Polyphony is a type of musical texture consisting 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, homophony.
Georgia is a country located in the Caucasus, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is bounded by the Black Sea to the west, by Russia to the north and east, by Turkey to the southwest, by Armenia to the south, and by Azerbaijan to the southeast. The country covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi), and has a population of 3.7 million people. Georgia is a representative democracy governed as a unitary parliamentary republic. Tbilisi is its capital as well as its largest city, and is home to roughly a third of the Georgian population.
Ukrainian music covers diverse and multiple component elements of the music that is found in the Western and Eastern musical civilization. It also has a very strong indigenous Slavic and Christian uniqueness whose elements were used among the areas that surround modern Ukraine.
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.
The Georgians, or Kartvelians, are a nation and indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, Greece, Iran, Ukraine, the United States and European Union.
Svaneti or Svanetia is a historic province in the northwestern part of Georgia. It is inhabited by the Svans, an ethnic subgroup of Georgians.
The Rustavi Ensemble, or the Georgian State Academic Ensemble, is a Georgian folk music ensemble that was created in 1968 by Anzor Erkomaishvili, a singer and folklorist from a distinguished Georgian musical lineage that goes back seven generations. Since its formation Rustavi has successfully toured more than 50 countries of the world.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to music:
The Anchiskhati Basilica of St Mary is the oldest surviving church in Tbilisi, Georgia. It belongs to the Georgian Orthodox Church and dates from the sixth century.
The mass media in Georgia refers to mass media outlets based in the Republic of Georgia. Television, magazines, and newspapers are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. The Constitution of Georgia guarantees freedom of speech. Georgia is the only country in its immediate neighborhood where the press is not deemed unfree. As a country in transition, the Georgian media system is under transformation.
Irakli Kakabadze is a Georgian writer, performance artist, peace and human rights activist. In 2009, he was awarded the Oxfam/Novib PEN Freedom of Expression Prize. Kakabadze's articles and stories have been published in Georgian, Russian, and English newspapers and magazines. In 2007 he received the Lilian Hellman/Hammett grant from Human Rights Watch. From 2008 to 2012, Kakabadze was based in Ithaca, NY, where he developed a new method of integrating performing arts and social sciences, called "Rethinking Tragedy" or "Transformative Performance." Kakabadze has also pioneered a multi-lingual and multi-narrative performing style, called Polyphonic Discourse. Irakli Kakabadze's work as an artist-activist is subject of a verite documentary At the Top of My Voice.
Khevsurians are an ethnic sub-group of Georgians, mainly living in Khevsureti, on both sides of the Caucasus Mountain Chain in the watersheds of the rivers Aragvi and Argun. There are some villages in Khevi, Ertso-Tianeti, Kakheti (Shiraki), Kvemo Kartli (Gardabani) also where Khevsurians reside. Khevsurians speak the Georgian language in Khevsurian dialect. For a long time, Khevsurians have maintained their traditional culture: clothing, weapons, and polyphonic music.
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.
The International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony 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.
Mtiebi is a Georgian singing ensemble performing traditional vocal polyphony from Georgia (country).
The Obikhod is a collection of polyphonic Russian Orthodox liturgical chants forming a major tradition of Russian liturgical music; it includes both liturgical texts and psalm settings.
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.
The Georgian accordion or Georgian Garmoni is a traditional musical instrument of Georgia. It is especially popular in Tusheti and in Racha. Garmonis can be diatonic or chromatic. This instrument has been modified in the music of different peoples. The result of such adaptation is its variety disseminated in the Caucasus – Caucasian garmoni, Asian garmoni. In the Caucasus garmoni was introduced in the 19th century. The notion Caucasian garmoni is general, as it implies its national varieties, such as: Georgian and Azerbaijani garmonis, Ossetian iron-kandzal-pandir, Adyghean and Kabardyno-Balkarian pshine, Dagestanian komuz. Formation of the Georgian garmoni should have started in the second half of the 19th century. It was made individually in the workshops.
Trio Mandili is a Georgian musical group which currently consists of Tatuli Mgeladze, Tako Tsiklauri, and Mariam Kurasbediani.
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.
