GEORGIAN CHANGI

Abstract

The unique culture of Georgia, located on the crossroads between Europe and Asia, was formed under the conditions of interrelation with other cultural centers. Instrumental music was fairly well developed in old Georgia; presented here will be a large number of musical instruments. Our discussion is based on written monuments, frescoes and archaeological data.

The paper deals with the group of Georgian string, more precisely harp-like instruments; these were disseminated into some countries of the Northern and Central Caucasus: the Georgian changi, Abkhazian aiuma, Kabardinian pshina dequaqua, Karachayan pshedegequaqua, Balkarian qil-qobuz/qanir qobuz, and the Ossetian duadastanon. Of the afore-mentioned, the Georgian changi has survived only in Svaneti – one of Georgia’s alpine regions. To its antiquity and uninterrupted local tradition testify clay and bronze figurines (6th cent A.D.) unearthed by archaeological excavations, and the material is confirmed in the 5th and 10th-20th century Georgian written sources. There were two terms referring to the Georgian harp-like instrument: changi (from the 10th c. until today, Persian chank) and shimekvshe (the local Svan name, meaning bended arm and related to the Caucasian legend of the instrument’s origin). There is a consideration that knari was rather a lyre-type, than harp-like instrument. Curt Sachs considers the harps discovered in Ur (2700 B.C), as the analogs of Georgian changi; these were decorated with the figurines of two horses and an ox.

The paper touches upon the place of changi in Georgian instrumentarium, ensemble traditions, social function and sacral meaning, number of strings, tuning and performance possibilities.