The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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Nino Tsitsishvili
Factor 3: scales
“Long” table songs are based on the combination of tetrachordal scales and the scales of fifth diatonic
(Gogotishvili, 1983). Tetrachordal scales are found in the monodic music of Middle East, Armenia,
Azerbaijan. Scales of the “fifth diatony” were observed and analysed in Georgian songs by Vladimer
Gogotishvili, and they are characteristic of the polyphonic music. I cannot go into more details in this paper,
but would like nevertheless to stress that east Georgian table songs contain both the monodic scale elements
and the polyphonic scale elements. East Georgian solo work songs are often based on tetrachordal structures.
All the other song styles in East and West Georgia have a scale structure different from that of the “long”
songs, so they are not tetrachordal, which is, they do not contain elements of the scales characteristic of Middle
Eastern-derived monodic music.
Factor 4: the type of melody
Unlike the melismatic and ornamented melodic style of the “long” songs, the melody in all the other song styles
is based on non-melismatic patterns. This is one of the most significant aspects of difference between “long” songs
and other song styles in Georgia.
Factor 5: rhythm
In “long” (table and solo work) songs freely improvised and changing rhythmic groups can be found.
Rhythm in all the other songs consists of regularly accentuated rhythmic groups which are repeated throughout
a song.
Factor 6: metre
According to factor 6 the other song categories of East and West Georgia also differ from east Georgian
“long” songs by their regular, metric time organisation. Most of these “other” songs are in regular two-beat,
four-beat or mixed meters. “Long” songs are usually based on free meter.
Factor 7: the form
“Long” songs, in difference from all the other song styles in Georgia, use non-repetitive non-strophic
forms based on a succession of musical sections of various duration and harmonic-melodic content. <strong>The</strong> form
of songs unfolds through the weaving of ornaments and often gradually rises in pitch. Like the rhythm, the
form of a song does not depend on the form of the lyrics; a musical section may often end at a cadence before
the end of a text line (and the meaning) of the lyrics. All the other song genres are largely based on symmetric,
or at least, repetitive forms with small rhythmic, melodic and harmonic variations. However, some genres,
which were developed by the mastersingers in some province of West Georgia, have complex non-symmetric
forms (Tsitsishvili, 2005: 172-179). Laments also have improvised form but they do not contain melismatic
type of ornamentation.
<strong>The</strong> comparative analysis which I only briefly presented here shows that there are substantial stylistic
differences between the Kartli-Kakhetian “long” songs on the one hand and the other song styles of East and
West Georgia, on the other hand.
Most importantly for my paper, East Georgian table songs show typological parallels with the monodic
singing style of Middle East and Central Asia. Parallels are particularly clear in case of East Georgian solo
harvest song genres Urmuli and Orovela. Polyphonic table songs too share some features with the monodic