A field expedition to the town of Akhaltsikhe and three villages in Meskheti-Javakheti was organized on 16-30 July, 2005, as part of the UNESCO program. The expedition included Tinatin Zhvania and Ketevan Matiashvili from the IRCTP, and Conservatoire students Nana Gogoladze, Baia Zhuzhunadze and Nino Naneishvili.

There had been no musical examples from Meskheti-Javakheti among the expedition recordings preserved at Georgian Folk Music Department. The material recorded in this province of Georgia by Shalva Mshvelidze’s expedition in the early 1930s, which has recently been transferred to digital media under the IRCTP project, will significantly enrich our knowledge of the musical folklore of this region. No less valuable is the material obtained by our expedition – 9 mini disks (150 minutes each) and 1056 photos.

Mshvelidze’s expedition was the first to Meskheti-Javakheti; the second expedition was led by Grigol Chkhikvadze in 1949. The intensive expeditional work performed by composer Valerian Maghradze is also noteworthy.

For better understanding the musical and ethnical picture of this part of Georgia, we find it appropriate to say few words about some facts from the past.

Historically the territory of Meskheti-Javakheti was the South-West part of the Kingdom of Iberia. It was an inseparable part of the province of Kartli. Its population were ethnic Georgians; they spoke Georgian language and did not differ from the population of Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli in their anthropological type, everyday life and traditions.

Political, social, religious and ethnic upheavals have changed this region much since the 13th century. After Turkish and Persian invasions the process of conversion of local Christian-Orthodox population into Islam accelerated. This resulted in mass exodus of native population from here to other parts of the country. At this time Turk-Selchuks and Armenians started to take up their residence on Georgian lands. In time the congregations of Catholic and Armenian-Gregorian churches started to enlarge at the expense of the locals. Nevertheless, a small part of the Georgian population managed to maintain their links with Orthodox traditions.

At the beginning of the 19th century 100,000 Armenian refugees were resettled from Erzerum; they were followed by Kurds, Greeks, Dukhobors, etc.

In 1944 Turkish-speaking population, the so-called “Turkish Meskhetians”, was exiled from Meskheti-Javakheti. From this time on, Georgians from various parts of the country (Imereti, Achara, Svaneti, etc.) moved here and found their home.

In 1960 Grigol Chkhikvadze wrote: “Both expeditions (Mshvelidze’s in the early 1930s and Chkhikvadze’s in 1949) carried out very fruitful work. They did not collect much, but what they did, was truly precious. The character and content of the collected material, though poor, makes us believe that more careful study will allow us to find significant examples that are linked to the centuries-old life of our people . . . ” (G. Chkhikvadze, “Georgian Folk Song”, 1960, pp. 21-22).

The same can be said today. Based on the information, obtained from 46 ethnic sources, it can be concluded that true Meskhetian folk art has barely survived. Instead, you can often hear both young and elderly people sing the town songs from East Georgian town folklore such as Saiatnouri, Baiati, Ietim Gurji and others.

In Akhaltsikhe we met the leading expert on Meskhetian musical traditions, now deceased, Shota Altunashvili. He taught many already forgotten Meskhetian songs to many people. The repertoire of his ensemble Meskheti included many Meskhetian songs arranged for three voices. As Altunashvili told us, people had sung those songs in one voice. Among the one-voiced  examples we recorded from him were Otkhi Tsqaro Sdis, Mravalzhamier, Gegutisa Mindorzeda, Vardzioba-Dziobasa, etc.

We sorted out the expedition material according to the parameters characteristic solely for this region. One of these is collection of all type of information connected with the tradition of multi-voiced singing, which is considered to be lost in Meskhetian life.  The most noteworthy statements connected with this are mostly about the function of bass voice part, such as Banze Adevneba (i.e. tuning low voice to the melody, etc).

When talking about the ensemble of instruments popular in Meskheti-Javakheti in the past, Zurab Ivanidze (81) from the village of Atsqvita said that the instrument chichila (also called mei) was used for bass, or when 3-4 tulumis – Meskhetian name for gudastviri (bagpipe) – were played together, one of them would be in the function of low voice.

The most important findings of the expedition are the examples, once very characteristic for local musical life, such as Orovela that we recorded from Giorgi Jinchveladze (97) in the village of Muskhi. It should be mentioned that this song is similar to Kartli-Kakhetian songs with the same name in its mode-intonation and composition.

As for the other, it is once very popular dance performed with dancing and singing with glossolalias Dam Dalili Dillilo . . . We must say that like Orovela, this song is also fairly close to Kartli-Kakhetian dance melodies. We recorded a very original three-voiced variant of this example from Mito Taturashvili (63) in the village of Khizabavra with accordion accompaniment; he played middle voice and bass on the accordion.

Very precious information on old Meskhetian repertoire we obtained from Mariam Zhuzhunadze (73), a good connoisseur of Meskhetian traditions, in the village of Muskhi. We would separately mention the information about the form and tradition of performance of the Meskhetian round-dance song Okromchedelo. Mariam assiduously taught both the song and round dance to the members of the expedition.

The stviri, a one-piped wind instrument with finger-holes, has still been used in everyday life as the echo of old Meskhetian traditions. In all three villages there are people who make and play this instrument. We documented the rules for making stviri from Vazha Melikidze (63) and Vaso Ivanidze (65) in Muskhi, Giorgi Diasamidze (78) and Ilusha Ivanidze (78) in Atsqvita, and Mito Taturashvili in Khizabavra. In all these stories the rules, number of finger-holes, their places on the pipe and musical-intonational content are similar. This testifies to the fact that the old Meskhetian tradition of this instrument, which used to be an inseparable part of cattle-rearing, the main farming activities of this region.

Now about the most characteristic repertoire of Meskhetian musical life today: although today you will rarely hear the sound of zurna, duduki, doli and garmoni , that once penetrated into Georgian villages from towns, but in Meskheti they are still used. In Atsqvita, for instance, almost every family has their “musicians”, who sing and play together at the wedding parties and other festive occasions. For some objective reasons, we were not able to bring them together. We managed to record Oleg Ivanidze (46) – a member of one of such ensembles. Together with his son and wife he sang modern-type songs from the so-called wedding repertoire, such as Ra Lamazi Khar Shen Tushis Kalo, Rotsa Shen Dalalebs Kari Shlis, Sichabuke Da Akhalgazrdoba, etc.

Special mention should be made of Mito Taturashvili from Khizabavra – a virtuoso instrumentalist from the circle of “wedding musicians”, who brilliantly plays duduki, zurna, clarinet, various types of salamuri, panduri and accordion.

As mentioned above, many people of various nationalities lived and still live in Meskheti. It is a well-known fact that local Georgians have always had friendly and neighbourly relations with them. More than 60 years have passed since the Turkish population left this region, but those who had good relations with them, still remember Turkish language and songs.

Particularly interesting in our opinion is the rule of reading fairy tales that we recorded from Aniko Zhuzhunadze (71) from Muskha and Zurab Ivanidze (81) from Atsqvita. Here Georgian and Turkish episodes take turns. Also interesting is that the verses to be narrated in Turkish, they sang in Turkish manner. It turned out that in the past these verses used to be accompanied by oriental stringed instrument saz.

As it is known, Akhaltsikhe is an international town. The respect between various nations towards each other is revealed in the ethics of instrumental ensembles as well. For instance, at wedding parties and other occasions the repertoire of Georgian and Armenian instrument players is represented with the characteristic examples of these two nations.

We were very much impressed by the trio of Armenian instrumentalists from Akhaltsikhe: Arsen Melikian (45) – duduki, zurna and clarinet, Khachatur Akopian (45) – accordion, and Garegin Geian (71) – daira, doli and vocal. They performed the Armenian melodies Pepo, Mtvarian Ghames and Eghishis Tsekva, and a Georgian song with instrumental accompaniment, Tsiv Zamtarshi.

We believe that the field expedition of 2005 in Meskheti-Javakheti should be followed soon by intensive field work in this region, due to the fact that most folk musicians in this region are quite elderly. There is an urgent need to document these musical traditions before they disappear.

This year the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony begins publication of the materials preserved at the Georgian Folk Music Department under the series From the Archive of the Georgian Folk Music Laboratory. The first compact disk of the series includes material from the field expeditions organized in Kakheti in 1952. This was one of the first scientific expeditions from Tbilisi State Conservatoire, which was led by Grigol Chkhikvadze in Gurjaani, Telavi and Qvareli districts. It goes without saying, that after 53 years much data had to be recovered, such as the names of performers, their personal data, photos, etc. This was the aim of our visit to Kakheti last October.

In the first place we had to find the descendants of the singers. In the village of Velistsikhe we visited Tamar Ghviniashvili-Gabruashvili, Giga Ghviniashvili’s daughter. She provided us with the information on her father, her sisters who were singers too, and her cousin Grisha Rikiashvili, who was a permanent member of their family ensemble. It turned out that Rikiashvili, too, participated in the recording of 1952, but there was no information about this in our data.

81-year-old Shukuri Gurgenishvili is the only person alive out of those who were recorded in Velistsikhe in 1952. Due to his ill health we couldn’t meet him. Instead we visited his brother Shinagi Gurgenishvili, who still has his brother’s panduri; this is the very instrument that Shukuri played as the accompaniment to his song Garet Tsiva Kris Kari fifty-four years ago. Shinagi also told us about his father Ia Gurgenishvili, who had been a leader of Velistsikhe choir for years.

In Gurjaani we met elderly singers – 81-year-old Giorgi Gogolashvili, one of the few surviving singers of Levan Mughalashvili’s choir, and 80-year-old Vakhtang Kachlishvili. Together with very interesting conversation, we recorded some of their songs too. We recommend a return visit to record these people in the future. Giorgi Gogolashvili helped us find Levan Mughalashvili’s grave. At Gurjaani Regional Museum we got familiarized with Mughalashvili’s personal archive and took about 158 photos of important documents. We also obtained 46 photos from family albums.

In the village of Artana our host was a renowned song-master Andro Simashvili, son of Giorgi Simashvili (you can find the interesting interview with him in our Bulletin’s section “Georgian Song-masters”).
In order to specify the information on Qvarely choir we had to knock on many doors. Among the people we met were Pelagia Papuashvili, Dodo Gelashvili, Ilia and Robinson Gubeladze, Suliko Matiashvili, Zaur Ghviniashvili, Sopiko Nasqidashvili from the village of Eniseli and many others. There are many others to whom we are indebted for their valuable help.

It should be said that the aim of the expedition – obtaining more specific information who had died long before – turned out to be harder than we expected. Making inquires often gave no results; half-a-century’s time has left a heavy trace on both life and peoples’ memory . . . Despite many attempts, we failed to get Solomon Chachauri’s photo or any information on Partena Arjevnishvili; the name of the singer from the village of Kardenakhi who sang Urmuli remains unknown. Nevertheless, we believe our expedition was successful; the recorded material amounts to 5 minidisks (about 9 hours in length) and about 500 photos.

For their assistance we are indebted to all those who gave us help; these are Tinatin Zardiashvili – Head of Gurjaani Department of Culture, Natela Razmadze – head of funds at Gurjaani Regional Museum, Nino Mindorashvili – secretary of Velistsikhe village council, Levan Abashidze- director of the Ensemble Tsinandali, Marina Aladashvili- chanter of Ghvtaeba church, Maia Mamulashvili – from Qvareli House of Culture, Asmat Qipshidze – music school teacher, the State Center of Georgian Folklore, Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature of the Georgian Academy of Sciences.

If the issuance of expedition materials continues and turns into serial publication, we believe the information database of Georgian folk music will be supplemented with valuable examples.

In January-March, 2005, a two-part expedition was organised in Achara by the Open Society – Georgia Foundation and by the IRCTP. This expedition brought together musicologists and linguists for joint research, including Nino Makharadze and Ketevan Matiashvili from the IRCTP, Elguja Dadunashvili and Gizo Chelidze from the folklore archive at the Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, and Elguja Makaradze and Giorgi Makharashvili from the Georgian Literature department at Batumi State University.

During the expedition periods, the team recorded eleven 80-minute minidiscs and six 60-minute digital videocassettes, and took 408 photos. This material, with complete documentation, is kept in three archives.

Despite difficult working conditions due to heavy snow in January and landslides in March, the team managed to work in twelve locations: Shuakhevi, Ghoreketi, Baratauli, Chvana, Khabelashvilebi, Chanchkhalo, Purtio, Lomanauri, Goginauri, Zvare, Kvashta, and Batumi.

The team recorded more than 40 oral performers of various age, four choirs (from Chvana, Purtio and Lomanauri, and the Tarieladze family choir from Baratauli), and shot video footage of local instrument makers (four chiboni makers, as well as panduri, doli and saz makers).

In Ghoreketi, the team observed a traditional engagement ritual in the Davitadze family, collected information on the traditions of Lazaroba, house building, mourning, and wedding rituals. At the Chvana Gorge, the team observed that to this day people use musical instruments while engaged in farming activities. They documented the traditional methods for making and caring for the chiboni, chonguri, panduri, doli, salamuri, saz, garmoni, accordion, and stviri, and learned the names of the various parts for these instruments. They also documented choreographic terminology and made video recordings of dances, chiefly performed by older villagers.

Among the songs recorded were traditional, Soviet-era, and modern folk songs: Orira, Qaranai Qanashia, Oisa, Khertlis Naduri, Evri Da Maspindzelsa, Qachaghis Leksi, Daukar Chemo Cheguro, Khorumi, Gandagana, Simghera Bakhmaroze, Acharav Chemo Samshoblo, and Ghorjomeli Viqav Gana. Additionally, video recordings were made of daily activities, crafts making, and other trades such as how to make a drop spindle for spinning yarn, how to make a sleigh, various traditional types of houses, a blacksmith’s workshop, etc.

Unfortunately, none of the singers from any of the local folk groups can manage to practice anymore, whether formally or informally. This certainly threatens the preservation of Georgian polyphonic singing traditions in Achara. It is also unfortunate that many performers do not have chibonis, nor do they have the money to buy them.

Scholars studying Georgian-Turkish, Georgian-Russian, Georgian-Caucasian and Georgian-Jewish links will find fairly rich material, chiefly bilingual texts, in Achara. In our opinion this is very important from the standpoint of cultural dialogue.

The team was surprised to see a traditional Kurdish dance called Kurtbari, complete with local character and forms of performance. Another interesting and unusual event which the team documented on video was vocal incantations and readings from the Koran by Georgian Muslims, which to our knowledge had never documented before.

On May 20, 2005, a presentation of the materials collected during the expedition was held at the Open Society – Georgia conference hall. A photo exhibition was arranged, as well as video screenings of excerpts from the materials prepared by Elguja Dadunashvili and Imeda Maghlakelidze. It is hoped that the materials of the expedition will be useful for both research and practice.

The members of the expedition would like to thank Mr. Temur Zoidze, the local administrative head of the Shuakhevi district, and Mr. Vaso Khimshiashvili, head of the local cultural office. They would also like to thank everyone who helped realize this project.

Anyone listening to Gurian polyphonic songs will wonder: what caused such a development of musical thinking among these people?  It is very difficult to answer this question, but the interest to understand it again is so great that we arranged another expedition in Guria; this time we chose the Gurian mountains – the village of  Surebi in Chokhatauri district. We are well aware that old connoisseurs of Georgian musical treasury pass away with time, but each expedition is full of hope to find something precious and interesting.

The expedition was organized on June 13-17, 2006, and included two employees of the Georgian Folk Music Department of Tbilisi State Conservatoire – Otar Kapanadze and Davit Shughliashvili. To our delight we were joined by Levan Ghlonti, a film director, and Orest Todua, a cameraman. They intended to film our expedition and use it for a short documentary. The youngest member of the expedition – 12 year-old Ivane Ghlonti, turned our journey into a cheerful one. Another advantage of our cinematographer friends was  the use of Levan’s jeep, which was indispensable.

In the village of Shua Surebi our hosts were Ramiz and Giorgi Ramishvili, a father and a son.  They live in a very special spot – two kilometers walk uphill from the main road. Their house, which stands alone in the forest, has an amazing view of magnificently beautiful Gurian mountains.

We started seeking singers next morning with the help of our host Giorgi Ramishvili. First we visited 92-year-old Leo Berishvili. The same evening we collected old Gurian songs from his neighbors, somewhat younger singers, at Leo’s house. These were Ismail, Jemal and Badri Shatirishvili, and Guliver Trapaidze. Unfortunately another singer of Leo’s generation Chachia (Mikheil) Trapaidze could not come due to illness.

Everybody looked delighted by our initiative. It turned out, they had not gathered to sing for years now. And this was obvious – they interrupted most of the songs in the middle due to the lack of singing together. We recorded 22 songs in this way – some fully, others in fragments. Together with old Gurian songs such as Shvidkatsa, Nanina, Vakhtanguri, Shalva Chemo Sikharulo, Chven Mshvidoba and others, these included the songs from the Soviet epoch such as Lenin Oktombris Belado, Simghera Stalinze, Bakhmaro, Chvens poetebs Mtserlebsa, etc.

They were displeased with themselves for their forgetfulness and lack of practice. But I remember the words that one of them said, from the bottom of his heart: God bless you! It’s been so long since we have sung in three voices together. And indeed, it was apparent that had they gathered systematically, they would recollect and revive many old songs. That day they aligned their efforts in a way, and agreed to meet again the following day.

Next day another singer Bichiko (Shota) Berishvili joined them, and this cheered everybody. They had long “argument” on tuning their voices, but in the end they agreed on an interpretation of a few songs – Maqruli, Lale, the lesser known ones Aba Dzmebo Kvlav Shevavsot, Mapindzelsa and others.

We asked them to recollect the famous work song Surebis Naduri, also called Qanuri. In the beginning they refused, but at our desperate request and after several attempts, where we joined the bass, the tunes of Qanuri, or to be more precise its reflection, was heard . . .   Here we were obsessed by both joy and regret; we could watch the phantom of a magnificent treasury, the spirits of the ancestors, who created this marvelous music, and the part of whose life was this world-important riches.  Our friends documented this on videotape.

We returned to Giorgi’s house late that evening, and had a long talk on the past day at supper.

Next day we visited Bichiko Berishvili, who told us about various songs and traditions, sang with the panduri accompaniment, recollected the round-dance song Partsakuku, etc. We recorded a mourning song from his neighbor Simona Dolidze.

After the visit at Bichiko’s house we went to the village of Zemo Surebi to meet a woman-singer of krimanchuli, Luba Chkuaseli-Kikvadze. We knew from the singers in Surebi how good she was at this.

We were heading to the highest village in Guria and each turn of the winding slope opened new colours and stunning views. Our Jeep drove almost impassable roads. Finally we reached Luba’s beautiful wooden house. Once again we took pleasure in watching the vineyards and fields stretched on the slopes of the mountains.

Grandmother Luba welcomed us on the staircase with a cigarette in her hand and invited us into the house with her deep voice.

It did not take us long to induce her to sing. She brought a panduri and chonguri and performed a number of songs. Despite her deep voice she could easily take high notes too. She sang the part of krimanchuli in Acharuli Maqruli.

Very soon the neighbors Mitusha Kikvadze, Nanuli Ramishvili, Tariel Kekelidze, and Dusu (Ambrosi) Kikvadze, the village mayor, joined our gathering in singing. They had not sung for a long time either, but they recollected various songs. We recorded Simghera Datiko Shevardnadzeze, Madlobeli, Dzveleburi Mravalzhamieri, Tsutisoplis Stumrebi Vart, Maqruli, Nigozi and others as performed by them. Grandmother Luba laid the table, and served delicious red wine from her cellar.

The impressions from our visit to Guria are indelible for each of us. I am sure that Ivane, the youngest member of our group, was filled with such strong the emotions that he will visit Guria again and again for years to come, and not alone, but together with his friends, in order to enjoy the beauty and open-hearted hospitality of this part of his motherland. But, here the rhetorical question arises as to whether they will still hear the songs we heard from these warm and affectionate old people.