Georgian Chant

Georgian chant specialist John A. Graham will host a series of workshops and lectures at locations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Please spread the word!

 

 

 

Paper Titles:

Paper Abstracts:

 

1) Mnemonic Devices and the Art of Variation in Georgian Chant

Abstract:
Testimony from several chant preservationists including Razhden Khundadze and Pilimon Koridze suggests that the structure of western notation remained severely limiting as a descriptive medium for Georgian chant during the preservation movement in the late 19th century. Given this early warning, the transcriptions in question must be viewed not as accurate representations of the oral chant tradition, but as important evidence pointing to a sophisticated, pre-existing oral mnemonic and pedagogical system. Characteristic melodic fragments tied to the Georgian Oktoechoi system coupled with an observable patterning in three-voiced harmonization techniques reveal fascinating intersections with studies in oral tradition and theoretical mnemonic models from medieval Gregorian and Byzantine chant studies.

 

2) You Are the Vineyard: Divergent Performance Practices in 21st Century Georgian Chant

Abstract:
In the last decade, the revival of traditional polyphonic church chant in Caucasus Georgia has been part of a growing national re-identification with traditional notions of ethnic and cultural past. Performance practices of Georgian chant range from highly rarified western-influenced choral styles to rough, neo-traditional folk renditions that purport to maintain pre-Russian musical influences. Recently, new technologies have made the earliest gramophone recordings of Georgian folk music more accessible, which may help chant revivalists pair folk-singing styles and unique tuning systems with surviving chant manuscripts. Through an analysis of the popular hymn, Shen Khar Venakhi (You Are the Vineyard) as sung in Russia, America, and in various Georgian church choirs, this paper addresses questions of political and musical influence through the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

3) Turning Back a Page: Georgian Chant in the Digital Era

Abstract:
Except for the technologies of transmission, the revival of Georgian ecclesiastical music in the late 20th century bears a striking resemblance to a similar, late 19th century chant preservation movement championed by such public figures as Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli, and Alexandre Okropiridze. In the 19th century, portable pianos, transcriptions, and printing presses accompanied the first gramophone recordings of church chant as the essential methods of transmission. In the 21st century, cell-phone ring tones, mp3 files, and computer generated transcriptions are transmitted through internet mediums such as the social-networking site Skype. This paper assesses the effects of these new modes of musical transaction on the modern revival of Georgian church chant.

4) Zakaria Paliashvili: the use of Traditional Chant Themes in early Georgian Opera

Abstract:
At the turn of 20th century, Georgia’s most famous composer Zakaria Paliashvili was studying composition with Sergei Taneyev in Moscow. The compositional influences in encountered there, including new concepts for the integration of folk and liturgical music elements, associated with the Moscow Synodal School and others, influenced his major works including the Liturgia (1911), and operas, Abesalom da Eteri (1919) and Daisi (1921). But Paliashvili’s experiments with arranging traditional melodies from Eastern Georgian angered chant preservationists. Through an analysis of the scores as well as the known correspondences between Paliashvili and traditional chanters, this paper seeks to highlight Paliashvili’s unique approach to arranging indigenous folk and liturgical music for western music genres.

 

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