weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 53
Weaving Voices in the literal sense: weaving while singing
The strongest moment of encounter between a Georgian song and our
Weaving Voices project occurred when we were working on Khert’lis Naduri.
This moment has already been mentioned by Rosa Smits in the chapter
she wrote for this book, but we’d like to come back to it to shed some light
on it from another angle.79 As a reminder, we learned the Khert’lis _Naduri
spinning song during our first work session in Malérargues (France) in
November 2022. This song comes from Adjara, a region in south-west
Georgia, not far from Turkey.
In Malérargues, we tried to sing it in Georgian, with the lyrics used by
the singers of the group Mzetamze. Other versions circulate in Georgia,
sometimes with completely different lyrics. The group Mzetamze, have
recorded different versions of this work song. In the first version recorded
in the studio, the group that responds to the soloist does not sing the same
words as she does.80 By comparison is a recording made by the same group
in concert some years later, they do.81 To facilitate our learning process,
Laurent decided to use this second recording, in which each verse is sung
twice as a reference, rather than the version recorded in 1996 which included
different questions and answers.
I still have respect for you.
I drove the oxen to the well,
The red-horned ones.
The girl I’m meeting has hair down to her ankles.
The spindle hurt my hands.
I’d like the spindle to break.
If we go back to the original context of this song, we can say that the text
is not the most important thing: the women sang this song during long
evenings when they spun for several hours in a row. If the different verses
do not unfold a narrative with a beginning, middle and end, it is simply
because the singers used any verse they could remember, as long as it had
the right number of syllables. More than the text, what is important is to
hold on for the duration and keep the rhythm, so that the work is effective.
This song is in 12-8, or 4 ternary beats. The verses are 8 syllables long.
However, a small margin of freedom is allowed in the number of syllables in
the verses: for those that have only 7, a final ‘o’ is added, which counts as a
beat and allows the metre to be respected.
In the versions performed by Mzetamze and other Georgian groups, the
text is clearly a compilation of fragments of different origins: some verses
relate directly to the activity of weaving, while others are borrowed from
love songs. The whole is not very coherent, and the words come from
several protagonists: it is easy to see that this is a collage. Here, as in many
other Georgian songs where it is common to find the same fragments of
text in different songs, the sung text is a patchwork of borrowings and
improvisations.
The spindle has hurt my hand sore.
I’d like the spindle to break.
He was my promise, he cheated on me.
I hope he breaks his neck!
There’s still yarn on the flax-comb.
79 For the other mention of this song, see the chapter: Weaving together to mend our collective wellbeing, p. 77, 80–81.
80 CD Ensemble Mzetamze – Vol.1: Ensemble Mzetamze (1996) Khert’lis Naduri. Thalwil: Face Music Switzerland.
81 CD Ensemble Mzetamze – Concert recordings 2002-2007 (2009) Ensemble Mzetamze.
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