Voices of the Ancestors Holly Taylor-Zuntz and Susan Thompson

Can you tell your changis from your chuniris from your chonguris? You’ll often see one of them in the hands of Trio Mandili. Don’t worry, our guest Nino Razmadze talks us through all the folk instruments of Georgia in this informative episode. Combine listening, with looking at the transcript, and you will become familiar with both the sound and looks of Georgian folk instruments.

Even if you’re familiar with the sound of a chonguri, you won’t have heard the field recording Nino made of the great player Polikarpe Khubulava.

Nino is an ethnomusicologist and deputy director of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. She’s about to complete her PhD on Folk instruments. Nino is the founder of Gogora wooden toy company. She is passionate about developing designs from folk themes.

Our chat touches on:-
The spiritual significance of instruments in rituals such as ‘catching the soul’ and Batonebi.
Embroidery designs - Nino says “if somebody wants to make a new socks they can check, maybe 500 socks and understand which kind of colour they can use, which kind of ornaments and have they put together” - Download link -https://voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/voices-of-the-ancestors-all-episodes#Textile_ornaments
Working with the Bate Collection of musical Instruments in Oxford


Are girls more likely to play the chonguri or the bagpipes? What is the professional name for a group of cow bells? How do tuning systems change with instruments between regions? All your burning questions and more are answered in this interview.

Music in this episode
Intro: Makharia, chonguri. From the Ialoni album, 'I fell in love with that sweet voice'
Khorumi from Merisi in Ajara (supplied by Nino Razmadze)
Daira - Lola and Gratsia from Mountains of Tongues LP playing garmoni and daira.
Satsekvao - panduri by Mzetamze
Intro to Irinola on chuniri by Anna Chamgeliani
Mze shinao by Sathanao, Lullaby from Samegrelo played on chonguri.
Ensemble Lashari play tushuri melodies with salamuri (supplied by Nino Razmadze).
The sound of the larchemi (supplied by Nino Razmadze)
Merisi Khorumi (supplied by Nino Razmadze)
Chemo Zalo by Mzetamze
Papiko playing chuniri (supplied by Nino Razmadze)
Ase Chonguri by Ensemble Shavnabada
Sabodisho batonebo by Ialoni
Polikarpe Khubulava (field recording by Nino Razmadze)
Givi pirtskelani playing changi - chiche tura (field recording by Nino Razmadze)
Avksenti Megrelidze’s choir - dedats miqvars (Alazani.ge Thanks to Teo Lomsadze for sourcing music.)

Voices of the Ancestors by Holly Taylor-Zuntz and Susan Thompson.
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Voices of Our Grandmothers with guest Tamar Buadze and interpreter Zoé Perret.

Kicking off series 2, innovative choir conductor Tamar Buadze tells the surprising tale of how she came to work with Laz songs, while living in Rustavi (far, far away from Laz regions in Georgia and Turkey). One of her former students tells us what it was like to grow up in a folk choir, and tells us (one version of) the story behind the Abkhazian song Varado. But best of all Tamar shares with us the tone-bending voice of her Megrelian grandmother.

Tamar graduated from Tbilisi State Conservatory and is the head of Rustavi Music school. She leads Tutarchela women and youth choirs (https://www.facebook.com/tutarchelachoir), who participate in a number of prestigious European festivals, as well as many other groups. Across her various choirs, she teaches around 250 people a week!
As well as leading outdoor open-access singing workshops (ground-breaking for her native Georgia), she teaches for the International Singing Project ‘ChorOnline’, and has taught American women’s ensemble Kitka.

Tamar’s approach to teaching folklore is holistic, incorporating games and dances into the music. Her student Ninutsa says
“all the appreciation, taste of music, anything connected to music for me comes from Tamar. Not only about music, but - she really raised us.’
She has brought European techniques such as the Kodály method to her adult and youth choirs in Georgia.

Her arrangements of Laz songs can be found in ‘Songbook Georgia’, which focuses on the female repertoire of traditional folk songs: https://www.amazon.com/Songbook-Georgia-Liederbuch-Georgien-Weltkulturerbe/dp/3954903016

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Searchable transcript, available here voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/transcripts.

Voices of Our Grandmothers with guest Tamar Buadze and interpreter Zoé Perret.

Kicking off series 2, innovative choir conductor Tamar Buadze tells the surprising tale of how she came to work with Laz songs, while living in Rustavi (far, far away from Laz regions in Georgia and Turkey). One of her former students tells us what it was like to grow up in a folk choir, and tells us (one version of) the story behind the Abkhazian song Varado. But best of all Tamar shares with us the tone-bending voice of her Megrelian grandmother.

Tamar graduated from Tbilisi State Conservatory and is the head of Rustavi Music school. She leads Tutarchela women and youth choirs (https://www.facebook.com/tutarchelachoir), who participate in a number of prestigious European festivals, as well as many other groups. Across her various choirs, she teaches around 250 people a week!
As well as leading outdoor open-access singing workshops (ground-breaking for her native Georgia), she teaches for the International Singing Project ‘ChorOnline’, and has taught American women’s ensemble Kitka.

Tamar’s approach to teaching folklore is holistic, incorporating games and dances into the music. Her student Ninutsa says
“all the appreciation, taste of music, anything connected to music for me comes from Tamar. Not only about music, but - she really raised us.’
She has brought European techniques such as the Kodály method to her adult and youth choirs in Georgia.

Her arrangements of Laz songs can be found in ‘Songbook Georgia’, which focuses on the female repertoire of traditional folk songs: https://www.amazon.com/Songbook-Georgia-Liederbuch-Georgien-Weltkulturerbe/dp/3954903016

Donate to help tell more women's stories:-
ko-fi.com/voicesoftheancestors
www.patreon.com/voicesoftheancestors

Join our community facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/516207299354485

Sign up for our email updates and never miss an episode: eepurl.com/hhgoOf
Searchable transcript, available here voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/transcripts.

In this episode, our friend Jen Morris takes over the role of interviewer. She speaks with Briget Boyle, vocal coach and singer with Balkan Women's ensemble @kitka, bringing the west coast USA perspective to ‘Voices of the Ancestors’.

They chat about:-
working with powerful female teachers like Tamar Buadze, in Georgia and Svetlana Spajić in Serbia.
How to sing ‘folk music’ from a grounded, rooted place in your own landscape.
Briget’s insight into what ‘Voices of the Ancestors’ means for her, describing three types of ancestors - genetic, spiritual and ‘humanity’.

Briget shares experiences with Georgian songs in Temple of Light Choir directed by Kristine Barrett (a sort of Kitka community choir) and in True Life Trio. Jen shares experiences of her Georgian choir ‘onefourfive’ and Seattle's balkan women's ensemble @Dunava

Donate to help tell more women's stories:-
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Searchable transcript, available here voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/transcripts.

Music:
Mother, Moon,/ It Will Never Again Be What it Was, / and Love from True Life Trio’s album “Like Never, Like Always”.
Shen Khar Venakhi, from Kitka’s album “The Vine”,
Mokle Mravalzhamier from Ensemble Zedashe’s album “Our Earth and Water”
Tamar Buadze and Teona Kutsia sing a mashup of a Spanish song and Laz song, simply titled Espanur-Laz, which is available on YouTube.
Ukrainian folk song Vdova, sung by Ukrainian ensemble Drevo.
Serbian Medley, from Dunava’s album Behind the Veil.
Bedinera from the CD: Teach Yourself Megrelian Songs, by Polikarpe in a trio.
Žegar Polye, or Žegar Field Feeds My Lamb, from Svetlana Spajić.

In the final episode of series 1, Susan and Holly take you on a whistle-stop tour of their recent encounters.

First we meet Tamar Buadze in Rustavi where she's started an open-air community singing initiative.

After Rustavi, join your hosts in Shilda where they unearth the start of a fascinating story linking the women’s ensemble Nelkarisi with Magda Kevlishvili from Mtiebi and Sagalobeli a pleading/begging song.

And finally take a mini visit to the Folk School in Telavi, sharing a spine-tingling rendition of Tsintskaro with ensemble Mze Shina.

Help Susan and Holly shape the future of the podcast by completing the survey. Survey Link: https://bit.ly/VOAsurvey

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Voices of the Ancestors by Holly Taylor-Zuntz and Susan Thompson.
Help the podcast become sustainable and launch Series 2 in autumn 2021 by becoming a monthly Ko-Fi subscriber at ko-fi.com/voicesoftheancestors
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Navigate this episode with the searchable transcript, available here voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/transcripts.

Music (pre-recorded): Tsinskaro, Mze Shina;
Live recordings:Tamar Buadze and the Rustavi community workshop; Naniko (retired member of Nelkarisi Ensemble); Kasletila (from concert with Sakhioba in Udabno)

Meet 17 year old Khatia, who lives 700 metres above sea level in the singing village of Merisi in Ajara, West Georgia.

Despite being 2 hours from the nearest city, Khatia is not cut off - She has friends all over the world who have come to learn songs from her family - from Melbourne Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland, UK and beyond.

Hear how she was finally convinced to join in her family’s songs around the supra table.

Enjoy the sounds of Merisi, like the babbling waterfalling and the singing birds recorded live on our trip there in April.

To watch Ialoni's concert for Oxford Contemporary Music go to https://www.ocmevents.org/whats-on/ialoni

To watch the video of the 'supra in the road' go to: https://vimeo.com/26926089?fbclid=IwAR1jZXHirEAwroF6L3TQHsle0P0DFLmCpKAveXLDXMnmTMQCyrrfrbz5GXQ

Voices of the Ancestors by Holly Taylor-Zuntz and Susan Thompson.

If you enjoyed this episode, why not buy the creators a coffee?
On ko-fi.com/voicesoftheancestors or Support the podcast on patreon https://www.patreon.com/voicesoftheancestors

Help the podcast become sustainable by becoming a monthly Ko-Fi subscriber with access to extras (for this episode monthly subscribers can see videos of Nana singing during the interview).

Sign up for our email updates and never miss an episode: eepurl.com/hhgoOf
Navigate this episode with the searchable transcript, available here voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/transcripts.

Music in this episode: Ialoni, Sakhioba, Eteri Darchidze, the Turmanidze family and the Eclesiastical Chant University of Tbilisi.