The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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NINO TSITSISHVILI
(AUSTRALIA, GEORGIA)
A COMPARATIVE AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF
EAST GEORGIAN POLYPHONIC SONG STYLES IN THE CONTEXT OF MIDDLE EASTERN
AND CENTRAL ASIAN MONOPHONIC MUSIC
East Georgian (Kartli-Kakhetian) traditional table songs feature specific vocal polyphonic style which
consists of two improvised and highly embellished (ornamented) melodic lines against the background of a
pedal drone. A related song style is solo work songs Orovela and Urmuli, also from the Kartli-Kakheti region.
For convenience I call this group of songs “long” songs. Analysis of the musical and performance styles of
“long” songs clearly distinguishes them from the styles of other polyphonic song genres of East Georgia,
and particularly from all the polyphonic styles of West Georgia. On the other hand, the distinctive features
of Kartli-Kakhetian “long” songs have stylistic parallels with the monophonic song styles found among the
neighbouring music-cultures of south Transcaucasia, Middle East and Central Asia. In my analysis I compared
Kartli-Kakhetian “long” songs and solo work songs with the Middle Eastern song styles and with the song
styles of East and West Georgian provinces. This comparison allowed me to conclude that Kartli-Kakhetian
table songs hold unique place among all the other song styles in Georgian traditional music as well as to show
the ways in which they can be possibly related to the monodic music-cultures of south Transcaucasia, Middle
East and Central Asia.
In order to be methodologically consistent in my comparative analysis, I have analysed and compared
musical traditions from different regions and music-cultures according to seven factors which include both
musical-syntactic elements (musical language, style) and musical-social elements (the way in which song
performances are organized, such as, for example, musical-structural relationships between the different parts
and performers of the songs):
Comparative analyses based on these seven factors shows that there is a qualitative difference between the style
of East Georgian “long” songs and all the other song genres of East Georgia (such as harvest, ritual, round-dance
songs), and West Georgia.
Factor 1: the organisation of performance
This factor includes number of people who perform a song, the distribution of roles/functions among the
performers and how these functions relate to each other. Table songs are performed by a group of men. Two of
the men are solo singers who either take turns against the rest of the group (choir) or sing simultaneously and
merge with the choir in a three-part vertical structure. Pictures (a) and (b) in Figure 1 schematically illustrate
the two forms of organisation of a performance in the table songs:
a) solo singers taking turns (singing antiphonally) against the background of a choir:
Upper solo
Lower solo
<strong>The</strong> choir