Polyphony is one of the less comprehended phenomenon of the musical thinking. The interest in making research on it has been significantly increased over the last period. The map presented on this page indicates the areas all over the world where the polyphonic music has been spread.
Over its three thousand years of history, Georgia allocated on the border line of Asia and Europe has developed its unique polyphonic musical culture. Georgians have enriched the treasury of the world by its special polyphonic musical folklore and church music. Since the ancient times three-part singing has been the norm of Georgian musical thinking. Everybody who has ever had a touch with Georgian polyphonic forms recognizes their diversity and excellence.
History of scientific research of traditional polyphonic music is of century old. A bit later well-known foreign scholars and musicians also have got interested in Georgian polyphonic music. The interest has been especially increased at the end of the 20th century which was proved through the scientific-practical conferences held in 1984, 1986, 1988, 1998, and 2000 years. This cascade was resulted in the First International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony in 2002.
These scientific forums inspired the idea of establishing the International research Center for Traditional Polyphony. The idea was embodied in 2003 with the support of UNESCO and celebrated ethnomusicologists.
On the one hand, the effort of the center is directed to the collection of scientific knowledge on the world polyphony and on the other hand, it aims to spread the practical and theoretical knowledge on Georgian polyphony throughout the world. This purpose is served by the international symposia on polyphony and the published collections of theses from the symposia. Tbilisi symposia of 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 have already presented the polyphony of Georgia, Bulgaria, South-East Arabia, Albania, Austria, Ukraine, Croatia, Italy, France, Basque, Tanzania, Russia, Indonesia, Guinea, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Bosnia-Hercogovina, Banda-Linda.
The web site on the worldwide and Georgian polyphony will help the people interested in these issues to have an access to the information available at our center.
