Georgian Folk Music

Georgian folk music possesses what is the oldest tradition of polyphonic music in the world, predating the introduction of Christianity. Scales used in traditional Georgian music have, like most European scales, octaves divided into seven tones (eight including the octave), but the spacing of the tones is different. As with most traditional systems of tuning, traditional Georgian folk music uses a just perfect fifth. Between the unison and the fifth, however, come three evenly-spaced notes, producing a compressed (compared to most European music) major second, a neutral third, and a stretched perfect fourth. …

The folk music of Georgia is one of the earliest and richest polyphonic traditions in the world, despite being little known to the rest of the modern world. Combining a sense of national pride, musical invention and exploratory spirit, pianist/composer & arranger Giorgi Mikadze has created a striking new hybrid of traditional Georgian folk music and progressive microtonal jazz on his breathtaking debut album, Georgian Microjamz. This album discovers unexpected common ground between the ancient traditions of Mikadze’s native Georgia, where the Orthodox Christian church featured only vocal music in its services, and the very modern microtonal innovations of guitar great David “Fuze” Fiuczynski, with whom the keyboardist studied while at Boston’s Berklee College of Music…

An unprecedented historical recording of Georgian vocal music that peels away a century of Soviet academic polish and Western classical influence to reveal a folk music of searing lyricism and breathtaking complexity. In Georgia, polyphonic vocal music, usually associated with early modern Western melody, dates back to the 4th century and is as essential to the wedding table as to the church choir. These recordings from before the Russian Revolution, culled from gramophone archives in England, include a field labor song in 4 vocal parts, a rare early example of liturgical chant, and numerous banquet toasting songs featuring masterfully controlled dissonance and free-meter improvisation. An important document of a pre-Soviet era that few Georgians themselves can remember, and of a legacy that scholars and lovers of traditional folk music will cherish.

Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili was signed to the Sony Classical label in her early 20s after a series of major competition prizes and began a top-level international career. She has said that some of her interpretations are influenced by Georgian folk music. Buniatishvili's international renown comes in large part from her recordings. She was signed to the Sony Classical label and released her debut album, Khatia Buniatishvili Plays Franz Liszt, in 2011. Her 2012 release, Chopin, won the Echo Klassik Young Artists' Award. Buniatishvili has remained on Sony's roster, recording mostly core virtuoso 19th and early 20th century repertory. In 2020, she released the recital Labyrinth, featuring an eclectic program ranging from Bach to Philip Glass and Serge Gainsbourg. Buniatishvili lives in Paris.