Store: Songbooks
Georgian Music
The Raising of Lazare: A Collection of Folk and Sacred Music from the Republic of Georgia
2002, Ensemble Zedashe
Many wonderful groups sing Georgian folk music today, but a few qualities make Zedashe different: One is that all of its singers live in the countryside and have daily contact with the life the songs illustrate. Zedashe is also a mixed choir (with men and women singing together), which lends a more personal, intimate, family feel to the songs, as well as greater textural variety.
Their songbook, "The Raising of the Lazare," includes a pronounciation guide, translations and notes for each song, tabletures for songs, and detailed chapters about Georgian instruments, each describing (with accompanying graphics) techniques for playing Changi, Ch'uniri, Panduri and Chonguri. The repertoire in the book and in the CD was chosen to favor songs from Kakheti and Svaneti.
Ensemble Zedashe, led by Ketevan Mindorashvili, was
founded in the east Georgian town of Sighnaghi in 1999. The seven young
members of Zedashe are from the Kiziqi region of Kakheti and from the
village of Latali in upper Svaneti, and thus Kakhetian and Svan songs
prevail in Zedashe's repertoire. The ensemble regularly organizes field
trips to various villages to listen to older singers and study variants
of folk songs. In 2002 Zedashe toured the UK and US, and the ensemble
has recorded three CDs -- Where Mountains Meet Heaven (1999), The
Raising of Lazare (2002), and In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors (2006).
Zedashe can be contacted by email at ivane@access.sanet.ge