More than eight thousand hymns transcribed in the 1880s and 1920s by famous public and church figures Pilimon Koridze, Vasili and Polievktos Karbelashvili, Razhden Khundadze and Ekvtime Kereselidze, represent the treasure of Georgian church hymns. They reflect various traditions of the centuries-long history of Georgian church singing.
Churches and monasteries in almost all provinces of Georgia had their own schools of chant. Today many traditional schools of chant bear the names of these very monasteries, specifically, the Gelati, Shemokmedi and Svetitskhoveli schools of chant.
After the annexation of Georgia by Russia in the 19 th century and due to the persecution of Georgian chanting, schools of chant moved from monasteries into families and thus the tradition of teaching was proceeded. This fact served as a reason for giving the educational centres the names of universal chanters – the modes of Didi Geronti, Archimandrite Soprom, Archimandrite Tarasi, the Karbelashvili brothers, Chalaganidze, Kandelaki, Simon Kuti, Dumbadze, etc.
“Gelati monastery was considered to have fostered church chanting. The chief school was located here and the chanting spread not only in Western Georgia, but all of over the country”. Gelati Monastery had compiled the basic achievements of chanting from the “Golden Age” and from the earlier period of Georgian history. Here the root musical language developed, on which different branches of chanting school traditions were based.
Thousands of chants were transcribed by Pilimon Koridze. The performers of those chants in most cases represented different chanting traditions and worked at churches and monasteries in different regions. But, the existence of the common musical basis and canon made it easier for people with different chanting traditions to chant together. Pilimon Koridze’s transcriptions serve as examples of this.
It is known that “The Committee for the Revival of Georgian Chanting” first chose the following three chant performers: Dimitri Chalaganidze, Ivliane Tsereteli and Razhden Khundadze. The trio of chanters was supervised by a representative of the Shemokmedi school, a universally acclaimed chanter Anton Dumbadze, the “grandfather of the Gurian chanting, the one who revived and promoted Gurian chant all over Guria-Samegrelo.”
Dimitri Chalaganidze was a son of Rostom Chalaganidze – once a famous chanter himself in Martvili. Rostom’s chanting teacher was Besarion (Dadiani) the Metropolitan Bishop of Chqondidi and consequently his son mastered the same chanting mode.
One of Razhden Khundadze’s letters tells about Ivliane Chalaganidze. “In the Cathedral of Khoni, in one of the cells there lived an expert chanter Simona Kuti (Pirtskhalava). . . The number of his disciples is quite large, among them Ivliane Tsereteli – a priest and a famous chanter.”
Regarding his own chanting education Razhden Khundadze comments that he had learned chanting in Guria. The trio of Chalaganidze, Tsereteli and Khundadze, as we can see, combines three chanting traditions.
Because the notations of various chanting traditions from all over Western Georgia were preserved at Gelati monastery, this school has been given the name of Gelati school of chant.
The tradition of the Shemokmedi school of chant is also called Dumbabdze’s Mode. The Dumbadzes had always been clergymen and most of them had worked inShemokmedi Monastery. One of the family members, Anton Dumbadze (1824-1907), is buried at the Monastery’s cemetery.
Among the famous chanters listed in Polievktos Karbelashvili’s book “Georgian Secular and Sacred Modes” there are several singers from Shemokmedi: Iakob Dumbadze (1679-1721), priest Giorgi Dumbadze (1875), and Mate Gogitidze (1541-1560) the head priest of Shemokmedi Monastery who devoted his life to saving and preserving Georgian chant under the dire historical circumstances of the 16 th century. Ioane Gogitidze, Mate’s nephew (1560-1590), is also mentioned here.
All the above-mentioned point that the Shemokmedi Monastery was one of the most important centres of Georgian chanting. This is also proved by the fact that several collections of neumes, preserved at the Tbilisis Institute of Manuscripts, have been brought from the Shemokmedi Monastery. In Pilimon Koridze’s transcriptions the samples from the Shemokmedi Monastery are represented by the hymns passed on by Anton Dumbadze.
Number of chants of the Shemokmedi school has reached us in the form of sound recordings. More than one hundred hymns were performed and recorded by Artem Erkomaishvili, Melkisedek Nakashidze’s student. Nakashidze, a prominent chanter, in his turn, had been Anton Dumbadze’ disciple.
The tradition of the Shemokmedi school is also reflected in the audio-recording of 11 chants recorded by Dimitri Patarava, Varlam Simonishvili and Artem Erkomaishvili in 1949. These recordings are preserved at the sound-archive of the Georgian Folk Music Department at Tbilisi State Conservatoire.
The Kartli-Kakhetian chant (tradition of Eastern Georgia) is represented by the so-called Karbelaant Kilo, recorded by the Karbelashvili brothers. Polievktos Karbelashvili’s book “The Georgian Secular and Sacred Modes” (Karbelashvili P., 1898) provides veryinteresting information about the origins of this mode. Polievktos Karbelashvili’s grandfather Petre Karbela (Khmaladze), born in 1754, mastered the art of chanting as a young man at the court of King Erekle II. Later he became a teacher of chanting at Samtavisi church. Petre Karbela’s son, Grigol, who was among his students, later passed this tradition of chanting over to his sons – Polievktos and Vasili.
Due to the adversities of this historical period, chanting in Kartli-Kakheti was doomed to be forgotten. At a special meeting called in 1764 by King Erekle II and Catholicos Anton, it was resolved to church men and heads of monasteries to “set up choirs of chanters at all diocese and monasteries.” For this reason a School under Catholicos’ supervision was founded at the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral where young people studied Georgian chanting together with various other subjects. Like old times, children from noble families studied here. Soon two choirs performed their chanting. The alumni of this school later passed their knowledge over to their disciples all over Kartli and Kakheti.” (Karbelashvili, P., pp. 69-70).
The Svetitskhoveli chanting tradition functioned to revive Georgian chanting. Presumably, the Karbelashvilis’ ancestors also experienced this influence. Hence, it would not be groundless to consider the so-called Karbelaant Kilo a surviving example of the Svetitskhoveli chanting school.
