International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony

Last updated April 09, 2019

The International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony (IRCTP or Polyphonic Center) is an academic organization focused on the study of the phenomenon of traditional vocal polyphony. It is a part of Tbilisi Vano Sarajishvili State Conservatory. Establishment of IRCTP was announced during the First International Symposium of Traditional Polyphony in 2002, and it was logistically established by the order of the Rector of Tbilisi State Conservatory in February 2003. Its director is Rusudan Tsurtsumia. The head of its International Bureau is Joseph Jordania. Central activity of the Polyphonic Center is organizing biannual symposia, with subsequent publication of the presented papers, fostering dissemination of the knowledge on human musical cultures and establishing close professional contacts between ethnomusicologists interested in study of the phenomenon of traditional choral singing.

In music, polyphony is one type of musical texture, where a texture is, generally speaking, the way that melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic aspects of a musical composition are combined to shape the overall sound and quality of the work. In particular, polyphony consists of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, which is called homophony.

Joseph Jordania is an Australian–Georgian ethnomusicologist and evolutionary musicologist and professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne and the Head of the Foreign Department of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony at Tbilisi State Conservatory. Jordania is known for his model of the origins of human choral singing in the wide context of human evolution and was one of founders of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony in Georgia.

History

Georgia has been known among ethnomusicologists as the country with extremely rich traditions of vocal polyphony since the 1920s. Study of vocal polyphony has been one of the central issues for Georgian ethnomusicology from the second half of the 19th century. In 1972 Union of Composers of Soviet Union organized the conference dedicated to traditional polyphony in Georgia (this was the very first conference in the world, fully dedicated to traditional polyphony). The ongoing series of biannual conferences dedicated to the problems of traditional polyphony, with the wide participation of the experts from Soviet Union, Europe and America, were organized in 1984, 1986 and 1988. The following conference (scheduled in 1990) was initially postponed and later canceled due to the political instability in post-soviet Georgia. The series of biannual conferences on traditional polyphony were revived in 1998 and 2000, leading to the organizing of the First International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony in 2002. The first symposium was preceded by proclamation of Georgian traditional polyphony among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. Representative of UNESCO attended the Symposium, providing support of UNESCO. The Polyphonic Centre has been supported during the recent years by the Presidents of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze and Mikhail Saakashvili. For several years the Polyphonic Centre was also supported by the Japanese government. There has been a steady increase in interest towards the study of traditional polyphony (choral singing) during the recent years. In the 1970s there were two initial conferences organized on this subject, in the 1980s four conference, in the 1990s three conferences, and during the first decade of the 21st century nine conferences had been organized in several countries (apart from Georgia, in Taiwan in 2002, in Austria in 2005 and 2008, in Portugal in 2007). A centre for the study of European traditional polyphony was established at Vienna University in 2005, and the study group on multipart music of ICTM was established in 2009 and organized a conference in Sardinia, Italy in 2010. The earliest international organization to dedicate its activity entirely to study of traditional choral singing was Polifonies Vivante, organized in France during the 1991-1994 by Simha Arom.

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its 2017 population is about 3.718 million. Georgia is a unitary semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

An academic conference or scientific conference is a event for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.

International symposia

International symposia on the problems of traditional polyphony had been organized biannually from 2002. The last one was held on September 26 - October 1, 2016. All of them had been organized in late September - early October, at the Tbilisi State Conservatory. The geography of representation of scholars from different countries of the world had been steadily increasing. A group of international expert-ethnomusicologists, including Simha Arom from France, Dieter Christensen from the United States, Franz Fodermayr from Austria, Polo Vallejo from Spain, had been participating in virtually every symposia, together with ethnomusicologists from different countries (including experts from China, Japan, Australia, Canada, eastern and western Europe, Turkey, Egypt. The general program of the symposia is stable and contains twelve themes, covering wide range of research topics, including problems of vocal and instrumental polyphony, folk and church music, regional styles, elements of musical language, social and gender aspects, history, links with popular musical styles. Participating scholars are traditionally provided by the hosts with hotel accommodation, internal transport and food during the Symposium. In 2010 for the first time a special theme was added (vocal polyphony is Asia). 2012 symposium (September 24–29) had the special theme comparative research in traditional polyphony, 2014 Symposium main theme was Polyphony in Minority Music (September 22–26, 2014), and 2016 symposium was dedicated to the geographic dynamics of traditional polyphony (September 26 - October 1, 2016). Next symposium is planning to a later date: October 29 - November 3, 2018.

International is an adjective meaning "between nations".

Simha Arom is a French-Israeli ethnomusicologist who is recognized as a world expert on the music of central Africa, especially that of the Central African Republic. His books include African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Structure and Methodology (1991) ISBN 0-521-24160-X. He also made some historical field recordings of the Aka Pygmy music.

Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia.

Publications

The most important publication of the IRCTP is the proceedings of the biannual symposia. They are usually prepared under the editorship of Rusudan Tsurtsumia and Joseph Jordania. All the papers of the previous symposia are freely available on the website of the IRCTP on both Georgian and English languages ^[1]

In academia and librarianship, proceedings are the acts and happenings of an academic field, a learned society, or an academic conference. For example, the title of the Acta Crystallographica journals is New Latin for "Proceedings in Crystallography"; the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America is the main journal of that academy; and conference proceedings are a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the conference. They are the written record of the work that is presented to fellow researchers. In many fields, they are published as supplements to academic journals; in others they may be considered grey literature. They are usually distributed in printed or electronic volumes, either before the conference opens or after it has closed. Scientific journals whose ISO 4 title abbreviations start with Proc, Acta, or Trans are journals of the proceedings (transactions) of a field or of an organization concerned with it.

Bulletins are another periodic publication of the IRCTP ^[2] Centre also published several collections of the articles, including Seventeen Arguments on Georgian Polyphony and numerous audio and video materials.

Related Research Articles

Georgia has rich and still vibrant traditional music, which is primarily known as arguably the earliest polyphonic tradition of the Christian world. Situated on the border of Europe and Asia, Georgia is also the home of a variety of urban singing styles with a mixture of native polyphony, Middle Eastern monophony and late European harmonic languages. Georgian performers are well represented in the world's leading opera troupes and concert stages. Famous rock band Черные Залупы is from Georgia.[1]

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, is a public research university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Excluding academies and theological seminaries, which have intermittently functioned in Georgia for centuries, TSU is the oldest university in Georgia and the Caucasus region. Over 18,000 students are enrolled and the total number of faculty and staff (collaborators) is 5,000. According to the U.S. News & World Report university rankings, TSU is ranked 359th in the world, tied with the University of Warsaw.

A hum is a sound made by producing a wordless tone with the mouth opened or closed, forcing the sound to emerge from the nose. To hum is to produce such a sound, often with a melody. It is also associated with thoughtful absorption, 'hmm'.

Pygmy music refers to the sub-Saharan African music traditions of the Central African foragers, predominantly in the Congo, the Central African Republic and Cameroon.

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Zacharia Petres dze Paliashvili, also known as Zachary Petrovich Paliashvili, was a Georgian composer. Regarded as one of the founders of the Georgian classical music, his work is known for its eclectic fusion of folk songs and stories with 19th-century Romantic classical themes. He was the founder of the Georgian Philharmonic Society and later, the head of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi was named in his honor in 1937. Notably, Paliashvili's music serves as the basis of the National Anthem of Georgia.

Tbilisi State Conservatoire is the State Conservatoire of Georgia, located in the capital Tbilisi.

The cinema of Georgia has been noted for its cinematography in Europe. Italian film director Federico Fellini was an admirer of the Georgian film: "Georgian film is a completely unique phenomenon, vivid, philosophically inspiring, very wise, childlike. There is everything that can make me cry and I ought to say that it is not an easy thing."

Dmitri Viktorovich Pokrovsky was a Russian folk music researcher and musician best known for his efforts to rediscover authentic and often near extinct rural musical traditions from many different regions of Russia and re-enacting them with the Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble.

Musical Sources is a series of recordings of traditional music that was made for the International Music Council by the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation (Berlin/Venice) and released on the Philips label. Most of these recordings were later reissued on the Auvidis label. The series was directed by Alain Daniélou. It was part of the larger UNESCO Collection series.

Musical Atlas is a series of recordings of traditional music that was made for the International Music Council by the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation (Berlin/Venice) and released on the EMI/Odeon label. The series was directed by Alain Daniélou. It was part of the larger UNESCO Collection series. Most of the recordings were later re-issued on the Naive/Auvidis label.

The Fumio Koizumi Prize is an international award for achievements in ethnomusicology, presented annually in Tokyo, Japan. The prize is awarded by the Fumio Koizumi (小泉文夫) Trust each April 4, the date of Fumio's birthday. The recipient receives an award certificate in addition to prize money. The winners must be present at the ceremony, deliver a prize lecture, and deliver another lecture at another Japanese university of his/her choice.

Mtiebi is a Georgian singing ensemble performing traditional vocal polyphony from Georgia (country).

This article discusses the music theory of Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony.

The larchemi or soinari is an ancient Georgian musical instrument of the panpipe family. It is known as "larchemi" in Samegrelo and "soinari" in Guria, but there is no difference in the instrument; those in Guria may be smaller. The larchemi was in the past found also in Abkhazia, Imereti and Lazeti. By 1958, when it was studied by Kakhi Rosebashvili, it had largely disappeared.

Intangible cultural heritage are elements of the cultural heritage of Georgia which are abstract and must be learned, encompassing traditional knowledge including festivals, music, performances, celebrations, handicrafts, and oral traditions.

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References

External links

Official website of the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony