Introduction and Instrumentation

 Introduction to Jethro Tull and Georgian Folk Music

 Jethro Tull is a rock band from Britain that caught my attention a few years ago; it became a band that I enjoyed because of the use of a flute as a main instrument in the band. Flutes aren't usually a staple instrument in rock bands and, being a flute player myself, I began to listen to songs. Their music is a mixture of folk, traditional rock, blues, and darker themes, and is a fascinating original take on rock. The band began in the late 1960s and was originally formed by Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, Michael Stephens, and John Evans ("Jethro Tull History"). Because the band boasted a unique sound, even in a time where folk rock bands were popular, Jethro Tull gained popularity throughout the 1970s and 80s (Jethro). Even though most of the original members are gone, the band continues to be successful and play for audiences all over the world.
      In another part of the world is the folk music from Georgia. While I was listening to various types of world music on YouTube, I found that Georgian folk music has an inviting and intriguing sound that made me want to learn more about it. Modern Georgian folk music is a mixture of traditional Georgian folk music and some modern instruments, such as keyboard instruments. Despite the many invaders of Georgia throughout the years, Georgia has managed to maintain its own language in its music, and has been able to preserve some folk melodies for many years ("Georgian Song"). Today, it utilizes a variety of instruments and vocal sounds and continues to maintain the traditional structure of Georgian music. With these two types of music fresh in my mind, I'm excited to begin to explore the parallels between them. 

  

Instrumentation

Ian Anderson and Flute; Photo by: Jackson, Martyn.
 "RUSHONROCK.COM."RUSHONROCKCOM RSS.
 N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. 

    Jethro Tull's lead singer, Ian Anderson, multitasks during his performances. He switches between playing a concert flute (pictured left), a variety of guitars, mandolin, piccolo, bouzouki, and bamboo flute throughout songs. The other four band members, Martin Barre, Doane Perry, Jonathan Noyce, and Andrew Giddings, join in with their own instruments of choice. Barre uses a concert flute and electric guitar while Noyce joins with his bass guitar. Perry is the band's drummer and Giddings plays the keyboard (Jethro).

     Georgian folk music has both similarities and differences in its instrumentation of music. Both musical types include a conglomeration of strings, winds, percussion, and, in recent years in Georgian folk music, keyboard instruments. It is only the instruments themselves that differ from the instruments used by Jethro Tull (Jethro). The strings in this folk music include instruments such as the chunriri, chonguri, and bass-panduri. Winds include the reeded and unreeded salamuri, duduki, and puki, among others. The percussion are drums such as doli and diplipito drums, and the keyboard instruments are the buzika, garmon, and tsiko-tsiko (Georgian).  

Unreeded Salamuri; Photo by: ":: Reeded and Unreeded
 wind instrument - Salamuri." :: Reeded and Unreeded
 wind instrument - Salamuri. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. 

       Both sets of drums are used to set and maintain the rhythm of the music, and can either be used as a background instrument or as a primary sound (Daira).The winds are for the most part very diverse, as most of the conventional winds in traditional Georgian music are made out of wood and most Western flutes are made out of metal. Despite this, the salamuri proves to have a similar tone and range to a flute, and so could almost be considered the flute of Georgian folk music (Unreeded). This was especially interesting for me, because I had originally thought that the bamboo flute, which is similar in shape and the material it is made out of, would be closer in style to the salamuri. After listening to examples of the bamboo flute, I found that the tone and range of the bamboo flute is completely different from the salamuri. As for the strings, electric guitars used in Jethro Tull are very different from the panduri and chonguri played in Georgia; the panduri has three strings, the chonguri four (Chonguri), and the electric guitar usually has six (Jethro).