Following on from my post the other week: Why don’t you sing songs from Now the internet is a funny thing! Most people don’t really understand how to do decent searches (but that’s a whole other story), and even if you do, often you stumble across something unintended but interesting. Rather like browsing in an old-fashioned bricks and mortar book shop (remember them?), or record shop (can’t remember the last time I saw one of them!).
I was trying to find a recording of a particular Georgian song to see if it sounded like the sort of thing I could use with the choir (I find it really hard to imagine what a song sounds like just by looking at the written score). I stumbled across a blog called the Georgian Music MP3 Archive. Just the sort of place to find recordings of Georgian songs you would think. Well, they are there, but you have to do a bit of digging since recent posts include How does cloning work? Why humans bother with emotions, and 10 tips for avoiding cancer. Methinks this is a good example of blog title not telling you what to expect! (You can find lots of interesting articles on Georgian music, folklore and history by clicking on the appropriate category in the side bar)
Any way, to cut a long story short, I stumbled across: Distribution of Vocal Polyphony among the World’s Musical Cultures by Joseph Jordania. A fascinating read which covers many of the issues I raised in my earlier post, but this time from someone who actually knows what he’s talking about! Joseph has also written an interesting piece about Georgian singing.
I first met Joseph in around 1990 in Cardiff UK UK
In the singing world we have become used to it now, but to the uninitiated in this country, when you say ‘Georgian’, it usually refers to the historical period when the Georges were on the throne: 1714 – 1830. Whilst in the States, it also means the state of Georgia Republic of Georgia
The workshop participants were pretty much in awe of these two amazing teachers who could not only sing, but could give detailed background to each of the songs. We were desperate to get more of this harmony singing tradition which dates back to before the 12th Century, but Joseph was more interested in learning Beatles songs! One day he even taught us a version of the Stones’ ‘Can’t get no satisfaction’ in a Georgian style arrangement! Ah, yes, the grass is always greener: your culture is more interesting than mine.
Chris Rowbury
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