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who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

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192Unlike <strong>the</strong> <strong>first</strong> case, when we had a monophonic melody absorbed by apolyphonic culture, in this case we have a song from a polyphonic culture (Georgia)absorbed into ano<strong>the</strong>r polyphonic culture (albeit into a totally different polyphonicculture of sub-Saharan Africa). So <strong>the</strong> difference between <strong>the</strong> original and <strong>the</strong> newAfrican versions (if any) is expected to be subtler. Indeed, <strong>the</strong> result of <strong>the</strong> natural“acculturation” of <strong>the</strong> song is very interesting. Those <strong>who</strong> can read music please look at<strong>the</strong> transcriptions of both versions. Two top parts of <strong>the</strong> original Georgian version of thissong are moving in parallel thirds, and as sub-Saharan African traditional polyphony isheavily based on <strong>the</strong> parallel flow of parts (as you may remember from <strong>the</strong> <strong>first</strong> part ofthis book), <strong>the</strong> original parallel thirds have been accepted without any change. The basspart was different. In <strong>the</strong> Georgian version <strong>the</strong> bass is a functional moveable drone, and itmoves quite actively, following <strong>the</strong> European TSD harmonic system (let us rememberthis is an urban song). Drone polyphony is not a natural part of <strong>the</strong> “musical grammar” ofsub-Saharan polyphony, so in <strong>the</strong> African version of this song <strong>the</strong> original Georgiandrone is substituted by a different part, which moves in a parallel motion toge<strong>the</strong>r with<strong>the</strong> two top parts.So, again, if we look at what <strong>the</strong> Cewntral African women are singing and howare <strong>the</strong>y singing, <strong>the</strong> answers to <strong>the</strong>se two <strong>question</strong>s will tell us completely differentthings. The answer to <strong>the</strong> <strong>question</strong> “what are <strong>the</strong>y singing?” (Georgian urban song) istelling us that <strong>the</strong>re must have been some contacts between <strong>the</strong> African community andfaraway Georgia (in this particular case <strong>the</strong> contact was very sporadic). The <strong>question</strong>“how are <strong>the</strong>y singing this song?” is informing us about <strong>the</strong> main principle of Africantraditional polyphony – singing in parallel motion of all parts, often in parallel thirds ortriads. In this case again, after <strong>the</strong> song from ano<strong>the</strong>r culture entered <strong>the</strong> newenvironment, it has been “absorbed” by <strong>the</strong> receiving culture according to <strong>the</strong> intrinsicrules of <strong>the</strong> receiving culture. Although I am not aware of many such cases from sub-Saharan Africa, I am pretty sure that most of <strong>the</strong> songs from different cultures that wereabsorbed in sub-Saharan African cultures would have undergone somewhat similarchanges.(3) Of course, this kind of borrowing does not necessarily contain Georgian music(as a receiver or as a donor). The next case comprises an interesting interaction of Araband Polynesian musical cultures. In his letter from <strong>the</strong> 19 th August 1986, one of <strong>the</strong>leading experts of Polynesian culture and history, Thor Heyerdahl wrote to me about avery interesting case (in fact, group of cases) when <strong>the</strong> monophonic songs from Arabiancultures were absorbed by <strong>the</strong> polyphonic Polynesian culture. Unfortunately, <strong>the</strong> letterdid not contain <strong>the</strong> musical transcriptions, but fortunately, <strong>the</strong> description of Heyerdahl isquite eloquent:“On my visit to Easter Island at <strong>the</strong> beginning of this year we managed to recordon tape a number of choirs performing in three-part harmony, and some of <strong>the</strong> songscould easily have been mistakes for melodies from <strong>the</strong> Arabian world, while <strong>the</strong>y werecompletely different from anything performed elsewhere in Polynesia”.In this case as well, <strong>the</strong> <strong>question</strong> what are Polynesians singing (Arabian stylemelodies) informs us about <strong>the</strong> cultural/trade contacts of Polynesians with <strong>the</strong> farawayArabian culture, and <strong>the</strong> <strong>question</strong> how are <strong>the</strong>y singing informs us about <strong>the</strong> intrinsic

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