are strangers to each other (Foutz, Interview subject B007, 2009).
One interview subject’s experiential view of Georgian history, via translator, was stated this way. History
will never be objective, and though we all like to idealize the past, such as the time of David the Builder, we
don’t know the problems of that time. It would be a regression. Of course, one cannot live without the past,
without your ancestors, or without culture – you must find balance between past and future with an orientation
towards to the future (Foutz, Interview subject B004, 2009).
Description of traditionality and examples in the data
In the context of this paper, traditionality refers to a flexible concept of what constitutes a musical
tradition. In developing this concept, I refer to Jocelyne Guilbault’s use of the works of Alasdair MacIntyre
and Raymond Williams in her discussion of tradition in her book, Governing Sound. In her interpretation of
MacIntyre, tradition is “an historically extended, socially embodied argument” (Guilbault, 2007: 6). Without
the acceptance and participation of musicians, scholars, and other audiences in the historical practice of a