I first
came across the music of George Gurdjieff a year ago when I was presented with
a photocopied page of a song. We were meeting to improvise in a practice room
College and to warm my fingers I began playing a little melody on the piano.
It was a Slavic-sounding piece based on music I had heard in a movie about the
Gypsy people. My friend was amazed because the piece sounded to him just like
the music from one of Gurdjieffís sacred dances. He was sure I must have heard
what he called "the Movements music" before, but I didnít even know who this
man, Gurdjieff, was. My friend put the music in front of me and asked if I could
play it. The music was fairly easy, but sounded strange to my ears, a mix of
Eastern European and Western folk dance with a hint of Middle Eastern spice.
As fate would have it, I had the opportunity to play for classes in these sacred
dances, and thus began my exploration of this special music. The Gurdjieff music
is a gathering and refining of melodies and songs he heard while traveling throughout
the Middle East and Central Asia in the Early Twentieth Century. He worked together
with the pianist and composer Thomas De Hartmann who transcribed the songs in
definitive form. Many of the tunes reflect sacred temple songs with reminiscences
of traditional folk music. Gurdjieff considered music as an Objective art, a
method of affecting the psyche of people in a very distinct way. The intention:
to bring the participants to a unified, harmonious state. All are asked to actively
take part in this harmonizationñthe dancers, the musicians, and the audience.
I have had the opportunity to observe the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann music from all
three vantage points: as an audience member, as a dancer, and as a pianist.
From each position, a certain distinct quality was visible, while still retaining
the sense of connection to the whole experience. Oftentimes, when I listen to
the piano in a performance situation, I am usually involved in either relishing
the skills of the performer, or criticizing their every falter. Suddenly, with
my introduction to this new, strange-to-me, yet completely sensible form of
the art, I was able to move beyond the personal level of my own tastes, the
particular qualities of the performer, and actually participate in the performanceís
meaning through the act of attentive listening. Contained within the melodies
are patterns and mathematics that illuminate the great laws of the universe.
The grandeur of the intelligence of such laws is effective on more than the
usually intellectually stilted approach. That which represents the great laws
of universal nature should be total in their effects, making body, mind and
heart respond in harmony. By simply listening to these melodies with a clear
mind, I was able to experience this directly, without my usual confusion of
theory and thought. The rhythms, placed intentionally in the music by Gurdjieff,
reveal the fundamental nature of the Universe as a field of vibrations, and
through this the nature of the rhythms can begin to be understood. Arithmetic
gives music its structure, but it is the mathematical laws of the higher "spiritual"
world that transmit emotion in music, and evoke the emotional response. The
emotional qualities are represented by a set of mathematical principle intellectually
understandable. Gurdjieffís music uses this objective knowledge to evoke the
same response in each participant, taking the goal of "harmonious development"
into a larger sphere, the harmony of a group. The music contains within it many
levels of code which a dancer can interpret to better understand the nature
of the movements. The movements are more than simple rhythmic exercises accompanied
by appropriate music. They are exact, precise positions with meaning contained
in the very requirements of the division of the dancersí attention, helping
to educate the body of the need to respond quickly, to maintain awareness, and
to be aware. Gurdjieff attached great importance to both the vibrations of sound
and the discipline of the bodyís movement in relationship to developing will
and inner strength. Playing the movements music produces a wakefulness in me
that I have never before experienced. Playing for movements furthers the sense
of connectedness because of the direct relationship between the rhythm and the
dance. The left hand piano part almost always has a drone quality typical of
Eastern music: this sustains the sound throughout the song while the melody
emerges from the right hand. The combination of both hands produces a fine energy
when each note is listened to with acute awareness. Placed in the moment, the
Life that the music is pointing to can actually be experienced. Not all music
can place you in the moment like this; actually, most often music leaves you
feeling dreamy and lost in space or lost in imaginative associations spawned
off by the emotions. Sometimes a song that takes only three minutes to play
from start to finish is repeated for twenty minutes in a class. At about the
third time through the piece, my mind becomes clear, and I really see the notes
and start to see beyond the page on the music rack and out into the room where
the dancers are moving. I can feel my feet on the ground and even pay attention
to my breath. Usually, when I play other music, itís all about the sound. My
other senses go numbóeven my fingers, as if only my ears were playing. I become
the sound and nothing else exists. Playing for movements classes helps me pay
more attention to whatís actually going on because there are people relying
on the music. I come in and out of the clearing while playing. I catch my mind
wandering and daydreaming while my hands still miraculously play on. With the
clarity, sight and sound become sharper and amplified, and I feel connected
to my body and the room. Our inner psyche can receive and interpret the mathematical
properties of sound. The movements are more than simple rhythmic exercises accompanied
by appropriate music. They are quite exact, precise positions which demand all
the studentís attention. The movements and the music contain within them a knowledge
deeper than we are aware of. The postures and their musical sequences are like
the alphabet of the language of this knowledge. The movements require a division
of attention to each body part. The feet move in one pattern, often a step that
has a march quality to it, the arms move in angles or fluid suspensions, the
wrists move in a different pattern than the arms, and the head moves in its
own pattern. Some movements are gymnastic, and some are quite fluid and graceful.
All seem to Evoke some sense of prayer. A particular configuration of sounds,
and the listener is transported to a specific inner experience. When the inner
state is brought into action through posture, it becomes a manifestation of
the same universal truth. To facilitate this activity the human machine becomes
the instrument for divine revelations, or at least higher intelligence. Gurdjieffís
music contains within it an extremely valuable way to connect inner knowledge
with the outer life. And all this I have found began from the handed down copy
of a song. --with assistance from Victor Aboulaffia Santa Fe Pianist Melanie
Monsur will give a concert of the Gurdjieff/DeHartmann music on Friday March
6 at 8pm in New Paltz. She will play selections from her CD Bridge to the Unseen,
in addition to original work. The concert will include a demonstration of sacred
dances. For information and reservations, call Esoterica Bookstore. (914) 255-5777.
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