Why does the same ancient chant melody sound completely different depending on which corner of Georgia you’re standing in?

Musicologist John A. Graham returns for Part 2 of our exploration of Georgian Orthodox chant, this time going deep into the three great transcribed monastery schools: Gelati, Shemokmedi, and Svetitskhoveli. At the heart of Graham’s research is a fascinating argument: the schools inherited essentially the same model melodies, but each region learned to harmonize and ornament them through the sound-world of its own Georgian folk polyphony. The chanters who sang in church were often the same master singers who performed at the feast table afterward, and the two traditions shaped one another over generations.

We explore the east–west divide created by the Likhi Range, the nearly lost chant tradition of Svaneti, whether Georgian congregations historically sang, the ninth chords of Gurian polyphony, voice crossing, the three levels of ornamentation, the ornamented middle voice of Vasil Karbelashvili, the musical ‘signatures’ that let scholars identify individual chanters in manuscripts, and the controversy over whether Trio Mandili represents authentic Georgian folklore.

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