Gurdjieff, String Theory, Music

Gurdjieff, String Theory, Music

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Apprehending space through sound or resonance in confinement offers a better understanding of space for what it is: I object to mathematicians or physicists simply assuming into existence what dimensions are necessary to sustain a current theory. And I disagree with the position that any attempt to enlarge the definition of dimension will fail to yield real knowledge. Reiser, whose writings offered the painter support on this topic. The winds of change, according to superstring theory, gust through an Aeolian universe. Instead, he diagrams his ideas, combining visual symbols and text. The Manifestation of Fate exemplifies his view that the knowledge useful to a seeker of higher understanding must be conveyed symbolically, an argument made by Ouspensky as well.

The symbol creates a suggestion which moves one through imaginative projections to something beyond itself a new reality, a new ontic status. Utopic Space, which is this new reality, has been waiting for humanity since the beginning of time. Rather, they are objects for study and contemplation that are meant to transform consciousness gradually, akin to the mnemonic diagrams of Giordano Bruno, whom Laffoley acknowledges in this and other works.

Dunne, Nikola Tesla, all of interest to Laffoley. Visualizing Complex Relationships in Art, Science and Technology, which stands as an early landmark in the resurgence of interest in the spatial fourth dimension.

Their film The Hypercube: At MIT in Laffoley had actually seen the experimental computer-generated, stereoscopic film of the rotating hypercube in perspective projection that Michael Noll had made at Bell Labs in , and he was deeply engaged with the spatial fourth dimension by the time he met Banchoff in the early s. He subsequently invited Laffoley to Brown to give a lecture. That Thom is included among the homages of Dimensionality: In particular, the dimension of the space and the number of degrees of freedom of the local system are quite arbitrary—in fact, the universal model of the process is embedded in an infinite-dimensional space.

As suggested at the start of this essay, Robert Smithson, too, offers points of comparison to Laffoley, particularly since the two were both working in s New York. They read many of the same sources related to the fourth dimension—science fiction including Wells , Dunne, Borges, and Jarry and likely Ouspensky for Smithson —and were both interested in the dimension-challenging effects of mirror reflections e.

The art of Paul Laffoley bridges these two approaches, putting painting at the service of the mind as well as seeking to expand consciousness. His systems of information are meant to fundamentally transform his viewers, a goal far removed from the aims of Duchamp and Smithson and much closer to artists in the visionary tradition already named, but also to figures like the filmmaker Jordan Belson, another reader of Teilhard de Chardin.

Austin Museum of Art, For the beginning of this broadening of the history of twentieth-century art, see, e. Abstract Painting Los Angeles: The MIT Press, The Collected Writings, ed.

University of California Press, For his reading of Dunne, see, e. Robert Smithson and History New Haven: Yale University Press, , pp. Sacred Geometry, Alchemy, and Mathematics, introd. Eugene Victoria Ellis and Andrea G. Cary Graphic Arts Press, Heinlein is discussed below. For Lovecraft and the fourth dimension, see, e. Bragdon had connected mirror symmetry and the fourth dimension see, e. Laffoley recalls Kiesler urging him to visit the mirror vendors on Canal Street in New York, whose displays created effects akin to the Alain Resnais film Last Year at Marienbad, based on a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet, of whom both Laffoley and Smithson were readers.

University of Pittsburgh Press, As discussed below, Laffoley would generally use variations on the perspective projection of the hypercube in his dimensional scales, but he returned to the isometric projection in his print of , The Partrurient Blessed Morality of Physiological Dimensionality: Clifton Fadiman New York: Simon and Schuster, , p.

The manuscript is reproduced in part in Secret Universe: Henderson, Duchamp in Context: Princeton University Press, Jeanne Marie Wasilik New York: Kent Fine Art, , chap. The correct date for these events is , not , as the Flaunt text states. See the biography in Ferrer, Architectonic Thought-Forms, p. Although Kiesler and Duchamp had been close friends in the s, that relationship had ended by the s, so there was no link to Duchamp in this context. Environmental Sculpture New York: Guggenheim Museum, , n. Whitney Museum of American Art, , fig. Largely written in , The Phenomenon of Man first published in French in appeared in English translation in , and paperback Harper Torchbook editions followed quickly in and Unbuilt Works of the Imagination New York: McGraw- Hill, , pp.

Museum of Modern Art, New York. Ouspensky, and Their Followers [Boston: Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching ; New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, , chap. When de Hartmann was nine his father died and his mother sent him to board at the military school in St Petersburg. Here his talent for music was recognised and he was allowed to spend his spare time studying music. Arkana Penguin Books, , xxi—xxii. De Hartmann also studied piano technique with prominent Russian pianist Anna EsipovaLeschetizky who had an interest in Theosophy. In the same year he graduated from military school as a Junior Guards Officer.

The first notable public performance of his work took place at this time. This was incidental music for the Alexandre Dumas tragedy Caligula, performed at the Imperial Theatre. In de Hartmann began studying counterpoint with Sergei Taneiev, a pupil of Tchaikovsky and close friend of the Tolstoy family. Olga was an opera singer who had studied with B. A Biographical Dictionary New York: Anton Arensky, Episode 2, http: Retrieved 7 January Thames and Hudson, , 84, See also Alfred J. John Baker, , — Arkana Penguin Books, , xxiii—xxix. Munich — From to the de Hartmanns lived mainly in Munich, a major centre of artistic activity.

De Hartmann invited him to dinner, communicating with him in German as Strauss knew no Russian. Their Danses plastiques was performed at the famous concert hall the Odeon in Blavatsky in Esoteric Instructions believed that colour and sound were essentially the same as they sprang from the same substance.

It is also reported by pupil Louise Welch that in at the American Movements demonstrations dancers wore white tunics and trousers with different coloured sashes. Someone in the audience said that it seemed like watching white light passed very slowly through a prism and breaking into its spectral order. Classic and Contemporary Readings Cambridge: Blackwell, , 4, 8, 10, The movement was fundamental to the Expressionist movement and had considerable influence on Surrealism.

Kandinsky explained inventing the name Der Blaue Reiter with Franz Marc while sitting at a coffee table in a garden in Sindelsdorf: So the name came by itself. Oriental Research Partners, , Thames and Hudson, , 18— Kandinsky believed that by requiring observers to decipher these signs his paintings could lead observers to take part in their creation almost as if he or she were taking part in a mystic ritual.

They also saw foreign and ancient art forms as facilitating a tracing back to the very sources of art. We defend its good purpose against all romantic points of view which deny the sleeper the opportunity to think and to speculate and in which he is regarded as an inspired dreamer whose left hand does not know what his right hand is doing. The most noble right of the artist is to be a conscious builder of his ideas. He also argued that art had material, vibratory affects, and that art could facilitate effort in people, which was valuable spiritually.

Albert Skira, , Music In The Biography Of De Hartmann 71 then, that de Hartmann and Gurdjieff shared views on art before they had contact with each other, and that these views were in line with the aesthetic discourses of the early twentieth century. Their common aesthetic and spiritual visions must have contributed positively to their collaborative relationship composing. After the death of his mother in de Hartmann returned to St Petersburg where he continued composing. Two years later, with the outbreak of the First World War, he was ordered back to his regiment and stationed as a reserve Guards officer in Tsarskoye Selo.

As well as composing songs and writing on music and aesthetics, von Hartmann published his three-volume The Philosophy of the Unconscious , a work that greatly influenced Friedrich Nietzsche. Thus a more detailed account of these years will be given here. Eduard von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious, trans.

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Gregory Moore and Thomas H. Brobjer, Nietzsche and Science Hampshire: Ashgate, , This could also have been the case for de Hartmann, who Gurdjieff may have considered an attractive candidate for composing for his newly conceived ballet Struggle. Gurdjieff had already begun reflecting on the music for Struggle in , and had stated in that he had not yet decided who was to write the music. According to de Hartmann, Gurdjieff did everything he could to create unfavourable conditions for this meeting, interpreting this as a technique in compelling de Hartmann to remember his true aim. Music In The Biography Of De Hartmann 73 Hartmann understood this to mean that he was to be diverted and provoked in order to find truth for himself.

De Hartmann and Gurdjieff in Essentuki, Sochi and Tiflis — In February de Hartmann was released from military service and could now devote himself and his musical skills to Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff had settled in a large rented house in Essentuki where he founded The Essentuki Home of the International Fellowship for Realization through Work, the precursor to his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. For an account of these four days see de Hartmann and de Hartmann, Our Life, 17— For an account of this expedition see de Hartmann and de Hartmann, Our Life, 22— For details of exercises prescribed by Gurdjieff that were carried out at this time see Ouspensky, Search, — Sometimes this was accompanied by the humming of pupils, led by Olga, and against the backdrop of the atmospheric Study House with the changing multicoloured lights of mechanical fountains.

Gurdjieff attended one of these performances in April, and this marks a rare occasion where he is known to have engaged with contemporary Western art music. They had known each other in Munich where Alexandre was a well-known painter. Tcherepnin — studied composition under Rimsky-Korsakov, and was also a pianist and conductor. In he became director of the Tiflis Conservatory. Later, with this same class, he gave a demonstration entirely devoted to Movements. In June de Hartmann was assigned the lucrative job of orchestrating the music of Russian composer Meliton Balanchivadze, father of choreographer George Balanchine, but had to leave when Gurdjieff asked the de Hartmanns to prepare to depart for Constantinople.

On the request of their Armenian friends, the de Hartmanns also gave a concert of the music of Armenian composer Komitas Vardapet — This was in Batum, en route to Constantinople. One of these concerts was given in Erevan, the capital of Armenia. See Chapter 5 for more. Some days later they arrived in Constantinople and Gurdjieff and the de Hartmanns never again returned to Russia. De Hartmann and Bennett give valuable accounts of the process of composing this music see Chapter 4. De Hartmann continued to accompany the Movements through the growth of the Institute, though other 53 54 55 de Hartmann and de Hartmann, Our Life, —, Olga sang the lead role of Violetta and de Hartmann played piano while conducting at the same time.

As custom dictated that Turkish women could not attend these concerts in mixed company, the de Hartmanns organised special performances for Turkish women, consisting of works by Beethoven, Wagner, and Russian and French composers. It was so successful that repeat performances were given in Constantinople and nearby locations. In connection to these concerts, Gurdjieff and de Hartmann were invited to view the ritual of the Mevlevi whirling dervishes in a mosque in Pera, Constantinople, which was followed by a concert of Turkish music with flute and drum.

De Hartmann reports that he was not able to make notes of the music at the time but later wrote down all he could remember. Gurdjieff and his troupe, including the de Hartmanns, moved to Berlin in August in search of a permanent location for the Institute, and in February and March Gurdjieff and Olga de Hartmann visited London where Gurdjieff gave talks. The Autobiography of J. Regan, , From 29 July to 1 May they worked intensely on a new type of music: The circumstances of this period, and accounts of the composition, performance, and reception of both the music for Movements and piano music, are detailed in other chapters of this book and will not be repeated here.

This is indicated by the details regarding their arrival by ship in America that year. It was also documented that, upon meeting Orage in America, Gurdjieff and the de Hartmanns were taken to the Ansonia Hotel on Broadway, while the rest of the group were lodged in hotels nearby. Writers skirt the issue of the abrupt end to the relationship between Gurdjieff and de Hartmann in June , probably due to a lack of information. Olga described details of the circumstances in her unpublished diary What For? Olga de Hartmann bequeathed her diary, written in the s, to Thomas C. Daly, who considered it insufficient to stand alone as a separate publication to Our Life.

This book has an aim: Gurdjieff…The author wishes to print this material just as it was written, of events which happened sixty years ago, without corrections, without restrictions, without inventions, without embellishments. Gurdjieff asked Olga to telephone someone, and when she returned she saw her husband turn pale, jump from the table and run from Gurdjieff.

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He will always be my Teacher, and I will follow his teaching, but I never wish to see him again…I will certainly never change my attitude toward him as my Teacher, but help me never to see him again. I told him that he has not to be so proud of you. A purely speculative 69 70 71 72 73 de Hartmann, What For? Coombe Springs Press, , 6—7.

She let it be known that she and Gurdjieff shared information and ideas that others did not have. Mr Gurdjieff asked me to do something that I felt I could not do. I went to my room. It is well known that Gurdjieff had affairs with pupils; Jessmin Howarth and Edith Taylor bore him daughters in and , respectively, while Elizaveta de Stjernvall and Jeanne de Salzmann, whose husbands were working with Gurdjieff at the time, bore him sons in and His affair with the married Lili Galumian produced a son in , and there is also evidence that Gurdjieff made sexual advances to Jessie Orage in At the time of some of these affairs, Gurdjieff was married to Julia Ostrowska.

Music In The Biography Of De Hartmann 81 However, these may well be the words of a devotee rather than words of personal love, as her unshakeable loyalty to her husband is clear in her writings. If an erotic relationship was mooted, it is more than likely that the impulse came only from Gurdjieff. Bennett recounts a story told by Gurdjieff years later about why he sent the de Hartmanns away. Gurdjieff made this a pretext for sending the de Hartmanns away, as they made his life too easy for him.

In an article for the Daily News, journalist E. He must have suspected her decision to leave as he invited her to his apartment the previous evening and asked her for the key she possessed to his chest of drawers. He proceeded to burn personal papers, letters, and passports in the drawers, which Olga had guarded for him over the years. As de Hartmann was seriously ill, and in any case had vowed never to see Gurdjieff again, she declined.

Making a New World, As Olga supposed, he may have been deliberately creating emotional conflict in line with his teaching methods, or perhaps he realised that he had made a mistake and did need the de Hartmanns. Regardless, this marks the beginning of a series of strange and erratic decisions and actions by Gurdjieff over the next five years see Chapter 2. A cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt had written the libretto and asked de Hartmann to write the music. Composing for commercial films later allowed de Hartmann the freedom to devote himself to his own music.

He wrote the ballet Babette, first performed in by the Opera de Nice, among other works including his first symphony, several concerti, song cycles, and solo piano pieces.

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These were premiered in the s and s by Les Concerts Lamoureux and other musical societies in Paris, Brussels, and London. De Hartmann would often play piano for these concerts. Channel Classics Records, , 3. After the war many of his compositions were performed in concert halls and on radio, and the de Hartmanns continued their friendship with Kandinsky.

When they arrived Gurdjieff was too weak for visitors so they left, planning to visit the following morning, however Gurdjieff died before they reached the hospital. The de Hartmanns also founded the first Canadian group in Toronto in Channel Classics Records, , 37— For more on Taliesin West see Johanna J. He also made recordings and gave recitals of the music, and composed pieces to accompany the 39 Series Movements that Gurdjieff choreographed in the s. Gurdjieff do not wish for me to die, I will not die — if they wish me to die, I will die. Olga founded a Gurdjieff-based group in Montreal that was to develop into the Gurdjieff Foundation of Canada, and she oversaw groups at the New York Foundation.

Sicroff was a pupil of highly influential French pianist Nadia Boulanger, and follower of J. These papers constitute thirtyone boxes, and include original manuscripts, published music, correspondence, concert programmes, reviews, photographs, passports, medical papers, and other materials. A register of the collection can be found online. See John Mangan, comp. One can view some original manuscripts of his compositions at the Gilmore Music Library at Yale University see above.

What follows is a very brief sketch of his output and stylistic development. He also experimented at that time with modes, extreme chromaticism, pentatonicism, and ninth and eleventh chords. His most experimental period was in Munich between and , but this music is either lost or unavailable except for some musical sketches from Der Gelbe Klang and a sound tape of de Hartmann working on it. In almost all his works composed after de Hartmann expressed a story, emotion, or spiritual message, often centred on a character or incident in a fairytale.

His post works have been described as reminiscent of the music of Prokofiev, Glazunov, Scriabin, and possibly Messiaen. Hear QR Code 2; http: Nott made this point when he stated during his time with de Hartmann in France in the s: I stayed indoors during the day, listening to Hartmann composing his new opera Esther, or playing pieces that he had composed during the war. One might speculate about whether or not his legacy would have been greater had he continued on his path as a composer in , never having met Gurdjieff.

For example, Laurence Rosenthal states: However elegantly and appropriately he [de Hartmann] harmonized and developed the melodies dictated to him by Gurdjieff, it is obvious that the essential musical impulse and the unique quality of feeling which the music evokes came from one man only. He modestly attributed all the piano music to Gurdjieff2 and the title that de Hartmann, as editor, chose for the first publication of their music credits Gurdjieff alone: Continuum Publishing, , Other instances of collaborations in Western art music history will then be considered, particularly the collaboration between English composers Frederick Delius — and Eric Fenby — Delius and Fenby composed their music at almost exactly the same time as did Gurdjieff and de Hartmann, and in the same region of France.

Original manuscripts are divided into draft and final manuscripts. Channel Classics Records, , 8. Gert-Jan Blom, Harmonic Development: The Complete Harmonium Recordings — Netherlands: Gert-Jan Blom, Oriental Suite: The Collaboration 95 black or blue ink. In addition, at least sixty-seven completed pieces were omitted from the Schott edition. Thus the number of completed pieces composed was about , with sketches of more pieces existing in draft form.

In the original manuscripts almost all pieces bear dates of composition, and these dates indicate periods of daily musical output, often for weeks at a time. The most prolific period for composition was between January and May Schott published sixty-two pieces from this period see Chapter 8 for an examination of the circumstances of this period and the possible reasons for this prolificacy.

This is known from comments in original manuscripts and, in some cases, titles of pieces. See Daniel-Spitz et al. For these reasons, Thomas A. Arkana Penguin Books, [] , Hear QR Code 1; http: Schott published seventeen pieces dating from this early period, though at least four were for Movements and Struggle: Beginning in July he began to create another kind of music. However, as discussed above, the earliest pieces dating from to c. In addition, original manuscripts reveal a few more pieces composed in , which remain unpublished, that might represent the piano music.

As these early manuscripts are not ordered and dated as methodically as the later manuscripts, it is difficult to know exactly how many of these early pieces there are. Adding to the ambiguity, these pieces are interspersed with pieces of music for Movements. Thus more unidentified early pieces exist, though only the early pieces published by Schott will form the basis of this discussion. There is also the fact that no Movements are known to relate to these pieces. Rather, the accident would have interrupted the composition of piano music that had already commenced.

Their two final completed pieces, No.

Twenty drafts dating from May, June, and July indicate that composition continued in these months, though these pieces were never completed and thus never published. Daly suggests that they stopped composing when the process became too methodical. As evidence he points to draft and final original manuscripts, which begin to correspond exactly with each other from , possibly indicating that the process of composition had been perfected by this time. He argued that this would have been a reason for Gurdjieff to stop the process.

See de Hartmann and de Hartmann, Our Life, , The salon was spacious, fitted with a fireplace and Pleyel grand piano, and the Study House was a large room crafted from an old wooden air force hangar, used for Movements practice and small Movements demonstrations. It was elaborately decorated with oriental rugs, carpets, and divans, and a Bechstein piano stood to the left of the stage.

Dictations were carried out in front of all pupils. Ashokhs improvise poems sung to melodies or makam that are always chosen to suit each specific audience, and their skill lies in responding to, and interacting with, the audience. Wildwood House, , Bennett Books, , 85; Nott, Teachings, Garland Publishing, , 34— Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, , However, this would suggest that the piano music could not represent a pure transmission of esoteric music Gurdjieff heard on his travels, as he implied see Chapter 5.

The first account describes the process of composing the piano music and the challenges de Hartmann faced upon transcribing the Eastern music Gurdjieff dictated into Western music notation. After analysing both accounts, the specific contributions of each man to the music will be considered, with reference to other collaborations in Western art music.

I had a very difficult and trying time with this music. Dutton, , —; P. Dorine Tolley, who is well acquainted with the music for Movements and possesses copies of the privately circulated sheet music, brought this to my attention; Dorine Tolley, pers. The Collaboration sort of melody — as are all Eastern melodies, although they seem at first to be monotonous.

To grasp this melody, to transcribe it in European notation, required a tour de force… It was not easy to notate. While listening to him play, I had to scribble down at feverish speed the tortuous shifts and turns of the melody, sometimes a repetition of just two notes.

But in what rhythm? How to mark the accentuation? There was no hint of conventional Western metres and tuning. Here was some sort of rhythm of a different nature, other divisions of the flow of melody, which could not be interrupted or divided by bar-lines. And the harmony — the Eastern tonality on which the melody was constructed — could only gradually be guessed. It is true that Mr Gurdjieff would repeat several sections, often — to vex me, I think — he would begin to repeat the melody before I had finished writing it, and usually with subtle differences and added embellishments, which drove me to despair.

For me it was a constant difficulty, a never-ending test. When the melody was written, Mr Gurdjieff would tap on the lid of the piano a rhythm on which to build the accompaniment, which in the East would be played on some kind of percussion instrument.

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The entire melody, as given, would somehow have to blend with the background of this rhythm, but without ever being changed or adjusted to fit the accompaniment. And then I had to perform at once what had been given, improvising the harmony as I went. When I began the work of harmonizing the melodies, I very soon came to understand that no free harmonization was possible. According to de Hartmann, Gurdjieff whistled, played on the piano, and tapped on the lid of the piano, to relay the music, though J. Bennett states that Gurdjieff also hummed melodies to de Hartmann, and Fritz Peters recounts Gurdjieff playing harmonium to indicate his ideas.

The unusual and erratic time signatures and irregular harmonic patterns and phrase structures that frequently occur in their music indicate the ways in which de Hartmann dealt with these irregular Eastern melodies. De Hartmann must have been proficient in his role in the process of composition, as original manuscripts reveal that melodies show very few alterations from draft to final versions of pieces.

Turnstone Books, , ; Peters, Boyhood with Gurdjieff, Schott, , Barbara Nissman, Bartok and the Piano: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. The Collaboration when expressing themselves, and constantly reminded them of the flaws and limitations of language. This might explain why in Gurdjieff introduced music to his teaching methods at the same time that he first taught pupils about the inherent lack of precision in language. Original draft manuscripts confirm the rushed nature of the process, as sometimes de Hartmann wrote in a kind of musical shorthand, noting rhythmic motifs on the page once only and, to indicate quavers or quick passages, marking dots where notes should be.

Certainly de Hartmann would not have been familiar with such a position in the realm of music, in which he excelled. Penguin Compass, [] , 10—11; G. This private recording was provided by Joseph Azize, who obtained it from an associate of the late Michel de Salzmann. The recording is circulated only within Foundation groups, and represents the chapter 4 the coordination of a steadily played repeated note in the left hand and a rhythmically free melody in the right.

This would demand some skill. However, original manuscripts revealed that this piece was initially written solely as a melody, with no left hand accompaniment. Only later in the s did de Hartmann add an accompaniment. In any event, recordings of Gurdjieff improvising on harmonium in and demonstrate that he could reasonably comfortably play simple melodies with his right hand, albeit at the end of his life see Appendix C.

But then he gave me also a separately written upper voice, which was meant to sound as if played on sonorous little bells. It was now impossible to play everything with two hands, so he told Madame de Salzmann to play the lowest part and me the upper part. I struggled feverishly to get it all down on paper and we began to play… Copying and editing the music of the dance was very interesting. Everything had to be done then and there, according to his instructions.

The main melody was now in my left hand with the added voice above it. He told Madame de Salzmann to double the main melody one sixth lower with her right hand, and play the rhythm with her left. It was amazing how the accompaniment, the little high voice, and the two main voices a sixth apart, blended together like parts of a single machine. Soon after that Mr Gurdjieff brought me another piece of music paper, with an unusual combination of flats in the key signature — the notes of an Eastern scale.

Eureka Editions, , — The Collaboration music for another big dervish dance, for which he began to show the positions. It illustrates that, at least on occasion, Gurdjieff himself notated music. This draft appears as a small sheet of paper separated from the other drafts, and may well have been an addition by Gurdjieff himself. He would give Hartmann no respite until he got it as it should be. De Hartmann indicated this in the original final manuscript. De Hartmann maintains that Gurdjieff retained control of the different stages of composition.

Nevertheless, de Hartmann was clearly indispensable to the process, bringing the music to fruition. There are, however, some interesting exceptions to this, where one finds sweeping melodic flourishes, impressionistic cluster chords, and lyrical, even sentimental, melodies reminiscent of the music de Hartmann composed prior to his time with Gurdjieff. Collaborations in Western Art Music In the history of Western art music, instances of composers working in collaboration with other composers are relatively rare.

This was for his final opera, La Marquise de Brinvilliers However, all these collaborations involved different composers composing various parts of works independently, where later these parts were joined and integrated 66 67 68 Thomas A. Macmillan Press, , , Oxford University Press, , , The most comparable collaboration to that of Gurdjieff and de Hartmann is between English composers Frederick Delius — and Eric Fenby — Delius and Fenby collaborated on their music at almost exactly the same time Gurdjieff and de Hartmann did.

What is more, both pairs composed in the same region of France; Delius and Fenby composed at Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau. As Delius and Fenby were both trained musicians, Delius was able to describe in technical musical terms what he wanted of Fenby in a way that Gurdjieff could not. Interestingly, what closely bound Gurdjieff and de Hartmann caused tension between Delius and Fenby; Fenby was a devout Catholic and Delius an atheist. Fenby reports that Delius asserted: It has paralysed music all along.

We began by my playing what already existed; then came the moment I dreaded most — the pause as I waited for what he might do! By now he had changed from the paralysed figure propped up beside me to an upright, excitable, gesticulating fighter as he felt himself deeper and deeper into the music with more and more frenzied intensity, calling out the notes, their values in time, the pitch, the phrase-lengths whilst I struggled at the keyboard to reproduce them and jot them down in manuscript.

He always dictated with great rapidity and was peeved if his meaning was not grasped immediately. Verbal or musical repetition incensed him equally at this stage in his life. Dover Publications, , , Eric Fenby, Delius London: Faber and Faber, , Gurdjieff promoted all of his music music for Movements, piano music, and harmonium music , along with his Movements and teachings, as deriving from ancient, esoteric sources that he had accessed on his travels through Central Asia and the Middle East. Associating his teaching and methods with ancient, esoteric sources gave them authority and guaranteed the attention of his target audience: Arkana Penguin Books, , 44; P.

Harper and Row, , ; C. Basta Audio Visuals, , 28, 59, For statements on the sources of his Movements see G. Sure Fire Press, , 20—24; G. Dutton, , Indeed pupil Margaret Anderson states that Gurdjieff initially struck her as, [a] dark man with an oriental face…we immediately recognized Gurdjieff as the kind of man we had never seen — a seer, a prophet, a messiah?

I was still full of impressions of the East. When formulating his teachings in Moscow and St Petersburg from to Gurdjieff must have looked to Theosophical circles for pupils. At this time Theosophy was flourishing in Russia, particularly in these cities which were major centres for the occult revival. Here it is argued that Gurdjieff capitalised on the popularity of Theosophy by donning a Blavatsky-like image and using recognisable Theosophical terminology in order to attract followers in Russia.

In this way he could define himself in a way that was not just acceptable, but highly attractive, to his target audience; those familiar with, and ultimately disillusioned by, Theosophy. Arkana, , 77— Purported Esoteric Origins Gurdjieff promoted all of his music as deriving from esoteric sources that he had accessed on his extensive travels.

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He also stated that during his travels he made contact with the Essenes, who demonstrated how the playing of ancient Hebraic music could affect living organisms. Basta Audio Visuals, , 28, Hammer and Snoek show that this motif was also explored in the work of Blavatsky and Steiner, and has infiltrated the New Age movement.

Arkana Penguin Books, [] , , Element, , 31, —, suggests that he travelled between and Gurdjieff clearly valued the skill of memorisation as he assigned memorisation exercises to pupils; see Mary C. He also admitted in Views that while observing Movements on his travels he had no time to listen to the accompanying music, which contradicts his claims about the origins of his own music.

Learn to discriminate between what must be taken literally and what metaphorically. This process, examined in Chapter 4, does not support the idea that Gurdjieff was directly recounting music he had remembered, or that he wished to reproduce it exactly. Further, this music must have sounded entirely new to his mostly European and American pupils. By explaining its origins in the way he did, Gurdjieff gave his music an authority and power that might have made pupils all the more responsive to it.

In light of his teachings there is a reason New World, — This will be further discussed at the end of the chapter. The latter notion gained prominence in public culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the rise of Theosophy. Blavatsky professed to access esoteric sources through trance and mediumship but also, like Gurdjieff, by travelling to the East, where it was believed that one could find relics of a purity and authenticity lost in the West. By claiming to access esoteric Eastern sources, Gurdjieff could be seen to possess the key to restoring this disconnect.

Music collectors from as early as the turn of the seventeenth century established the view that traditional music of indigenous communities was to be revered; it represented precious cultural artefacts created through an entirely organic process of oral transmission. This notion, which became commonplace among folklorists and ethnomusicologists, was opposed to the earlier view that oral tradition corrupted a single, original text.

This is why modern composers sought to synthesise and absorb folk sounds into their music; they believed that this made their music more valuable or universal. Emerging Categories from Ossian to Wagner Cambridge: Rousseau maintained that this spontaneity derived from an attitude to the world characterised by an absorbed and uncritical participation where the contradictions between history and legend, and experience and imagination, are not experienced as problems.

The names of these categories, then, bring continuity and lucidity to discussions of the music, though they are less than ideal. Nevertheless, these categories are useful for casting light on the possible sources of the piano music, and for later considering the different roles that this music may have been intended to play. Throughout the following analysis pieces will be linked with the Schott volumes and corresponding Wergo recordings for examinations of these see Chapter 6. Before continuing, it should be noted that the first three Schott volumes are categorised according to style as opposed to the fourth Schott volume, which is a composite volume that contains small selections of different styles of pieces that were singled out for various reasons.

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However, at times, pieces seem misplaced in the volumes. Both terms portray themselves as timeless categories and signal the Romantic fixation on origins and originality in art. They are largely modal and rarely modulate, though some pieces are in major keys, which is uncharacteristic of their music as a whole.

Daff lines are included in sixteen pieces of the first Schott volume, thirteen of the second Schott volume, two of the third, and three of the fourth. Daff parts usually consist of short rhythmic motifs that are to be repeated against piano parts. It is indicated in the music that notes with stems up are to be played with the fingers on the head of the drum, and notes with stems down are to be played with the palm on the rim. Sources And Styles in recordings of these pieces daff parts are usually omitted, some Gurdjieff Foundation groups include the daff during in-house performances and musical exercises.

The pieces with daff lines seem to indicate that daff players are required to maintain a short rhythmic motif against counter-rhythms and time signature changes in the piano part. This would result in piano and daff parts falling out of sync with each other. Instead, the daff player should be flexible and ornament the line in accordance with the Middle Eastern tradition of drum playing. If these pieces did not originate from music Gurdjieff heard on his travels they may have been inspired by the patchwork of musical influences to which Gurdjieff was exposed in his childhood.

Hear QR Code 5; http: An early style of Armenian music that Gurdjieff might have favoured is that of the tagh. Taghs were composed by generations of poet-musicians, and are known for their expansive forms and virtuosic, free, and ornamented melodic lines. Gurdjieff was interested to acquaint de Hartmann with Armenian music, instructing him to give concerts in Armenia in and introducing him to the music of contemporary Armenian composer Komitas.

De Hartmann interpreted this as an attempt at priming him for the composition of their piano music that followed six years later. Komitas collected approximately four thousand pieces of Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish folk music, notating them in Armenian neumes. He also deciphered the khaz system of notation, which occurs in Armenian music manuscripts until the eighteenth century. Komitas was among the first group of Armenian intellectuals to be arrested and exiled by the Turks at the outbreak of the First World War.

They destroyed thousands of his transcriptions and compositions. When Komitas returned from exile he became mentally afflicted by the Armenian genocide, spending his last fifteen years in hospital in Paris. Bennett in a New Age journal mentioned Gurdjieff having known and probably studied with Komitas. When he personally asked de Salzmann about it she told him that the two had never met. Kahn and Averill, , 14— Inner Traditions, , As Gurdjieff and de Hartmann wrote many more Sayyid pieces, these will be the focus of discussion.

Sayyid is an honorific title used by Muslims to designate males recognised as descendants of Muhammad. As Gurdjieff witnessed Mevlevi or Whirling Dervish ceremonies in Turkey,46 the music of these ceremonies might be a source. Persian Classical Music New York: Thesis, University of California, , 2; Charlotte F. Thesis, University of Washington, , The first part of their Sayyid pieces usually features an improvisatory-like melody or taksim on a mode type of scale in the right hand, underpinned by a drone-like tremolo rapidly repeating note or series of long, supportive chords in the left hand.

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