International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony

The International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony (IRCTP or Polyphonic Centre) is an academic organization focused on the study of the phenomenon of traditional vocal polyphony. It is a part of Tbilisi Vano Sarajishvili State Conservatory. Establishment of IRCTP was announced during the First International Symposium of Traditional Polyphony in 2002, and it was logistically established by the order of the Rector of Tbilisi State Conservatory Manana Doijashvili in February 2003. Its director is Rusudan Tsurtsumia. The head of its International Bureau is Joseph Jordania. Central activity of the Polyphonic Centre is organizing biannual symposia, with subsequent publication of the presented papers, fostering dissemination of the knowledge on human musical cultures and establishing professional and social contacts between ethnomusicologists interested in study of the phenomenon of traditional polyphony.
History
Georgia has been known among ethnomusicologists as the country with extremely rich traditions of vocal polyphony since the 1920s. Study of vocal polyphony has been one of the central issues for Georgian ethnomusicology from the second half of the 19th century. In 1972 Union of Composers of Soviet Union organized the conference dedicated to traditional polyphony in Georgia (this was the very first conference in the world, fully dedicated to traditional polyphony). The ongoing series of biannual conferences dedicated to the problems of traditional polyphony, with the wide participation of the experts from Soviet Union, Europe and America, were organized in 1984, 1986 and 1988. The following conference (scheduled in 1990) was initially postponed and later canceled due to the political instability in post-soviet Georgia. The series of biannual conferences on traditional polyphony were revived in 1998 and 2000, leading to the organizing of the First International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony in 2002. The first symposium was preceded by proclamation of Georgian traditional polyphony the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. Personal representative of Secretary General of UNESCO attended the Symposium, providing support of UNESCO and the financial assistance from the Japanese government for several years.
International symposia
International symposia on the problems of traditional polyphony had been organized biannually from 2002. The last one was held on October 4-8, 2010. All of them had been organized in late September - early October, at the Tbilisi State Conservatory. The geography of representation of scholars from different countries of the world had been steadily increasing. Usually there are between 30 and 40 papers at each symposium. The thematic of the symposia is stable and contains twelve themes, covering wide range of research topics, including problems of vocal and instrumental polyphony, folk and church music, regional styles, elements of musical language, social and gender aspects, history, links with popular musical styles. In 2010 for the first time a special theme was added (vocal polyphony is Asia). The additional topic for the 2012 symposium is scheduled to be comparative research in traditional polyphony.
Publications
The most important publication of the IRCTP is the proceedings of the biannual symposia. They are usually prepared under the editorship of Rusudan Tsurtsumia and Joseph Jordania. All the papers of the previous symposia are freely available on the website of the IRCTP on both Georgian and English languages
Bulletin is another periodic publication of the IRCTP

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