Zacharia Petres dze Paliashvili (), also known by his Russian name Zachary Petrovich Paliashvili (; 3 August 1871 – 6 October 1933), was a Georgian composer. Regarded as one of the founders of Georgian classical music, his work is known for its eclectic fusion of folk songs and stories with 19th-century Romantic classical themes. He was the founder of the Georgian Philharmonic Society and later, the head of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi was named in his honor in 1937. Notably, Paliashvili's music serves as the basis of the National Anthem of Georgia.
Although Paliashvili has composed works for symphony orchestra (e.g., Georgian Suite on Folk Themes), he is probably best known for his vocal music, which includes operas Abesalom da EteriRecorded on LP in 1979. Polydor International GmbH. Surab Sotkilava (Absalom), Zisana Tatishvili (Eteri), Shota Kiknadse (Murman), et al. Great Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of Radio USSR. Didim Mirzchulava (Conductor). Klavdij Pitza (Chorus Master). (based on a folk tale "Eteriani"), Daisi (Twilight), and Latavra.100 опер: история создания, сюжет, музыка. [100 Operas: History of Creation, Subject, Music.] Ленинград: Издательство "Музыка," 1968, p. 448
Biography
Family and youth Paliashvili was born on 16 August 1871 in Kutaisi in the family of Petre Ivanes dze Paliashvili (1838–1913), an elder at the Kutaisi Georgian Catholic Church, who was said to be a model father and husband. Zacharia's mother was Maria Pavles asuli Mesarkishvili (1851–1916). Zacharia was the third child in a family of eighteen children (thirteen sons and five daughters). Seven children died in infancy. Although Zacharia's parents were not professional musicians, their children remembered their mother's singing.Dzigua, p. 9
In his autobiographical notes Zacharia Paliashvili writes: "...in our big family, my beloved brothers and sisters displayed a natural gift of music even in their early age. To my mind the explanation of this should be sought in the fact that we, being catholics attended the church where the sweet sounds of organ music are not only enjoyable but help develop a good ear... we spend much time in the church and gradually developed a good ear.."
The first to display considerable musical abilities was the eldest son Ivane (Vano) Paliashvili (1868–1934) who subsequently became an outstanding conductor. When Vano was eleven years old he was made assistant to the church organist, and the eight-year-old Zacharia was admitted as a chorister to the church choir. With the help of the dean, Father I. Antonishvili, little Zacharia studied "Lullaby for Jesus" and sang it with great success on Christmas night.Dzigua, p. 11
The Kutaisi period, however, left a deep impression on the life of the future composer. It was the place of his first contact with music, and the basis of his professional attitude to his life's dedication – music – had developed there, too. All his life Zacharia had retained his youthful love for the relics of Georgia's magnificence, the ruins of the Church of Bagrat (built by Georgia's King Bagrat III in 1003, ruined and plundered by the Turks in 1631), Gelati (1106–1125), one of the most important centres of education, philosophy and literature in medieval Georgia and the extraordinary beauty of his home town. Subsequently, Paliashvili recalled Kutaisi many times, permeated, he said, with a "truly Georgian spirit".
Upon leaving the two-year parish school, brothers Ivan and Zacharia began to play the piano under tutorship of Felix Mizandari, an organist and pianist. Mizandari did not charge the family for the lessons for he was aware that Paliashvili family was of very modest means. Shortly afterwards, people in the town learned of the two talented and exceptionally persevering young musicians.Dzigua, pp. 11-13
The news reached father Alfonso Khitarishvili, dean of Tbilisi's Georgian Catholic Church of the Assumption. With the parents' consent Khitarishvili took Ivan and Zacharia Paliashvili to Tbilisi. This was in the spring of 1887. The elder brother was appointed to the post of the organist and Zacharia was made his brother's assistant and a choirboy. A short time after, the entire family of Petre Paliashvili moved to Tbilisi.
Move to Tiflis and period in Moscow The work at the Catholic Church in Tbilisi, besides providing a small but badly needed salary also gave Zacharia Paliashvili the opportunity to broaden his musical knowledge by getting acquainted with the composers of Palestrina, Lassus, Bach, Handel, Mozart and other great composers of the past.Dzigua, pp. 14-15
The first performance of a Georgian Ethnographic choir, established of the initiative and with the material support of Lado Agniashvili, a well-known public personality, took place in Tbilisi in 1886.Dzigua, p. 16
Later the concerts of this choir were conducted by Joseph Ratil (Navratil), who though Czech by birth had forever associated his life with Georgia. The concerts of Agniashvili's choir evoked favourable comments from the patriotically minded Georgian public. Vano and Paliashvili sang in this choir in 1887–1889 and this fact was of importance for the future composer.
In 1889 Vano left for Russia where he was engaged as an opera conductor. His post of church organist was taken over by Zacharia who now had to support the entire family; as a result, he had no opportunity to continue his musical education.Dzigua, p. 18
in 1874 on the initiative of singer Kharlamphy Savaneli, pianists Aloizy Mizandari and Konstantin Alikhanov, the first musical school in Georgia was founded in Tbilisi. The Tbilisi Musical School was reorganised into the Tbilisi Branch of the Russian Royal Musical Society with the statue of a musical college. This was carried out with the active assistance of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov, a well-known Russian composer, conductor and educationalist who worked in Tbilisi in (1882–1893).
Paliashvili's cherished dream came true only in 1891 when he was admitted to the french horn class under F.F. Parizek. A year later, when Parizek left the school, Paliashvili continued to study under A.I. Mosko. He graduated from the French horn class in 1895 and in the same year was admitted to the musical theory class which was conducted by Nikolai Klenovsky, a Russian conductor, composer and teacher. Paliashvili also studied with Ippolitov-Ivanov and music critic Vasili Davidovich Korganov.Dzigua, p. 21 While studying in Klenovsky's class, Paliashvili wrote several pieces and this aroused in him a desire for further composition.
Paliashvili graduated from the school with honours in the spring of 1899. During his school years he had founded a mixed choir of factory and office workers who performed Georgian and Russian folk songs for workers. In 1898 Paliashvili conducted his choir in Gyandja and had tremendous success.
Following an exchange of letters with Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856–1915), a Russian composer and teacher, Paliashvili went to Moscow towards the end of August 1900. After taking his entry examinations he became a pupil in the class of counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatory. Three years of study with Professor Taneyev, an expert in polyphony, enriched Paliashvili with fundamental knowledge and facilitated his maturing into a professional composer.Dzigua, p. 23
Return to Georgia Towards the end of June 1903 Paliashvili completed his studies under Taneyev. With his young wife Julia Mikhailovna Utkina, he returned to Georgia to put into practice the knowledge he had gained in Russia. In autumn of 1903, Paliashvili began teaching at the Tbilisi High School for the nobility, where he had a singing class and also conducted the choir and orchestra, founded by him. Paliashvili was a strict and uncompromising teacher. He demanded full accuracy of intonation and precision of rhythm for every pupil-member of his choir or orchestra. He made such big progress in this field, that the school choir and orchestra soon began giving public concerts. The press called this "a triumph of the gifted maestro" and said, that the "choir and orchestra were brought to an evinous standard even for a musical school". A number of personalities who later on distinguished themselves in the Georgian Soviet musical culture (Composers: I. Tuskia, G Kiladze, S. Taktakishvili, V. Gokiely, A. Andriashvili; music critics: S. Aslanishvili, G. Chkhikvadze; Violinist L. Yashvili and others) had their first inspiring contact with music in this school, attending Z. Paliashvili's class. Violinist Andrei Karashvili and composer Zacharia Chkhikvadze worked at the same high school, where they conducted musical classes.Dzigua, p. 29
In 1904 Paliashvili was invited to head the teaching of theoretical subjects at the Tbilisi Musical College. Besides instructing classes in solfeggio, harmony and orchestration, he conducted the pupils' choir and orchestra, the public performances of which were invariably successful. In 1906, using a piano piece by A. Karashvili ("Sazandary") as a point of departure, Paliashvili composed a profoundly patriotic song, "Samshoblo", which became popular throughout Georgia.Dzigua, p. 30
Progressive Georgians before the revolution had regarded collecting, recording and elaboration of folklore material as an essential element, contributing to the spiritual life of the nation. Apart from the practical application – the use of folklore material as the basis of literary fand musical work – a large scale propaganda of remarkable folk poetry and songs formed a major instrument for stimulating the Georgian people's patriotic sentiments. Many contemporaries of Paliashvili were engaged in folklorist work, including Meliton Balanchivadze (father of well-known Soviet composer Andria Balanchivadze and of George Balanchine, an American choreographer), Dimitri Arakishvili, Filimon Koridze, Zacharia Chkhikvadze, Kote Potskhverashvili.Dzigua, pp. 31-32
In the summer of 1903, Paliashvili and A.S. Khakhashvili (Khakhanov), professor at the University of Moscow and specialist in the history of Georgian literature, made a tour of Svanetia (a high-altitude area in western Georgia), where they recorded some rare old Georgian folk songs. Paliashvili described the trip to his favourite teacher, S.I. Taneyev. In 1903–1908 with the same goal in view Paliashvili toured such districts as Racha, where he recorded local folk singers, and in particular a mestvire (Bag-piper); Guria (Ozurgeti), Imereti, Kartli and Kakheti. Some of the songs recorded by Paliashvili were published in Moscow as a collection in 1910, financed by the Georgian Philharmonic Society. These are Forty Georgian Folk Songs recorded by Z. Paliashvili and Eight Folk songs rendered for choir and orchestra. Paliashvili, however, did not rest content. Whenever he had the least opportunity, he included folk songs elaborated by him in the concert programme of his choirs. Kliment Kvitka, Ukrainian musicologist and ethnographer, and the husband of Lesya Ukrainka, a distinguished Ukrainian poet, sang in one of these choirs. Paliashvili was a good friend of this talented daughter of the Ukrainian people and of her husband till Lesya Ukraininka's death.