Mnemonic Thinking as an Immanent Quality of Georgian Traditional Chant

Abstract

The beginnings of Georgian chanting are connected with the early centuries of Christianity. The general norms developed in the entrails of Christian chanting art, over time, are enriched in the process of development, undergo transformation, and establish local chanting traditions. Due to the different ways and trends of development, some of them have been fundamentally separated from the basics, while others, in the process of maintaining a strong connection with its roots, have become a very original form of Christian chanting.

Mnemonic thinking, which became a defi ning feature of Christian chanting as soon as it became a professional art, and was kept to a certain stage of development in a number of traditions, is observed in all stages of development in the Georgian tradition, including the late period. Taking into account these features, creates the preconditions for the correct analysis and evaluation of the musical system of Georgian church chants. Loyalty to Mnemonic-Formula Thinking and the improvisational transformation of these formulas into polyphonic forms evoke the individual look of Georgian church chants, which give them a special place among diff erent Christian chant traditions.