051117afcgeorgia Peggy Bulger: Good afternoon everybody. Welcome. I'm Peggy Bulger, director of the American Folklife Center, and on behalf of all of the staff at the [American] Folklife Center, I want to welcome you to our Benjamin Botkin Lecture Series. We're very happy to have today with us a lecture demonstration, which -- I think some of you may have heard a concert last night with the group that we're about to hear, but I want to introduce the man who's responsible for this entire tour. His name is John Graham, and he is actually an ethnomusicologist who did his undergraduate work at Wesleyan University, and he has a Fulbright Scholarship in which he has been working and living in the Republic of Georgia, studying and collecting traditional music and culture in that area. So he has been responsible for getting the group here to the United States, and we're so happy to have John with us to introduce the group. Please welcome John Graham. [applause] John Graham: Thanks, Peggy. Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here in the Library of Congress. We are nearing the end of a fantastic tour, which we've been on for the last, I'd say, three and a half weeks already. We started in southern Vermont. We went to New York, Boston, and then headed west all the way to Chicago, and we've come back driving through Indiana, Bloomington, Pittsburgh, to Philadelphia, and now here in D.C. If you want to see a full concert of the choir, we will be here Sunday evening at 8:00 in St. Nicholas Cathedral on Massachusetts Ave. I wanted to speak briefly about the Anchiskhati Choir and the importance of their work in the revival of folk music and the medieval chanting tradition, which we've inherited. The Anchiskhati Choir members met in the conservatory in the late 1980s, and at that time began researching the old chanting modes and transcriptions, which existed from the 1800s. They found some of these chants in the archives, and I'm talking about handwritten transcriptions. They had to rehearse these in secret in the Betania Monastery. But with the changing political climate they were able to sing these chants more in the open, and took up residency in the Anchiskhati Church in Tbilisi -- this is a sixth century basilica. And since that time they have been working steadfastly to record these old chants and also to publish them. Right now this is very important work. It's a revival of this ancient music, and one can go to many churches throughout Georgia, not just in Tbilisi, the capital, and hear people singing this medieval music. This is music that was not heard during the communist era, and really speaks to an older Georgia, a feudal Georgia, which existed in the 9th through 12th centuries, and then in various fragmented forms throughout the Middle Ages. This music is in three-part harmony, and it was passed down from generation to generation. It was received in the 1800s by musicologists who worked to preserve the music so that it wouldn't pass away with the last of the master chanters. They went into the field and found these people, asked them to sing, and wrote down their notes, but this work was very disorganized and had to be collected and written into good copy. And this work was undertaken by a man named Ekvtime Kereselidze, who worked from 1912 to 1936 organizing 5,000 chants according to the liturgical services, and the great feast chants and the chants of the saints. And this was an excellent work. And it's from these handwritten transcriptions that the choir is reviving the various schools of chant within Georgia. We will be able to speak more about that in the demonstration. Now, about folk music. This is an ancient three-part polyphonic tradition. Georgia looks small on a map, but they say if you ironed out all the wrinkles it would be a much bigger country, because really, it rests in the foothills of the Great Caucasus Range. This is an 18,000-foot peak -- great geographical barrier to the north, which separates the valleys of Georgia from the steppes of Russia to the north, and the desert plateaus of Azerbaijan and Armenia and Turkey to the south. There are many different types of environments in Georgia, and the geographical, the geographical areas within Georgia sort of affected the peoples who lived there. So we will start off the program this afternoon with folk music from eastern Georgia. This is a region that does not receive very much rain. It's a flat grasslands area, low hills, and as you go into the mountains -- the music in this whole region, from the mountain valleys down into these sort of grasslands plains is a very similar style of music. And it's greatly contrasted to western Georgia, Black Sea coast, which is a different people. This is a region, say, in Guria, where you have 200 inches of rain a year, steep hills covered in thick forest full of vines. And tea fields grow well there, tangerines, et cetera. And this music is highly polyphonic, with moving bass lines and an improvisatory nature to the folk music. So we'll be able to complement that in the program today. Likewise I could say that there are probably a dozen distinct regions within Georgia with their own dialects, their own cuisine, their own traditional outfits and folk dancing, folk arts, and folk singing. And the chants developed as well through the Middle Ages to match the sounds of the folk music. So I think this program will be really interesting for you, and we have some of the most professional teachers and scholars of Georgia music here with us today. The director is the leading expert on chant, medieval chanting in Georgia, Malkhaz Erkvanidze; and several other members of the groups are ethnomusicologists, musicologists and teachers of this music. So without any further ado, we will welcome the choir. Actually, before we start I should mention the slide presentation, which we have here. These are rare 19th century and 20th century photographs collected from the archives, and our tour translator this evening, Luarsab Togonidze has collected these photographs and is researching them. He writes a weekly column in Georgia trying to match names with faces. These photographs exist in huge piles in the archives, in many, many boxes with no names. We don't know who they were, and so the research is to try and match photographs and figure out who these people were. This photograph, you can see that this is a trio being recorded. There were a number of recordings made from 1907 to 1914, and it's from these recordings that the current group is trying to reproduce the old tunings and folk arrangements of folk songs. And this is an incredible work. It's important work, because during the communist era music was leaning more towards western harmonies, western arrangements, bigger choirs, mixed choirs, dynamics, et cetera, whereas in traditional Georgian folk music it would always have been three-part harmony, normally with a soloist in each of the top two parts, with the larger group singing the bass. And we'll have that as a demonstration. So it's from these old recordings that we can really try and hear how the Georgians were singing at that time, as inherited from their ancestors through the Middle Ages. So I hope the video presentation lends a visual image to what you will now be hearing. Please welcome the Anchiskhati ensemble. [applause] John Graham: Before we begin, let me just introduce the members of the group by name. To my right I have Luarsab Togonidze, he is the researcher of the photographs, and he will be translating for this afternoon's program. Then we have Malkhaz Erkvanidze, ethnomusicologist and director of the choir. Next we have Dato Shugliashvili, musicologist of Georgian sacred music, professor at the conservatory in Tbilisi. And these two will be giving some of the lecture elements today. And then members of the choir, Dato Zatiashvili, teacher; Gocha Giorgadze, iconographer; Zaza Tsereteli, math teacher, computer programmer; Vasil Tsetskhladze, professor, musician; Dato Megrelidze, teacher and architect; And Mamuka Kiknadze, architect. Thank you. [applause] [singing] [applause] To begin the program we sang "Dideba Chven Shekrebas." It says "Glory to our gathering." And the rest of the words to this song are "And may God bring peace to our guests and to our hosts." This is a chant melody from western Georgia, but because chants were not allowed, chants words were not allowed during this past century, it's taken on a bit of the folk words that aren't strictly of the liturgical service, so that it could be permissible. But the melody is a canonical chant melody, and the harmonies as well. Dato Shugliashvili : [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze We are happy to be here. Thanks for coming, thanks for coming, and for such a great interest in the Georgian folk music. Dato Shugliashvili [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: We are happy to see some of the faces of the people who are already familiar to us, because they are studying Georgian folk and the church music already for decades. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: As you might see, Georgia is one of the most ancient cultures, the polyphonic culture, and it's divided in two parts. One is the folk music, and one, professional music, which would be the Orthodox Church music. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The professional music, the Georgian Orthodox Church music -- unfortunately it's anonymous, because mainly it was created into monasteries by humble monks who did not want their names to be famous. But the connection between church and the folk music is very strong, and the major stream is developed polyphony and harmonies. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Today we will try to present some of samples of the various regions of Georgia, folk and also the church music, and you can judge the connections between them and the differences. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Our director, Malkhaz Erkvanidze, will speak more in detail about the folk songs, but now Dato wants to explain a little bit of the history of the Georgian [Orthodox] Church music. The oldest document about the under pendant, the Georgian Church music we have, is the 9th, 10th centuries codex handwritings, which have the neumatic -- neumes, and those neumes are very different than others in Greece or in Russian or any other Orthodox Church traditions. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The Georgian neumes are different, structures are different, and now, unfortunately, we don't have the knowledge of reading -- the knowledge of the reading of them is lost; I mean the pre-Byzantine neumes. But we have the great collection of the chants, which were written in the 19th century, notated. So the new research, actually that's brand new, because during the Soviet era we could not research this deeply. So it's known that there are certain scholars who are working on this connection, the development of the neumes during the century, and the connection to today's live music to those neumes and the handwritings. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The major collections we have now, the music which we can sing, is those we have written down on the western notation in the 19th century. The Georgian Church -- those were difficult times for Georgia because our church lost their independence, and also the country state. Georgia was not a kingdom anymore. It was just a little part of the big empire. So tradition was in danger. So the scholars of that time did a great job, almost dedicated their lives to somehow write down all those chants, and now we have the ability to fully study those. And Dato named those people, and I have to say the scholars who wrote down those chants, Pilimon Koridze, brothers Karbelashvili, Razhden Khundadze, Ekvtime Kereselidze -- those are the people who are working in the field. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Georgian church music also has a great connection to the other orthodox singing traditions. It fully follows the old tradition, which is the eight tone, eight mode system. And unfortunately, during the period, the scientific research on those chants only counts 15 years, and scholars are working right now, but the major stream is in chants, like a church in the folk music, is the three voices, polyphony, the special Georgian polyphony, which makes special -- unlike the other orthodox church traditions. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: First of all, we'd like to present the folk song and its development stages, and later on some stage we will present also the chants in its modes. [Inaudible] now we will present some of the Georgian church music and this will be [unintelligible]. The chant from eastern Georgia "Ghvtismshobelo Kalts'ulo," "Hallowed Virgin Mary." [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: The presentations of the chants will be later, also we will include. Now we will continue with the folk music. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Unfortunately we have very little time to explain such a difficult subject, but we will try to briefly somehow show you why the Georgian folk culture is unique, and one of the reasons Malkhaz thinks that in Georgia still exist a development of the harp polyphony, the stages of development of polyphony. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The Georgian folk music, Georgian polyphony can be divided into two major streams, which will be the eastern and western Georgian polyphony, and now we want to present the sample of the eastern polyphony, which will be the seven step, the quintave [spelled phonetically] scale, the quintave scale in one mode, and also we will present the same song. Now already we will see the bass line in the same scale, development of the two voices already. I'm sorry. [singing] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we will present the two voices, and also the same song with three voices, so you can observe how the two voices were moving into the polyphony, into three voices. It's a highland of northeast Georgia; it's mountain songs. [singing] [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: That was the wedding song from a region called Khevi, a mountainous region. And now we will present the very same song from a neighboring region, which is a little on the lowlands. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now you can observe how the leading voice is giving his part, some of the major performance parts to the first voice, that the balance is still in the Malkhaz says I will somehow call this act of the polyphony "the giving." It's like charity, charity between the voices. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we want to present the particular song and particular style of the polyphony, which is the two voices. It's two voices, and the two soloists are performing, two soloists. And that's one of the old, very ancient songs, which was sung while the people were working on the field, and with the sickles cutting the hay. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: We will present now the simple song, and then later we will perform the same form of polyphony, but more highly developed that you can judge yourself. [singing] [applause] [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: The last song was the rafter's song; the people who were traveled by raft who would sing this. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we want to present the very special form of the singing in Georgia, which is the responding form, the soloist and the choir. Mainly these kinds of songs are very common in eastern Georgia. In western Georgia it would be the trio and the choir, responding to each other. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: This was the love song from eastern Georgia, from Kakheti region, and the Terjola is dedicated to the girl, called Terjola. Terjola is the girl's name. [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we want to finish the presentation of the eastern Georgian folk songs with the classical song - classical form of the polyphony in Georgia, which would be the two soloists responding to each other. Sometimes it's two voices, sometimes highly developed polyphony. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now it's time to move to western Georgia and the way we have the greater variety of the polyphony types. And the special quality of the western Georgian polyphony is that the bass is as highly developed as the other two voices. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we will present a song from Mtshkheta-Mtianeti? From Adjara which is on the border of Turkey, and we will present the same song, love song with two voices, and later a different variation with three voices. And please pay attention to how the bass is moving here, unlike the eastern Georgia. That's a wedding song, wedding song [Georgian]. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: This is the special vocal technique which you heard, a particular sound of yodeling which is very common in western Georgia, especially of these regions, Achara and Guria and Imereti. And there are two types of the yodeling in Georgia. One is called Gamkviani and the one is called Krimanchuli. So now we will ask our dear friend, Dato, to present both, so that you can see the differences. One only okay. Now we will say and I think easier to explain this. [Unintelligible] the first one will be Gamkviani. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: So you can see the difference. Gamkviani is only falsetto in the voice. It's not exactly falsetto, but it's something -- [laughter] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we will sing the famous song from Georgia, Khasanbegura -- historical ballad. And the [unintelligible] usually in this song is sometimes [unintelligible] and sometimes [unintelligible]. So now we can observe. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: As you might see, as we mentioned before, in eastern Georgia there was a soloist in the choir, but here you could observe they are a trio and achoir. They're responding to each other. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we want to present the special region in Georgia. It's got its own particular interesting form of polyphony, where the older voices are equal and they have special parallel movements, and we think that's a unique form in one of the ancient in Georgia, and Malkhaz thinks that Christianity -- it's a very high mountain region, where I think that half of the season, half of the year this was a remote place, and no one could reach because of the snow. So it was a region where the enemies would never conquer. It's impossible to go there, and the warriors -- so the Christianity was very strong there, and also the iconography, its own special school and the special flavor. Unlike the eastern Georgian mountains where the pagan tradition was very strong, the Svanetians were very strict, were keeping the strict Christian traditions. So Malkhaz thinks this equality between the voices somehow represents the Georgian orthodox philosophy of singing. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: We want to present the very special and classical song in Svaneti, which would be Lile, which is -- yes, Lile. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: We want to present the form of ostinato from the Samegrelo. And please pay attention to the movements of the bass. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we want to present the special form of the trio, which is usually found in region Guria. It's the innermost -- the church songs had such a great effect on the lifestyle of the people, because people were listening to the music in the church, eight tones, and they would take the melodies into the civil life, on the table gathering or the feast days, or even on the fields when they had free time, and unlike the Greek and Russian melodies which are only the strict eight-tone system, the Georgian eight tones vary from each other. In the tone there are little, little differences, but also there is a strict structure. Now we want to present the trio, which was usually sung when there was a great feast, like a wedding, and the people would sit all night to feast the special celebration, and if the sun was coming up at that time, it was sung. It was dedicated to the sunrise. [singing] [applause] Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The name of the song is translated to "Peace to us, all of us here." Peace to all of us. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Because of the difficult geographical location of Georgia, surrounded by lots of enemies, invaders, Orthodox Christianity became like a national identity, and the togetherness of the people and the strong faith to the orthodoxy, to God, was one of the major reasons the people lived in such strong communities. So the philosophy of the song, such closeness also affected their lifestyle and affected their culture, and it's the best representation of how the Georgian people were living in communities. John Graham: This has been just an absolutely fantastic demonstration of the folk music variety in Georgia. Before we move to the sacred music section, I think it would be interesting for us all to hear a little bit more detail on how this tuning system is working, especially in that mountain song from Svaneti. You could hear tunings which are definitely not Western, not of the tempered scale. And this music is reproduced generation after generation. It's a music hearing of the people. And we know that between all of the regions there are subtly different tuning systems. One of the most obvious, the different is from the Svanetian region, and I wonder if I could just ask Malkhaz Erkvanidze to sing a scale, just for our own edification. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: I hope you're not too tired. [laughter] Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: Now we want to talk about the Georgian orthodox chant and its varieties. In every region of Georgia there was a monastic center, spiritual center. It would be the diocese, or where the bishops' residencies were; the strong monastery. Unfortunately there are only a few schools we have preserved now, but we imagine that in every region, in every strong monastery there were the various schools of chanting. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The very special quality of the Georgian orthodox chant is that although we have the different schools and the different varieties and different harmonies of the chants in every school in Georgia, there is the similarity because it was strictly organized. And the first voice, the leading canonical voice is exactly the same in each monastic school, so the harmonies could be all different, and you can see this by what we present, but the first voice, there are some chants where it's exactly following the -- so that means that some strict structure was kept in Georgia. Dato Shugliashvili: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: To show this, we will present one chant from the eastern Georgia, from Svetitskhoveli and Gareji monasteries, and one from western Georgia from Gelati Monastery. So we will say that Christ is [unintelligible] of the [unintelligible], the four [unintelligible] from the eastern, from Guria, from Imereti, so various regions. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: Now from Guria, from western Georgia now. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: I hope you're not too tired. If you have any questions, you can ask, and -- do you want to hear more samples of the Georgian chants? Yes. Some of them do. [Inaudible]. Now we will present three chants. One will be from the eastern Georgia, which will be the Kakheti region, and the monastic schools like Svetitskhoveli and Garegi. Another will be from Imereti, Gelati, the powerful school, powerful monastery close to the Black Sea in western Georgia, and another from Guria. From the most colorful chant, which will be from monastery Shemokmedi. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: That was a troparion of Easter, mode four. It's a fourth mode -- fourth tone. And now will be the [unintelligible]. Now will be the Irmos of Nativity of the Christ from the Shemokmedi Monastery, from Guria. [singing] [applause] Luarsab Togonidze: And now we will have the last one, last performance, which will be the Gelati Monastery School, and it's from the Pascal service from Easter, and hymn to the mother of God. [singing] [applause] John Graham: I'd like to thank the Anchiskhati Men's Ensemble for being here today. This concludes the demonstration/lecture part of the presentation. If you have to go, you can, but we will stay and take some of your questions. Before that, I wanted to just say a few words about this Georgian chanting tradition; perhaps some questions that weren't answered. This was a tradition which was passed on from teacher to student in these great monastic centers. And as spoken, the canonical melodies would have been passed on exactly. Master chanters were never encouraged, never encouraged their students, and were never encouraged themselves to adapt or change any of the canonical melodies. However, as you've heard, variation does exist between the regions of Georgia. And it's my opinion that this occurred over the course of a long time as folk singers were influenced by sacred music and sacred music influenced folk singers. They were to harmonize these canonical melodies according to the ways in which they understood music. And so you could hear in western Georgia the moving bass line that is prevalent in the folk music from that region. In eastern Georgia you hear more of a steady baseline that does not move very much, per the drone that we hear from the folk music from that region. Now, this tradition of sacred music was almost lost, as I mentioned in the introduction. It was almost lost in the 1800s, and I think it's an absolute miracle that we're hearing it today. And it happened because musicologists and scholars in the 1860s began to realize that many of the people singing the sacred chants were dying, and all of the people who knew the chants were in their 60s, 70s; they were older people. In the 1880s, the great preservation movement began. And it lasted until about 1910, when most everyone that had been working on it passed away. And then one monk was left with all of these transcriptions of this music. And it was through his organization that we have these chants today. This choir here has done important work to keep these chants alive, and they have a number of publications and CDs which they've produced. And we have been able to provide this free concert courtesy of the choir's being in America and the Library [of Congress] here today, but if you'd like to support this effort we have some CDs and books for sale in the back. And you can also make donations, checks payable to our sponsoring organization, Village Harmony. And the money does go towards the future projects of the choir. So, one tradition which I just want to mention because it's great, is in the folk music. There is a particular genre of music from Guria where there isn't a single composer, but a group of people, of friends, would have gathered around a feasting table, and they would sing together. They would just start, and they would see what would come. And if the music captured them, and if their three-part improvisation was to their liking, they would keep that song. They would name it, and it would be passed on. So, many of the songs that we have, especially from the Gurian region, we know were not composed by one person, but were, in fact, the inspiration of a group. And I think that that is an element of Georgia music which runs throughout the folk music and sacred music. This is community singing. This is not solo singing. It's sung with a group, with other people. And in the church music it's often likened to the trinity; that there is three and there is one. And you don't have one without three, and you don't have three without one. And the folk music is similar. So at this time, I think we would like to take some of your questions, and I hope that we can answer them. We have one here. [low audio] John Graham: There is a question about what we're wearing. These are called chokhas, and they're 16th, 17th century military uniforms. They became the national costume at that time. There is no difference between the black and the white. In Georgia you have blue, green and different colors. These would have been a protection from swords and later gun cartridges, and now they're ornamental. Normally we usually have daggers here, and in old times they would have been swords and pistols and all types of weaponry. Luarsab Togonidze: Security reasons. John Graham: Security reasons, yes. Question here? [low audio] John Graham: Can you translate that? [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: The Georgian church is one of the oldest churches, and we have been the Christians -- actually, one of the apostles was preaching in Georgia -- and they are a Christian community since the beginning -- but the Georgia became Christian in the fourth century. And the old and new foundations in the Western world, or in Byzantine -- of course the Georgia had the monasteries in every monastic places, in Palestine, in the Mount of Sinai, so of course the system which we have eight tone system is the same throughout the Orthodox world, and I think it's in Western music, too. But since the ninth and 10th century, the Georgian chants became so national that we cannot really see the great influence of the present music. There are some opinions on some influences, but it's meant for future research. John Graham: One more question here? [low audio] John Graham: Is the question about language? Musical cadences? And the influences from other musical cultures around it. Okay. Luarsab Togonidze: You are talking about the melismas? John Graham: Cadences, the end of the phrases. Malkhaz Erkvanidze: [Georgian] Luarsab Togonidze: I cannot remember this. [laughter] So the major thing is that Georgia was trying to be independent; not only politically, but culturally, too. So this big flow of the Turkish tribes, which eventually destroyed the present empire -- somehow Georgia was surrounded by the Muslim culture, but in the Christianity and the Georgian culture became the national identity, one of the major ways to survive, to keep the nation alive. So not only political, but even musical influences were considered to be betrayal, because it was such a betrayal when some new modes were introduced. Of course, especially in the great cities like Tbilisi we had the musicians, but they were a different nation [unintelligible]. But the Georgian musical language we think -- and of course it's our opinion -- did not have the great influence from the Turkish culture, and that's why somehow the Georgian music survived independently. In the language there are some few words which we are using, but the [unintelligible] in music, it's not yeah. We don't know about this. John Graham: Thank you for being here. We're really pleased to have been able to offer this presentation. I'd just like to say, thank you to our tour translator and photography expert, Luarsab Togonidze, our presenters, Dato Shugliashvili, Malkhaz Erkvanidze. The choir members, Gocha Giorgadze, Dato Shugliashvili, Zaza Tsereteli, Mamuka Kiknadze, Vasil Tsetskhladze, and Dato Megrelidze, the Anchiskhati ensemble, and I'm John Graham. We're happy to have been here. Thank you. [applause] Thea Austin: Yes, please give them a big, big round of applause. [applause] Thea Austin: Thank you so much for coming. We really appreciate your presence. [applause] And don't forget, if you'd like to find out how you can get some of their music, come back here to the table and we can tell you. [end of transcript] ?? ?? ?? ?? 4