The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

Specific Features of the Polyphonic Musical Texture Transformation in Decorated Chanting
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3) When decorating the model the movements forming the stanzas become thicker and the caesuras that
separate them, turn into close or open cadences, quite often the cadence is transformed into a polyphonic
structure which levels out the caesure of the model and links the syntactic units (ex. 9 a, b);
4) <strong>The</strong> interval composition and pitch of the cadential consonances may be changed;
5) <strong>The</strong> polyphonic “clusters” present in the plain texture undergo a great transformation in the process of
decoration and become the basis for forming especially polyphonized segments;
6) In the texture of the plain style the factor of the double coupling of the interrelation between the voices,
constituting the vertical, is active: the pairs of the middle and leading voices and the middle voice and bass
part become prominent. <strong>The</strong> increase of decoration results in the tendencies towards overcoming the specific
character of voice interrelation and the polyphonic independence of the voices;
7) In West-Georgian decorated hymns there are fragments where the allegedly “canonical” principles
of the “obligatory” sounding of the three-part and the top-voice singing are violated. In these fragments the
number of the voices creating the texture is changed (ex. 9 b, 10 a-c);
8) During decoration the compositional structure of the model may also change. <strong>The</strong> dramatic com–
position of the evolution of the musical idea is more large-scale and “undulating”, than in the plain specimens,
where the flow of the idea is smoother and calmer.
8. <strong>The</strong> spatial parameters of the texture in decoration
In the process of the polyphonic transformation of the musical texture the spatial coordinates are
transformed and become more active.
<strong>The</strong> archetypical tune becomes thicker rhythmically, the sound diminution is frequent, this causes
the growth of the texture by the horizontal parameter, re-interpretation of the syntactic units and the
“multiplication” of the caesuras and open and close cadences as well.
In the process of decoration the vertical parameter also grows – the polyphonic ensemble of the voices
that have become active tries “to occupy” the maximum borders that the male voice can attain. decorated
chanting is characterized by the frequent use of the consonances of a broad interval composition, aspiration
to the mutually distanced intoning.
Crossing of the voices, so often occurring in the process of decoration is a manipulation with the indepth
co-ordinate of the texture – in the plain texture of the established cantus the boldly distinguished leading
singer (reciter), moves backward periodically and turns into the background for the middle voice, standing
out in the decorated texture. <strong>The</strong> bass part movement also becomes active and independent. <strong>The</strong> result is a
polyrelief musical texture in which the voices demonstrate polyphonic-intonational initiatives. During the
flow of the texture, by means of sounding of the characteristic, independent melodies or sub-melodies, all
the three voices “get closer” to us or “go far away”, bringing out the diversity and the multidimensional
aspect of the artistic space. It goes without saying that in three-part chants this space and its parameters are
of a corresponding specific scale.
As for the “acting” of the diagonal parameter of the texture, in the decorated chant this phenomenon is
revealed in its own way. Here there is no imitation in its classical aspect, there are only its rudimental forms on the
level of the periodical “passing over”, and “migration” of separate sub-melodies or rhythmic figures (ex. 11, 12).
In Koridze’s and Kereselidze’s decorated hymns there may be a sufficient number “of the polyphonic
“discourse” with inaccurate variants of micromelodies, periodical “recalling” of their intonational, rhythmic
and contour aspects.