AAWM Music & Nature, Vol. 1, Published October 31, 2021. Krimanchuli: A yodeling phenomenon in Georgian traditional polyphonic music Teona Lomsadze Recordings of Georgian folk polyphonic songs make a great musical impression. They are recorded in a tradition of active reproduction of Georgian folk music the origin of which begins from ancient times. It is a wonderful finding and can give to the performance much more than all the modern music can… Yodel or ‘Krimanchuli’ as it is called in Georgia is the best song which I have ever heard. (Igor Stravinsky, 1967) T took several decades from Stravinsky’s 1960s statement before Georgian traditional polyphony reached all continents of the world, gradually gaining the attention of a wide range of international musicians and scholars. In the late Soviet period (the 1970s and 80s), Georgian traditional music was brought to the outside world by the ensemble Rustavi, which acted as an important ambassador through their international tours. UNESCO’s recognition of Georgian traditional polyphonic song as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” (2001) and the associated protection and popularization campaign played an important role in this process. The wide variety of vocal polyphonic forms found in the small territory of Georgia, with their distinctive formal structures, complex modulations, and elaborate harmonic interrelationships, caught the attention of the world. Furthermore, Georgia harbors a local and distinct yodeling technique, krimanchuli, which plays an important role in the musically most complex polyphonic songs, which come from the western part of Georgia. 1 Krimanchuli refers to a certain kind of high-pitched top voice in Georgian traditional polyphonic singing (songs with three or four voices), performed with a specific technique and creating a distinct acoustic effect. The word krimanchuli consists of two old Georgian words — krini (falsetto) and manchva (twisting, twirling) and literally translates to “twisted falsetto” or “twisted jaw” (Gabisonia 2011, 214), depicting the process of producing the krimanchuli voice. Scientific discussions around krimanchuli go back to 1901, when Georgian singer and scholar Philimon Koridze, in his article “On Georgian Music” (kartuli musikis shesakheb) explained krimanchuli as a twisting of the tenor voice (“sung in the chest”) into a krini (descant) voice, while twisting, twirling, and whirling on high-pitched notes (Manjgaladze 1982, 5). Dimitri Araqishvili, founder of the Georgian school of ethnomusicology, was among the first scholars to research krimanchuli. He recorded krimanchuli singers during his 1901–03 expeditions, later published krimanchuli transcriptions, and described this phenomenon in his scholarly work about western Georgian folk songs (Araqishvili 1908), mentioning in particular the different performance manners of two Gurian mokrimanchule (krimanchuli performers) recorded by him. Araqishvili describes 1. Krimanchuli is mainly found in traditional polyphonic songs from the Guria and Achara regions; it is only rarely found in songs from Imereti and Samegrelo. I