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

79According to a common belief of Georgian ethnomusicologists, this kind of threepartdrone polyphony evolved from two-part drone polyphony with alternating mainsingers, when the two main singers started singing some sections together, graduallyincreasing these sections. As a matter of fact, in a few of my earlier publications Isuggested that the enigmatic name of the most famous East Georgian table song“Chakrulo” represents this historical evolution from a two-part (alternating) to a threepart(combined, “embraced”) singing of two lead singers. The term Chakrulo literallymeans “embraced”, of “tied together” (Jordania, 1981, 1984, 1989).Although the base is a pedal drone in eastern Georgian “long” table songs, it doesmove, leading to key changes (modulations). These occasional base moves are extremelyimportant for the overall form of a song. These key changes, or modulations, make up themain tonal body of the table song. For example, the tonal body of the famous table song“Chakrulo” consists of the following modulations (indicating only the key changes): G –E – F# – G# – A# – G# – F – G – A – B. These base movements are the most stableelement of East Georgian table songs, as they are performed by a big group of singers inunison and are less prone to any changes and improvisations.These modulations are one of the most fascinating elements of East Georgiantable songs, as they are relatively rare among traditional polyphonic cultures. Aslanishviliwas the first to investigate this important sphere (Aslanishvili, 1970). I have dedicatedmy 1982 PhD thesis (Jordania, 1982) to them, and they deserve to be discussed at leastbriefly.Modulations can go both ways – downwards and upwards. More varieties occurduring downward modulations. Downwards modulations can bring the key a majorsecond, minor and major third down. Upwards modulations are almost exclusively by themajor second up. Two more complex modulations – by the minor second down and theminor second up - happen only in another famous eastern Georgian “long” table song –“Long Kakhetian Mravalzhamier”. Here are the “harmonic skeletons” of twomodulations that take place in East Georgian table songs: (1) minor third down (from Gto E). This modulation is prepared by the specific melodic formula in the top part, singingthe phrase from the octave to the fifths of the future scale, and (2) minor second up (fromG to G#). This modulation involves complex chain of chord progression from G, A, B,F# and finally G#:Fig. 2. Modulation from G to E tonal centre