Georgian Songwriter's Folk Song of Soviet Epoch as a Victim of “Authenticism”

Abstract

Mass character and class reference of Soviet art quite easily echoed collective and national priorities of Georgian folk song. In addition, the authority of renowned singers and organizers of choirs was an important factor for preserving the originality in Georgian colonial cultural life, even before the establishment of Soviet Power. From the second half of the 19th century these popular leaders – choir masters – created their own versions of folk songs, as well as composed new songs, most of which, despite clear stylistic individualism, are considered ‘true folklore’ by the lovers of authentic folklore today. However, the songs composed by well-known choirmasters in the second half of the 20th century, are demonstratively rejected by the folklore elite, including official structures, for being ‘nonfolklore’ and ‘low quality’. But, stable popularity of these songs in cities and villages, provides very strong evidence of their artistic and stylistic relevance. Thus, the policy of ‘ignoring’ could be attributed to the maximalist understanding of ‘authentic’ performance of folklore accompanying the national-independent movement in the 1980s, which introduced an important cultural phenomenon of ‘revolutionary’ protest in Georgian ethno-musical space. A similar tendency echoes the parallel realities of post-Soviet countries and today’s fashionable ‘taboo’ of ‘all things Soviet’, regardless of the verbal thematic of the examples. In the inertia of these vicissitudes, currently the practice of creating a song with ethnic coloring is dissociated from ‘authentic’ folk author-performers. But when it comes to the skill level and traditional style, this suggests mostly inadequate results in a banished, but free space. The article discusses the boundaries and accessories of the concept of “folk song”, its accordance with Georgian traditional musical style, and the problems related to this topic. Also presented is the classification scheme of Georgian musical styles based on contemporary data.