The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

466
Baia Zhuzhunadze
(cadential) tone. Araqishvili’s variant abounds in melismas. A great number of melismas in Araqishvili’s
above collection is characteristic of all the hymns, which scholars explain by the influence of folk singing (see
David Shugliashvili paper from the 2006 symposium collection). As for the second soloist in Araqishvili’s
specimen it is less developed than Karbelashvili’s version. With Paliashvili the intonational material is
presented in the alto and tenor parts, but not in their precise form (comp. ex. 4, 5 and 6).
Of all the specimens, presented here, only two satisfy the canonical requirements, namely, the specimens
of A. Benashvili’s plain mode and the Karbelashvilis’ ornamented mode. As has been said above in Nikolay
Klenovski’s redaction the national perimeters of Georgian chanting are completely gone.
In N. Klenovsky’s and Z. Paliashvili’s redactions all the parameters, enumerated below, and only a few of
A. Benashvili’s manuscript collection are transformed.
1. <strong>The</strong> syllables of the canonical text are shifted, which changes the canonical interrelation between the
words and the tune;
2. <strong>The</strong> canonical three-part singing manner is upset by the addition of the fourth (or sometimes more)
voices;
3. Interference with the canonical top voice, removing important movements or inserting their own (the
author’s) intonational material;
4. Upsetting the principles of the original phrases, which causes a radically different interpretation of
the hymn;
5. <strong>The</strong> voice-leading, not typical of traditional Georgian chanting, worked out by the composer’s own
taste; it reveals the influence of the European choral style;
6. A considerable influence of the European functional system on the modal thinking;
7. <strong>The</strong> specific character of the choir stemming from the purely European traditions and due to it, shifting
the upper voice (canonical top voice) to an unusually high register.
<strong>The</strong> analysis of only this hymn clearly shows that in spite of the discussion of the artistic level of any of
these redactions, any interference, not envisaged by the liturgical canons, introduces very important changes
not only into the structure of the hymn, free of the superpersonal, individual specificity, but also its spiritual
content as well, as in all the cases the emotional content of music falls under the influence of the editor’s
style and spiritual energy.
<strong>The</strong>refore, though both Araqishvili and Paliashvili, composers on one hand and experts of Georgian
traditional music on the other hand, when editing the original chanting tunes tried to preserve the churchsinging
tradition, in the process of creative work a different approach emerged. As a result of the abovementioned
processes two independent spheres can be observed in the chanting tradition of nineteenthtwentieth-century
sacred music – liturgical per se and concert a cappella versions of the ancient choral art
originated from the divine service chanting. Though it is true that the national features are preserved distinctly
in the Georgian classics’ redactions, the use of the expressive methods of Georgian professional music
during the editing process caused “the shifting” of canonical genres from the sphere of divine service into
the liturgical-concert sphere.
<strong>The</strong> artistic value of these redactions demands a special study. <strong>The</strong> past century proved that of all the
redactions I have discussed above up to this day, only Z. Paliashvili’s redaction has retained its significance,
which, in its turn, was performed in Tbilisi as well. Now it arouses a much greater interest in foreign
performers (Holland, USA), which is not a mere chance, as Paliashvili’s redaction of the “liturgy rite“ is
still considered to be one of the best creations of the classics of Georgian music, and his variants of Georgian