"Sounds and Tastes of the Caucasus" - Music, language, and food in Georgia
Thursday, October 25, 2007
8:45 am - 1:00 pm
Kreindler Auditorium (Room 041), Haldeman Center
Organizer: Ioana Chitoran, Linguistics and Cognitive Science Program, Department of French and Italian
8:45 am - 1:00 pm
Kreindler Auditorium (Room 041), Haldeman Center
Organizer: Ioana Chitoran, Linguistics and Cognitive Science Program, Department of French and Italian
Thursday, October 25, 2007 |
|
| 8:30 | Coffee and pastries |
| 8:45 | Opening remarks Ioana Chitoran |
| 9:00 - 9:30 | Kenneth S. Yalowitz Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College, Former US Ambassador to Georgia The emergence of modern Georgia: From the breakup of the Soviet Union to today |
| 9:30 - 10:00 | Ioana Chitoran Dartmouth College The Languages of the Caucasus The Caucasus range, extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world. This talk is an introduction to the language families of this area, some of their unique features, and the historical and geographic factors that have shaped them. |
| 10:00 - 10:45 | John Graham Department of Music, Princeton University Textual vs. Auditory Analysis in Georgian Chant Sources Master singers in the oral tradition of Georgian three-voiced church chant sang in a modified tuning that baffled western-trained musicians and led to notational errors in early 20th century transcription efforts. This talk compares the tuning system of the oral tradition with transcriptions from 1880-1910, highlighting the discrepancies. Through a close listening of original, early 20th century recordings, the talk explores possible parameters for determining questions of modality in Georgian chant. |
| 10:45 - 11:45 | John Wurdeman Artist, Manager of the "Zedashe" Ensemble With demonstrations by members of the ensemble Reviving rural song-traditions in Caucasus Georgia The practice and preservation of the folk-song tradition in Georgia has been under serious threat since agrarian life began to change in the mid 19th century, with urbanization and modernization under the Tsarist Empire. However, rural bards maintained some of the more ancient repertoire even into the beginning of the 21st century. The process of interviewing, recording, and ultimately performing and reenacting this precious folk-song and dance repertoire has become the task of several new generation choirs in Georgia, among them the Zedashe Ensemble. This talk will focus on their work over the last decade. |
| 11:45 - 12:30 | Darra Goldstein Russian Department, Williams College The Georgian Supra through Pirosmani's Eyes This talk explores Georgian cuisine through the work of the primitivist artist Niko Pirosmani, who painted many scenes of the traditional Georgian feast known as the "supra". His depictions of food, wine, and toasting - the three main components of the Georgian feast - shed light on the history of Georgian cuisine as expressed at the communal table. |
| 12:30 - 12:50 | General discussion and closing remarks |
| 1:00 - 2:00 | Reception with Georgian culinary specialties (outside Kreindler Conference Room) |
Cosponsored by the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding
Photo Credit: John Graham
Related link: Zedashe Performance