Tornike the Georgian - Epic Byzantine Music

Tsambouna by Dimitris Athanasopoulos of the One Man's Noise channel (check out more of his awesome music there,) music and vocals by Farya Faraji, based on Georgian folk motifs.

I wanted to try my hand at a bit of Georgian music, and the history of Tornike Eristavi was a fascinating one to do it with. Tornike Eristavi was a 10th century Georgian noble and military general with a successful military career in his native homeland. However, he retired and became a monk at the end of his life, traveling to Greece where he settled, and founded the Iviron monastery on Mount Athos.

The song follows the basic conventions of different styles of Georgian folk music, namely the gandagana and acharuli dance forms, many of them typical of the Adjarian region. These musical forms are defined by a triple metre and similar melodic progressions also found in neighbouring cultures. Traditionally, that is before the arrival of instruments due to Russian influence like the accordion, Georgian bagpipes were one of the main instruments in these genres, although we used a tsambouna here, played by Dimitris, to represent the Greco-Georgian musical fusion of the subject. The second instrument in use is the panduri, a Georgian lute played both melodically, and to provide basic chord progressions to the song.

The final component is the usage of the famous Georgian polyphony, one of the oldest and most renowned uses of harmony in the world. Traditional Georgian harmony is characterised by drone harmony: a voice sings the fully fledged melody whilst other voices support the main vocals by repeating the same notes over a span of time, creating various harmonic intervals, usually based on fourths and fifths.

The main chorus sings a passage from the epic Georgian poem: The Knight in the Panther's Skin, one of the defining monuments of Georgian literature from the Georgian Golden Age of the 11th and 13th century when the Kingdom of Georgia reached an unprecedented peak of advancement. It was written by Shota Rustaveli, now regarded as a national poet of the Georgians.

Lyrics in Greek and Georgian:
Απ' τα βάθη μακριά, απ' την Ανατολή, ah!
Απ' τα βάθη μακριά Tα Άλογα με έφεραν εδώ
Κατάγομαι από τα βουνά της ιβηρίας,
Kαι τα βουνά τραγουδούν:
რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რას არა დაკარგულია

Mε έλεγαν εριστάβι, მეომარი
Mε έλεγαν θάνατο, Tornike τοv κόκκινο,
Kαι ξέχασα τα σοφά λόγια:
რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რას არა დაკარგულია

ნახვამდის თორნიკე πολεμιστής, τοv κόκκινο,
ნახვამდის πατρίδα μου, ნახვამდის αχ βουνά μου!

Tώρα ο δρόμος μου είναι ο δρόμος της αγάπης,
Kαι ζω με αυτά τα λόγια των βουνών:
რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რას არა დაკარგულია

English translation:
From the faraway depths, from the East,
From the faraway depths, horses have brought me here,
I came from the mountains of Iberia*
And those mountains, they sang:
"That which we give makes us richer, that which is hoarded is lost."

They called me general, warrior,
They called me Tornike the red-stained.
And I had forgotten those wise words:
"That which we give makes us richer, that which is hoarded is lost."

Farewell Tornike the warrior, the red-stained,
Farewelll, my homeland, farewell, my mountains,
Now my road is the road of love,
And I shall live by these words of the mountains:
"That which we give makes us richer, that which is hoarded is lost."

*Iberia here refers to the Georgian lands in the Caucasus, a name which was given to it in the West. It is distinct from the Iberian peninsula in Southwestern Europe.

[faryafaraji]

Tsambouna by Dimitris Athanasopoulos of the One Man's Noise channel (check out more of his awesome music there, ) music and vocals by Farya Faraji, based on Georgian folk motifs. Please note this isn't reconstructed period music, it's modern folk music. Please note this isn't reconstructed historical music, it's modern folk music. The Epic Byzantine Music series is a musical project where I explore various sounds from the ethnomusicological ecosystem of modern traditional music, using sounds from modern folk traditions as they are today as a framing device for themes pertaining to the history of the Eastern Roman Empire.

I wanted to try my hand at a bit of Georgian music, and the history of Tornike Eristavi was a fascinating one to do it with. Tornike Eristavi was a 10th century Georgian noble and military general with a successful military career in his native homeland. However, he retired and became a monk at the end of his life, traveling to Greece where he settled, and founded the Iviron monastery on Mount Athos.

The song follows the basic conventions of different styles of Georgian folk music, namely the gandagana and acharuli dance forms, many of them typical of the Adjarian region. These musical forms are defined by a triple metre and similar melodic progressions also found in neighbouring cultures. Traditionally, that is before the arrival of instruments due to Russian influence like the accordion, Georgian bagpipes were one of the main instruments in these genres, although we used a tsambouna here, played by Dimitris, to represent the Greco-Georgian musical fusion of the subject. The second instrument in use is the panduri, a Georgian lute played both melodically, and to provide basic chord progressions to the song.

The final component is the usage of the famous Georgian polyphony, one of the oldest and most renowned uses of harmony in the world. Traditional Georgian harmony is characterised by drone harmony: a voice sings the fully fledged melody whilst other voices support the main vocals by repeating the same notes over a span of time, creating various harmonic intervals, usually based on fourths and fifths.

The main chorus sings a passage from the epic Georgian poem: The Knight in the Panther's Skin, one of the defining monuments of Georgian literature from the Georgian Golden Age of the 11th and 13th century when the Kingdom of Georgia reached an unprecedented peak of advancement. It was written by Shota Rustaveli, now regarded as a national poet of the Georgians.

Lyrics in Greek and Georgian:
Απ' τα βάθη μακριά, απ' την Ανατολή, ah!
Απ' τα βάθη μακριά Tα Άλογα με έφεραν εδώ
Κατάγομαι από τα βουνά της ιβηρίας,
Kαι τα βουνά τραγουδούν:
რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რას არა დაკარგულია

Mε έλεγαν εριστάβι, მეომარი
Mε έλεγαν θάνατο, Tornike τοv κόκκινο,
Kαι ξέχασα τα σοφά λόγια:
რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რას არა დაკარგულია

ნახვამდის თორნიკე πολεμιστής, τοv κόκκινο,
ნახვამდის πατρίδα μου, ნახვამდის αχ βουνά μου!

Tώρα ο δρόμος μου είναι ο δρόμος της αγάπης,
Kαι ζω με αυτά τα λόγια των βουνών:
რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რას არა დაკარგულია

English translation:
From the faraway depths, from the East,
From the faraway depths, horses have brought me here,
I came from the mountains of Iberia*
And those mountains, they sang:
"That which we give makes us richer, that which is hoarded is lost."

They called me general, warrior,
They called me Tornike the red-stained.
And I had forgotten those wise words:
"That which we give makes us richer, that which is hoarded is lost."

Farewell Tornike the warrior, the red-stained,
Farewelll, my homeland, farewell, my mountains,
Now my road is the road of love,
And I shall live by these words of the mountains:
"That which we give makes us richer, that which is hoarded is lost."

*Iberia here refers to the Georgian lands in the Caucasus, a name which was given to it in the West. It is distinct from the Iberian peninsula in Southwestern Europe.

[chechenknightslaillaillall]

I am a Muslim Chechen, but we always hold our Georgian brothers with high esteem and respect. Really interesting to learn that he is also highly respected in Greece. Thy in Heaven for you, great Tornike.

[nikolaosboukouvalas]

Tornike was a monk at Mount Athos when the palace asked him to aid Bardas Phokas in crushing the rebellion of Bardas Skleros. Having renounced his former life of violence, Tornike only relectantly agreed, under pressure by his fellow monks. After he completed his quest, he returned to mount Athos and founded the Monastery of Iviron ("of the Georgians"). It stand there to this day, although now it's inhabited by mostly Greek and Russian monks.

[GeorgeSezer]

One of the most unique culture and nation. Georgians are our neighbors very well known by great hospitality. Lots of love to you guys from Turkey. Sakartvelos Gaumarjos!❤❤❤

[gigaptskialadze]

I'm Georgian proud of this. GOD save all Christians in the world ✝️☦️❤️🇬🇪🇬🇷

[tornikegogitidze]

დიდი მადლობა ამ სიმღერის შემქმნელს❤️❤️❤️ სიყვარულით საქართველოდან❤🇬🇪☦️☦️☦️🇬🇪

[weloveTM]

As a Georgian, I'm so thankful and proud that you made a music to honour our history and sang so beautifully too with zero mistakes. Amazing composition.

[osw]

from the Arabs Orthodox🇱🇧🇪🇬🇮🇶🇯🇴🇸🇾🇵🇸☦️ we love you ❤️🛐our Orthodox Brothers

[ZIT]

Deep respect for our Orthodox brothers! From southern Italy ♥️🇮🇹🇬🇪

[nodaridolidze]

"Rasatsa gastsem shenia, Rats ara dakargulia"
Things that you gave to others stay as yours, but those that you kept - will dissapear.

[digenesakritas]

Bravo Aghios Tornikios☦️ 🇬🇷♥️🇬🇪 the Greek people are so grateful to have had such a great commander and saint among us who founded the Iviron monastery at Mount Athos. Orthodox Christian Brotherhood☦️☦️☦️

[matonkyna]

What a uplifting music! Tsambouna is always appreciated. Greetings to the glorious mountains of Georgia. 🇬🇷❤🇬🇪

[byzansimp]

Tornike is simply one of the coolest figures in the era of the Bulgarslayer, almost like the retired hero who is only reluctantly called back to the field in some classic action movies. He already renounced the world and became a monk but at the insistence of Theophano, the basileus’ mother, took up arms again and decisively smashed the rebel Bardas Skleros with his friend Bardas Phokas at the Battle of Charsianon, saving the young Macedonian’s throne for the first time. Crazy to think that if he didn’t come with his army and Skleros succeeded in usurping, we might not have had the peak of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Then befitting his awesomeness, he immediately retired as a monk once more, only this time in his own newly founded Iviron monastery on Mount Athos, which immortalized his legacy like this heaven-sent Greco-Georgian melody. Phenomenal work once again, Farya!

[janki]

Love to my Georgian brothers and sisters from Armenia. I hope we will be as close as we once were soon

[lailala]

სასწაულია.. ორი დღეა ვუსმენ.🥰 უფლის წყალობა, არ მოგვკლებოდეს მართმადიდებლებო🥰

[mariosathens]

Love Georgian nation, a friend from the past.
from Greece
Congratulations once again Farya...

[hvstlegod]

As a Georgian of Byzantine origin (Pontus), I've got to say that this is great!

[orthochristos]

I have visited the Iviron monastery on Mount Athos. Great arrangement

[djphantomxcykopath]

1:21 Rasaca gascem shenia, ras ara dakargulia translate: What you give is yours, what is not is lost

[mariammanagadze]

რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რაც არა დაკარგულია!
დიდი მადლობა საქართველოდან! ძალიან სასიამოვნო იყო❤🇬🇪