CD PROJECT: RECORDINGS FROM THE CAUCASIAN REGION, 1909 AND 1915/1916

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1 433 GERDA LECHLEITNER, FRANZ LECHLEITNER (AUSTRIA), NONA LOMIDZE (AUSTRIA/GEORGIA) CD PROJECT: RECORDINGS FROM THE CAUCASIAN REGION, 1909 AND 1915/1916 Introduction The historical recordings of the Phonogrammarchiv are of huge interest today also outside the narrow circle of research institutions and researchers. In many cases, the historical recordings are the earliest of their kind, documenting cultures and languages which have since been subjected to fundamental changes. These collections, therefore, are also attracting the attention of general public interested in culture and history, especially in the regions of their origin (Schüller, 1999: 9). Due to the time-consuming handling of historical carriers the Phonogrammarchiv has decided to publish theses collections in the form of a commented source edition, including Audio CDs, Data CD and a booklet. Thus, the edition is meant to facilitate access, not only to the sound documents as such. The sound documents are therefore accompanied by original protocols, published on a Data CD as digital images. A commentary section discusses the historical material from modern perspective in order to make further evaluation easy. Although these commentaries cannot anticipate or replace more exhaustive treatment, they can provide useful information about the circumstances under which the recordings were made. Text transcriptions of the recorded songs and spoken texts will help to gain access to the contents of the recordings, which are often difficult to hear due to their historical sound quality. We have published 12 series so far and six more are on the way. One of those is the series Recordings from the Caucasus Region, made in 1909 and 1915/16. As it is obvious from the recording date, this series will comprise two collections the recordings made by Adolf Dirr and those made for Robert Lach by Leo Hajek and Rudolf Pöch technicians of the Phonogrammarchiv. Dirr carried out his field research in Daghestan and Tbilisi in 1909, while Lach was appointed as project leader of the music studies in the camps for war prisoners during WWI, going back to an initiative of anthropologists, among them Rudolf Pöch. Although the term Caucasian region might be problematic in respect of the borders of the national states and languages, the decision to publish recordings from that region offers manifold approaches for academic discussion. The publication of those recordings is a challenge in many respects: firstly, the comparison of classic field research with another recording situation, namely in a prisoner of war camp featuring not only the contrast between researcher and performer but also the hierarchy of the victors and the victims in a more or less studio-like situation; and secondly, the different methods and goals of making recordings. The Two Collections Adolf Dirr a linguist and ethnologist, seemed to have been to Tbilisi already in 1901; he continued his research and stayed in the Caucasus region until 1913 when he was appointed the curator

2 434 Gerda Lechleitner, Franz Lechleitner, Nona Lomidze in the Royal Ethnographic Museum in Munich. During that time he created a collection of written reports, photographs, and ethnographic artifacts and also phonographic recordings of language and music (Öhrig, 2000). In , he recorded traditional music on wax cylinders now in the collections of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv (Ziegler, 2006: ), and in 1909 he used the Vienna Archiv-Phonograph to make language recordings on wax discs preserved at Vienna Phonogrammarchiv. Dirr s method of recording (unknown) languages and his results were referred to by Pöch in his article on the technique and value of collecting language items with Phonograph during expeditions (Pöch, 1917: 9). The method of arranging word lists with only one vowel or consonant changed to make clear the differences in pronunciation became a kind of model for other researchers, e.g. Gustav Ramstedt or Abraham Zwi Idelsohn. Robert Lach is acknowledged comparative musicologist and father of the well-known Vienna school of comparative-systematic musicology as carried out by Walter Graf (Graf, 1954) and Franz Födermayr (Födermayr, 2013). His main goal was to collect as many items as possible with the purpose of transcribing, gaining written sources from sound documents, and thus being able to compare e.g. tone systems, rhythmical structures or styles, and to show the developments, from simple to complex construction. His results were shaped by the methods of the time affected by evolutionism and comparison. Lach s Music Recordings Robert Lach s research on the songs of Tsarist Russian war prisoners was part of a large-scale project, initiated by anthropologists with the main focus on measuring people, comparing the collected data, and thus creating a taxonomy of racial characteristics. Thanks to R. Pöch, who after his expeditions to Papua New Guinea and the Kalahari from where he brought back numerous sound recordings (Schüller, 2000, 2003) worked as an archivist and technician at the Phonogrammarchiv, this unique opportunity of recording music, unknown at that time, was eagerly seized. Lach s publications about Songs of Russian Prisoners of War (Lach, 1928, 1931) are quite well known, as are his transcriptions and the results based on his analysis, culminating in his systematisation of those cultures. And, as has always been reported in the archive, this knowledge was based on sound recordings- the primary sources. Closer look at Lach s texts gives a slightly different picture: it was not the sound recording itself which was the basis for Lach s results; rather, it was Lach s stay for some weeks at the war prisoners camps, during which he worked with the performers (he called them human material, Lach, 1917: 5), writing down melodies and thus finding the most outstanding, most typical, most interesting kinds of songs (each time Lach uses the superlative, Lach, 1928: 5). For him these results were the basis to decide which music performed by whom should be recorded. The real recording session, however, took place some weeks later (during wartime Lach was allowed to stay only for a certain period) and when he returned it turned out that some of the main singers whom Lach favoured had been moved to another camp. Thus, the recordings he made were the result of his working sessions which had taken place before. Technicians from the Phonogrammarchiv were sent to help. The recording sessions in one of the camps lasted only two days, a very well organised project, so to speak. The recordings in that case do not stand for primary sources but mirror the results of the work already done. But, completely true to the sense of comparative musicol-

3 CD-Project: Recordings from the Caucasian Region, 1909 and ogy and the central role of sound recordings, Lach pointed out the importance of the recordings to prove his transcriptions, to have a tool for colleagues to correct him, and to ensure better understanding of his conclusions (Lach, 1931: 3-4). We assume that Lach had to ask those who were available and willing to sing at the time, regardless of the fact whether they were good performers or not. The singers sang into the horn in their own way, with their variations and improvisations the fact Lach was angry about because he accused those singers of not being able to repeat the song in the same way. In that sense, one of the singers explained: Maybe that is your rule in Europe. For us it is completely the same. You can sing the song this or that way (Lach, 1931: 14). From today s standpoint we can question Lach s results: he worked as a typical armchair ethnomusicologist and his results were widely accepted and paved the way for his career. But at present, we are more interested in the context, i.e. the historical and social setting, the recording circumstances, the performer and his message, the contents of the recording and their evaluation as wee them. *** When starting the work for the CD, some discrepancies emerged mainly differences between Lach s results (transcriptions) and the content of the respective recordings. These problems, caused by technical limitations on the one hand, and future-oriented recording methods in line with the goals of comparative musicology on the other hand, explained in the chapter about specific technical aspects, are addressed by Franz Lechleitner. Specific Technical Aspects: Challenges and Innovative Considerations at that Time The Recording Unit: Archivphonograph Type IV The Phonogrammarchiv of the Imperial Academy of Sciences developed its own recording and archiving system. Central unit was the Archivphonograph, a mechanically operated recording and reproducing machine working with Edison s technique. The very first recording and reproducing apparatus was very heavy and therefore not very useful for field recording. Hence the Archive technician Fritz Hauser (Hauser, 1905), made several attempts to improve handiness and operability of the equipment. Just before his death he launched Type IV, the most successful one (Pöch, 1914). A wax plate served as recording medium. Wax composition consisted simply of cracked wax cylinders. Thus the quality of the recording was directly related to the softness of the mass of cracked cylinders. It was not uniform at any time. The performance of the Archivphonograph Type IV barely matched the standard of the forerunners. Iron parts had to be substituted by parts made of light metal alloy in order to save weight. The spring motor got smaller and the wooden box was not as stiff as before. Thus the noise produced by the cog wheels occasionally found its way into the recording chain, and the engine torque was too weak to overcome the cutting start immediately and to keep the speed absolutely stable. Specific Recording Situation In common recording session only one horn was used. But the need to record more persons or a

4 436 Gerda Lechleitner, Franz Lechleitner, Nona Lomidze choir at the same time arose very soon. For this purpose a larger horn, or in special situations a split array of up to 3 horns were used. The speed was set before the recording, usually at 60rpm for speech and 70 rpm for music. In certain cases Lach advised the technicians, Hajek and Pöch, to record a reference tone (435Hz) before the actual performance. This is unusual because Phonogrammarchiv never bet on reference tones using the speed readout as reference. In these special cases Lach was probably of the opinion to place an easy synchronizing marker for exact replay. And indeed in order to match the reference tone without deviation the replay speed has to be set to 72.5 rpm. The reference tone causes a problem at the beginning. It leads the actors to perform in a certain manner which they would not do if the reference tone were set at the end of the recording. But there is always the risk of space lack. Lach s analytic recordings suffer the problem that in the case of a small choir every singer is trained to perform his part within the unit and not as a specific voice. Lach s idea to use 3 horns for 3 singers was great but did not have effect he was really asking for, namely easy transcription. At that time, this could only be managed with the help of three different recording units (synchronized by a reference tone). Under studio conditions the frequency response of the recorded sound was comparable to the commercial products of the time, but almost no improvement was possible due to technical limitation. The dynamics of the incoming sound was compressed to 5 by 1 and the frequency response was not flat because of many resonances produced by the horn and the membrane. For certain recordings (e.g. Ph 2755) three horns were used but for manufacturing reasons they did not have identical frequency response. Thus the sound of 3 singers was captured differently, and therefore the transcription of the individual voices got more difficult. Re-Recording The collection of Phonogramms is now available in the form of epoxy resin molds. The records are replayed with a modern archive turntable offering the complete speed range required. The sound will be picked up with a moving magnet stereo cartridge with needle tips in the 200µ range. The record should carefully be placed in perfect center because every out of center moving will cause low frequency wow which cannot be removed digitally. The AD conversion is done with highest resolution and a high sampling rate in order to have optimal conditions for enhancement in the digital domain. *** Third chapter, presented by Nona Lomidze is devoted to a rough overview and an evaluation of Lach collection and focuses on distinct examples to show the problems we face when editing this material problems which could partly be solved by detective work. Overview and Evaluation of the Songs Recorded This part is devoted to the content of the sound recordings and what the collection looks like. All together the collection comprises 24 recordings of songs, 17 are folk songs and 7 would be categorized as urban songs. The recordings cover 1, 2, and 3 voice recordings.

5 CD-Project: Recordings from the Caucasian Region, 1909 and But what is the specific shape of that collection and what are the problems we are confronted with? Sometimes only parts of the songs were recorded, and some of the recorded songs are not identical with the transcriptions in the publication; sometimes the recordings comprise only parts of the songs but the transcriptions show the complete text and music; in addition some of the recordings comprise variants today unknown; but judging the correctness of the texts would go far beyond these considerations. To get an overview about those stocks a chart was drawn which evidently shows the distribution of various aspects. Some songs, corresponding to their problems, appear in more than one column. Numerous examples show problems connected with the discrepancy between the recording and the written document. This problem arises from the fact that Lach first made the transcriptions and later on, for verification of his transcriptions, made the recordings, but partly with other singers singing another variant. Concerning the unknown variants I would like to offer two hypotheses: firstly, we could assume that these variants were popular at the time of recording, secondly, the singers probably have improvised songs which they did not know exactly. Lach did not transcribe some of the recordings in that case he probably changed his working method and just recorded a song which seemed very interesting to him; finally he either was not able or did not consider it necessary to make transcriptions. Fragments can be divided in two groups: firstly, due to the main goal to record as many melodies as possible Lach decided to record only one stanza or one phrase of a song, and secondly we are faced with the abrupt ending of a song caused by the end of a disc. Although only few tones are recorded, those parts could be recognized because of the beginning of the text. Another mistake is evident in the interchange of texts and melodies. Today we assume that the singers sometimes did not know the texts but the melodies, and therefore they mixed them. In this case we are able to recognize the song by melody. It should be mentioned that some songs which are typically accompanied by string and/or wind instruments are sung without any instrumental accompaniment. Some of the originally three part songs are sung only by one or two singers. Maybe they could not find any other musician to join them. The songs in three voices sound rather good and are interpreted well, but Lach could only transcribe one or two voices. This is exactly the point why Lach was looking for technical help as explained in the technical paragraph. Five recordings Ph 2751-Ph 2755 from Lach s collection include two songs Chven mshvidoba and Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa. All recordings comprise two items, and therefore it is not astonishing that the second item represents only part of a whole song. Ph 2751 and 2755 are documents of threepart singing, recordings Ph 2752-ll 2754 could be called experimental recordings. They are thought of as a help for transcribing complex type of polyphony and thus represent only single voice. As already explained in the technical part the idea was nice but not as successful as estimated. Now, after studying each recording the following results turned out: Ph 2751: the first song is Chven mshvidoba in three voices text and music correlate (audio ex. 1); the second song is Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa, text and music correlate as well but they sing only one part (mukhli). The recording comprises a nice and well-known variant, but as the time span of the disc is limited only its part is audible. Ph 2752: This is the recording of middle voice: Levarsi Mamaladze interprets the text Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa but consequently on the melody of Chven mshvidoba (audio ex. 2). The second song matches Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa (audio ex. 3) in that case he switches between the voices to

6 438 Gerda Lechleitner, Franz Lechleitner, Nona Lomidze perform nice melody for the recording. Ph 2753: The singer sings the middle voice of Chven mshvidoba switching between the first and second voices with some mistakes (audio ex. 4); he sings on syllables (nanina, nanina, ). In the case of the song Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa he sings solely middle voice (audio ex. 5). Of course, it is not easy to keep the voice when the others do not participate, therefore he made some mistakes. Ph 2754: The low (bass) voice is not quite correct because he sang on his own, he sings on the syllables nanina, nanina, (audio ex. 6); evidently it is very difficult to sing that part on one s own, even for a professional. In Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa he correctly sings the low voice, starts with the text and then continues with nanina, nanina, (audio ex. 7) If you listen carefully you may hear the other voices in the background, which could be the reason why low voice was sung without mistakes. Ph 2755: This recording includes the recording as a whole, with single voices recorded on the previous discs ( ); thus, to some extent this recording represents a sum of those recordings but with the inevitable variants. Lach s task to sing on one s own (for better transcribing) could not be fulfilled, because it is completely unusual to sing only one voice therefore the scientific goal was not achieved. Again, the singers used the text of Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa sang to the melody of Chven mshvidoba (audio ex. 8); on the recording the second song features Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa in three voices but only its part, because the disc had come to an end (audio ex. 9). Conclusion Based on Lomidze s idea an experiment showing how the three voices should be composed was carried out by Anzor Erkomaishvili using playback (audio ex. 2, video ex. 1, 2). Lach s historical recording featuring the first voice was played and Anzor added second voice. This performance was recorded so that in the next step the two voices were played and Anzor added third voice. The result was a new version of singing in three voices, based on the historical source and performed in today s practice. As has been shown the publication of those historical recordings is a challenge from technical and from the content-related standpoint. When examining these recordings some new aspects emerged shedding light on the working methods, approaches and goals of the time. Finally, these recordings evidently represent older layers of a tradition still in use. References Graf, Walter. (1954). Robert Lach. Persönlichkeit und Werk, zum 80. Geburtstag überreicht von Freunden und Schülern. Wien: Musikwissenschaftliches Institut der Universität. Födermayr, Franz. (2013). Robert Lach. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon ONLINE. Wien. ( Öhrig, Bruno. (2000). Adolf Dir ( ). Ein Kaukasusforscher am Münchner Volkskundemuseum. Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde München 6.

7 CD-Project: Recordings from the Caucasian Region, 1909 and Lach, Robert. (1917). Vorläufiger Bericht über die im Auftrage der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften erfolgte Aufnahme der Gesänge russischer Kriegsgefangener im August bis September In: Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse 183/4:1-62. Lach, Robert. (1928). Gesänge russischer Kriegsgefangener. III. Band: Kaukasusvölker. 1. Abteilung: Georgische Gesänge. In: Sitzungsberichte der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse 204/4: Lach, Robert. (1931). Gesänge russischer Kriegsgefangener. III. Band: Kaukasusvölker. 2. Abteilung: Mingrelische, abchasische, svanische und ossetische Gesänge. In: Sitzungsberichte der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse 205/1: Pöch, Rudolf. (1914). Beschreibung einer modifizierten Type des Archiv-Phonographen mit Motorantrieb und Repetiervorrichtung. Sitzungsberichte Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, mathem.- naturw. Klasse 122/IIa: Pöch, Rudolf. (1917). Technik und Wert des Sammelns phonographischer Sprachproben auf Expeditionen. In: Sitzungsberichte Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, mathem.- naturw. Klasse 126/III: Schüller, Dietrich (editor). (1999). General editor s preface. Series 1: The First Expeditions 1901 to Croatia, Brazil, and the Island of Lesbos. (Sound Documents from the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The Complete Historical Collections ).P OEAW PHA CD 7. Wien. Schüller, Dietrich (editor). (2000). Series 3: Papua New Guinea ( ). The collections of Rudolf Pöch, Wilhelm Schmidt, and Josef Winthui. (Sound Documents from the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The Complete Historical Collections ). OEAW PHA CD 9. Wien. Schüller, Dietrich (editor). (2003). Series 7: Rudolf Pöch s Kalahari Recordings (1908). (Sound Documents from the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The Complete Historical Collections ). OEAW PHA CD 19. Wien. Ziegler, Susanne. (2006). Die Wachszylinder des Berliner Phonogrammarchivs. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Veröffentlichungen des Ethnologischen Museums Berlin, Neue Folge 73, Abt. Musikethnologie, Medien-Technik und Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv XII). Berlin. Audio Examples Audio example 1. Chven mshvidoba, recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph 2751.

8 440 Gerda Lechleitner, Franz Lechleitner, Nona Lomidze Audio example 2. Chven mshvidoba (on the text of Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa), recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 3. Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa, recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 4. Chven mshvidoba, recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 5. Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa, recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 6. Chven mshvidoba (bass), recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 7. Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa (bass), recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 8. Chven mshvidoba, recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Audio example 9. Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa, recorded by R. Lach.Vienna Phonogrammarchiv, Ph Video Examples Video example 1. Chven mshvidoba, reconstructed variant; performers: Levarsi Mamaladze, Anzor Erkomaishvili; filmed by Nona Lomidze, August, Nona Lomidze s personal archive. Video example 2. Maspindzelsa mkhiarulsa, reconstructed variant; performers: Levarsi Mamaladze, Anzor Erkomaishvili; filmed by Nona Lomidze, August, Nona Lomidze s personal archive.

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