Music

After travelling through the Near and Middle East and Central Asia, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff arrived in Europe in 1913 to present and develop his teaching which was to bring together the esoteric understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West. The ideas he brought, and the forms of what became known as “The Work”, had a common aim: to offer to those who expressed a yearning for meaning the means to discover their essential nature and develop its hidden possibilities.

These forms included meditation, physical and intellectual work, and exercises, which took the form of “Sacred Dances” – the movements. Mr. Gurdjieff was convinced that music and certain vibrations of sound could evoke in the listener an inner experience which could lead to a new sense of self, another quality of being.

In only two years, an extraordinary collaboration between two very different individuals took place, which resulted in more than 300 pieces of music. Mr. Gurdjieff found in Thomas de Hartmann one who could bring his own experience and talent to the service of the ideas and practices Mr. Gurdjieff developed after twenty years of travel in search of ancient knowledge.

The essence of the melody was brought by Mr. Gurdjieff, and Mr. de Hartmann would improvise on the piano with harmony and rhythm, and eventually put this into Western notation. In the body of music which is available for those who wish to listen or to study and eventually interpret the music, there are three general categories: folk-derived pieces which are seemingly simple, but charged with feeling; chants and dances of the Sayids and Dervishes; and sacred hymns and prayers in which each piece represents an inner journey, toward a more collected state of being.

Laurence Rosenthal, long a musician and student of the Work, has described the purpose of Gurdjieff’s music:

" Perhaps it is related to man’s work on himself, what Gurdjieff called “harmonious development.” He offered food for the growth of man’s being, and music as a way to awaken a sensitivity in the feelings; to arouse in the deeper levels of the listener’s interior world, questions and intimations beyond words. "

" For all who are drawn to this essential form of the Work, the invitation is to listen with all senses attuned and with an open mind and heart. The function of the music is both a science and an art, a kind of diagram of higher knowledge, and a possible food for human growth and evolution. "

Rosenthal, L. (1996) "Gurdjieff and Music" in "Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and his Teaching". Ed. Needleman, J. and Baker, G. New York: Continuum Publishing Company