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Funeral Chants from the Georgian Caucasus

Funeral Chants from the Georgian Caucasus MAIN

Funeral Chants from the Georgian Caucasus

Price: $295.00
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Filmmaker Name: Hugo Zemp
Film Length: 21 min
Film Year: 2007
Duration: 21-45 min
Decade: 2000s
Series: Music of Georgia (Caucasus) series
Color: color
Subject: Music, Dance & Theater
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ABOUT

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.

Films in the Music of Georgia (Caucasus) series

Traditional music of Georgia (the Caucasus) is now internationally renowned and appreciated for the richness and beauty of its polyphonies. While concerts and studio recordings have revealed the diversity of local musical traditions, the films in this series show, for the first time, the performance of three different music styles in the context of rituals and learning. 

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