Mzetamze female Ensemble - Georgia - current tour

In traditional Georgian society, men's and women's live sphere and activities were mostly separated from each other. This feature is also reflected in their singing tradition: songs with a representative function like table songs belong to the men's domain, whereas the women's songs are often tied to customs and ritual, that is to important moments in the course of the rural seasons or human life. Quite often the lyrics and the music are linked to a third element, the coordinated movement, and that not only in the actual dance songs, but also in laments or ritual healing chants or songs that should induce the change of the weather. In spite of the intimate character of the women's song repertory, the trend to polyphonic singing lead to highly artistic vocal expressions that lay beyond the actual funcition of the events. There are e.g. lullabies for two or three voices that haven't been arranged for the concert stage (the Ensemble Mzetamze forbears such songs), but were found during fieldwork among the traditional women's repertory.

One genre that is performend by women and men – often separately, but sometimes also together – are the round or line dances called perkhuli. The performers of these group dances – singers and dancers in one – form usually a circle holding each other by their hands or putting the arms on both sides on the neighbour's shoulder. Sometimes, the dancers form a row instead of the circle. The dance songs are musically characterized by their antiphony: a second couple of upper part singers repeats every stanza before the other singers beginn their verse. Usually, all three voices scan the text together. Some lyrics as well as certain occasions of perkhuli performance confirm that the perkhuli belong to the oldest traditional forms of Georgian singing; some are connected with religious ceremonies, others with important stages in life. Some ethnologists see a connection between the circle form of the ring dances and ancient astral deities. These dances are especially widespread in the mountainous areas. In Svaneti and Rach'a, almost all the songs have an antiphonic form and are sung while dancing ring dances. Many of them have epic texts and among these, the so called hunt epics belong to a very archaic group, because they were already mentioned in reports of the Georgian court in the 14th century.

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- latest CD: "FM 50016 - Vol. I" - "FM 50030 - Vol. II"

- Review
- Rambles - Vol. I - published 18 September 2004
- published by Green Man Review
- published by Ethnotempos
- published by Oberbadisches Volksblatt 1997
- published by Basler Zeitung 1997 - Stimmenfestival Lörrach
- published by WorldMusic Italy - March 1997
- published by Folkmagazin - 2004

	Face Music - tour projects - Mzetamze - Georgia
	text available in German