Urban Music
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Urban music must have started as soon as the first cities appeared in Georgia. Tbilisi became the capital of Georgia in the fifth century, and was known as the cultural center of Caucasus. Tbilisi was on the important routes connecting the East with the West, as well as the North with the South. This strategic position was attracting various ethnic groups, and Tbilisi early became a cosmopolitan city with many languages and many musical styles mixed together. Out of different styles the Middle Eastern monophony with augmented seconds, sensual melodies and instrumental accompaniment were particularly popular. There are not very early historical sources about Georgian urban music, but at least Georgian kings of the 17th and 18th centuries had Middle-Eastern style professional musicians serving at their courts. One of them, the great Armenian musician Sayat Nova, served as a court musician of the King Erekle the Second, and was composing songs in Georgian, Armenian, and Azeri languages. The popularity of this style of music was particularly great by the end of the 19th century, when mostly agricultural Georgians were not attracted to the big cities, and businessmen from other countries (particularly Armenians) became the majority of the city population. At the same time, the polyphonic nature of Georgian music influenced monophonic melodies of the Armenian, Turkish and Iranian origin, and they became polyphonic (usually three-part with the original melody in the middle part).
From the second part of the 19th century a new popular musical style came to Georgia. This was European classical music, based on parallel thirds and triadic harmonies. Opening of the opera in 1950 had a profound influence on Georgian urban societies and soon a new style songs became very popular. The new European style of Georgian urban music consists of two genres: (1) a cappella choral singing in three vocal parts, and (2) solo (or three-part) singing with the accompaniment of musical instrument (usually a guitar, or a piano).
Read more about this topic: Music Of Georgia (country)
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