In Georgia foundation to the study of polyphony was laid in the second half of the 19th century, when Georgian figures started to publish first essays on Georgian church hymns (old professional music) and folk song.
Despite the fact that in the 20th century a number of significant works were written on Georgian polyphony (authored by Dimitry Araqishvili, Grigol Chkhikvadze, Shalva Aslanishvili and others), German anthropologist Siegfried Nadel dedicated a book (Georgische Gezange, Berlin, 1933) to it; Marius Schneider and Alan Lomax assigned it a place in the study of world polyphony, special conferences on polyphony had not been held in Georgia until the 1980s.
It is well-known, that conferences on polyphony have been held worldwide since the 1960s, however not systematically. Thus it can be said, that Georgia still a part of the Soviet Union, was first to start systematically holding international scientific conferences on this theme in the 1980s.
At this time in Georgia appeared a generation of young ethnomusicologists, who started to carry out complex study of secular and sacred polyphony. The results of this study were presented at international conferences in Borjomi and Tbilisi (1984, 1986, 1988).
Among the Conference participants were representatives of different ethnomuiscological schools of the USSR. The concerts of Georgian folk music collectives following scientific sessions laid foundation to the synthesis of research and performance components, which became characteristic of the following conferences.
The 1986 and 1988 Conferences in Borjomi acquired particularly wide international scale; one of their initiators was Joseph Jordania, in the preparation and holding of the conferences by the Conservatoire (with Rusudan Tsurtsumia as Vice-Rector in Science and Kukuri Chokhonelidze – Head of Georgian Folk Music department) also noteworthy was the assistance of Giya Kancheli – then Head of Composers’ Union of Georgia and Anzor Erkomaishvili – Artistic Director of ensemble “Rustavi’ and founder of children’s studio “Martve”. The conferences were held in the concert hall of the Composers’ House located in picturesque surrounding. Daily scientific sessions were followed by the performance of folk artists from various parts of the country and the odour of rural singing spread around from the stage. …. By the way, these conferences were unusually representative for peripheral republics of the Soviet Union in terms of European and American scholars’ participation; mention should be made of the invaluable assistance of Izaly Zemtsovsky – one of the most brilliant representatives of Russian ethnomusicology, a dear friend of Georgian culture, whose scientific consultations were invaluable for young Georgian ethnomusicologists.
This tradition was deranged by grave political and social situation after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and thanks to the efforts of Tbilisi State Conservatoire it was revived only in 1998. Next international conference was held in 2000 with the support of the Fund “Open Society-Georgia”. All Conference materials have been published: those of the 1980s – as theses in Russian language, and those of 1998 and 2000 – as papers in Georgian and English.
This was a consecutive path to the 1st International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, which, on the one hand, summed up a centuries-old development of Georgian ethnomusicology and, on the other hand, a new stage in the research of Georgian multipart singing in the context of world polyphony commenced in 2002.
The Tbilisi symposia are held biannually and are distinguished in format and diversity of themes among similar scientific forums; and allows the researchers to share the results of their studies in the polyphony of the world’s different regions.
Thanks to these symposia Georgian ethnomuiscologists have been involved in world ethnomusicological processes, their themes cover polyphony of the Georgians and different ethnicities residing in Georgia, such as Abkhazians, Ossetians, Kists/Chechens. Georgian polyphony was known to the world thanks to different ensembles, after the symposia this phenomenon became the topic of interest for the world’s scientific circles, since 2002 one or more foreign scholars dedicated papers to Georgian polyphony at every symposium (Susanne Ziegler (germany), Tsutomu Oohashi (Japan), Andrea Kuzmich (Canada), Lauren Ninoshvili (USA), Simha Arom (France), Polo Vallejo (spain), John Graham (USA)).
Bilingual books of Symposium proceedings have been published and are also available on the IRCTP Web Site.
One of the attractive sides of Tbilisi Symposia is its concert and cultural program, concerts of Georgian polyphony and that of ethnic minorities of Georgia, and world polyphony are held at grand and Recital Halls of Tbilisi State Conservatoire, musical-ethnographic films are projected, one day is appointed for the meeting with folk singers from one of Georgia’s regions and sightseeing cultural monuments.
The Tbilisi symposium is a large-scale and representative international event, which responds to the 2003 Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and is an expression of the State’s care for Georgian polyphony – proclaimed by UNESCO a masterpiece of Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001.
It is noteworthy that the 2nd Symposium (2004) was held with the financial support of UNESCO.
On 26-30 September, 2016 Tbilisi will host the 8th International Symposium, its participants will receive copies of proceedings of the 7th Symposium.