weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 55
and aesthetic criteria have changed considerably in 120 years. So what era
should we refer to in order to sing Georgian songs in an ‘authentic’ way?
Some of today’s groups are trying to adopt the style of tuning heard on
the earliest recordings (e.g. the Basiani Patriarch’s Choir in Georgia, the
Kavkazia Trio in the United States and the Marani ensemble in France).
Most groups are satisfied with a tuning between the three voices that
is less ‘spicy’ and more consensual for the ears of 21st-century listeners.
Other groups, in Georgia and abroad, are opting for an interpretation that
is open to ‘fusion’ and a variety of influences, for example by combining
traditional songs, jazz and Western instruments (electric bass, drums,
synthesisers, etc.), which completely changes the colour of this music, but
makes it more up to date and accessible for other types of audience.84
We’re betting that the singers who take part in the experience of singing
them while clearing a field with a hoe in hand will understand something
in their bodies, maybe indescribable, and that by doing so they will not be
wasting their time.86
By keeping the intention of the song, but allowing ourselves to use lyrics
that made sense to our Weaving Voices community context, weren’t we
getting closer to the essence of the song, or at least to its function? Could
what some would consider a betrayal, or at the very least an unbearable
adaptation, be seen by others as an attempt to get as close as possible to
the truth of these songs? In Georgia, traditional songs had a purpose and a
function. They all corresponded to a specific context. They have gradually
been cut off from their original context. Nowadays, their main function
is aesthetic, when performed in concert, or celebratory, when used in
supra. These two functions are sometimes coupled with a reference to
identity, when the songs are called to the rescue with the aim of building
a nationalist feeling, but this aspect does not operate in the case we are
dealing with today, that of foreign singers performing songs from a culture
outside their own.
Without falling into the trap of nostalgia and the desire to go back in time,
we can ask ourselves what would be the contribution to the performers’
intimate understanding of these songs if they had the experience of
putting them back into their original context? Let us take the example
of the songs that accompanied hoeing. These songs, which used to last
several hours, have been transformed into virtuoso concert versions in
which the various stages of the work are condensed into a few minutes 85.
Here is an example of how the three voices weave on one sentence of the song Khertl’lis Naduri.
The 昀椀rst three lines (text written in Georgian) show the upward and downward movements of the melodic lines,
on each syllable. The lower graph shows the movements of the three voices in relation to each other (the text is
transcribed in Latin alphabet, the syllable durations are respected, as are the pitches to the nearest ½ tone).
Mtis Naduri sung in concert by the Shavnabada Ensemble (2023): მთის ნადური - გურული (2023) YouTube.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-r5P6RzFgk [Accessed 22 Apr. 2024].
85 Guruli Naduri sung on a TV set by the Basiani Ensemble (2012): Naduri, Shemokmedura - Gurian work song
(2012) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MzUgNh7XKM [Accessed 22 Apr. 2024];
86 In the following videos there are examples of collective weeding and hoeing accompanied by singing.
A report shot in 1988: “Kumuris Naduri” - Georgian folk song - (Imereti region) (2018) YouTube. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVcHeMF7WT0 [Accessed 22 Apr. 2024].
A reconstruction 昀椀lmed in the 2000s: www.youtube.com. (n.d.) Qobuleturi naduri - mtas khokhobi aprenila.
Gurian-Acharian folklore (2010) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBhoyqnLMBw [Accessed 22 Apr. 2024].
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84 A revisited version of the traditional Gandagana song by the group The Shin: The Shin - Potato Story
- აჭარული კარტოფილის ისტორია (2015) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgrdg0aL4M [Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].
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