The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

562
REFRACTION OF GEORGIAN FOLK POLYPHONY IN
PROFESSIONAL MUSIC
LEILA MARUASHVILI (GEORGIA)
<strong>The</strong> interrelationship between folk and professional music is of special significance since folk music
has always provided fertile ground nurturing the formation of a national identity. It is evident that the
interconnection between the two acquires a special interest when folk music is characterized by a high level of
development and a wide genre-stylistic range. From this viewpoint Georgia is a unique country, as its musical
folklore is truly poly-lingual and in its best specimens achieves a level of perfection where professional
creative mastery is present.
<strong>The</strong> principles of folk polyphony are refracted in the music of Georgian classics multifariously and
consistently; I shall try to analyze the stylistic aspects of the transformation of folk polyphony in those works
of Georgian composers, which took shape and evolved in the beginning the 1960s.
If in the works of founders of Georgian classical music folklore was used as a basic and real artisticintonational
reference point, beginning from the 1960s the transformation of folklore as a primary source
undergoes qualitative alteration and as a rule is used in an indirect form.
Examples of the evolutionary process mentioned above are quite numerous in the works of different
composers belonging to the Georgian professional school.
In order to fully understand this complex process we may refer to Sulkhan Tsintsadze’s creative work.
<strong>The</strong> polyphonic order of the composer’s thinking is revealed consistently and purposefully beginning from his
earliest opuses. However it should be noted that this process has travelled a complicated road in finding the
creative style of the composer. In the earlier quartets and quartet miniatures the composer cites the intonations
characteristic of the primary source. <strong>The</strong> author’s approach is to attempt to render the pure vocal intonation
in the instrumentation, namely, in the quartet sound. In the quartets of the 60s and 70s the composer draws
the listener’s attention only to the initial intonation of the folk specimen. For the composer the Georgian
song is not only the bearer of a certain idea but also something that generates the thematic material, the
primary intonational nucleus, which is perceived as the main dramatic element of the musical piece. Further
development is wholly associated with the composer’s creative idea. Such is the main theme of the first part of
quartet 5, its primary source being the lyrical-amorous song “Shavo Mertskhalo” (“Black Swallow”) (ex. 1).
In Sulkhan Nasidze’s works the approach to the primary folk source is different: it already begins in his
chamber symphony. <strong>The</strong> prototype of the intonational model of the work must be looked for in the archaic
strata of Georgian two-part singing. For the sake of analysis I will present a two-part theme of the main part,
which, in my opinion, is based on the specific two-part form of the heterophonic type (ex. 2).
Here the division into phrases and the descending specificity of intonation is quite clear, of great interest is
the type of two-part form per se, which creates the dissonance movement of the lower voices from the unison,
in most cases in the minor second merged in the vertical. <strong>The</strong> Khevsurian song Shavs Ludsa (Black Beer) may
be considered the prototype of this example - it is a very rare specimen of Khevsurian two-part singing. This
is what Grigol Chkhikvadze, one of the founders of Georgian folkloristics, writes, “<strong>The</strong> Song Shavs Ludsa is
more a random blending of two disconnected sounds, than the type of a two-part form, that has already taken