Rusudan Tsurtsumia - International Research Center For Traditional ...

Georgian Polyphony in a ModernSocio-Cultural Context633self-expression; it is a form of dialogue with the tradition.. This dialogue helps themto cognize themselves, for some it is a job quite often done without any remuneration.b) Modern Georgian Ethnomusicians are also active consumers. Modern Georgian“ethnomusic” (this term in Georgia covers new fusion genres between folk andpopular musical styles) started in the 1970s, with the ensemble “Orera”, which arrangedtraditional multipart songs in pop-music style. It was a sphere of the interrelationshipof folklore and variety music (this is how popular music was called in theSoviet Union), which was never studied in the Soviet epoch. In Georgia this issue wastouched upon only by Orjonikidze (1978:244-264). In the 70s, of the Russian scholarsV. Konen wrote about the importance of Georgian variety music for the understandingof Georgian polyphonic music in the Soviet Union (Konen, 1975:394-9).In the 80s there was also a precedent of forming a Georgian “Ethno-jazz” (“Adio”band) which was followed by new quests at the beginning of the new century (project“Shin”). The experiment was founded on a principle similar to the creation of musicalstructures in folklore and jazz. In the consciousness of these musicians Georgianpolyphony is not “a sign to recognize the national attribution” (Orjonikidze) but apossibility to express individual artistic will; and the interactivity of “ethnohearing”and “ethnopsychics” results in a new musical-aesthetical value.Another artistic realization of modern Georgian ethnomusic is the festival “Artgene”,whose organizer, the pop-musician Zumba considers himself to be anethnomusician and it is his aim to activate the dormant genetic memory of teenagersfond of pop-music. I think that to achieve his aim he has found the best method.The anonymously created music of the oral tradition was called “ethnomusic”,but today the new ethnomusic has an author. If “the ethnic” category is universal,then this tendency must be viewed as the modern form of the concrete manifestationof ethnic combinations and infinite multiformity” (Zemtsovsky, 2005:25); for its partit corresponds to the problem of the ethnic identification of an individual.There is a considerable difference between a folklore ensemble singer and a modernethnomusician. The former, like a classical music performer, makes music withinthe limits of the given text and at the best, by means of a new interpretation of thistext achieves self expression; the other, like a composer or a jazz musician creates atext of his/her own, in which he/she aspires to implementing his/her artistic will. Inspite of this fact both of them –singers of a folklore ensemble and ethnomusicians –are perceived as active consumers of folklore.2) I give the name Passive Consumers to the army of those listeners, whoenthusiastically fill the halls at folklore concerts and according to their own system ofvalues order suitable production. This group, consisting of representatives of variousstrata of society, are the customers whose demands are met by the active consumers(performers).Today “the consuming value” of multipart singing in Georgia is very high. Itsvalue is further enhanced by society’s charging it with symbolic significance, whichmeans that multipart singing is one of the most important attributes of the originality