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82Polyphonic singing traditions in the northeastern ethnographic regions are not asdeveloped as in Kartli and Kakheti. Two-part singing dominates here. The northeasterndialectal reg ions are usually united into two groups: the Tusheti, Pshavi and Khevsuretiare generally regarded as more archaic regions (especially Khevsureti), and the Kheviand Mtiuleti are considered to be more advanced. The singing traditions of Khevsureti areof particular interest. They are traditionally regarded as the most archaic survival of theancient Georgian singing tradition (Chkhikvadze, 1948, 1961, 1964, Araqishvili, 1905,1916). This hypothesis, I think, does not take into account several very important factors.We will discuss these factors in a separate section in the second chapter, when I shalldiscuss several isolated polyphonic traditions as separate “cases studies”. Pshavi could bethe classical representative of this small group, with two-part drone singing, antiphonbetween the two soloists, major second moves of the drone, and the typical cadences onthe unison. Tusheti is known as the region of the seasonal shepherd-travelers withinteresting ties to the neighboring North Caucasian peoples, and some features of theirmusical traditions unusual among other Georgian regions.Khevi and Mtiuleti represent a more advanced region, where two-part singing iswell established and there are songs where three-part singing plays an important role.Interestingly, in the Khevi and Mtiuleti tree-part singing traditions there are obvious linkswith Svanetian traditional polyphony from the highest mountain region of westernGeorgia (Garakanidze, 1991).One more region which we have not mentioned so far, is Meskheti, in thesouthern part of central Georgia This is the only region of Georgia where (possiblymostly due to demographic reasons) the tradition of polyphonic singing beganthdisappearing during the 20 century and was finally lost in the 1970s). According to thelast survivors of the local polyphonic tradition, the Meskhetian polyphonic style wasclose to the eastern Georgian (Kartlian and Kakhetian) style, with the drone (both pedaland rhythmic), and with “long” table songs with ornamented melody (Magradze, 1986).Georgians also live outside of Georgia, in the district of Kakhi, in neighboringAzerbaijan. This region is also known as Saingilo. The Georgian population of Saingilois partly Christian and partly Moslem. The only ethnomusicological fieldwork that hasbeen undertaken in the Saingilo region was a small, two-week fieldwork undertaken bythe Institute of Literature at the Academy of Science of Georgia in 1987 among theChristian part of Saingilo. The author of this book made the only ethnomusicologicalcontribution to the fieldwork. According to the results of this short fieldwork, thetradition of polyphonic singing (in harvest songs) was still alive at least in the village ofAlibeglo in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the melodies (both vocal and instrumental)recorded during the fieldwork combined (in one part) the elements of the melody and thebass as well (Jordania, 1988b:56-57). The group of young local patriotic males wassinging new songs in the traditional Georgian style of drone three-part polyphony.West GeorgiaGoing from eastern to western Georgia, we leave behind the world of long dronesand melismatic melodic lines and enter the world of contrapuntal polyphony. Thisostensibly clear picture is not very accurate though, as the drone still plays a leading rolein western Georgian polyphony as well.