Shota
Παλαιό Μέλος
Here is a rare recording of a Georgian chant "Love has brought you, o Lord, to Bethany"*, sung by Erkomaishvili brothers. They were trained as chanters, but couldn't exercise profession under the Communist rule. Here too what they sing is presented as a folk recording (hence the daggers they wear at their belts).
What is unique is the tuning: some people who have done measurements say all intervals are about equal sized, ca. 170 cents on average (individual ones might range between 150-190, say). I don't know whether that is characteristic of that specific region of Georgia, or could be encountered elsewhere too. As a living chanting tradition was lost, nowadays almost everybody sings in the equal tempered Western scale. Some enthusiasts try to mimic the tuning heard here.
* I can't find it in printed books. It's a Lazarus Saturday hymn, if we judge by its content. Maybe a troparion from a canon, but sung to a melismatic tune.
What is unique is the tuning: some people who have done measurements say all intervals are about equal sized, ca. 170 cents on average (individual ones might range between 150-190, say). I don't know whether that is characteristic of that specific region of Georgia, or could be encountered elsewhere too. As a living chanting tradition was lost, nowadays almost everybody sings in the equal tempered Western scale. Some enthusiasts try to mimic the tuning heard here.
* I can't find it in printed books. It's a Lazarus Saturday hymn, if we judge by its content. Maybe a troparion from a canon, but sung to a melismatic tune.