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Georg Ivanovitch GURDJIEFF (1866-1949)
Music for the Movements
Composed in collaboration with
WIM VAN DULLEMEN piano |
2 discs [60:54 + 59:36] full-price
by Chua Gan Ee
The name of Georg Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1870-1949) would sound familiar
only to those who profess at least a passing interest in the esoteric.
Born of Greek-Armenian parentage at the crossroads of civilization near the
Caspian Sea, he had a distinctly Eastern presence - and people who met him
often reported that they felt the intensity of his being. Heroically, he
searched for and learned from masters all over the world - from Egypt to
Tibet - and undertook the task to discover the truth about the nature and
purpose of life on earth. His travels ultimately led him to the "real
School", that is, to people who had the knowledge and experience of higher
states and the development of higher functions.
Subsequently, having
formed a direct connection with the higher mind, he understood that his
obligation would thus be to transmit the wisdom of the East to the
science-oriented people of the West: ancient knowledge would appear again
in the West, and Gurdjieff was to be the messenger.
Between 1912 and the
Russian Revolution, Gurdjieff became a much sought-after spiritual leader -
proselytising mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg; and by 1921, the
'base-of-operations' was moved to a mansion in Fontainebleau - near Paris,
France - where he founded his "Institute for the Harmonious Development of
Man". Among his disciples were the English scientist and philosopher John
G. Bennett, and Russian mathematician and writer P. D. Ouspensky.
Despite his reputation as an esoteric teacher, Gurdjieff placed great
emphasis on music - his belief was that music helps to concentrate, to
bring oneself to an inner state where one may assume the greatest possible
emanations: music helps one to "see higher".
Although he himself played and
composed, it was through his faithful follower, the composer Thomas
Alexandrovich de Hartmann (1886-1956), that his music was notated for
posterity. de Hartmann was permitted by the Tsar himself to continue his
musical studies simultaneously with his military obligations: at the St
Petersburg Conservatory, he was a classmate of Alexander Scriabin. His
ballet The Pink Flower was danced by Pavlova and Nijinski (!), and he was
Kandinsky's self-professed favourite collaborator. de Hartmann's career was
taking off, when he met Gurdjieff in 1916 and decided to follow him - which
marked a turning point in his life.
Between the years 1925 to 1927, Gurdjieff and de Hartmann collaborated on a
collection of brief musical material to accompany a sequence of
choreographed gestures, known as Movements. These "Movements" were the
sole creation of Gurdjieff - in a style influenced by the dances and
rituals he had studied during his travels - and combinations of them
"express different sensations, produce varying degrees of concentration and
thought, create necessary efforts in different functions and show the
possible limits of individual force".
The music draws upon a multitude of
styles and modes which traverse across cultures from the vast expanse of
Asia: these include strains of Tibet, Arabia, Armenia, Persia and India. It
is said that Gurdjieff dictated the themes to de Hartmann, who in turn
notated and harmonised them. The master would recall tunes from his
wanderings, or improvise new ones to use for the dancing exercises
("movements"): he would play them on a lap harmonium, pick them out at the
piano, or whistle or hum them. Then de Hartmann would simultaneously
arrange and harmonise them under the former's supervision. Indeed, this
synthesis of ethnic and western elements serves to remind us of the
master's true intention - to combine the wisdom of the East with the
knowledge of the West.
Comparable - to some extent - to 'Tai-chi', Gurdjieff's Movements were
designed to harmonize our thinking, feeling and moving; refine and develop
our attention; and deepen our presence. They were simply a means of
focusing the mind and coordinating the body; the movements themselves thus
becoming centering-meditations to harmonize the different sources of energy
within us, to bring us to a space within ourselves where we can respond to
life from a place of pure awareness, resulting in a new sense of inner
rhythm, a natural silence and grace.
To this end, it is no wonder that
Gurdjieff himself said that he wanted to be known as a "teacher of
dancing". The music, like the movements it accompanies, is said to express
cosmic laws - it had been Gurdjieff's belief, that music consisted of
vibrations through which laws could be studied that apply to the whole of
creation: which explains why the master always placed great weight on
music.
What does it sound like? Well, a source attempts to define it as
such: "Imagine an amalgam of early Satie, Janacek, Hovhaness, the Bartók of
the Mikrocosmos and Keith Jarret's improvisations. This doesn't quite do it
justice, as it makes it sound like an amalgam whereas it is a complete
whole."
On one's initial acquaintance, the music would sound simple - even
simplistic; but, I quote Anthony Blake in his introductory notes, "if it
gets to you, you are touched so deeply you may never recover. The music
challenges you to your "essence" or core. There is something in the music
that "knows" you and is also capable of taking you on a journey you have
not conceived of!"
The producers of the present disc have, according to the well-documented
and informative sleeve-notes, taken great pains to present a comprehensive
part of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music which helps to shed new light on
the music as an independent entity, capable of pure auditory value apart
from its existence as "ballet-music". Dutch pianist Wim van Dullemen has
been lauded as an incomparable interpreter of this music - himself a
follower of the "Gurdjieff School" and a veteran "Movements"-pianist for
over twenty years.
Van Dullemen reveals that some of the selections
contained herein were created by de Hartmann himself, whom Gurdjieff - at
his deathbed - asked to furnish music for the remainder of the newly
choreographed movements. The master's instruction with regards to the music
was characteristic as always: "(Write) it so that any idiot can play
them!". Each number is known by a title, usually corresponding to the name
of the "ballet" to which it belongs: tags like, "The Sacred Goose", "The
Initiation of a Princess" and "The First Dervish Prayer" accord these
pieces with an undoubtedly programmatic quality.
The music varies in tempo and spirit - if only by a hair's breadth.
Throughout, Van Dullemen imbues one track after another with more or less
the same degree of seriousness and focus: despite the changing meter and
idiom, he does not lose sight of the overall concept and "spirit" of the
music. In other words, he is totally in situ with the score: as a result, a
general religiousness and esoterism pervades; and one would be hard-pressed
not to view the music otherwise.
The music ranges from quasi-Beethovenian
utterances (especially late Beethoven; i.e. the last Piano Sonatas, late
String Quartets, etc.) to French Impressionism à la Debussy. On the first
CD, two singular pieces form a prelude to selections from a ballet, "The
Struggle of the Magicians", and several extracts from de Hartmann's
compilation of compositions by himself and/or Gurdjieff, published as the
"White Movements" books. The hymnic "Essentuki Prayer" is mesmeric in its
sustained rhythm, and struck me as sounding as if ol' Ludwig himself
improvised it nearing his final hour. Listen also to "N33" from De
Hartmann's "White Movements": utterly Debussyian in its idiom as
pentatonicism and chains of parallel octaves abound.
In the second CD, more
extracts from the "White Movements" books are included; juxtaposed
alongside variations of the above taken from the collections of Gurdjieff's
other protégés, John Bennett and P.D. Ouspensky. The first and seventh
tracks from the latter CD are interesting specimens: the music's rhythm is
derived from Morse code - the first for the French word, dur, which means
'hard' or 'difficult', and its mirror-word rud; the other has as its
puzzle-piece the words Adam and Eva. A beautiful, seamless melody outlines
the 'Canon of Three', which is a visual 'canon' in which the dancers' feet
trace the rhythm of that melody, while the body positions are sustained by
the chordal-accompaniments. We also have "almost-minimalisms" like
"Multiplication of October 9" - which I swear could have inspired much of
what Michael Nyman has written.
All in, this is a largely curious issue for
music-lovers who wish to 'go the extra mile' in seeking cosmic awareness:
upon immersing myself in this collection, I am determined that Gurdjieff
may have made an important contribution to Western music after all.
Left: Portrait of Georg Ivanovitch Gurdjieff ©Victoria Rail, 1999
from the Gurdjieff International Review.
"IF IT gets to you , you are touched so deeply you may never recover. The music
challenges you to your "essence" or core. There is something in the music
that "knows" you and is also capable of taking you on a journey you have
not conceived of!"
Picture from the Gurdjieff International Review.
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615: 9.12.1999. up.3.1.2000 ©Chua Gan Ee
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