Music

Tusheti music is traditionally characterized with minor scale and long melodies, accompanied with pipes (salamuri) or string instruments (panduri). Accordion, which has been present since the 19th century under external influence, is today inseparable part of every celebration. It is mainly played by women, generally being the carriers of the music culture in Tusheti. In contrast to other parts of Georgia with prevailing polyphone male music, Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi melodies are characterized with a single-voice or maximum two-voice structure performed by both female and male singers. Besides panegyric songs, in Tusheti we may mainly hear funeral songs or songs chanting the ancestors (the most famous being "Dala", whose unison male choir commemorates the ancestors, e.g. in the time of Zezvaoba).