The folk music data are of great importance when studying historical relations between the peoples. Musical language as one of the aspects of spiritual culture of an ethnos has not only aesthetic but also ethnic function (I. Zemtsovski). The formation of ethnic culture whose specificity is expressed in the unity of ethnos mentality, takes place on the basis of a definite language. The same can be said concerning musical language. Musical language is developed during millenniums, with slow changes of some structural regularities which are typologically similar to grammatical regularities (L. Mazel). Analogously to linguistic data, folk music makes a certain contribution to the research into the problems of ethnogenesis. In this connection noteworthy are rich and varied musical languages of the Caucasian peoples; the oldest strata of these languages are an evidence of the existence of a common Caucasian culture in the old days.

On the basis of archaeological, linguistic and anthropological data, it is established that there was a historical-cultural and ethnic community of tribes inhabiting the Caucasus from the old times (the Upper Paleolithic Age). Later on, in the Neolithic Age, the wide settling of tribes was going on in the Caucasus, large ethnic groups and accordingly archaeological cultures were being formed from kindred tribes. That caused a differentiation within the Caucasian lingual and cultural community, and this process was followed by the formation of main ethnic groups among the Caucasian population. It is noted that the environment played a decisive role in appearing local peculiarities (O. Japaridze).

Musical-ethnographic material that is a historical source while investigating ethnocultural and ethnogenetic problems, in some way reflects genetic and historical-cultural relations of the Caucasian peoples.

The oldest forms of Kartvelian musical-aesthetic thinking are visible in the rituals reflecting beliefs of pagan times, in bewailing and round-dances songs connected with dead cult and astral cult, in lullabies and historical-heroic songs which have common musical-intonational basis. In the process of the development of musical thinking, the infiltration of proto-tune or musical proto-language in various spheres had caused its semantic transformation: the form and content of musical text as well as the mode of performance were being changed, and eventually qualitatively new song patterns were formed to occupy a fitting place in general musical culture.

Kartvelian musical proto-language revealed itself in the lullaby "Iavnana" which originally was a ritual round-dance song connected with infectious diseases (measles, smallpox). It was performed while walking around the diseased in the form of round dance. The movement in a circle was associated with Goddess of the Sun. It seems that beliefs connected with infectious diseases had been formed in the time when astral cults existed. In that period of the Caucasus peoples' history, cult of Fertility Goddess – Great Mother Nana arose on the basis of worship of vegetation and the sun (V. Bardavelidze). According to archaeological data, the formation of fertility cult as a fertility deity presumably took place in the end of the Neolithic Age (I. Kikvidze).

"Iavnana" is on of the oldest stages of the development of musical thinking which occupies an important place in the history of Georgian people's spiritual culture. Melodic-intonational and harmonic peculiarities, which once had been formed in the process of the development of Kartvelian tribes and finally revealed themselves in the form of musical proto-language, reach a certain development level in the melody of "Iavnana". Proceeding from the above-said, the great importance attached to this song in the subsequent stages of the development of Georgian folk music is quite natural. It is significant that the famous public figure and author of Georgian "Deda-ena" (ABC-book) Iakob Gogebashvili in his story "The lullaby's power" regarded the melody of "Iavnana" as an element of culture which expressed the Georgian mentality. Proceeding from the "Iavnana"'s function, this melody has been rooted in people's life as a lulling song.

Noteworthy are the resemblance of folk songs of historical Armenia and Azerbaijan to the melody of "Iavnana", the closeness between the Georgian and Armenian "Orovela" not only in its name but also in its structure (Sh. Amiranashvili). This reflects the existence of historical-cultural contacts between the peoples living in the Caucasus in the remote past.

The Caucasian peoples' interrelation in musical sphere is connected with a wider cultural area – the Near-Eastern world, their close historical-cultural contacts are reflected in the oldest strata of musical patterns, musical terms and instruments. Caucasian musical culture was being formed simultaneously with its regional variants; noteworthy is polyphonic thinking characteristic of the tribes living in the Caucasus. In this connection should be mentioned Georgian and North-Caucasian musical languages. Their affinity in the oldest stages of the development of musical thinking, typological similarity in the process of subsequent development, common Caucasian musical-intonational character and what is the most important – polyphony and its forms are an evidence of the existence of Ibero-Caucasian musical culture on the territory of the Caucasus in former times. The retrospective analysis of musical material reveals the importance of Kartvelian tribes in the formation of this culture and its subsequent development which was mainly going on within the framework of Caucasian musical-intonational and harmonic thinking. At the same time, in the course of centuries, along with the development of regional peculiarities, took place the disintegration of the mentioned culture. This process was concluded with the formation of Ibero-Caucasian musical languages. It should be said that the family of Ibero-Caucasian musical languages covers wider area than the Ibero-Caucasian linguistic family. It also includes the Ossetian musical language, while according to the linguistic data, the Ossetian language belongs to the Indo-European linguistic family. According to musical data, the substratum of the Ossetian musical language is Caucasian (the further research into the Ibero-Caucasian musical languages will enrich our knowledge of the Ibero-Caucasian musical culture).

In is ascertained that "religious and cultural bases of Caucasian state organization which arose as a result of immanent processes taking place in political, social-economic and cultural spheres among the Caucasian peoples by the end of the Early Middle Ages, as well as Caucasian policy of Georgian State, were Christian religion and culture which brought together the Georgian and North-Caucasian peoples still more" (G. Gambashidze). In its turn it strengthened close cultural interrelation of these peoples in the course of centuries that was reflected in musical sphere as well.

The name of festival "Caucasian lullabies" is not casual: it symbolizes Caucasian peoples' genetic and historical-cultural relations, points at the existence of common Caucasian civilization.

Professor Dr. Nino Maisuradze