Georgian Music & Dance
Georgians were singing in harmony long before anyone wrote harmony down. Every village kept its own way of doing it, and every region its own dances: courtships where hands never touch, war dances, sword fights that throw sparks.
Polyphony · მრავალხმიანობა
In 2001 UNESCO named Georgian polyphonic singing one of the first Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The songs were passed down by ear. The intervals fall between a piano’s keys, so they can sound strange the first time and then stay with you for good. Switch the voices off one at a time to hear what each one does.
A sketch of the harmony, sung by the browser. Hear the real thing below.
All three together. Every chord is built by ear, and the song settles on a bare fifth and octave at the end.
Across the country
A Gurian and a Kakhetian can sing the same song and it will sound like two different songs.
Kakheti & Kartli
01Table songs
სუფრის სიმღერა
Two soloists trade long ornamented lines over a bass drone the whole table holds. Slow, and wide as the Alazani valley.
Listen for: Chakrulo, Mravalzhamieri
Guria
02Trio songs
გურული ტრიო
Three soloists, all improvising, and on top the krimanchuli: a yodel that leaps up and cracks back down. Some of the most intricate folk polyphony anywhere.
Listen for: Khasanbegura
Svaneti
03Round-dance songs
ფერხული
Old, heavy, close harmony from the high towers, sung in a slow circle with arms on shoulders. Some are thought to be older than Christianity here.
Listen for: Lile, a hymn to the sun
Samegrelo
04Work songs
ოდოია
Songs to hoe and harvest to, softer and rolling, the voices moving together like a team in a field.
Listen for: Odoia
Tbilisi
05City songs
ქალაქური
Nineteenth-century romances, sung with a guitar in the old town's courtyards. Sweet, sentimental, and known by every Georgian.
Listen for: Suliko
The church
06Chant
გალობა
Orthodox chant sung in three parts, where most Orthodox churches sing one line over a drone. Shen Khar Venakhi, “You are a vineyard”, is traditionally credited to King Demetre I.
Listen for: Shen Khar Venakhi
The Sounds of Earth · 1977
Chakrulo · ჩაკრულო
In 1977 NASA fixed a gold-plated record to the side of each Voyager spacecraft: greetings, sounds of Earth, and 27 pieces of music chosen to stand for humanity. One of them is “Chakrulo”, a Kakhetian song of two soloists over a drone, about getting ready to fight.
In 2012 Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space. Chakrulo went with it.
Listen to ChakruloYouTube (opens in a new tab)The instruments
Panduri
ფანდური
East, the mountains
Three strings and frets. Strummed under a singer in Kakheti, Pshavi and Tusheti.
Chonguri
ჩონგური
West
Four strings and no frets. The fourth is shorter and hums a drone, like a bass voice of its own.
Chuniri
ჭუნირი
Svaneti, Racha
A small bowed fiddle held upright on the knee, with a skin face and horsehair strings.
Changi
ჩანგი
Svaneti
A small curved harp. Played to accompany Svan songs, often alongside the chuniri.
Salamuri
სალამური
Everywhere
The shepherd's flute, and one of the oldest instruments in the country.
Gudastviri
გუდასტვირი
Racha, Kartli
A goatskin bagpipe with a double chanter. In Adjara it's called the chiboni.
Doli
დოლი
Everywhere
The double-headed drum, played with the hands. Most of the dances below are driven by it.
Duduki
დუდუკი
Tbilisi, the east
A double-reed pipe, usually played in pairs: one carries the tune, the other holds a drone.
The dances · ცეკვა
Georgian men dance on the tips of their toes in soft leather boots, with nothing inside to hold them up. The women barely seem to touch the floor at all. Most dances tell a story, from a village wedding to a mountain battle. Pick one to see the pattern its dancers trace.
The floor, from above
Kartli, and every wedding
One couple
A courtship. The man circles the woman, proud and restrained. She glides, eyes lowered, as if she isn't walking at all. The whole dance is about distance.
Watch for
Their hands never touch. Her feet are hidden under the dress, so she seems to float across the floor.
Hear it, see it
A stage is the easy way in. The best singing still happens where nobody is performing: in a church on a Sunday morning, or at a table late in a feast.
Sukhishvili
Georgian National Ballet
Founded in 1945 by Iliko Sukhishvili and Nino Ramishvili, and still run by their family. The company that took these dances onto world stages. Look for their home season in Tbilisi.
Rustavi Ensemble
Men's choir
Founded in 1968 by Anzor Erkomaishvili, who spent his life collecting songs from village singers before they were lost.
A Sunday liturgy
Sameba, Tbilisi · Svetitskhoveli, Mtskheta
Free, and no ticket needed. Stand at the back, cover up, and listen to three-part chant fill a cathedral.
Art-Gene
Open-air Ethnographic Museum, Tbilisi
A summer folk festival: village choirs, craftspeople and dancers from every region, on the wooded hill above the city.
A supra
Anywhere, especially Guria and Kakheti
The real setting. Late in the feast, once the tamada has made a few toasts, someone starts a song and the table takes the bass.
Mravalzhamieri · მრავალჟამიერი
“Many years”: the song that wishes everyone at the table a long life. Stay long enough and you’ll be singing the bass.