POLYPHONY AND GEORGIAN FOLK MUSIC INSTRUMENTS ...

453MANANA SHILAKADZEPOLYPHONY AND GEORGIAN FOLK MUSIC INSTRUMENTS(Chonguri)Of all the traditional Georgian instruments the most widespread and widely used isa group of plucked instruments – the three-stringed panduri and the four-stringed chonguri(long-neck lutes). The panduri mostly covers the musical dialects of eastern Georgia,while the chonguri is mainly used in the lowlands of western Georgia. The fourstringedchonguri could be the result of the development of the three-stringed panduri(Shilakadze, 1970:49-50)One of the characteristic features of Georgian musical culture is the clear differencebetween the level of development of choral singing and instrumental music. But instrumentalmusic has always expressed the logic of musical thinking and the way of thedevelopment of polyphony that the polyphonic singing was heading for. From this point ofview the terminology connected with musical instruments contains quite interesting information.The traditional chonguri is a four-stringed plucked instrument, about 100 centimeterslong, with a pear-shaped body, which, as a rule, is made of thin wooden plates glued together.The neck and the edges of the body are inlaid with mother-of-pearl, bone or thin woodenplates of a darker hue (other Georgian instruments do not have any such ornamentation).There are no frets on the neck. The strings are made of silk thread (it is also specific ashorsehair or strings made of sheep’s intestines are used for other instruments). Of the fourstrings three have the same length; the length of the fourth is about 2/3 of the others.It should be noted that this type of the chonguri was preceded by one carved of asingle piece of wood like the panduri. Specimens of such chonguris are in the S.JanashiaState Museum of Georgia (inventory no 51/39:91) and in the Museum of Georgian FolkMusical Instruments in Tbilisi. Both samples are from Samegrelo.The chonguri has several tunings of which some have often been mentioned inscholarly literature and are known as pirveli (the first), meore (the second), and mesame(the third). They are: 1) f - a - c 1 - f 1 , 2) f - a - c 1 - e 1 , 3) f - g - c 1 - g 1 . V. Akhobadze discoveredthe tune f - a flat - c 1 - e flat (Akhobadze, 1961:35) in Achara; D. Araqishvili also namesf - b flat - d 1 - f 1 (Araqishvili, 1908:83). In 1971, in the village of Likhauri in Guria I heard aunique tuning f - a - c 1 - a 1 from a 73-year-old woman Olia Iobishvili-Urushadze (Shilakadze,1971:163). In his work D. Araqishvili also presents three-part tunings; g - c 1 - d 1 , f - a - c 1 ,g - c 1 - g 1 , g - d 1 - g 1 (Araqishvili, 1908:83).As has been said above, the chonguri tunings are often referred to as the ‘first’,‘second’ and ‘third’ tunings. Supposedly there may be names, which could denote theessential feature of the tuning. For example, according to Araqishvili’s following information,in Guria the second tuning is called ashobili (lit. ‘set free’, ‘loosened’) (Araqishvili,1940:41-42). The name refers to the tension of the string. Ashobili is a dialectal form ofmoshvebuli (lit. lax, loosened). The string zili (the fourth, the shortest and the highest inpitch string) is moshvebuli (lax) in comparison with the first tuning. In this connection Ishould mention the terms used by I. Javakhishvili – the name of the low-pitched string inold Georgian was moshuei or boshi, which referred to the loosened tension of the stringand the name of the high thin string was mskhirpane, which is semantically connectedwith ganskhipva or “high tension” (Javakhishvili; 1938:312). The terms shuamoshobili(lit. ‘the middle one is loosened’), and dzilmoshobili are connected to the loosenedtension of the string (Shilakadze, 1971:163, 169-172).

454Manana ShilakadzeIt was Javakhishvili who paid attention to the problem of defining the main tuning ofthe chonguri. On the basis of the three tunings known so far he concluded that the firsttuning must be the main (Javakhishvili, 1938:280, 281). The materials I have surveyedprove that the majority of chonguri songs are performed in the first tuning, so it may besaid that it is “a standard” or “universal” tuning. It is attested to by the term chveulebrivi(usual), which is used to denote the first tuning (Shilakadze, 1971:171-172). In my opinionthe main factor, conditioning the number of tunings, is the demand to expand theharmonic capacity (chords) and the range of the musical instrument (Shilakadze, 1970:40).The presence of the zili (or the fourth string) on the chonguri is the means of the realizationof the four-part texture and expanding the range (on the reasons why the string isshort see Shilakadze, 1970:44-45).As a rule the number of strings on the instrument does not determine the level ofpolyphony; but the number and names of the strings on the Georgian plucked instrumentscorrespond to the names of the vocal parts in those regions where the instrument iswidespread. In the area, where the chonguri is widespread, the strings of the chongurihave the following names: for the 1st string - damtsqebi (the one who begins) (Guria),molaparake (the one who speaks), datsqili (Imereti), and gemachqapali (Samegrelo); forthe 2nd string - modzakhili (Guria), (the 2nd voice) momdzakhilebeli (Imereti), the thirdstring: bani (bass); the fourth string: zili, dzili, mtsrili (Guria), perdi (Imereti), dzili, mechipashe(Samegrelo) (high-pitched-voice) (Javakhishvili, 1938:173-174; Tsereteli, 1938,Shilakadze, 1978:113). The names of the chonguri strings mentioned above are the namesof singing parts (Javakhishvili, 1938:173-174), they do not refer to the same function whichthe corresponding name denotes in singing, but refer to the range of the string, e.g. thestring which produces the lowest sound is called bani (bass) (Shilakadze, 170:37).The most noteworthy of the chonguri strings is zili, which conditions both the possibilitiesof four sounds and to some extent the number of different tunings as well.All the names of the strings of the chonguri except zili are Georgian. This term isPersian and means the highest sound (Javakhishvili, 1938:204, 312); the correspondingGeorgian terms for this string are tsvrili, perdi (preserved in the Gurian and Imeretiandialects) and mechipashe (Megrelian) (Shilakadze, 1978:113). In Javakhishvili’s opinionzili is a later addition to the three-stringed instrument (Javakhishvili, 1938:320).G. Chkhikvadze referred to the functional affinity between zili and one of the parts(shemkhmobari) of the four-part Acharan song (Chkhikvadze, 1961:12).According to V. Akhobadze the zili string appeared on the chonguri under the influenceof the four-part songs where it performed the function of a high-pitched bass. In thethree-part songs it corresponds to krimanchuli (yodel) or gamqivani (a sort of highpitchedyodeling) and in the four-part songs it corresponds to shemkhmobari. Accordingto Akhobadze, krimanchuli, gamqivani and shemkhmobari are versions of the high bass(Akhobadze, 1961:22,33).This last thesis is corroborated by information I obtained in Guria, “This string (zili, M.Shilakadze) is for krimanchuli (yodeling) and gamqivani (a kind of high-pitched yodeling),both krimanchuli and gamqivani are each-other’s variants. Some songs need tsvrili,some krimanchuli, others modzakhili” (Shilakadze, 1971:199-201).Krimanchuli, tsvrili, gamqivani and shemkhmobari are the parts, which compel theharmonic functions of the high-pitched bass, and in the case of the chonguri, accordingto the register, correspond to the sound produced by the zili.Javakhishvili connected the emergence of the zili string with the stage of evolution ofGeorgian polyphony when three-part singing was fully established and four-part singingwas just appearing (Javakhishvili, 1938:294). Akhobadze supposed that there were two

Polyphony and Georgian Folk Music Instruments (Chonguri)455ways of the appearance of the zili; these two ways complement but do not counter eachother: 1) the zili string appeared on the chonguri under the influence of four-part singing,2) after the krimanchuli fully established itself (Akhobadze, 1961:35).The connection of the zili with four-part singing is rather doubtful, because four-partsinging occurs only in naduri – harvest songs where, as a rule, there is no chonguriaccompaniment and neither are they performed on the chonguri. The basic form of Georgianpolyphony is three-part singing (Aslanishvili, 1970; Chijavadze, 1955). This principleof Georgian musical thinking must have been reflected in the musical instruments as well.In order to determine the connection of the zili string with either three-part or four-partsinging it is necessary to define its melodic-harmonious function both when accompanyingsongs or in the chonguri tunes. Judging by the Gurian, Acharan and Megrelian chongurirepertoire (Araqishvili, 1908:2-10; Grozdov, 1894:6-22; Partskhaladze, 1936:15-16;Akhobadze, 1961; Archives of Gurian and Megrelian songs: 900, 903, 907, 910, 913, 975,811, 812, 1526, 1532, 1561, 1658, 1634, 1994, 1695, 1696, 1796, 1762, Atlas, 1963:211)it is clear that the zili string produces the highest sound whose pitch never changes. Itdoubles the bass by an octave in the first, standard tuning. There are songs were the zilistring does not participate at all (Araqishvili, 1908:7,8,9,11,45)].The word zili was borrowed from the Persian language. As Javakhishvili notes, withall the Iranian lexicographers the word zir denotes a human’s highest voice and thesound of the highest pitch produced by a musical instrument (Javakhishvili; 1938:312).He thinks that in the Armenian language too it was borrowed from Persian. In H. Acharian’s“Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Language” it is said that zir/zhir is anancient Armenian form which was changed into the form zil under the influence of theTurkish language. Acharian considered that both the Arabs and Georgians borrowed itfrom the Persian (Acharian, 1978:95). Zir is the name of one of the strings of the Arabicmusical instrument ud. The term is used in a 10th-century treatise (Vizgo, 1980:77).In his dictionary the Georgian lexicographer Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (1658-1725)defines the word zili in the following way, “producing a high-pitched sound”; it is followedby another explanation – a mosquito. In the old Georgian language the word zili had onlyone meaning – a mosquito (Abuladze, 1973:167).In the Georgian language the word zili does not only denote the name of a string. Inthe works of D. Guramishvili (1705-1792), Besiki (1750-1791) and Ioane Bagrationi (1768-1830) this word is used to denote a high-pitched voice (Javakhishvili, 1938:60-62, 65). Inmodern Georgian the term refers to only one of the strings of the chonguri (and noteverywhere). In my opinion the reason for this is that other Georgian musical instrumentsdo not possess any chords within the octave framework, accordingly there is no octavedoubling, where the difference between the registers of the sounds is clear.I would like to say a few words about the term chonguri. There is no instrument of thisname either among the Arabic, Iranian or Turkish musical instruments. In Armenia andDagestan there is a musical instrument called chungur, but there it is used as a synonymto tar (bowed stringed instrument (cf. Atlas, 1963:108).A short manual on music by Ioane Bagrationi written not earlier than the years 1817-1820 mentions the name of the instrument under discussion. Javakhishvili’s attention wasattracted by the fact that Ioane Bagrationi differentiated the Georgian chonguri, the Georgianchanguri and the Qizilbash chonguri. According to Ioane Bagrationi the Georgian chongurihad two white strings, one yellow and one zili string (nothing is said about its colour) andsix frets, while the Qizilbash one has more frets (Javakhishvili, 1938:155:156)Neither the word chonguri nor changuri is given in Sulkhan-Saba’s dictionary. Proceedingfrom this Javakhishvili concluded that the term must have emerged after Sulkhan-

456Manana ShilakadzeSaba Orbeliani’s time (Javakhishvili; 1938:154). But this term is used in other 17 th -century sources. They are the poem Sibilaiani (written in the 2 nd half of the 17 th century),Nodar Tsitsishvili’s Baramguriani (witten in 1646-1656) and the works of the king andpoet Archil (1647-1713) (Shilakadze, 2004:122-125).In David Chubinashvili’s dictionary it is defined as sazi: “Chonguri (Persian) – asmall saz with four or five strings, balalaika”.Under the name chongur oriental musical instruments were known in Georgia. Thisis attested to by D. Araqishvili’s and A. Maslov’s catalogues (Araqishvili, 1925; Maslov:17).The chongur in Armenia had four metal strings and its body was pear-shaped or likea cut-off octagon. Of the strings two were white, the other two were yellow. It had no fretsand it was played with a plectrum. The instrument was adorned with mother-of-pearl andinlaid with colored stones. It is known by different names: changiur, chenkiur, chang,chenk, chongur, chungur (Acharian, 1979:99-101). This description of the chonguri closelyresembles the one described by Ioane Bagrationi. The root of the word is Persian (chang),which must have been borrowed from the Babylonian (Galpin, 1937:38).In spite of the physical resemblance (pear-shaped body, inlays) oriental and Georgianmusical instruments differ first of all by their tunings. The four-stringed instrumentknown as chonguri in Georgia is Georgian by its tuning, timbre and repertoire.Thus chonguri is a Georgian traditional four-string plucked instrument (long necklute). Its specific feature is the fourth string called zili, which is 1/3 shorter than the otherthree strings. It produces the highest sound of the stable pitch. The term zili was borrowedfrom the Persian language. In West Georgian dialects it is replaced by other terms(tsvrili, perdi, mechipashe, chipeshi). According to the register the sound of the zili correspondsto the high-pitched bass part of the three-part singing.The terminology associated with Georgian musical instruments corroborates thethesis that the traditional Georgian instrumental music was following the general regularityof the evolution of vocal music (M. Shilakadze). Musical instruments facilitated theestablishment of the different stages of the evolution of vocal polyphony, preserving themin a material form.Translated by LIANA GABECHAVAReferencesAbuladze, Ilia. (1973). Dzveli Kartuli Enis Leksikoni (Dictionary of the Old Georgian Language).Tbilisi: Metsniereba (in Georgian)Akhobadze, Vladimer. (1961). Kartuli (Acharuli) Khalkhuri Simgherebi (Georgian (Acharan) FolkSongs). Batumi: Sakhelmtsipo Gamomtsemloba (in Georgian)Acharian, Hrachia. (1973). Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Language. Yerevan: The UniversityPublishers (in Armenian)Araqishvili (Arakchiev), Dimitri. (1908). Narodnaia Pesnia Zapadnoi Gruzii (Imeretii). (Folk Songs ofWestern Georgia. Imereti). Reprint from vol. II of the Musical-Ethnographical Commission. Moscow:Tipografia G. Lissnera I D. Sobko (in Russian)Araqishvili, Dimitri. (1925). Kartuli Musika (Georgian Music). Kutaisi: Metsniereba Sakartveloshi (inGeorgian)Araqishvili, Dimitri. (1940). Khalkhuri Samusiko Sakravebis Aghtsera da Gazomva (Description andMeasurement of Folk Musical Instruments). Tbilisi: Teknika da Shroma (in Georgian)

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