Funeral Chants from Georgian Caucasus
Original title Chants funeraires du Caucase Georgien
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The villages of the Svaneti province are located in north-western Georgia, in the valleys that lie between the mountains of the Caucasus. The Svans represent about 1% of the Georgian population. Their language differs from the Georgian language, and their religion is a syncretism of Orthodox Christian faith and pre-Christian beliefs. The polyphony of the Svans appears as one of the major styles of the Georgian vocal art. It consists of two soloist voices and the bass of the choir. In their funeral rituals, the Svans combine three vocal expressions which are rarely found nowadays in other parts of the world: women’s individual laments punctuated by collective wails like in Ancient Greece, men’s individual laments, and polyphonic chants by male choirs. While the individual laments are aimed at the deceased and the souls of departed people, the men’s polyphonic chants use no words but a series of syllables which follow a set pattern. With chords partly dissonant to a Western European ear, and without any cries other than musically stylized ones, these collective chants of great intensity manage to convey the helplessness and inexpressible grief of Man faced with death.
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Author/s Hugo Zemp
Hugo Zemp
(born 14 May 1937, Basle, Switzerland) is a Swiss-French ethnomusicologist.[1][2] A prolific recorder of ethnic music and a writer on the subject, he has also shot a number of films about music of various regions, including 1988 film Voix de tête, voix de poitrine and 2002 film An African Brass Band filmed by him in Ivory Coast in 2002.[2] His wide musical expertise includes music notably in Africa, Oceania and Switzerland. He also had particular interest in yodeling and lullabies. His recordings of lullabies from Solomon Islands was later released by UNESCO as part of their Musical Sources collection. One famous lullaby he recorded, a traditional Baegu lullaby from the Solomon Islands called “Rorogwela” was sung by Afunakwa, a Northern Malaita old woman. The recording was later used, apparently without permission, in Deep Forest’s song “Sweet Lullaby”. Prof. Zemp studied musicology and anthropology at the University of Basle graduating in 1961. He also finished a diploma in percussion at the City of Basel Music Academy (Basel’s Conservatory school) in 1960. He attended École pratique des hautes études for his doctorate. He joined French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) becoming a director of research. He taught ethnomusicology at the University of Paris X-Nanterre. In 1982, he became editor the recording series (Collection du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et du Musée de l’Homme[3] on the Le Chant du Monde record label. In tens of productions by Zemp, it included music from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Romania, Solomon Islands and various countries in Central Africa. There were also a number of recordings of yodeling from Switzerland.
Research Hugo Zemp
Photography Hugo Zemp
Sound Hugo Zemp
Editing Hugo Zemp and Jean Martin