Music
2019_4
Gia Kancheli
I’ve never wished to express my attitude towards the ignorance that accompanies changes of time and, notwithstanding all the horrible examples in the history of Mankind, is still acute nowadays.
I do understand that art will not change the world for the better, so I try to oppose:
Silence that resembles the surface of still water and not a raging river to ignorance;
Peace and patience towards permanent terrorist acts and endless conflicts; because only in such situations can I think of beauty that is able to defeat ignorance;
The sound between the verge of silence and an increasingly noisy environment;
The simplest musical language to complicated technical progress; Exaggeratedly slow tempos to accelerating rhythm of life;
Dynamic contrasts to exalted patriotism, fetish of the past and religious fundamentalism.
I’ve no other means of expressing my protest but the notes written on music paper.
And as the above-mentioned circumstances subconsciously influence and no doubt leave their mark on my spiritual condition, in my daily hard work I have to empty my thoughts and emotions from these problems and address the endless, unseen space connected to the eternal notions of beauty, kindness and love in my perception. My sole desire is to keep my inner creative struggle hidden from the listeners of my music.
Universal language of music that needs no translation rouses different feelings in each listener. I do understand that my musical world can be irritating for some people, but I have also never lacked followers.
You may agree that the only true appraiser of any event is time and I’ll be glad if my music is seen in the future (if it is not lost in oblivion) as an attempt to escape from darkness towards light.
As a rule, in each new composition I try to overcome obstacles created by myself to feel, at least, temporary relief. This is a torturous process and the illusion of overcoming difficulties is not the guarantee of self-contentment.
I’ve never tried to be distinctive and full of originality. Moreover, I have repeatedly said that the issue of my creating process is as old as the universe: I try to go from subdominant to dominant chords and then to tonic so that I am not drowned in boredom.
I don’t like discussing or talking about my compositions, especially before showing a new piece. After finishing the composition I look forward to the first rehearsal which is to reveal the best and worst sides of my work. The best criteria to assess my music with is silence reigning in the concert hall full of people.
If passion for being original or, even worse, extravagant, prevails the composer, creation of music loses its essence...
I can’t tell you anything about the very first literary work as it is lost in time, but we can talk about the first musical works starting from religious chants which have a specific character. I’ll also mention folk polyphony, the origins of which are also lost in the past. I often ask myself who created there masterpieces and I can’t find the answer. I thought of a metaphor – maybe in Guria a talented person like Bach once lived; he invited two neighbors of his – one of whom was as talented as Beethoven and the other with the genius of Mozart - and suggested they create 3-voice polyphony. If this could be taken into consideration, it is somehow strange and incomprehensible how “Bach”, “Beethoven” and “Mozart” happened to live together not only in Guria, but in other regions of Georgia as well. I’m convinced of one thing – in our country, folk music was not written by people in the fields – it was created by anonymous geniuses. That is why I don’t allow myself to use the work of anonymous authors when writing my music. It could also be true that these masterpieces existed in our culture long before Christianity.
I can say this judging by the remnants of heathen religion in the mountains... Even nowadays in Svaneti during a funeral, according to tradition only ladies are allowed to sit in the room where the dead person is lying. The relatives of the deceased invite a “professional” weeper from their own or neighboring village. She starts wailing a simple melody and the women in the room sing along with her. At the same time, in the yard a group of men start singing the Svanetian “Toll” – a hymn addressed to heaven. Participants of one of the folklorist expeditions decided to record the ritual and secretly hid a microphone near the entrance door... the recording captured the voices of both men and women. I have listened to it and it’s been a true mystery for me ever since. Exactly this recording gave me the inspiration to invite Hamlet Gonashvili to perform the opening and the middle parts in my 3 rd Symphony with the subtitle “The Chant”.
Maybe a century before Artem Erkomaishvili was born, there lived another “Artem Erkomaishvili”, and before him, yet another; this went on and on from generation to generation. I recently talked to the head of the Folklore Center, Giorgi Donadze, who was concerned about the fact that interest towards folk music has decreased, especially in the regions, notwithstanding the fact that 16 musical schools were founded in the peripheries by the State. Our script and language is vitally important for maintaining our identity and the exact same thing can be said about folk polyphony. Nowadays, passion for contemporary genres is normal and understandable, this happens in the whole world and we cannot be the exception. But if it overshadows the devotion of young people towards folk music, our identity will come under real threat.
I remember in 2000 I was a guest composer at the Lucerne Festival. The organizers suggested I invite one group to participate in it and so the Rustavi Ensemble visited Switzerland. At one of the events, after a long symphonic composition which I wrote specially for the Festival (conducted by Jansug Kakhidze), Rustavi performed Georgian folk music in a newly built concert hall. And then I learned why the audiences are delighted by our folk dances and astonished by our polyphony.
Performances of ‘Chakrulo,’ ‘Khasanbegura’ and ‘Our Peace’ should truly be followed by astonishment. I’m sure that there still are many 5-6 year old boys who have the talent of Artem and Anzor Erkomaishvili... We should take care and cherish this genetic code.
It’s good that we’ve had many professional folklorists in the 20 th century who contributed to discovering song versions from different parts of Georgia. Proper assessment of these brilliant performers is priceless. I admire their work, especially that of Anzor Erkomaishvili. But at the same time I want to express my indignation that scientific studies in this field lag behind the treasury of several centuries.
I share Jansug Kakhidze’s dream of having a ‘philharmonic’ life in Georgia like in other cultural and developed countries! This means having a musical schedule a year ahead – which concert will be held and where, who the conductor will be, where a certain soloist will perform, which pieces will be performed at certain concerts, etc. This should be scheduled beforehand. In our country everything happens spontaneously. A festival - Yes, sir! Another one – Why not? A grand idea! And we live from festival to festival, from guest musician to guest musician. Last year a wonderful clarinetist, Levan Tskhadadze, who lives in Amsterdam and performs in Europe, brought great wind soloists to Georgia. And then what?! The event coincided with the Festival of Eliso Virsaladze in Telavi! That happened due to lack of coordination and we don’t have coordination because we don’t have a tradition of philharmonic life. Maybe the time will come when the State will think of laying the foundation for this tradition.
The new concert hall was built recently and was named the ‘Philharmonic Hall.’ My attempt to dissuade this name being given to it failed. Almost all TV or Radio journalists call it ‘Philharmonic Hall’... The only success I gained is that the sign on the front wall says ‘The Great Concert Hall.’ Our society should know that ‘Philharmonic Hall’ is a space where symphonic, chamber or choral concerts are held. It’s wrong to give this name to a hall where party congresses, different shows or, shortly speaking, any spectacles are held but the genres I mentioned above.
You referred to a ‘Ready Ear.’ I don’t know how masterpieces can be understood. The only crucial thing in this matter is feeling and emotion, which excludes understanding. I remember in the Soviet Union there was one channel which was watched by millions of people. In one of the programs a professional musical expert spoke about the structure and form of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (6th ) and he added: “In a certain episode a thunder is heard, storm rages and it starts to rain; then suddenly the sun and a rainbow appear...” I was listening to this person and thought – right now 100 million people assume that Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is a movie for a ‘Ready Ear’... by the way, two people, say a husband and a wife who have spent the whole life together, listen to one and the same music differently. This is the result of abstractedness of this phenomenon – music. It should not be understood, it should be felt! And that’s that! One can feel certain music this way, the other – yet another way... Someone may have no emotions whatsoever towards one kind of music, but adore another... So everything comes to feeling and not understanding – That’s why I think that our folk music cannot be understood.
The premiere of my latest piece was held twice in Belgium, Brussels and then three times in Seattle in the US. Before this my new album containing two compositions was released. It was named ‘Chiaroscuro’ and it received mutually exclusive press. Nowadays, high class critics are as much a rarity as high class composers, poets and writers... There are many more composers than there should be and we also don’t lack in the number of critics... I’ll give you one example: imagine the period a hundred years ago. Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Puccini, Schoenberg, Sibelius, Ravel and Debussy are all alive – this is a different musical language and thinking, an absolutely different attitude towards form and structure and each of the above-mentioned composers have their own apologists.
A century passes and nowadays Mahler, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Webern, Berg and Schoenberg peacefully coexist in the philharmonic programs; nobody has a problem with this. People come to concerts and listen to these different styles without protest. One critic in London pulled my ‘Chiaroscuro’ to pieces... While in Paris an article was written about the same album. Here’s the last sentence from it: “This music, which speaks to us in the language of humanity, belongs to a brilliant composer...” So, someone in France thinks I’m a brilliant composer and in England an article says: “I found myself in a shop of cheap shampoos and soaps listening to dreadful music” – these differences are normal. It should be like this! I don’t know whether you believe me or not, but these contradictory opinions don’t bother me a bit. I’ll be frank with you – negative reviews are as pleasant for me as acclaim.
Unfortunately, after Givi Orjonikidze passed away, music criticism has almost vanished (although this is partly due to the nonexistence of philharmonic life). Once, I was astonished when I read a review in one of the newspapers about a concert, written by the son of Andria Balanchivadze, Jarji (a brilliant musician, a pianist). I remembered the style of the end of 19 th and beginning of 20 th centuries, when the main idea was brought to the reader in simple, understandable language. I suggested Jarji write reviews about all the symphonic concerts in Tbilisi, but unfortunately we could not bring this idea to fruition.
I stopped visiting Russia several years ago, but my music is still played there. I don’t want to go to a country where the majority of the population, including some of my musician friends, support a sly provocateur, a president who attempts to destroy my country. The “Empire of Evil” from Ronald Reagan’s era continues to fight against the civilized world with triple energy and tries to destroy it. It also deeply saddens me that we had to alienate ourselves from Russian culture because of him. But I believe that though youngsters don’t know Russian, they will read great translations of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekov.
Fortunately, music does not need translation and thanks to modern technologies of communication, anything is accessible with almost no limitations for internet users. The number of young professional composers is on the verge of a minimum. Probably, this is due to the fact that creating an orchestral score is impossible without special education. I don’t want you to think that I’m against the modern bands. The more bands, the better. Multiplicity always helps bring true talent to light. I feel the same way about the multiple supporters of electronic music. The problem is that one can create a composition for the guitar or keyboard using only three or four chords while the score for the symphonic orchestra cannot be created without years-long education. This is why fewer and fewer youngsters go to the Conservatory.
I think we should give this good thought.
P. S. I have stepped beyond the age of 80 and the more time goes by, the more hurtful are the things I encounter. I’m sorry that my city reminds me of a “tadpole”. I worry that these eternal constructions that disfigure the city cannot be stopped. I ‘m sorry that the hate and spite among politicians drastically exceeds respect for one another. I realize that a perfect society can only exist in our minds, but the constant opposition and fighting is boring and unbearable for me. I don’t understand why we can’t control exhaust fumes that pollute our air and threaten the health of our fellow citizens. There are also seemingly unimportant, tiny problems that draw a feeling of protest in me. I was at a restaurant in the funicular garden not long ago. I don’t know who the building belongs to, I’m also not aware who the owner of the wonderful painting ‘Pirosmani’s Tbilisi’ by a friend of mine, KokaIgnatov, is. I was proud to invite my guests to see the painting, but I happened to be so wrong! I was sorry to see several tables and chairs in semi darkness (probably to create intimate space) and flat chandelier of a strange form blocking the upper part of the painting from view. I want to repeat that although I have no idea who the owner of the restaurant is, I ask him to have respect towards the art work, replace the chandelier, install proper light and separate the painting from the restaurant space with a fence which ver comes true, I will believe that love of your homeland has long passed the high-flown toasts said during the feasts.