Any culture, as a historically formed phenomenon, is the result of a
thorough selection of traditions and expressive means and creates an
accomplished artistic system. At the same time, any culture always has a
national coloring. That is why the treasure of the world culture is so
multifarious and multicolored. The road of the development of a culture
is so complicated and full of obstacles, that not all the nations
managed to succeed in passing the road. Some of the nations lose their
selfhood and merge into another culture, some fail to keep abreast of
the times and are lost without leaving any trace. The Georgians belong
to the race of those ancient peoples who, in spite of the hardest
historical cataclysms, not only created original culture but carried it
through the centuries and preserved its vitality and vigor.Since the
time of the Argonauts thousands of invaders have been attracted by the
country of Golden Fleece, blossoming like the mythical garden of Hecate,
the land of the cultured vine and Chalybean steel, the native land of
Medea and Amiran (the prototype of Prometheus). Naturally there arises a
question: how is it that this small nation held out against the
devastating storms assaulting it all the time during its history, when
the greatest civilizations and the most powerful empires were leveled to
the ground? The answer to this question must be sought in the
peculiarity of the psyche of the Georgians, their boundless love for
their native land, their love for freedom and their self-sacrifice,
their optimism, their great desire to save and preserve intact the
cultural achievements, customs and traditions of their ancestors.
The ancient Georgian art was represented entirely by folklore, its
trace going back into the depths of millennia. The monuments of material
culture, found during archaeological excavations, (3-2 millennia BC) -'
mythological plots painted or engraved on vessels of various shapes,
musical instruments and sculptural portraits of musicians, masked
dancers and so on, show a high level of the artistic thinking of the
people. Along with the archaeological findings the ancient written
monuments also show the existence of epical, lyrical and dramatic forms
and the diversity of genres in the archaic layers of the Georgian
folklore.
It is doubtless that the musical instruments found in Georgia (dating
back to the 3rd millenium, a stringed instrument "Changi", according to
a well-known scholar K. Zakh is similar to the eleven-stringed lyra
depicted on a Summerian bas-relief, a bone "Salamuri". (a pipe) with
three finger-holes which even today can play shepherd melodies, a bronze
figure from Stepantsminda with a five-stringed lyra in his hand, and so
on) were connected with different aspects of folklore, namely with
festive ceremonies, theatrical shows, cult and ritual dances, the
performance of ballad or epic creations. Written monuments also show the
diversity of the folklore genres. "Joyous songs" performed by the people
of the Georgian stock are mentioned in one of the Assyrian cuneiform
inscriptions (8lh century BC). According to the old Greek historian
Xenophon (4* century BC) marching songs and ritual round dances were
spread among the Georgian tribes. We would also like to mention here
that according to the same historian the representatives of the Georgian
tribes of Diauehi preferred suicide to Greek captivity. A similar
message is preserved in the Georgian folk-tales "Mikela", "The True
Word". It is rather difficult now to say anything about the poetical,
musical or choreographic aspects of the above mentioned creations, but
labor and marching songs, "Perkhulis"- round dances of a heroic
character, epic poems and ballads, the samples of instru¬mental music
with their archaic coloring, which are still preserved in different
ethnographic parts of Georgia, can be regarded as the echo of centuries.
The most noteworthy of them are some fragments of the "Amiraniani" epos
and choral and ritual "Perkhulis", round dances connected with it.
The "Amiraniani" epos is the most ancient monument of the Geor¬gian
mythology. Amiran is a hero resisting the evil forces of nature,
bring¬ing fire to people, for which he is punished and chained to a rock
in the Caucasus. The memory of people preserved some fragments of this
an¬cient epos almost without any changes, ritual "Perkhulis" dedicated
to Amiran and his mother Dali-the Goddess of hunting, "Amiran's Perkhuli"
and others. Some scenes of the hunting epos-"Bail Betkil", "Lemchil",
etc. have been preserved to this day. Some scholars think that the "Perkhuli"
marching of masked hunters, engraved on the siver bowl (2nd millenium
BC), found during the archaeological excavations in Trialeti, must be an
echo of the "Amiraniani" epos.
FOLKLORE
It is known that the genre of the epos proper had older legends and
parables as its source. And if we pay attention to the texts of
lamentations connected with the cult of the dead (the description of the
life of a deceased person, his heroic or kind deeds, etc.), we shall
easily see that one of the sources of the epic genre was connected with
lamentations.
the performance of the epos required merging of different forms. It
can be presented as a theatrical show, where some episodes are
per¬formed by the choir of singer-dancers and the intervals between
Perkhulis were filled in with a chanting narration. Some traces of such
a synthesized theatrical show were preserved in the cycle of spring
festivities known under the name of "Berikaoba" and "Qeenoba", in which
singing, dancing, poetry, instrumental music, gestures, mimics and so on
were presented in an interesting synthesis.
In a Georgian village, even today, you can hear and see magic
incantations, chants and rituals glorifying the weather deity, hymns and
Perkhulis dedicated to the Sun, curative chants to please magic powers
and other ceremonial activities. It is noteworthy that the place and
role of these pagan chants and rituals in the Georgian life till the
latest period was almost the same as scores of centuries ago. That is
why scholars suppose that the poem-songs and ritual Perkhulis of pagan
times must have undergone very little changes and are preserved almost
in their original form. This enables us to restore the unique pictures
of the past, the life of our ancestors, their spiritual requirements and
ideals of their life.
It is not difficult at all to imagine a tiny piece of land surrounded
by high mountains, on which some scores of people are gathered waiting
for the appearance of the first rays of the sun. These proud and
solemn-looking men begin a round dance-Perkhuli and in their powerful
voices sing a wonderful hymn. The described picture is a fragment from a
pagan ritual "Lile", which was connected with the cult of the sun, with
the victory of light over darkness.
Now let's imagine a child on a sick bed, at his head "bazma" (three
cone shaped candles made of pounded walnuts) is lit; the grandmother
goes round the bed on her knees murmuring magic incantations. From time
to time during this ritual either a musical instrument is played or
beautiful chants "Lullaby" or "Sabodisho" (Apologies) are sung. In the
room, decorated with pieces of colored cloth and flowers, full of the
fragrance of rose water this beautiful chanting is aimed at pleasing,
flattering and coaxing out the wicked spirits "Batonebi", that are
nestling in the body of the sick child.
Similar rituals were connected with many aspects of the life of
Georgian people. Especially rich and diverse were the cycles of spring
and summer festivities. During the Shrovetide ancient carnivals-theatralized
shows of masked "Berikas" and orgiastic mysteries connected with the
waking up (resurrection) of the mortal and restorable divinity were
performed "Chona" chant and ritual, which after the introduction of
Christianity underwent some changes and was connected with the
celebration of Easter, must belong to that period. Many rituals were
performed in honor of the members of the pantheon of pagan divinities,
among them in honor of the great Mother of Gods-Nana. The musical
accompaniment and Perkhuli performances were one of the main components
of those celebrations. It is noteworthy that in these chants and
Perkhuli songs the oldest language peculiarities and prosody are
preserved as well. In the oldest genre formations-lamentations, labor
songs (such as "Mtibluri"-the song of haymakers, "Gutnuri"-the song of
plough-man, "Tokhnuri" -the song of hoe-ing-men, "Naduri"-the song of
people working together, helping one of the farmers, etc.), in the texts
of cult chants and Perkhuli songs, philologists find archaic layers of
derivation, vocabulary, poetics, which enable them to follow the
historical processes of the development of the Georgian language.
From times immemorial the dwelling place of the tribes of the
Georgian stock was distributed in the spaces presenting striking
contrasts. Thus, the different forms of life and economy had a great
influence on the psychics, customs and traditions, religious or
cosmological viewpoints of each Georgian tribe or ethnic unit. The
difference of geographic, historical, social and economic factors
facilitated the breaking up of the Georgian base-language and creating
of many dialects, some of them even were formed as independent language
units (Zanean or Megrelo-Chanean and Svan languages). The
above-mentioned factors made an influence on the folk-lore as well. For
example, as a result of differentiation of the Georgian musical base
language about fifteen musical dialects were formed. From the point of
view of the musical language the difference between these dialects is so
great in some cases, that an ignorant listener may even perceive them as
the pieces of musical art of different nations (e.g. Svan and Kartlian,
Pshav and Gurian, Tush and Megrelian musical dialects). The same
contrasts can be seen in the art of choreography of the Georgian ethnic
units as well.
It must be mentioned, that the development of folklore art was not of
the same intensity in every ethnographic part. For esthetical thinking
of the Pshavs-Tush-Khevsurs, living in the inaccessible retreats of the
Caucasian range, the artistic expression of the word became highly
characteristic. The poetry of the Pshavs-Tush-Khevsurs is considered to
be a masterpiece of the Georgian artistic thinking. At the same time we
can not help mentioning | that the musical folklore of the mountain
people of Georgia is not on a I very high level, especially in
Khevsureti. Here a very simple archaic type I of falling-gliding down
melody is dominant.
In the ethnographic part of Guria a diametrically opposite phenomenon
occurs. It seems that in the creative process the main thing for 1 the
Gurians was the musical aspect, while the text of the song was given a |
secondary importance. Moreover, very often the song was performed with-j
out any text at all. But the musical aspect reached miraculous heights
of | development. In Gurian songs the musical idea is presented with
melody layers, which are deft, nimble, expressive, and what is more
important, I sounding in three or four voices simultaneously. In their
many-voiced songs I the interrelation of vocal parts is developed by the
principle of contrast, I which results in highly complicated and
original polyphonic forms. The I Gurian polyphonic song is an
exceptional phenomenon, which occupies a distinguished place in the
history of the musical art of the peoples of the world. The folk-lore
art, as well as everything else, underwent a certain development in the
course of history, but in the folk-lore thinking nothing was destroyed
and nothing was created all of a suuden.
In the history of the folk-lore creative activity the most important
is the period, when in succeeded in gaining freedom from the chains of
utilitarism and primitive syncretism, as a result of which the fantasy
of people acquires a powerful impulse for the incarnation of fresh
aesthetic ideals. But for these processes such poems as "The Tiger and
the Youth", "This World is Dark-colored", "I Ran into„a Quipchakxand many others would have never been created in the Georgian folk poetry;
we would never have had universally acknowledged masterpieces of folk
music and choreography such as "Chakrulo", "A Long Kakhetian
Mravalzhamier", "Khasambegura", "Chela", dances "Kartuli", "Davluri", "Gandagan",
"Khevsuruli" and many others.
Because of many historical events, and especially after the
introduction of Christianity many pagan cult chants lost their function,
underwent transformation and shifted in the new genre environment. The
same happened to a number of Perkhulis. As a result of the
transformation some of them became war-dances or heroic dances, others
became dances of lyrical-courting character or of free improvisation. It
is true that in ritual Perkhulis the separation of coryphaeus took place
in an early period, but in later periods the strengthening of individual
and lyrical principles made the personified artistic images more
distinct, and created new forms of singing and dancing. And now, we
shall dwell on the dance "Kartuli", because all the characteristic
features of mentality and nature of Georgians are clearly shown in it:
the nature of a Georgian woman-tender, refined, full of awe and high
moral virtues; the dignity of the man is emphasized his respect for the
woman, his manliness and chivalry. All this together with an original
rhythm and beautiful, expressive musical accompaniment makes the dance "Kartuli"
an unforgettable, romantic experience.
Along with the interesting compositional-contextual and plastic aspects
of Georgian dances their rhythmic foundations are also notewor¬thy. From
this point of view the rhythm of the ancient war-dance-pantomime "Khorumi"
is the most remarkable, which, unlike the other dancing rhythms,
compises a certain artistic information. That is why it can be performed
without music as well, only with the rhythmic accompaniment.
In the war-dances and the dances of heroic character the abrupt
movements and gestures of the dancers at the metrically and rhythmically
emphasized stresses are indeed the expression of manliness, courage and
heroic spirit. It must be mentioned that the unprecedented growth of
dyamics never causes exaltation and boundless ecstasy. Everything here
is balanced and controllable.
One of the peaks of the Georgian folklore art is its art of singing.
Georgian people in spite of their long-suffering history always
cherished and tenderly preserved their age-long musical language, as
they considered that losing or degrading it was equal to losing and
degrading their mother tongue. We may say with certainty that there was
a cult of singing in Georgia. The Georgian folk music, distinguished for
its many original and unique qualities, attracts particular attention of
specialists. The well-known French writer and musician Romain Rolland
wrote: "I am a musiian, I have heard songs of many peoples, but I have
never come across such magnificence." In our opinion the reason of the
attention of specialists is the originality of the national musical
language, the extraordinary stylistic features and what is the most
important the highly developed forms of many-voiced songs. Multivocality
is the most remarkable quality of the Georgian musical thinking.
The Georgian many-voiced folk-music is polyphonic by its nature. In
the musical dialects of Eastern Georgia, especially in Kartli and
Kakheti, the multi-voiced texture is mainly presented by contrasting
long Burdonic bass and a subtle, expressive, melodic movement of high
voices. Such a texture reached its highest stage of development in
drinking-songs. It was in this very genre that the singing masterpieces
such as "Chakhrulo", "Winter", "Mravalzhamier" and others were created.
In the musical dialects of Western Georgia and, especially in Svaneti,
the rhythmic synchronic movement of voices acquires the form of
alternating chords of different orders. A parallel motion is not alien
to it either. Such a texture gives the song an exalted, choral
character.
The third type of many voiced singing occurs in the musical dialects of
the lowlands of Western Georgia, in the Imeretian, Megrelian, Adjarian,
and, especially, Gurian folklore. In the songs of three-voiced and I
four-voiced texture the melody layers reach absolute independence. By |
the direction of the motion and rhythmic scheme they contrast each
other. I The improvisational developing melody layers create unusual, in
most I cases dissonant co-soundings, which give an unusual coloring to
the sing-1 ing. The Georgian polyphonic singing distinguished for its
originality, complexity and coloring is an extraordinary phenomenon in
the history of the | polyphonic music of the world. It is really unique
and its parallels can't be found in other peoples' music.
The Georgian many voiced folk-music is a kind of oasis amidst the
monadic musical cultures surrounding it. This situation gave an impetus
to a number of groundless ideas and questions: is the Georgian
many-voiced singing a result of the influence of other musical cultures
having many-voiced singing and, namely, the result of the influence of
the European many-voiced singing? The Georgian musical science denies
any influence or borrowing, as it is proved that Georgian music even in
the pagan times was many-voiced. Besides, all the terms connected with
the many-voiced singing are of the Georgian origin. There are other
arguments as well.
Georgia is the country where Christianity was adopted as a state
religion in 337, it belongs to the Eastern Christianity, that is to the
Orthodox world. In this world (Byzantium, Russia, Bulgaria, etc.) the
cultivation of many-voiced chanting began only at the end of the 17lh
century. Georgia is the only country of the orthodox world, in whose
churches many-voiced chants were performed in the 8",-9lh centuries, if
not earlier. In this respect the Georgian spiritual music precedes even
the Catholic many-voiced chants. What was the reason that the Georgian
ecclesiastic chant became many-voiced so early? There is only one answer
to it-the Georgian ecclesiastic chant inherited the traditions of
many-voiced choir performance from the pagan Georgian musical culture.
There is no other answer to this question.
The German scholar Zigfried Nadel also paid attention to this
phe-nomenon in his research "Georgishe Gesange". He gives a wide review
of the problems of the Georgian many-voiced singing, makes parallels
with different types of many-voiced singing of Western Europe, finds
some signs of typological similarity and so on. In his conclusions he
expresses the idea that the Georgian many-voiced singing comes from the
pagan age. He thinks it likely that many-voiced singing spread in
Western Europe from Georgia. It must be mentioned, that such an
authoritative researcher as Marius Schneider also shares the opinion of
the Asian and Caucasian origin of the many-voiced singing and its
spreading in Europe.
From everything, mentioned above, it becomes clear that the Georgian
many-voiced singing is an original phenomenon and only of the local and
remote origin.
The Georgian nation, which had kindred cultural relations with the
centers of ancient civilizations, used the achievements of those
civilizations creatively, but, at the same time, created and gave out
abundantly its own cultural achievements. The entity of a nation, its
place in the family of the world nations is defined first of all by the
nation's contribution. In this respect the Georgian folk art occupies an
honorable place in the history of the world culture and art.