Georgia’s musical identity is inseparable from its distinctive polyphonic singing, alongside instrumental, sacred, classical, and modern traditions. Both examples feature “Chakrulo,” allowing two performances of one of the country’s most emblematic songs to be heard side by side.
Georgia has rich and still vibrant traditional music, which is primarily known as arguably the earliest polyphonic tradition of the Christian world. Situated on the border of Europe and Asia, Georgia is also the home of a variety of urban singing styles with a mixture of native polyphony, Middle Eastern monophony and late European harmonic languages. Georgian performers are well represented in the world's leading opera troupes and concert stages.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia’s “Music of Georgia” article
“Chakrulo” is an iconic example of Georgian polyphonic singing and was included on NASA’s Voyager Golden Record.
A second performance by Ensemble Rustavi makes the interlocking vocal parts of the same tradition especially clear.