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Ensemble Georgika Formed in Tbilisi in 1989, the thirteen members of Ensemble Georgika, likely the first group of their kind to exist without government funding or support, grew up among a variety of Georgian folk music and ritual dances.
Beginning as an a cappella troupe that performed working, table, and ritual songs, as well as Georgian Orthodox liturgical chants, in 1990 the group was joined in performance by Aleko Khizanishvili and his trio of instrumentalists who play Salamuri and Panduri.
The Caucasian nation of Georgia has a highly developed tradition of part-singing which has been handed down orally. The polyphony is not the result of an arrangement for the concert performance, it forms part of the essence of this music in which the harmony is often more important than catchy melodic formulae. There is an almost inexhaustible variety of Georgian vocal music. Each region of this widely varied country between the high mountainous region of Caucasia and the Black Sea has its own style, which realizes the possibilities of polyphony in its own way.
For the past hundred years traditional Georgian songs could also be heard in concert: the first performing group was established in 1885 and by 1907, recordings were already being made. Ensemble Georgika, founded in 1989 is, among the many such groups presently performing in Georgia, one of the youngest, and after 70 years of Soviet rule, one of the first to survive without state support and patronage. Its 14 singers and 3 instrumentalists wish not only to continue the existing concert tradition, but based on archive recordings and instruction from authoritative village elders, also strive to preserve its diversity and vivacity.
Beginning as an a cappella troupe that performed working, table, and ritual songs, as well as Georgian Orthodox liturgical chants, in 1990 the group was joined in performance by Aleko Khizanishvili and his trio of instrumentalists who play Salamuri and Panduri.
The Caucasian nation of Georgia has a highly developed tradition of part-singing which has been handed down orally. The polyphony is not the result of an arrangement for the concert performance, it forms part of the essence of this music in which the harmony is often more important than catchy melodic formulae. There is an almost inexhaustible variety of Georgian vocal music. Each region of this widely varied country between the high mountainous region of Caucasia and the Black Sea has its own style, which realizes the possibilities of polyphony in its own way.
For the past hundred years traditional Georgian songs could also be heard in concert: the first performing group was established in 1885 and by 1907, recordings were already being made. Ensemble Georgika, founded in 1989 is, among the many such groups presently performing in Georgia, one of the youngest, and after 70 years of Soviet rule, one of the first to survive without state support and patronage. Its 14 singers and 3 instrumentalists wish not only to continue the existing concert tradition, but based on archive recordings and instruction from authoritative village elders, also strive to preserve its diversity and vivacity.
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Chant
