Postcript: Shen Khar Venakhi

The grounds of the Samtavro (Transfiguration) Church and St. Nino's Nunnery,
in Mtskheta.

Hello! It's been a while since my last post, and this will just be a short one. I've been placed in the town of Kobuleti, on the Black Sea coast of Adjara, Georgia's most Southwesternly region. I've already had a week of teaching English as a volunteer with Teach and Learn in Georgia (TLG) and will be writing more as I settle into this new job. My internet time is limited (currently in the school's computer room), but I thought I'd just relate another part of my story from Svaneti:

On our first night there, we were welcomed by the Pilpanis with a huge meal, with toasts and songs (one of which I included last time). Later that night, I found myself standing near Islam Pilpani, the elder statesmen of the family, who speaks no English. He gestured for me and Alessandro, a member of ZAR, to sit with him. He then proceeded to pour us shots of homemade vodka (or ch'a ch'a), distilled from bread and wickedly strong. I did not want to refuse, afraid it would affect our lessons with him somehow. Three shots in three minutes later, I felt like he was warming up to us! Sometime later, he began singing the song that has been in my head constantly since setting forth for Georgia. Its name is "Shen Khar Venakhi" – "You are a Vineyard" – and it's a hymn to the Virgin Mary. It's an ancient piece of verse, probably from the 12th century, and the music, though it's hard to know for sure, is pretty old as well. Admittedly, it's one of the Greatest Hits of Georgian church music, but for me that didn't take away its simple beauty. I didn't have my recorder running when we sang it in the Pilpanis' living room, and it's probably for the better, given the uncertain intonation that tends to accompany drinking, so I'll just link to a recording by the group, Georgian Voices:

Shen Khar Venakhi, on YouTube

(I wanted to embed the video, but it looks like the ethernet in the school blocks access to YouTube!).

The smooth, stepwise motion of the middle voice, though not unusual in Georgian chant, reminds me so strongly of vines, growing and falling, interweaving with the other parts, which fits the images of nature throughout the text. The last part of the song, beginning with "mze khar", "you are the sun," accompanied by a stunning change of harmony, is always a shock to me.
Anyway, it was a great moment in Svaneti, to find myself unexpectedly singing one of the songs I was dying to hear. After we returned to Tbilisi, some of the younger people with ZAR were trying to learn it (it's part of the theatre's repertoire), and we ended up spending an hour singing the piece in the dining room of our home stay. It was the first time I'd taken part in a ZAR singing rehearsal – with their intense concentration and attention to details of dynamics, vowel shape, and breath – and it seemed like the perfect way to end the first part of my trip.