Page 22 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2017. Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti - Musical Migrations: Crossroads of European Musical Diversity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 1
P. 22
glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti
officially unified polity. In any case, however you view the politics, there is
in truth a considerable cultural space between Georgia and Abkhazia, and
it goes without saying that it has been consciously widened in recent years.
The Abkhaz language belongs to a Northwest Caucasian group, entirely
separate from the Georgian Kartvelian group, and it has especially close
affinities with Adygean. Indeed the term ‘Abkhaz-Adygean’ is sometimes
used to describe this western branch of the language, and the term also has
a wider cultural resonance. The remnants of Circassian culture in the Cau-
casus today exist within a triangular nexus formed by Sukhum, Maykop
and Nalchik, the three capitals of Abkhazia, Adygea and Kabardino-Balka-
ria respectively, though there are lower-level activities in Cherkessk in Ka-
rachay-Cherkessia, and especially among the Abazin populations there (it
should be emphasized that Circassian peoples are in a minority in these
homeland territories, and especially in Adygea).
Of my several encounters with traditional music during my stay in Ab-
khazia the most memorable was a vodka-fuelled rehearsal by one of sev-
eral secondary ensembles that were established there during Soviet times.
The ensemble is called Gunda, after a female character in the Nart sagas,
which might be considered the originary epic of Circassia, and of the North
Caucasus more generally. Incidentally, the distribution of Nart corpora also
speaks very powerfully of a shared Abkhaz - Circassian culture,7 and there
exists a body of mid-twentieth-century recordings of Nart epic songs, no-
tably by the once celebrated Nartaa amateur ensemble of so-called ’long-
lived’ men, founded in 1946 and directed by Ivan Kortua. The music per-
formed by Gunda is far removed from these early recordings. Moreover,
unlike the excellent Zhyu ensemble in Maykop, directed by the multi-tal-
ented Tsamodin Ghwch’e, Gunda seldom performs the Nart songs, whose
minimalist character, mantra-like repetitions, narrow tessitura chanting
and ritual word-tone archaisms (‘woyra, woyra, woriyrariy!’) are distinctly
at odds with the performance styles of today (they are best heard in tradi-
tional Adyge villages such as Shovgenovsk). Under their charismatic leader
Rosa Chamagua, Gunda favours instead a heavily folklorized performance
style, in the manner of the ensembles that once paraded their wares at fes-
tivals and competitions all over Soviet and Soviet-controlled territories. Yet
it was still obvious to me that this music was much closer to Circassian than
7 The major anthology in English is John Colarosso, ed. and trans., Nart Sagas from
the Caucasus: Myths and Legends from the Circassians, Abazaa, Abkhaz, and Ubyks
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003).
20
officially unified polity. In any case, however you view the politics, there is
in truth a considerable cultural space between Georgia and Abkhazia, and
it goes without saying that it has been consciously widened in recent years.
The Abkhaz language belongs to a Northwest Caucasian group, entirely
separate from the Georgian Kartvelian group, and it has especially close
affinities with Adygean. Indeed the term ‘Abkhaz-Adygean’ is sometimes
used to describe this western branch of the language, and the term also has
a wider cultural resonance. The remnants of Circassian culture in the Cau-
casus today exist within a triangular nexus formed by Sukhum, Maykop
and Nalchik, the three capitals of Abkhazia, Adygea and Kabardino-Balka-
ria respectively, though there are lower-level activities in Cherkessk in Ka-
rachay-Cherkessia, and especially among the Abazin populations there (it
should be emphasized that Circassian peoples are in a minority in these
homeland territories, and especially in Adygea).
Of my several encounters with traditional music during my stay in Ab-
khazia the most memorable was a vodka-fuelled rehearsal by one of sev-
eral secondary ensembles that were established there during Soviet times.
The ensemble is called Gunda, after a female character in the Nart sagas,
which might be considered the originary epic of Circassia, and of the North
Caucasus more generally. Incidentally, the distribution of Nart corpora also
speaks very powerfully of a shared Abkhaz - Circassian culture,7 and there
exists a body of mid-twentieth-century recordings of Nart epic songs, no-
tably by the once celebrated Nartaa amateur ensemble of so-called ’long-
lived’ men, founded in 1946 and directed by Ivan Kortua. The music per-
formed by Gunda is far removed from these early recordings. Moreover,
unlike the excellent Zhyu ensemble in Maykop, directed by the multi-tal-
ented Tsamodin Ghwch’e, Gunda seldom performs the Nart songs, whose
minimalist character, mantra-like repetitions, narrow tessitura chanting
and ritual word-tone archaisms (‘woyra, woyra, woriyrariy!’) are distinctly
at odds with the performance styles of today (they are best heard in tradi-
tional Adyge villages such as Shovgenovsk). Under their charismatic leader
Rosa Chamagua, Gunda favours instead a heavily folklorized performance
style, in the manner of the ensembles that once paraded their wares at fes-
tivals and competitions all over Soviet and Soviet-controlled territories. Yet
it was still obvious to me that this music was much closer to Circassian than
7 The major anthology in English is John Colarosso, ed. and trans., Nart Sagas from
the Caucasus: Myths and Legends from the Circassians, Abazaa, Abkhaz, and Ubyks
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003).
20
