The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

New Tendencies in the Nineteenth-Century Georgian Chanting Tradition
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sostom’s liturgy rite, there are chants of the Imeretian-Gurgian mode as well; it also includes a minor requiem
and the liturgy of the First Sacrifice. For many years Andria Benashvili was the precentor of the Kutaisi
Episcopal choir. It is his activities as a precentor that this collection may be associated with. <strong>The</strong> hymns of
the Imeretian-Gurian mode are also plain specimens and their bass part, similar to the Kartlian-Kakhetian
mode, is after Benashvili.
Concerning the redactions published at the end of the nineteenth century special mention should be
made of the liturgy rite of St John the Chrysostom (Kartlian-Kakhetian mode), made four-part by the Russian
musician/composer Nicholai Klenovsky; in this specimen the national features of Georgian chanting have
completely disappeared.
At the turn of the twentieth century new redactions edited by Georgian classic composers appear. Namely,
the three and four-part variants of St John the Chrysostom’s liturgy rite (Kartlian-Kakhetian mode), recorded
by Dimitri Araqishvili and Zacharia Paliashvili, which in fact, are original works, reworked by the composers.
Georgian composers’ activities in the sphere of chanting resulted in the emergence of the non-canonical layer
of chants in Georgian sacred music. <strong>The</strong> Georgian classic composers’ free, creative approach to hymns has
been brought out by the musical analysis I have carried out.
All the four authors’ redactions, present in this paper, are original sources, each of them possessing its
own specific parameters. I think that the differences between these sources can be revealed more distinctly
on the example of one hymn.
I have selected six variants of one of the liturgy hymns Shen Gigalob (I am chanting to you), presented in
the Georgian collections mentioned above.
Let us first discuss the specimens of the plain mode
<strong>The</strong> difference between Andria Benashvili’s Kartuli Khmebi and the manuscript collection is in the bass
part. In the bass part of the hymn Shen Gigalob of Benashvili’s manuscript collection, as in the bass parts of all
the hymns in this collection, the influence of the classic European harmony can be noticed (ex. 1).
<strong>The</strong> hymn consists of the following stanzas: A, A, A 1 , B, B (contracted, serving as a linking structure),
and C (finishing structure) (ex. 2).
Five stanzas end in reiterated cadences. <strong>The</strong> terminating cadence ends on the unison A.
I have compared Andria Benashvili’s top voice of the plain mode with the first voice of Nicholai
Klenovsky’s Shen Gigalob. <strong>The</strong> analysis revealed the resemblance between these two top voices (ex. 3).
In Klenovski’s and Benashvili’s variants the top voices coincide with each other including the B stanza.
After the B-stanza the verbal text is distributed on Klenovski’s material, accordingly, the terminating stanza
is different.
In Klenovski’s variant, as in all other specimens he made four-part, the ratio of the harmonizing con–
sonances in the vertical is great.
In the verbal text the syllables are shifted, for instance, the syllable lobt is moved to the end of the stanza.
Klenovski repeats the phrase ghmerto Chveno twice and after that comes – da gevedrebit ghmerto chveno.
Klenovski’s specimen ends in G 5/3.
I have compared the canonical top voice in Dimitri Araqishvili’s and Zacharia Paliashvili’s collections
Kartuli Galoba (vol. 3). <strong>The</strong> stanza structure of the ornamented and plain specimens coincide with each other:
A, A, A 1 , B, B (constricted linking structure), c (ending structure).
In Z. Paliashvili’s and Araqishvili’s variants B-linking structure does not occur (this stanza coincides
with the same stanza of the plain mode). Like the plain specimen all the stanzas terminate in the D-A final