Study of Georgian folk music

The article by Jambakur-Orbeliani in the year 1861 and the 1864 article by Machabeli are measured as the first published works where some aspects of Georgian traditional music were discussed. Earlier works (like the 18th century "Dictionary of Georgian Language" by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, and "Kalmasoba" by Ioane Bagrationi) discussed Georgian church singing traditions only. Zakaria Paliashvili and Dimitri Arakishvili are considered the most powerful figures of study of Georgian traditional music. Arakishvili published several standard books and articles on Georgian singing traditions, musical instruments, scales, and is widely considered as "founding father" of Georgian ethnomusicology.

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Shalva Aslanishvili, and Grigol Chkhikvadze born during the last years of the 19th century, received professional education in Russia and became important figures of the study of Georgian traditional music. The historian Ivane Javakhishvili published a powerful work on the history of Georgian music, which is still measured as the most comprehensive work on historical sources on Georgian music. Mindia Jordania, Kukuri Chokhonelidze, Otar Chijavadze, Valerian Magradze, Kakhi Rosebashvili,  were the first Georgian scholars that were educated in Georgia and contributed to the study of different aspect of Georgian folk music. In the end of the 20th century a new generation of Georgian ethnomusicologists appeared, among them are Nino Tsitsishvili, Tamaz Gabisonia, Nino Makharadze, David Shugliashvili, Edisher Garakanidze, Joseph Jordania, Nato Zumbadze, Maka Khardziani.

Apart from Georgian researchers, non-Georgian musicians and scholars also contributed to the study of Georgian traditional music. Among them were German and Austrian scholars, Georg Schunemann, Adolf Dirr, Robert Lach and  Siegfried Nadel, who were able to record and study traditional songs from Georgian war prisoners during the first World War. Siegfried Nadel published a monograph about Georgian music, where he proposed that Georgian polyphony possibly contributed to the arrival of European professional polyphony, this idea was developed by Marius Schneider for several years. Russian artists Ipolitov-Ivanov and Klenovsky also promote to the early study of Georgian folk music. Russian scholar, Steshenko-Kuftina contributed a highly revered monograph on Georgian panpipe. After the fall of the Soviet Union a number of Western Scholars started working on Georgian traditional music, mainly on different areas of the traditional polyphony. Among them are Susanne Ziegler, Polo Vallejo, Simha Arom, John Graham, and Lauren Ninoshvili.

During the 21st century Georgia has become one of the international centers of the study of the phenomenon of traditional polyphony. In the year 2001 the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony was established (director Rusudan Tsurtsumia). The tradition of biannual conferences and symposia started in Georgia in the 1980s. These symposia are drawing leading professionals of traditional polyphony to Georgia.