Karbelashvili brothers

The Holy Karbelashvili Brothers are five Georgian brothers, Pilimon, Andria, Petre, Polievktos (called the Confessor) and Vasil (with the monastic name Stepane, also called the Confessor), who preserved the musical and church tradition of Georgia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Two of them, Andria and Petre, received martyrdom in 1924. The Georgian Orthodox Church canonized them on 20 December 2011. Their commemoration is on 6 September, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Andria and Petre.

The family

The five brothers, together with their sister Sidonia, were children of Grigol Karbelashvili (1812 to 1880), a priest in the village of Kvemo Chala. The elder Karbelashvili was son of Petre Karbela (Khmaladze), who in youth had been a chanter at the court of Erekle, prince of Mukhrani, then taught chant at the Samtavisi Cathedral. Grigol was well versed in church chant and reading, learning music from his father. He studied at the Shio-⁠Mgvime monastery between 1820 and 1824 and was ordained in 1849. He imparted his interest in music to his sons, each of whom became active in church life and in teaching. The brothers first sang together in 1864, performing folk songs at a gathering near Nishevo Castle on 1 May. With Makari Batatashvili and others Grigol took part in the Church's early efforts to preserve traditional chant and founded in the 1860s a school for this.

Pilimon

The eldest of the brothers, Pilimon (1836 to 1879), was first taught at home by his father. Then he went to Tbilisi, to the seminary. He returned to his native village in 1860, at ordination, and began a fruitful church career. It is said he celebrated the Divine Liturgy accompanied by his brothers' chanting in such a way that the church was filled beyond capacity by residents not only of Samtavisi but of the villages around. He was also a teacher, opening a village school where he taught Georgian history, chanting, reading, writing and arithmetic. The gift of preacher, chanter and teacher earned him the label "exemplary". Among his acquaintances was Ilia Chavchavadze, whom he met through Niko Meskhishvili. He died in 1879 and was buried in the churchyard of Samtavisi Cathedral, where his grave can be visited.

Andria

The Hieromartyr Andria Karbelashvili (1851 to 1924) was the second child of the family and began his studies at home. His brothers recognized his gifts as chanter and cleric, and he was known too for intelligence. In 1903 he became rector of the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Kvemo Chala and remained in this post until the Soviets came to power, when he was forced to leave church life. When the Bolsheviks came to destroy or confiscate the property of the Amilakhvari and other noble families, Andria saved many items. Andria and his brother Petre were among the intellectuals taken to Gori for interrogation by the communists during the August Uprising and were executed in the Tiripona valley, with others.

Polievktos

Polievktos Karbelashvili (1855 to 1936) was born in Kvemo Chala and studied at the seminaries of Gori and Tbilisi. He worked for the restoration of autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church and for the preservation of Georgian language, culture and chant. He was a writer, publishing many books and articles on Georgian history and culture. With his brother Vasil he notated and collected traditional chant, composed religious texts and edited works by Georgian writers. He was especially known for his library of historical materials, and strove to preserve documents from the churches and monasteries of Svaneti. He also collected traditional Georgian surnames and their origins. Many of the documents he copied no longer exist, so his copies are the only record of their contents. He was well known among the intellectuals of the time, among them Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli and Niko Nikoladze. He was buried at Gurjaani in 1936. The National Archives of Georgia hold an extensive archive on him.

Vasil, Stepane the Confessor

Vasil Karbelashvili, called Stepane the Confessor (1 January 1858 to 8 April 1936), was born in Kvemo Chala and was first taught at home. At nine he was taken by his parents to Tbilisi, where he taught other pupils the Kartli-⁠Kakhetian chant he had learned in childhood. He then went to the seminary at Gori, graduating in 1881. The next year he entered the Moscow Conservatory, but did not stay and returned to Georgia in 1883. That year he was ordained deacon and then priest, serving at churches and monasteries in Tbilisi and Kakheti. An ardent Georgian patriot and supporter of the autocephaly of the Georgian Church, he entered into a high-⁠profile conflict with several pro-⁠Russian officials, for which he was exiled to Azerbaijan in February 1903. His wife Mariam, with whom he had six children, accompanied him. On 24 October 1925 he was tonsured a monk, with the name Stepane, and became bishop of Bodbe. In 1928 he was transferred to the diocese of Alaverdi. In 1934 he ceased to celebrate the Liturgy, and soon retired.

As monk and bishop he preserved chant and was a teacher, teaching Georgian language, music and catechism at various institutions. He published two collections of chant, in 1897 and 1898. He wrote much on the autocephalous Church, and his letters were published in many Georgian periodicals, and he spread anti-⁠imperial materials and fought for teaching the Georgian language in schools. He was buried in the wall of the church of Saint Barbara in Navtlugi. The Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts holds his archive.

Petre

The Hieromartyr Petre Karbelashvili (1860 to 1924) studied at the theological school in Gori. From 1878 he was a psalm-⁠reader in various churches, teaching reading and writing at the same time. In 1889 he began to teach the foundations of Kartli-⁠Kakhetian chant at the Tbilisi seminary. He was ordained in 1900 and returned to his native village, Sakorintlo. He served at churches and monasteries in Shida Kartli, and in the 1920s began work in the Mukhrani parish, where he was arrested in the August Uprising and executed in the Tiripona valley, with his brother Andria and others.

Chant and legacy

Efforts to transpose traditional three-⁠part Georgian chant into the European five-⁠line notation began in 1882. The notation of the chants of west Georgia was done by one of the specialists, and that of east Georgia was led by Mikhail Ippolitov-⁠Ivanov. The bishop chose the chant collectors: Vasil and Polievktos, with Grigol Mghebrishvili and Alexandre Molodinashvili. After the notation was finished, the first volume, of Vespers, in the Kartli-⁠Kakhetian mode, appeared in 1896, followed in 1898 by a volume of Matins. In 1899 an edition of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, edited by Vasil Karbelashvili, appeared. Among the chants set down by the brothers is "Shen khar venakhi", one of the most important hymns of the Georgian Church. In 1909 Zakaria Paliashvili arranged it for six-⁠voice choir, and in the 1950s it was reduced to three voices, often sung by the Rustavi Ensemble, and is today called the "Paliashvili" variant, the most used. Paliashvili also composed an entire Liturgy on the basis of the Karbelashvili chants, arranged for five- and six-⁠voice choir. The brothers, however, were outraged at what they regarded as a profanation of traditional music. Paliashvili's work did nevertheless help preserve the brothers' work: traditional chant was fiercely suppressed under Soviet rule, but the Paliashvili versions were known and continued to be sung in private, often in three-⁠part settings meant to recall traditional Georgian singing.

The gathering and publishing of the traditional chants of Georgia is considered a turning point in Georgian history. It led not only to the preservation of a long musical tradition but to the beginning of an effort to revive the custom of chanting in Georgia. For their efforts to preserve Georgian chant and national identity the Karbelashvili brothers were canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church on 20 December 2011. Their feast day is 6 September. A museum of the brothers is housed in the family home at Kvemo Chala, and a street in Tbilisi bears their name. A documentary film about them by Sandro Vakhtangov, "Chronicles of One Family: Holy Karbelashvili Brothers", appeared in 2012.