Tschuniri

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Tschuniri

Tschuniri ( Georgian ჭუნირი ) also chuniri, čuniri , is a three-string spike violin with a circular, tubular body , which is part of the national musical tradition in the Georgian mountain region of Svaneti and is played to accompany songs and dances. In neighboring regions of the Caucasus in northern Georgia, the two-string chianuri ( chianuri, čianuri ) has a boat-shaped body made from a block of wood. The only two traditional Georgian string instruments are described together because of their similar musical usage.

Origin and Distribution

Lutes with a tubular body and a neck inserted diametrically through the body (tubular lutes ) are widespread within Asia, especially in East and Southeast Asia, and come in two different types. The generic name huqin is used in Chinese music to summarize stringed sounds that have long tubes with a relatively small diameter. These include the two-stringed erhu , the erxian , the sanxian , the smaller jinghu made from a bamboo tube and the lesser-known panhu , the bow of which is drawn between the two strings and the neck. The word huqin , which has been documented since the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), refers to a northern Central Asian origin, because hu means "northern tribes" in Chinese and qin stands for stringed instruments in general. The first tubular lute xiqin , played with a bamboo stick by nomadic peoples , appeared along with similar instruments during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) in China. At the end of the 19th century, this form probably came to East Africa with Arab traders, where, in addition to numerous other single-stringed tubular violins , the endingidi are played in Uganda and the kaligo in Malawi .

The tubular lutes of the second type with a frame-shaped, flat body are nicknamed "moon lutes" in East Asia because of their large circular diameter. Plucked representatives of this group are the Chinese yueqin with a short neck and the Vietnamese long-necked lute đàn nguyệt , both with frets. The similar in their body shape of the Vietnamese lute chuniri is in Western Asia is a special feature. With a originating from the nomadic tradition of playing it belongs more to the environment of the Mongolian box spit sounds morin chuur (horse-head fiddle) and the bowl-shaped spit sounds of the Arab-Persian space ( Kamancheh or ghichak ).

The bowed bowl sounds, which are far more common than the tubular sounds, came under their old Turkic name ıklığ (from oklu , "with a bow") with the nomadic Turkic peoples of Central Asia, where they have been handed down in Anatolia since the 14th century and are the forerunners of the kabak kemane were.

The chianuri is common in the northern Georgian mountain regions from Ratscha in the west to Chewsuretia to Tushetia in the east; until the beginning of the 20th century they also existed in Guria . The three-string chuniri is restricted to Svaneti. In the Republic of Abkhazia , the two-string fiddle apkhertsa occasionally takes on the role of the chianuri as an accompaniment or melody instrument in a choir. The best-known Ossetian string instrument, the two- or three-string fandir , used to accompany epic chants and has been partially replaced by the European violin since the mid-20th century. In addition to the plucked long-necked lute detschig-pondur, the Chechens know a three-stringed bowed adchonku pondur ( adxoky-pondur , "bowed pondur"), which also corresponds to the chianuri in its function . The Karachays and Balkars distinguish a plucked kil- kobuz from a crossed zhil-kobuz .

Design

Tschuniri. Both images: State Museum of Georgian Folk Songs and Musical Instruments in Tbilisi

The chuniri has a circular to slightly oval body made of a thin strip of fir or pine wood, which is covered with an untanned animal hide. The skin is laid on moist and folded over the edge; it gets its tension when it dries. The underside is open like a frame drum . The rectangular neck made of birch or oak wood penetrates the frame diagonally just below the membrane and protrudes as a round pin a few centimeters on the opposite side. The strings made of horsehair are tied there and lead over a bridge loosely placed in the middle to the pegbox , where they are wound up on lateral wooden pegs.

The completely different, boat-shaped body of the chianuri is hollowed out of a block of wood , just like the plucked panduri, and covered with a membrane instead of a wooden ceiling . The types of wood used are the same. The bow of the bow is provided with notches at the ends, to which a string of horsehair is tied, the tension of which holds the bow stick in a strongly convex shape. All two or three strings are always bowed simultaneously.

The two strings of the chianuri are tuned to a major third , the three-stringed chuniri at intervals of a second and a third. Possible tunings are a-c - c1, for the chuniri a - c1 - d1 or a-flat - b - des1. The neck has no frets. The strings are shortened with the fingertips without pressing them down on the neck; fine touch results in flageolet tones . In order to obtain the membrane tension required for the desired sound quality and resonance, the instrument is stored dry and warmed up over a fire before playing. The same procedure is used to adjust the pitch of similarly built drums. The chuniri is held vertically between the knees when playing.

Style of play

In the mountains in western Georgia (Svaneti and Raja), regional singing styles of Georgian polyphony with complex-parallel melody lines predominate. The simple harmonies of the songs in the eastern mountain regions are surpassed by the more agile two- to three-part polyphony of the Svaneti ritual songs, dance and lullabies. The pitch range of many Svanetian songs is narrow and hardly covers more than a third or fourth . All songs have short stanzas. The stringed lute is always played individually by men and women, in Svaneti also together with the old, six-string angle harp, changi , which is only preserved here . In Radscha, table songs are performed as three-part choral songs with an equally small pitch. In general, the chianuri accompanies epic chants, lyrical love songs, comical verses or dance songs, often in unison with the singing voice. Women in western Georgia play the chianuri in addition to the plucked long-necked lute chonguri to accompany harvest songs ( naduri ). In Tusheti and Chewsuretia in the east there were also solo pieces for chianuri .

In Svaneti burial rituals, the chuniri gains a magical meaning, similar to the chonguri in Guria . According to the old belief in the soul, the soul can move away from the body. In the case of someone who has died outside of his home, the soul must be brought back with the help of the chuniri . The instrument is played at the scene of the accident until dawn, then the procession moves to his house.

In Svaneti, customs based on mythological ideas have been preserved for centuries of institutionalized hunting, according to which hunting is regarded as a quasi sacred matter. The dances performed on the occasion of the hunt are predominantly round dances in which the participants move around in a circle around their shoulders. The verses are sung dialogically by two choirs and repeated at a faster pace. In other hunting songs performed by a solo voice, the chuniri takes over the opposing voice.

The way the Georgian stringed instruments are played has a developmental relationship with the polyphonic forms of singing. The number of strings that sound harmoniously depends on the voices of the choir singing. As a result, the three-string panduri and chuniri represent a further development of their two-string predecessors. As a counterpart to the four-part polyphonic chant, which occurs only in the western Georgian plains of Guria, the four-string chonguri is the most sophisticated Georgian stringed instrument. Because long-lasting notes can be produced with the bow, chianuri and chuniri are better suited than plucked instruments to replace the singing voice.

Panpipes are pastoral instruments. Until the beginning of the 20th century, shepherds in Guria used the panpipe soinari (in Mingrelia larchemi ) as a signal to shoot martens. They were almost never played with other musical instruments. A rare exception was the combination with the frame drum daira and a chuniri .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Terence M. Liu: Instruments: Erhu. In: Robert C. Provine, Yosihiko Tokumaru, J. Lawrence Witzleben (Eds.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music . Vol. 7: East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea. Routledge, New York / London 2001, p. 176
  2. ↑ Gerhard Kubik : To understand African music. Lit Verlag, Vienna 2001, p. 14
  3. ↑ Laurence Picken : Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey. Oxford University Press, London 1975, p. 192
  4. ^ Ketevan Nikoladze: On the Problem of Interrelationship between the Forms of Polyphony in Vocal and Instrumental Music. ( Memento from December 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 99 kB) In: Rusudan Turtsumia, Joseph Jordania (Ed.): Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony. International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Tiflis 2006, pp. 418-424, here p. 418
  5. ^ Joseph Jordania: North Caucasia . In: Thimothy Rice, James Porter, Chris Goertzen (Eds.): Garland Encyclopedia of World Music . Volume 8: Europe. Routledge, New York / London 2000, pp. 857, 859, 863
  6. ↑ Jordania: Garland , p. 839
  7. ↑ Chuniri (or Chianuri). ( Memento from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Open Museum. State Museum of Georgian Folk Songs and Instruments
  8. ↑ Ziegler, MGG, p. 1275
  9. ↑ Dolidze, Hannick et al. a .: New Grove, p. 672
  10. ↑ Nino Kalandadze-Makharadze: The multipart Lyrical Cradle Song in Georgia . ( Memento from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 231 kB) polyphony.ge, 2010, pp. 184, 186
  11. ↑ Jordania: Garland, p. 839
  12. ↑ Maka Khardziani: Reflection of the Tradition of Hunting in Svan Musical Folklore.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) In: Rusudan Turtsumia, Joseph Jordania (Ed.): Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony. International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Tiflis 2006, pp. 205–208, here p. 207, footnote 2@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.polyphony.ge
  13. ↑ Tinatin Zhvania: Harmony of the Georgian Song and Chonguri Tunings. ( Memento from February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 141 kB) In: Rusudan Turtsumia, Joseph Jordania (Ed.): Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony . International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Tiflis 2006, pp. 462–468, here p. 462
  14. ↑ Ketevan Nikoladze, p. 419
  15. ↑ Nina Shvelidze: Georgian Multistemmed Salamuri - Larchemi / Soinari /. ( Memento of July 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 94 kB) In: Rusudan Turtsumia, Joseph Jordania (Ed.): Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony. International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Tiflis 2006, pp. 407-412, here p. 409