The history of Georgian church chanting is full of interesting stories. For me, among them, the most important and exciting among them is the mystery of Pilimon Koridze’s journey to transcribe Georgian chants into musical notation.^[1] I use the word “secret” here quite intentionally. At first glance, there is nothing mysterious about the process of notating music, but once we study the matter in depth, many puzzles inevitably arise.

Pilimon Koridze.

Pilimon Koridze started transcribing chants from Melkisedek Nakashidze and Nestor Kontridze in 1882, amid skepticism from society at large.^[2] Debates about the idea of transcribing Georgian chant had been going on for some time at that point. In 1878, the folklorist Petre Umikashvili published a long letter in the Iveria newspaper: 

It is necessary to invite knowledgeable people, not only because of the fact that transcription is generally difficult; other circumstances require it. Those who are accustomed to music and chanting can easily distinguish European music and chanting apart from ours, that is, Georgian. The alphabet of notes has been created for European sounds and music. When it comes to Georgian instruments, chants or songs, there are sounds that do not correspond to European notes, just like the Georgian letters ყ [q] and ჭ [ch’] do not exist in any of the European alphabets. In addition to these letters, the tuning and harmony also obey different laws in Georgia than in Europe.^[3] 

Petre Umikashvili’s letter was followed by a critical letter from the researcher and publicist Nikoloz Mungolishvili,^[4] to which Umikashvili gave an even more interesting answer: 

He presents my opinion as if what I am saying is that European notation is of no use to us. He then launches into an extensive, exaggerated, and protracted discussion, arguing that [Georgian chants] should indeed be written down in European notation. When I said that the alphabet of notes is written for European sounds, I didn’t mean that it won’t work for the Georgian ones. No, I said that in European notation, there are no such symbols or marks which could express some Georgian tones. European notes are useful, and we should use them, but even so, we should be aware that some tones [i.e., pitches] of Georgian chants or songs will be left out in these notations. European peoples do not use intervals smaller than semitones, while in the songs of the mountain peoples, one can hear quarter tones. If one does not learn a song through singing, one cannot access the actual song in the notation, because there are no quartertones. In our Georgian chants and songs, quartertones are common everywhere.^[5]

Petre Umikashvili

These two letters clearly demonstrate that Umikashvili was deeply familiar with the features of traditional Georgian polyphony and considered it permissible to transcribe chants using the five-line notation system, although he had certain reservations about the results. 

The greatest patron of Georgian church chanting, Ekvtime Kereselidze, later canonized as Saint Ekvtime the Confessor, tells us a story about the transcription of chants in an interesting and emotional way. It provides some very important information, even if, in my opinion, it is necessary to cross-check some of these facts with other sources.

Ekvtime tells us of a meeting between Pilimon Koridze, who had just returned from Italy, and Melkisedek Nakashidze, the famous chanter, describing their dialogue in detail: 

Melkisedek asked him, “They say that Georgian chants cannot be put into notation, that they cannot be written down, but I think that if those in Russian and other peoples’ languages have been transcribed, then why should it not be possible with Georgian as well?" Pilimon told him, “Why not?! Georgian songs and chants can be transcribed and notated.” Pilimon immediately showed him some transcriptions of Georgian songs, sang them, and assured him that all kinds of sounds and texts will be transcribed. Then Melkisedek continued, “The great singers of Guria with whom I studied—Anton, Giorgi, and Davit Dumbadze, among others—I have a great desire to preserve this national treasure and knowledge, because it is evident that as time goes on, the number of people really studying Georgian singing will decrease, and eventually, these great master chanters will also die, and chanting will be lost in our future generations.”

Then Pilimon said to him, “Indeed, it is quite necessary that our national songs and chants be transcribed, therefore I will try very hard to get this work off the ground.” He was immediately consulted on how to proceed with the matter. Pilimon said, “Come here with your choir. We have a piano: you will chant, and I will play and transcribe.” At the appointed time, Melkisedek brought his singers. Pilimon said to Melchisedek, “Begin the chant that we are going to transcribe; first sing it several times for me to hear and play it.” Melkisedek and his companions began to sing a hymn in an ornamented [ch’reli] style: “Ganmanatlebuli Chveni” (Our enlightener). Pilimon listened for a while and then said: for now, let’s not try with the k’rimanch’uli (the distinct Gurian yodeling technique), since we are not yet used to the process. Once we get used to it, then we can add the k’rimanch’uli and all the tricks. That’s why I think that we should first transcribe the chants from the service liturgy, and when we finish with that, then let’s chant it and prove to the public that it is possible to transcribe and sing Georgian chants using notation.” This suggestion was accepted, and they started transcribing the liturgy in 1884.^[6] They worked on the transcriptions in their free time, and when they finished one liturgy, Pilimon said, “Now I have to sing this with my choir, who do not know Georgian chants. There are also Russians in my choir, and if we sing together with the Russians, then the public will be more convinced if the Russians can also sing Georgian chants using sheet music.” And thus, Pilimon presented the newly transcribed chants. First, they chanted in Tbilisi, and the performance was pleasant and surprising for everyone, and Pilimon received a lot of thanks from the public.^[7] 

In addition to Ekvtime’s account, press reports in the 1880s also confirm that, with the appearance of Pilimon Koridze, the work of preserving Georgian church chanting really began. The public reviewed his work positively, though there is still some debate among chanters and researchers as to whether their verdict of “pleasant and surprising to everyone” implied that the transcriptions and performances were flawless. 

In early 1884, after the event in Tbilisi recounted above in Ekvtime’s manuscript, Koridze visited the city of Kutaisi with his choir to perform chant transcriptions for the bishop Gabriel. At the request of the bishop, the best singers of that time attended the service. Ekvtime writes:

Afterwards, people who were knowledgeable about chanting came up to Pilimon and told him, “We have been convinced that is indeed possible to transcribe Georgian chants and songs into notes, but in some of the chants the parts are changed and incomplete. For example, “Romeli Kerubimta,”  “Da Vitartsa Meupisa” [these form the two parts of the Cherubic Hymn], and “Shen Gigalobt” (We praise Thee). Did you not write them down in their true form? Pilimon stopped and said, “As you all know, I never learned Georgian chanting. I know how to write music. And with notation, whatever you hear, you write down. I wrote what they chanted, and we chanted it together, and whether it was a proper chant or not, I don’t know—that’s the fault of the source.” Then they turned to Melkisedek Nakashidze and berated him, “How dare you not chant naturally but in this transformed and twisted way! With this, you lose the dignity of singing and your self-respect.”^[8] 

Around the same time, Pilimon Koridze also held concerts in Kutaisi. Prince Svimon Gugunava, the son of the great singer and chanter Data Gugunava, responded to this event in the newspaper Droeba (The Times): 

Mr. Koridze held two concerts of Georgian chants and folk songs in Kutaisi. As a lover of Georgian chanting, I attended both of them, and I would like to share my opinion of them with the Georgian society in print. They chanted the following with the real k’ilo [i.e., the distinctive Georgian tuning and style], without changes: 1. “Movedit Taqvani Vtset” (We have come to worship), 2. “Ts’mindao Ghmerto” (O Holy God), 3. “Ghirs Ars Ch’eshmaritad” (It is truly meet), 4. “Upalo Shegvits’qalen” (Lord have mercy), and 5. “Ispola” (a Greek chant honoring a bishop).. As for the rest, “Romeli Kerubimta” was chanted in the eighth tone, and “Shendami Ikharebs” [All creation rejoices] was in k’ilo, but they did not go well. Likewise, “Ganmanatlebeli” [Our Enlightener] and “Shen Gigalobt” were not in real k’ilo because the sections went on for too long. The folk songs “Khasanbegura,” “Khelkhavi,” and “Deliavda” were sung properly, but the rest need correction [...] When the chants were demonstrated to Koridze correctly and in proper k’ilo, he wrote them down flawlessly, and when they were shown in warped k’ilo, we should blame the presenters, not Mr. Koridze.^[9] 

Deacon Razhden Khundadze, the chanting teacher at the Kutaisi Theological School, also responded to the concert in the magazine Mts’qemsi (The Shepherd):

Mr. Koridze made us very happy by demonstrating that the transcription of Georgian chants into notation is a real possibility, and I also fully agree that notating Georgian chants can be more or less achievable. As for Mr. Koridze, I will say the following about his choir’s chanting: first, they sang “Amen” and “Upalo Shegvits’qalen”, and such smaller pieces as “Movedit Taqvani Vtset”, “Ts’mindao Ghmerto”, “Mrts’amsi” (The Creed), “Shen Gigalobt,” “Ghirs Ars Ch’eshmaritad,” and “Ganmanatlebeli.” These were in Gurian k’ilo [tuning], but one shortcoming should be mentioned: the bani [bass] and maghali bani [“high bass,” or middle part] did not fit the beginning [perhaps the “starting voice”]. I must admit, it was the first time I had ever heard such renditions of “Romeli Kerubimta,”  “Da Vitartsa Meupisa,” or “Ghirs Ars”! “Romeli Kerubimta” is [usually] chanted in three different ways: 1) in the ornamented [ch’reli] “bishop’s style,” 2) in the commonly used  “priestly style,” and 3) in the Enlightener’s mode, sung in tone II. The third of these ends with an extended passage of ch’reli ornamentation, similar to how “Da Vitartsa Meupisa” concludes. The version they performed did not resemble any of these. It was, in fact, “Sdumenin Qoveli Khortsi” (Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent) transformed, so to speak, into the eighth tone by someone—I’m don’t who. They repeated the same word, which is not customary in Georgian chanting tradition. Both “Ghirs Ars da Martali Taqvanis Tsema” and “Ts’mida Arsi” (Holy, holy, holy) have also undergone modifications. The former was sung in the sixth tone of the Parakliton, while I couldn’t discern the exact tone they used for the latter. Normally, “Ghirs Ars da Martali Taqvanis Tsema” is chanted in two ways: in the regular way and in the ornamented “bishop’s style.”  “Ts’mida Arsi” is chanted in three ways: the regular way, the bishop’s style, and in the irmos tone, with the latter rarely sung in church. It would have been very good if these chants had been recorded in the common versions. But Mr. Koridze is not entirely to blame for this. Whatever he heard was what he wrote down. It would have been better if, during Mr Koridze’s process, one additional person—someone well-trained in chanting—could have been present. We know for sure that Mr. Koridze, with the help of his wife and the help of good singers, can transcribe these beautiful Georgian chants into notes.^[10] 

These three sources, in my opinion, demonstrate that some of the chant texts that Melkisedek Nakashidze had Pilimon Koridze notate were arranged to the tunes of other chants. It is no surprise that the performance of “Romeli Kerubimta” in the eighth tone would have been unusual and unacceptable for the singers. This was undoubtedly the main reason for the criticism, but it is worth noting that the letters of Gugunava and Khundadze do not only focus on this. Svimon Gugunava writes that “Shendami Ikharebs” was sung in the correct tone, “but it did not go well,” and Razhden Khunadze observes that the bani and high bani voices did not fit the starting voice”—i.e., the bani (the third voice) and modzakhili (the second voice) did not correspond to the mtkmeli (the first voice), which may be related to errors in the movement of voices or to the issue of intonation, about which Petre Umikashvili expressed his opinion a few years earlier. It is also interesting that both of them attribute the perceived shortcomings only to the transmitters, while they largely give Koridze a pass, saying that he recorded what was chanted in his presence. 

I must also mention that the great master of chanting, Anton Dumbadze, said the following in the same year that Koridze began his project, 1883: “Until now, I did not believe that it would be possible to transcribe Georgian chants and folk songs into notation, but I heard it with my own ears, and any such disbelief now would be a misplaced stubbornness.”^[11] 

Let us, then, ask the following questions:

Could the singers who couldn’t read sheet music check the musical scores? Why did the singers think that, as they sang, Pilimon notated it down exactly? Was it even possible to transcribe all the chants well or even “without errors” using the notation system? How useful was the notation system for Georgian church chants? Could Pilimon himself transcribe chants without mistakes? When performing from sheet music, did the performers accurately repeat the key and alternation marks indicated in the score? When checking the notated scores of chants, did they check only the arrangement of voices, or the accuracy of the k’ilo as well? Was the piano (or harmonium) always used when checking the scores? Did whoever verified the accuracy, examine the voices separately, or two or three voices together? Were the scores checked on an instrument alone, through singing alone, or in combination? Did the chanting experts only refer to the inaccuracies in tone and voice patterns, or did they inadvertently, perhaps unconsciously, also touch on the problem of the difference in intonation? What exactly do Gugunava and Khundadze’s comments mean, about the chant “not going well” or the different voice parts not fitting the beginning? 

This is but a sampling of questions that need to be answered, and they can only be answered through deep and complex research. 

I mentioned above the term k’ilo, which often causes controversy among researchers of Georgian traditional music. This is because singers and chanters used this word in a broad sense. In my opinion, they implied all the possible meanings of the term at the same time. Therefore, I think that the most comprehensive and interesting understanding of this term is offered by Professor Ivane Zhgenti: “In a broad sense, k’ilo is the organization of sound and harmony in space and time. From this point of view, such concepts as k’ilo and harmony are identical; the difference between them is effectively lost.”^[12] This definition of course, does not resolve all the issues, but it helps to understand the sense in which I use the term. 

On July 14, 1884, an anonymous letter titled “Georgian chanting with sheet music in the church” was printed in Mts’q’emsi magazine. The letter states that

Apparently Machavariani tried to reproduce the notes of Georgian chants on all musical instruments, but he did not manage to do so! In the end, they declared that a different type of instrument needs to be invented abroad; or that some keys should be added to the piano, otherwise it’s not possible to transcribe Georgian chants!^[13] 

This excerpt has been published several times in recent years, but the context became clear to me only after reading the entire letter. The quote continues like this: “They concluded their business with this and took money for inventing wisdom!”^[14] It turned out that the letter criticizes the activities of the Chant Restoration Committee and, most likely, the opinion expressed by Mikheil Machavariani. That Mikheil Machavariani really expressed such an opinion is confirmed by a letter printed in the Droeba newspaper:

On Monday evening, on the seventeenth of this month, I took Father Archimandrite Makari to Mr. Koridze’s, where he was invited to listen to Georgian church chanting, notated by Koridze and his wife. As soon as we entered, we heard a Gurian church chant in real k’ilo. This was all the more pleasant as the chanters were not Gurians, but the singers of the choir of the Exarchate of Georgia: Messrs. Kiknavelidze, Vinchenko, Balanchivadze, and Beridze. Mr. Koridze himself was conducting. He set the pitch as befits European music, and the chant, performed from sheet music, came out beautifully. With this work, there is no doubt that Koridze will contradict Mr. Machavariani’s opinion, widespread among artists, that it is completely impossible to transcribe Georgian songs, and we have to invent new notes.

The Honorable Makari is soon going to present the work accomplished by Mr. Koridze and his wife both to the Exarch of Georgia and to the public, and then the public itself will have an opportunity to appreciate it.

In addition, Father Archimandrite Makari assured me that Koridze will complete the transcription of all Georgian church hymns into notes, if the Georgian public helps him in this difficult task.^[15] 

Unfortunately, at the meeting of the Chant Restoration Committee, the deputy chairman and rector of the seminary, Pavle Chudetski, expressed a similar view as Machavariani’s, with malicious intent, and this prevented critical opinions from being taken into account.

Here is what the writer Giorgi Bokeria tells us about the meeting of the Restoration Committee:

At the very first session, Rector Chudetski uttered the following absurdity: “Georgian k’ilo notes will not be used, because it does not follow equal temperament, and therefore the existing European symbols will not work for it; we would be forced to invent symbols that do not yet exist. And it will cost so much that it will greatly exceed the cost of Georgian chant-music, and the destitute Georgian clergy cannot afford to spend so much and not go broke. But why do we need to create such a cacophony at a time when the beautiful-sounding Great Slavonic chant with its divine tunes and melodies sweetens the ears of the immeasurable Russian Empire—one-sixth of the earth—and dazzles the whole of Europe, which beholds us with envy?” The priest Aushev, who had musical knowledge and was a lover of Georgian singing, answered without hesitation: “Your opinion, respected rector, about Georgian chanting and music does not reflect the truth in the slightest, because all the material that needs to be printed has already been transcribed, samples have been already been performed and approved [...] Acoustically, sound can be divided indefinitely. By the same law, there is no sound that cannot be recorded with notation. Georgian music also fully obeys the same acoustic laws and is recorded with the same notes as every European sound. This has been proven in practice, beyond any doubt.” Due to the division of opinions, the meeting was postponed until the next day.^[16]

Father Vasil Aushev

According to Giorgi Bokeria, the composer Meliton Balanchivadze thought that Chudetski was trying to obstruct the process. Because of this, he brought Akaki and Giorgi Tsereteli and Alexandre Kazbegi to the session the next day. It was then that Akaki Tsereteli made a speech in opposition to Chudetski, but it is Aushev’s answer that draws my special attention here. He says that “acoustically, the voice can be divided indefinitely” and "Georgian music also fully obeys the same acoustic laws and is recorded with the same notes as every European sound.”

From these few sources, it is clear that in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, according to the scholarship of the time, the questions of k’ilo and musical notation were as hotly debated as they are in the twenty-first century.

So who was right, Petre Umikashvili or Vasil Aushev?

Our forefathers did a great job of transcribing chants, but even though almost a century and a half has passed, we still argue like them. Everything is complicated by the fact that we have a lot of sheet music, but no audio recordings from this early period. Because of this, we don't know how exactly they chanted when they wrote down the notes; but fortunately, we know how their students chanted and sang. 

In this regard, there is an important fact that is worth noting: in 1966 Artem Erkomaishvili, a bona fide chanter brought up by Melkisedek Nakashidze, sang the same version of the hymn “Ghirs Arsi” which Nakashidze and Nestor Kontridze had transcribed by Pilimon Koridze. This was at the Tbilisi State Conservatory, during a recording session by professors Grigol Chkhikvadze and Kakhi Rosebashvili.

The sheet music you see in the photo is from one of the 676 manuscripts preserved in the K. Kekelidze National Manuscripts Center of Georgia. Ekvtime Kereselidze refers to it as “the first book.” Indeed, this was the first notated score of this chant, which Pilimon Koridze created in 1883 with the help of Melchisedek and Nestor. His wife Zinaida Vorobetz transcribed it.

I prepared this synchronized video especially for this article, which allows you to listen to the 1966 audio recording of Artem Erkomaishvili along with a sample of Pilimon Koridze’s sheet music transcription from 1883, the first voice of which is slightly different from what Artem sang. To better understand the similarities and differences, observe the accompanying animation elements that follow Artem’s first voice.

Many questions arise regarding this video and the quotes above, which I will address in subsequent articles. Before that, I think we should all agree that doubting Pilimon Koridze’s merits is not only unacceptable, but also impossible. After that, we will be able to freely discuss, determine and make it clear to everyone what the chant was like before it was put into notation, and what it became afterward. 

Until next time!

^[1] Pilimon Koridze (1835–1911) was a Georgian operatic bass, one of the founders of Georgian opera, and an early organizer and conductor of Georgian folk choirs. Koridze was the first Georgian musician to transcribe Georgian polyphony into notation. In 2011, in honor of his great achievements in the field of Georgian church chanting, the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him as Saint Pilimon the Chanter, Devoted to the Nation.

^[2] Melkisedek Nakashidze (1858–1934) was a Georgian prince, chanter, and sexton, as well as a member  of the Society for the Restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus in the Ozurgeti district of Guria. Nestor Kontridze (1854–1932) was a Georgian priest, dean of the Likhauri Church, as well as a singer, chanter, and choir master.

^[3] Petre Umikashvili, “Kartuli saek’lesio galoba” (Georgian church chant), Iveria, October 5, 1878 (no. 39), 5–7.

^[4] Nikoloz Mungolishvili [writing as “A friend of Georgian chant”], “K’idev kartuls galobaze” (Again on the subject of Georgian chant), Iveria, November 2, 1878 (no. 43), 7–9.

^[5] Petre Umikashvili, “Ramdenime shenishvna kartulis galobis not’ebze gadaghebulisatvis” (Some remarks on the transcription of Georgian chant in notation), Iveria, November 9, 1878 (no. 44), 8–10.

^[6] Kereselidze may have misremembered the year, as the transcription project actually began in 1883.

^[7] Ekvtime Kereselidze, “Ist’oria kartul saek’lesio sagaloblebis not’ebze gadaghebisa” (The history of transcribing Georgian church chants in notation). K. Kekelidze National Manuscript Center of Georgia, Manuscript Q.840..

^[8] Kereselidze, “Ist’oria,” 16–17.

^[9] Svimon Gugunava, “Kartuli galobis gamo” (Because of Georgian chant), Droeba, March 30, 1884 (no. 31), 2–3. 

^[10] Razhden Khundadze, “Kartuli saek’lesio galoba” (Georgian church chant), Mts’q’emsi, April 1, 1884 (no. 7), 4–5.

^[11] Droeba, November 25, 1883 (no. 237).

^[12] Ivane Zhgenti, Nark’vevebi kartuli khalkhuri da dzveli p’ropesiuli musik’is shesakheb. Ist’oriisa da teoriiss sak’itkhebi (Essays on Georgian folk and old professional music: Issues in history and theory)(Tbilisi: Vano Sarajishvili State Conservatoire, 2017), 64.

^[13] “Not’ebit kartuli galoba ek’lesiashi” (Georgian chanting with sheet music in the church), Mts’q’emsi July 14, 1884 (no. 15), 2–3.

^[14] Ibid.

^[15] “Shinauri kronik’a” (Domestic chronice), Droeba, October 22, 1883 (no. 211), 2.

^[16] Giorgi Bokeria, Mikheil Philimonis-dze Khoridze “Erovnuli musik’is tandatanobiti ganvitareba chvenshi (pilimon korelis mushaobis shesakheb)” (The gradual development of our national music (on the work of Philimon Koreli). Unpusblished manuscript, dated 1931,preserved in the Art-Palace of Georgia,– f. 1, st. 88, kh. 4429, no. 371.

Main sources: 

1. Tavberidze, Ilia. XIX sauk’unis kartveli moghvats’eebi da saek’lesio galoba (Nineteenth-century Georgian public figures and church chanting). Tbilisi: Sakartvelos sap’at’riarkos gamomtsemloba, 2005
2. Sukhiashvili, Magda, and Ekaterine Sanikidze. Kartuli galobis moamageni (I), pilimon koridze (Guardians of Georgian chanting, vol. 1, Pilimon Koridze). Tbilisi: Sakartvelos matsne, 2004.
3. Shugliashvili, David. Kartuli galobis kronik’a 1861-1921 ts’lebis p’eriodik’ashi. (A chronicle of Georgian chant in periodicals, 1861–1921). Tbilisi: National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, 2015. 

Further reading in English:

Graham, John. “The Transcription and Transmission of Georgian Liturgical Chant.” PhD diss., Princeton University, 2015.