Georgian Culture and Art

Georgia is an ancient and highly developed musical culture country, Georgian people talent of music is commonly known. The religious music had taken the main role in developing the Georgian national professional music. during the excavation in one of the ancient grave along many things was founded an ancient musical instrument "Salamuri", which was made from a small bone.

 

Musical Traditions

Every region of Georgia has its own tradition of specific musical dialect and the manner of performance, none the less all of them share the same intonation and harmony characteristics.  Here the parallel can be made with the diverse nature of the country. It is the style that occurs in three specific forms from: the complex polyphony found in Svaneti, whereby all the voices follow the same rhythmic pattern, producing choral progression; the polyphonic dialogue typical of Eastern Georgia with two high voices over a drone bass; and the contrastive polyphony widespread in Western Georgia and characterized by predominantly three-part writing.

It is no accident that in 1977 a recording of the song Chakrulo was launched into space on board an American space probe as an example of humanDue to historical and political situation Georgian culture was cut from the main stream of development of the European musical culture.

Folk  Dance

Georgian folk dance performs Georgian soul and history, gathering from each part of Georgia.These breathtaking and absolutely awesome dances represent a live history book expressing centuries of Georgian art, culture and tradition. Georgian Folk dances are famous around the world. Their magnificence and beauty cannot be forgotten by anyone who sees the dances. Many times Georgian dance groups, whether professional or amateur, have mesmerized the world with the beauty of their dances. The beautiful costumes blend history and art in one single harmony. This, coupled with at times seemingly rough and technical movements, leaves the audience in total awe. Georgian Folk dances give immense pleasure to not only the audience, but to the dancers also.Every dance is unique and performs actions such as wedding, war, competition, celebration, mountain and city life.

Georgian dance is the best representative of the Georgian spirit. It unites love, courage, and respect for women, toughness, competition, skill, beauty, and colorfulness into one amazing performance. The dances shows attitude between man and woman even in love, men uphold their respect and manners by not touching the woman and maintaining a certain distance from her. The man focuses his eyes on his partner as if she were the only woman in the whole world. The display of respect for women reflects Georgian culture at its highest level. Traditionally, when a woman throws her head veil between two men, all disagreements and fighting halts. Historically, Georgians tend to strive for excellence. Many Georgian dances are based on the idea of competition. During dance, they will engage in energetic battle with sword and shield, impersonating battle with an enemy.Since Georgia has seen many wars throughout its history, Khorumi (war dance) is a call from the past and reminds us that in order to have peace, we must have war.The most well known Georgian Dances are:

Kartuli -romantic dance, the most difficult…

Khorumi - war dance

Acharuli - flirtatious and light hearted dance

Partsa -festive dance

Mtiuluri - mountain dance

Khevsuruli -love and courage dance

Kintouri - merchant dance

Parikaoba-warrior dance

 

Language and Script

Georgian language belongs to the Iberian – Caucasian group of languages. There are 3 dialects in Georgian (Kartvelian) language (Georgian, Svan and Mengrelo – Laz dialects). Georgian alphabet is one of the 14 existing alphabets in the world. It consists of 33 letters. Many scientists believe that Georgian alphabet was derived from one of the Semitic alphabets around 6th – 5th century BC. The alphabet has been modernized during centuries, but keeps the original roots.

One Georgian historian informs us that Georgian script was created in the 3rd c. BC by Georgian King Parnavaz. The mosaic inscription in the Judean desert in Palestine is known as the oldest Georgian inscription ever found.

 

Georgian literature has ancient and remarkable history. The oldest known literacy work "The Martirdom of Shushanik" was written in 476 – 483 AD by Iakob Tsurtaveli. "The Knight in the Panther Skin" created by Shota Rustaveli at the end of the 12th century is the most brilliant literacy work in Georgian literature. This poem has been translated into many languages of the world.