GI Gurdjieff's Piano Music and Its Application in and Outside

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 RELIGION and the ARTS brill.com/rart

G. I. Gurdjieff’s Piano Music and Its Application in and outside “The Work” *

Johanna J. M. Petsche Australian Catholic University

Abstract

Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) wrote a diverse collection of piano pieces at his “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” at the Chateau du Prieuré d’Avon at Fontaine- bleau near Paris in a unique collaboration with pupil Thomas de Hartmann, a Ukrai- nian composer. This music was composed most intensely between the years 1925 and 1927, after Gurdjieff’s near-fatal car accident of 1924 when all work on his “Movements” or “sacred dances” had ceased. Thus this music was not written for the Movements but for other spiritual purposes. Gurdjieff would whistle, sing, and tap Eastern-sounding melodies and rhythms, and de Hartmann was required to immediately transform these indications into written Western notation, adding suitable harmonies. Like Gurdjieff’s teaching overall, the piano music is best described as a blending of Eastern andWestern elements. In Gurdjieff’s lifetime this music was not published or recorded, and was mostly performed within his circle of pupils, as is appropriate within an initiatory and personally transmitted spiritual teaching. This article explores the Gurdjieff—de Hartmann music and its relationship to Gurdjieff’s overall esoteric teachings.There will also be an examination of how Gurdjieff groups and musicians continue to keep alive this music today, and it will be shown that the large number of recordings released represent its greatest cultural penetration into wider society. Currently hundreds of these recordings are available though, interestingly, most “Work” members are critical of them, arguing that the music only has value when experienced live and in a Work context.

* This article is reprinted from Johanna Petsche, “G. I. Gurdjieff’s Piano Music and its Appli- cation In and Outside ‘the Work’,” in Carole M. Cusack and Alex Norman (eds), Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. As it is a reprint no changes have been to the text, but readers should note that the author expanded on this work in Johanna J. M. Petsche, Gurdjieff and Music: The Gurdjieff/de Hartmann Piano Music and Its

Keywords

G. I. Gurdjieff – Thomas de Hartmann – esoteric practice – music – the Work i Introduction

Armenian-Greek esoteric teacher George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) composed hundreds of piano pieces between 1918 and 1927 with the assis- tance of pupil Thomas de Hartmann (1885–1956). Some of these pieces were to accompany Gurdjieff’s “Movements” or sacred dances, but the majority were for another purpose. The latter, referred to here simply as “the piano music,” is the focus of this article. The piano music was not published or recorded in Gurdjieff’s lifetime, and he gave no indication that he wanted it published or recorded at all (Howarth and Howarth 477). The fixed product was somewhat irrelevant to him; the music’s value lay in the experience it offered listeners, who could benefit from it spiritually. With few exceptions, this piano music was played only within his circle of pupils, as is appropriate within an initiatory and personally transmitted esoteric teaching, and after his death in 1949 it continued to be guarded by those in the Work1 until 1979, when Peter Brook released the film Meetings With Remarkable Men, based on Gurdjieff’s book of the same name, which offered an account of his early life. This film featured orchestrations by the acclaimed musician Laurence Rosenthal of Gurdjieff’s piano music. The following year, renowned jazz and classical pianist Keith Jar- rett released the recording G. I. Gurdjieff Sacred Hymns, bringing much more public attention to the music. A stream of piano recordings, played by devotees in and outside the Work, emerged. When it became clear that the music was being disclosed, Jeanne de Salzmann (1889–1990), Gurdjieff’s successor in leading the teachings, was impelled to release publically a “definitive” set of sheet music (1996–2005) and corresponding recordings (1998–2001), to challenge the further release of what were considered less-informed recordings from pianists

Esoteric Significance, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015. Thanks are due to Raphael Lataster for re-formatting this chapter to the style of Religion and the Arts. 1 “Those in the Work” or “Work members” denotes current members of Gurdjieff Foundation groups and affiliated groups. After Gurdjieff’s death, his pupil Jeanne de Salzmann established “Gurdjieff Foundation” groups in London, New York, and Paris for studying and transmitting Gurdjieff’s ideas. Other groups were established from these in many major cities of the Western world. It was estimated in 1995 that there were between five and ten thousand people in the Work worldwide (Needleman 377).

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 72 petsche outside the Work. Currently hundreds of recordings of the Gurdjieff music are available, allowing interested members of the general public an opportunity to access this cultural product. However, many Work members are critical of these recordings, arguing that the music only has value when experienced live and in a Work context. The central argument of this article is that Gurdjieff was not interested in cultural production per se, but intended his piano music to be a tool for developing his pupils spiritually. A brief introduction to his teachings and aims will pave the way for an exploration of the piano music and its intimate connection to the teachings. Recordings and publications of the piano music are then examined, as is the impact of these recordings on the wider public, and the negative response to them by Work members. Finally, the recordings, and the “Work philosophy” on them, will be considered in relation to scholarship on cultural production and esotericism. Interviews carried out in 2010 with Work members and specialists in the Gurdjieff music in Europe, the United Kingdom, America and Canada will be utilized as evidence in this chapter.2 Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson and P. D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous are the main textual sources employed. As Gurdjieff’s own writings are deliberately made difficult for the reader, the latter represents the clearest and most comprehensive explication of Gurdjieff’s earliest ideas taught from 1915 to 1923. After this period Ouspensky separated from Gurdjieff to teach his own version of Gurdjieff’s ideas. Ouspensky’s book is considered to be essential reading in Gurdjieff Foundation groups today, though Gurdjieff is

2 Thanks are due to those who helped me with this article, which encapsulates my doctoral thesis on the piano music of Gurdjieff. A constant source of advice, knowledge and support has been Gurdjieff music specialist and Movements instructor Dorine Tolley. Our conversa- tions have had a tremendous impact on my arguments and ideas, and I am wholeheartedly grateful to Dorine for her encouragement and friendship. Joseph Azize has been a source of formidable knowledge and expert advice since the very beginning. I thank him for his generosity. I was fortunate to meet a number of Gurdjieff specialists, inside and outside the Work, in Europe, America, Canada, and the United Kingdom in 2010 and felt enthusi- astically welcomed into the field. I thank pianist Wim van Dullemen, pianist Elan Sicroff, music researcher Gert-Jan Blom, and researcher Tom A. G. Daly. I have been touched by their openness, and by the information and advice they have freely given, which has contributed significantly to my understanding of Gurdjieff’s music. Academic Sophia Wellbeloved also deserves thanks for reading this chapter and offering many valuable insights. I would also like to acknowledge another contact in the Work, who has requested to remain anonymous. He will be referred to throughout by the pseudonym Don Barrett. Finally, it is a privilege to have Carole Cusack as my supervisor. I thank her for her unwavering support, warmth and expertise.

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 73 quoted as both praising and condemning the book (Bennett, Witness: The Story of a Search 252; Azize 76–86; and Pecotic 73–77). ii Gurdjieff’s Teachings: The “Centres,” Essence and Personality, Four States of Consciousness, and the Formation of Souls

Fundamental to Gurdjieff’s teaching is the claim that human beings are mere machines, controlled by three uncoordinated “centres,” also variously termed “brains” or “localisations,” in the head, spinal column and breast; respectively the intellectual, physical and emotional centers (Gurdjieff, All and Everything 439–441 and 777–780). Although he defined humans as “three-brained beings,” his focus later extended to seven centers; the “moving,” “instinctive,” “sex,” “intellectual,” and “emotional” centers, and two “higher centres,” the “higher emotional,” and “higher intellectual” (Ouspensky 55–56, 115, 142). In this article, the three main centers (intellectual, physical, and emotional) and two “higher centres” will be referred to. Gurdjieff taught that due to “abnormal education and culture ones [sic] centres are in disarray” (Gurdjieff, All and Everything 814 and 816) so that life is lived in a fragmented and mechanical state where the core self or “essence” is largely lost. Life is, instead, carried out through the false “personality,” a protective, illusory mask that compensates for this lack of “essence.” In this state human beings are soporific, which is a characteristic of the two lowest (of four) “states of consciousness”; the first is literal sleep and the second is the sleep-like condition in which one carries out life: “a far more dangerous sleep” than the former (Ouspensky 142–143). Gurdjieff aimed to elevate pupils from these lowest states of consciousness to the “third state of consciousness,” also known as “self-remembering” (Ous- pensky 141). Self-remembering is a key term in Gurdjieff’s system and means remembering to be aware of one’s own habitual reactions and behaviors in the present moment. This is achieved by “dividing attention” so that one is simul- taneously aware of the observing self and also the exterior or interior event or situation experienced (for example a task or emotion) (118–120 and 179). The faculty of “attention” is key to self-remembering, and must be constantly cultivated as it can easily become distracted by daydreaming, imagining things, and “identifying” with tasks, emotions and thoughts (110). Through “work on the self,” facilitated by his various methods, Gurdjieff aimed to cultivate pupils’ attention and provoke them to self-remember. “Work on the self” also involved observing and re-educating the mechanical behaviors of one’s centers (Gurd- jieff, Views From the Real World 156). Consequently, one’s disassociated centers would harmonize and an alchemical process would proceed within the body,

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 74 petsche leading to the formation of souls and to the acquiring of the “objective state of consciousness.” This is the fourth and final state of consciousness, where one can “see things as they are” (Ouspensky 141). This will be further discussed later when a study of musical devices in Gurdjieff’s hymns reveals how the hymns demand the listener’s attention, and challenge habitual ways of listening and feeling. Feeling is affiliated with the “emotional centre.” iii Gurdjieff’s Aims and Methods

Gurdjieff’s teachings in their entirety are popularly known as the “Work,” meaning work to be done on oneself, or the “Fourth Way,” which is meant to con- trast with “ways” or spiritual paths centering exclusively on either the intellect, body or emotions (Ouspensky 48–50). Gurdjieff used three primary vehicles to demonstrate his teachings, his writings, the Movements, and music, where each vehicle reflects a center—the intellectual, physical, and emotional centers respectively. Examining each center separately with the aid of each vehicle was understood to generate a better understanding of the composition and work- ings of each center, which was necessary for the reparation and harmonizing of the centers as a whole (146, 388). Gurdjieff’s writings, particularly his princi- ple text Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson (henceforth Tales), his Movements, and piano music, create conditions that might cause friction in individuals, facilitating them to self-remember, and to observe and struggle against their fragmented and mechanical state. Each method requires effort and attention, with the ultimate aim of shattering one’s pretensions and ego, or in Gurdjieffian terms, stripping one of “personality” and revealing their “essence.” This leads to an aligning of the centers and an alchemical process in the body that enables souls to develop.These ideas and methods formed the basis for Gurdjieff’s Insti- tute for Harmonious Development of Man, most permanently housed at the Chateau du Prieuré d’Avon (henceforth “the Prieuré”) at Fontainebleau, forty- four miles from Paris. It functioned here from 1922–1933, with the most intense period of activity being 1922–1924. iv Background to the Piano Music

The majority of the piano music was written between 29 July 1925 and 1 May 1927 in both the large salon and the Movements hall or “Study House” at the Prieuré. An unusual musical collaboration took place between the eccentric, hard-edged Gurdjieff, who had little classical music training, and his pupil,

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 75 the aristocratic Ukrainian Thomas de Hartmann, who was classically trained in composition by Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneiev (who was a pupil of Tchaikovsky), and in piano technique by Anna Esipova-Leschetizky, a teacher of Prokofiev (Daly and Daly xxi–xxv). Gurdjieff would whistle or play melodies and rhythms on the piano with one finger, and de Hartmann would spon- taneously arrange these for piano (de Hartmann and de Hartmann 245). De Hartmann attributed the music wholly to Gurdjieff; “It is not my music; it is his. I have only picked up the Master’s handkerchief” (Moore 350), though de Hartmann’s own compositional voice can be detected in the harmonies constructed. The compositional process was carried out before all Gurdjieff’s pupils at the Prieuré, and pianist Elan Sicroff suggests that this audience played an essential role in the birth of this music. He argues that in esoteric terms, when composing, Gurdjieff and de Hartmann were able to harness the “finer energies” of the audience, produced from the “inner work” undergone throughout the day (Sicroff, personal interview). It is unclear how many pieces were composed altogether; 156 pieces have been published, but in the course of this research it has become apparent that more were notated in both draft and full form. German music publisher Schott published 166 pieces altogether, but ten are for Movements, which are not taken into account in this article. v Readings and Emotions

The piano music was played at the Prieuré in conjunction with group readings of Gurdjieff’s first and principal book Tales (de Hartmann and de Hart- mann 246). Indeed three titles of pieces feature names of characters fromTales, “Rejoice, Beelzebub,” “The Bokharian Dervish Hadji-Asvatz-Troov” and “Atar- nakh, Kurd Song,” and one is dedicated to a character from his second book MeetingsWith Remarkable Men (henceforth Meetings), “For Professor Skridlov.” Pupils’ accounts suggest that the piano music was intended to express emotionally the intellectual ideas of Gurdjieff’s writings. American art critic Carl Zigrosser, who visited the Prieuré in 1927, wrote in New Republic in 1929 that he was told that the pieces that evoked early church music were “composed for the prayers and invocations in his book, under the general title of Temple Music. It is said that he plans to compose a body of music which will express the same meaning, in the world of emotions, that he is expressing for the mind in his book, making the two complementary to each other” (Zigrosser, “Gurdjieff”). It is also reported that Gurdjieff’s pupil and editor Alfred R. Orage was disap- pointed during a trip to New York to be without piano music to accompany the reading of a chapter of Tales, “since in it the ideas are realized emotion-

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 76 petsche ally as in the book they are realized intellectually” (Nott, Teachings of Gurdjieff 178). Further, J. G. Bennett states that “Gurdjieff said that certain ideas could be grasped only if the emotions are tuned into them. He composed music to be played before the reading of particular chapters, and demonstrated the difference in understanding that this made possible” (Gurdjieff 167). These accounts accord with Gurdjieff’s teaching on the relationship between the three centers and one’s understanding of something; if more than one center is engaged one gains a better understanding of a given thing, or can “hear new things in a new way” (Gurdjieff, Views From the Real World 264). The piano music, then, was understood to enable a greater understanding of the ideas in Tales (itself a literary cultural product) by accessing an emotional response in pupils. vi Music Cultivating the Emotions

As previously mentioned, music was the primary vehicle through which Gurd- jieff cultivated the emotional center. Listening to music is generally considered chiefly as an emotional experience. The rise and fall of melodies, and the use of certain keys, modes and harmonic progressions can quickly and powerfully affect listeners’ emotions based on their own previous associations and experiences with music. It has been shown that the piano music was understood to enable a better understanding of Tales, but the music must also have been aimed at generally cultivating the “emotional centre,” since work on the emotional center was considered key to spiritual development. Pupil C. S. Nott states, “Gurdjieff constantly reminded his pupils, ‘you must feel, you must feel, your mind is a luxury. You must suffer remorse in your feelings’” ( Journey Through This World 239). To “feel” was important because Gurdjieff argued that the desire to change, the most basic requirement for “work on the self,” comes from “essence” (Gurdjieff,Views From the RealWorld 143–147), which is the “centre of gravity” of the “emotional centre” (136–137, 222–223). Further, Gurdjieff taught that when this center functions at full capacity (making it the quickest of the centers), the “higher centres” (two additional centers) can begin to work (Ouspensky 194). This demonstrates the soteriological significance of a cultivated “emotional centre.” Different emotional reactions commonly occur while listening to music, and these may have served to illustrate to Gurdjieff’s pupils how easily one’s emotions are swayed by external stimuli, and how swiftly the attention of the “emotional centre” can wander from the activity at hand to other activities like daydreaming and using imagination. In short, listening to music made it possible for pupils to examine the habitual behaviors of the “emotional cen-

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 77 tre,” which Gurdjieff no doubt hoped would lead to the devastating realization that there is nothing permanent within oneself. Once pupils became aware of the mechanics of the “emotional centre,” the objective must have been to struggle against these behaviors by listening to music in a new way. Indeed, accounts indicate that pupils were instructed to listen to music with control, avoiding habitual reactions and identifications. Pupil Elizabeth Bennett proudly commented that she loved Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, but during a performance was able to “remain free” (Bennett and Bennett 88), and pupil C. S. Nott states that when listening to Gurdjieff’s music “one did not wallow in emotional daydreams as one is apt when hearing music in general” (Teach- ings of Gurdjieff 64–65). (There is a similar idea behind Gurdjieff’s “stop exercise,” where pupils were given a signal to suddenly stop whatever they were doing and freeze, ensuring that they refrained from becoming absorbed in it.) The control exercised at these moments of listening could then be applied to other situations. Work on emotions was essential to “work on the self,” and, according, to Ouspensky, “the study of emotions and the work on emotions became the basis of the subsequent development of the whole system” (113). vii Two Categories of Music

The early twentieth century was a time of great musical innovation in Europe, but Gurdjieff did not engage with the new musical language of, for example, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern; indeed he denounced contemporary artistic trends (Gurdjieff, All and Everything 450–452). Instead, he used a musical language influenced by his travels and childhood experiences as a chorister, with recourse to de Hartmann’s compositional skills, to further his pupils’ spiritual development. Gurdjieff’s piano music can be divided into two general categories. First is the music inspired by Asian and Middle Eastern musical traditions encountered on his travels and in the cultural melting pot of Kars, his hometown in Armenia. (In Meetings Gurdjieff claims to have traveled for twenty years through Central Asia and the Middle East, though these travels are largely unsubstantiated and Sophia Wellbeloved suggests that the autobiographical narrative in Meetings is symbolic and cannot be taken literally.)3 For Gurdjieff, these pieces probably served to remind his pupils of truth or “essence” that contemporary society has lost; in Meetings he speaks of

3 Wellbeloved, personal interview.

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 78 petsche his admiration for Asia, where ancient knowledge containing truth had been preserved through faithful transmission through the generations (8, 14–18). These pieces loosely reflect Asian and Middle Eastern folk melodies and rhythms. According to the titles of pieces, the traditions that particularly influenced Gurdjieff are the Greek, Kurdish, Persian, Armenian, Tibetan, and Ara- bian. However, these pieces often bear little resemblance to the traditional sounds of the music of the peoples claimed in titles. Perhaps Gurdjieff was not able to accurately match the music he remembered with places of origin, having heard it many years prior to composition. Or he may have used these titles to give the impression that he had travelled widely, when in reality he may not have. According to researcher Gert-Jan Blom, at least on one occasion the music does fit the title. Blom compared Gurdjieff’s piano piece “Kurd Melody for Two Flutes” with a field recording of flute music by Kurdish shep- herds and states that the structure, mode and rhythm were identical (Blom, personal interview). There is a further and more pressing problem with the titles. In original manuscripts some pieces have titles written in Russian, pre- sumably Gurdjieff’s titles, but many pieces are simply dated and left untitled in the same way as many of Gurdjieff’s Movements. However, some of these untitled pieces were given titles during the Schott publication process. Michel de Salzmann, who oversaw the Schott project after his mother Jeanne’s death, had the final say on these new titles. There is no indication in the Schott volumes as to which titles are Gurdjieff’s and which were newly devised, and this creates problems for the researcher in this field. These pieces are often in a major key, which is uncharacteristic of his music as a whole, and are mostly short, uncomplicated, and characterized by tune- ful melodies. Also in this category are pieces inspired by the music of the Sayyids, proverbial descendants [sic] of Mohammed. These introverted pieces frequently embody a two-part structure, traditional to many regions of the Middle East, beginning with a monodic (single melodic line) taksim or improvisation on a mode, and underpinned by a drone-like tremolo (rapidly repeating note) in the left hand. This leads to the second part; a slow rhythmic dance. The two parts are traditionally seen to signify the invocation of higher forces and then the expression of these forces in the world (Daly 13). Another style of music is his “dervish” pieces, characterized by emphatic dance rhythms and decorative melodies. Dervishes belong to a range of Islamic orders, such as the Mevlevi and the Chishti, in which devotional exercises are linked to musical forms. The second category of pieces represent Gurdjieff’s most solemn musical expressions and are commonly referred to by writers as “hymns” because they loosely resemble Russian Orthodox Church hymns, with which Gurdjieff and

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 79 de Hartmann were both familiar from childhood, and also because Gurdjieff used the term “hymn” in some titles. The hymn style was the musical language most familiar to Gurdjieff as his only musical training was as a youth singing in the Cathedral choir at Kars municipal school where he witnessed Dean Borsh composing canticles for the choir (Gurdjieff, Meetings 50, 52, 54). He used the hymn style as a musical foundation that he could then adapt for his own purposes. Musical devices employed that reflect Russian Orthodox hymns include the use of homophony (where parts move to the same rhythm), church modes (tones arranged in particular scales), open fourth and fifth intervals, low bass lines, and melodies that reflect liturgical incantations. However, mild dissonance, unpredictable harmonic shifts and cadences (which are chords comprising the closing of a musical phrase), and asymmetrical melodic phrases are devices that break from traditional hymn patterns. Gurdjieff’s hymns are generally long, slow and unsettling, requiring thorough attention and patience from the listener. viii How the Hymns Can be Situated Within Gurdjieff’s Teaching Methods

As discussed earlier, Gurdjieff was concerned with creating conditions that would cause friction and expose pupils to their fragmented states, arousing in them a desire to struggle against the habits of each center. De Hartmann argues, “[e]very activity in the Work showed clearly that the aim was never for outer results, but for inner struggle,” and that Gurdjieff ultimately worked towards developing people’s “beings” (de Hartmann and de Hartmann 106, 203). It was explained that pupils understood the purpose of the piano music as a medium in which to express emotionally the ideas in Tales, leading to a more complete understanding of these ideas. This is one interpretation of the music’s purpose. However, an analysis of the music reveals another way in which it was intended to affect listeners. It will be shown how through specific musical devices Gurdjieff jolts the listener out of a passive acceptance of the music, enlivening the listener’s efforts to listen. It will then be demonstrated that musical devices in Gurdjieff’s piano music can be likened to both the linguistic devices of Tales and the choreographic devices in the Movements. All of these devices were intended to bring attention and effort by challenging and disrupting practitioners’ habitual behaviors. This is an idea inspired by Sophia Wellbeloved’s examination of the ways in which the semantic and narrative complexities of Tales demand a form of hermeneutical process from its reader. The idea is that the enormous effort and attention required of the reader,

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 80 petsche through the peculiar linguistic devices Gurdjieff employs, prevents a passive reading of the text, and that this is ultimately intended to transform the reader and affect their “being” (Wellbeloved, Gurdjieff, Astrology & Beelzebub’s Tales 73–83). ix Musical Devices that Disrupt Emotional and Listening Habits

It will be argued that musical devices typical of Gurdjieff’s hymns work to destabilize the listener, bringing attention and effort to the process of listening. Almost all of Gurdjieff’s hymns illustrate the devices discussed below, but they are most obvious in the ten hymns that form Hymns From a Great Temple and the “Easter” hymns. As the hymns loosely resemble traditional church hymns, Gurdjieff was able to play with listeners’ “mechanical” preconceptions and expectations of the music. Most of Gurdjieff’s listeners at the Prieuré were Russian, English and American, and would have been familiar with hymn music. By taking a conventional musical form in which people were familiar, Gurdjieff could bring about a tension between the anticipated and the actual course of the music. For example, it is conventional in hymnody (and Western classical music) for melodies to appear in uniform patterns, usually in three or four-bar patterns, but in Gurdjieff’s hymns melodic phrases are often odd lengths, due to shifting metres that prevent any symmetry, or to a lack of bar lines altogether. Melodic phrases sometimes even begin on a beat other than the first of the bar, which confuses the pulse of the melody and unsettles the listener. Further, melodies most often lack clear harmonic direction due to an unconventional use of cadences, meaning that the listener is constantly left wondering where the piece is going. The function of the cadence in traditional Western harmony is strong as it subordinates rhythmic patterns, metres and melodic lines (van Leeuw 44), but in Gurdjieff’s hymns unpredictable cadences mean that the music sounds disoriented and the listener’s tendency to respond is inhibited. These devices might explain why listeners, particularly those well- versed in music, frequently describe Gurdjieff’s music as challenging, or even boring, to listen to. Gurdjieff music researcher Wim van Dullemen played the Gurdjieff music to a range of people and found that professional musicians and others well-versed in classical Western music considered the music boring (van Dullemen, personal interview). The hymns further challenge listeners’ habitual ways of listening while keeping them attentive through dissonant, seemingly out-of-place notes or strik- ing contrasts in dynamics. Both of these techniques can be found in “Easter Hymn and Procession in the Holy Night,” one of his longest and most enigmatic

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 81 hymns. Between bars 19 and 37 dramatic dynamic contrasts keep changing the mood, creating a feeling of restlessness. (Although most dynamic markings were much later included in pieces by de Hartmann in preparation for publication, one can assume that these were originally Gurdjieff’s performance indications to de Hartmann.) The second half of the hymn is characterized by a meditative three-crotchet motif in the bass, but two dissonant chords eerily break the calm mood in bars 63 and 67, where a clash occurs between an e nat- ural and an e flat. Gurdjieff simply will not allow the listener to get comfortable and fall into their usual state of slumber (Tolley, personal interview). x Analogous Linguistic and Choreographic Devices in Tales and the Movements, Respectively

An analogy can be made between these musical devices and the literary devices in Tales, where unfamiliar syntax, long-winded sentences, a meandering, non- linear narrative, and the use of an alien vocabulary of neologisms subverts the reader’s habitual way of reading and thinking by demanding full attention and patience. This is an argument put forth by Sophia Wellbeloved (73–83), who shows how particular linguistic devices can be understood as a deliberate effort by Gurdjieff to subvert the reader’s habitual ways of reading and thinking by preventing a passive reading of the text and instead, demanding full attention and patience. Wellbeloved states, “[i]f the reader agrees to struggle with the syntax he enters into a relationship with Gurdjieff in which he agrees to the value of the text; he invests effort, and this is one of the demands of Gurdjieff’s teachings” (28). Both the reader of Tales and the listener of the hymns are required to give active attention and effort, both of which are essential to the acquisition of higher states of consciousness. Choreographic devices in the Movements can also share this aim.The Move- ments are characterized by unusual and symbolic gestures of the body, often placed in unpredictable sequences, that challenge one’s habitual ways of moving. One can see in the Movements an unconventional “choreographic syntax” that challenges practitioners’ habitual physical inclinations and subverts the usual flow of gestures in unpredictable patterns. These devices force practitioners to adapt to a foreign “vocabulary” of physical gestures and thus require focused attention and effort designed to lead practitioners to a more alert and receptive state. Celebrated Movements instructor Marthe de Gaigneron described the Movements in a way that applies to the aims of Tales: “[i]t is a new alphabet corresponding to a new language, a direct mode of knowing which enables the body to feel its mechanicalness and, at the same time, prepares it to

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 82 petsche receive other currents of energy as yet inaccessible. New attitudes, arising from a different inner order, begin to challenge an entire repertoire of deeply rooted automatic reactions” (de Gaigneron 298). For example, Movements sometimes require practitioners to move their left leg or arm on the first beat of the Move- ment, or sequence of gestures. As most practitioners are inclined to move their right arm or leg first, this requires in them additional effort to remember to move the left, not the right. Another example is that some Movements require practitioners to be still during the strong first beat of the music, and to form the first gesture on the weaker second beat of the music. This subverts ones physical inclination to move on the first beat.4 xi The Purpose Behind these Devices

Gurdjieff’s hymns, like Tales and the Movements, were an attempt to bring pupils from their usual passive state to a more active state. In light of Gurdji- eff’s esoteric teachings on human beings, the purpose of these methods can be viewed as alchemical and soteriological. Gurdjieff taught that people ordinar- ily live their lives “identified” or “attached” to tasks, people, thoughts, emotions and the like, and that this depletes all the energy they produce in life. How- ever, at the moment of self-remembering, the energy that was required for these “identifications” and “attachments” becomes reserved in the body for a special use. This is explained by Gurdjieff in terms of the “artificial shock” of “self-remembering.” It is “artificial” (or “external” as Gurdjieff states in Tales) because it comes from outside of the human being’s ingrained habitual ways of living (Tolley, personal interview).The “shock” of self-remembering enables the “impressions” that enter the individual to become digested and transformed in the body. (An “impression” is energy received through all experiences of the senses. This is considered “food.”) Through self-remembering a space is created for more impressions, and for impressions of a higher quality. These can then function to be further digested and transformed in the body, and “finer matter” can be extracted from them (Ouspensky 233, 321). The end result of the transformation of finer matter is for it to “crystallize” a soul, which Gurdjieff taught could only occur through “work”; no one is born with a soul (Gurdjieff, All and Everything 763–768, 1105–1108). Thus three of Gurdjieff’s primary teach-

4 These comments are based on firsthand experience of the Movements. For two and a half years I have been attending a Movements class in Sydney, run by Movements instructor and pianist Dorine Tolley.

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 83 ing methods cultivated attention and effort in practitioners, with the ultimate goal of generating and transforming energy in their bodies that would eventu- ate in a soul. xii Process not Product: Gurdjieff’s Intentions for the Music

Gurdjieff did not attempt to record his piano music, even though he had contact with recording producers and equipment in the last years of his life when he recorded nineteen hours of his harmonium improvisations (Blom, Har- monic Development). He also had at his disposal throughout his life a number of pupils who were capable pianists, such as de Hartmann, Jeanne de Salzmann, Rosemary Nott, Carole Robinson, Solange Claustres, and Helen Adie. Nor did he wish the music to be published as he did Tales, which he wanted to be published in at least four languages, distributed worldwide, and available to all at no cost (Bennett, Witness: The Story of a Search 252). This music was, first and foremost, intended to be an immediate experience for listeners, and also probably for the composers during the compositional process. This explains why he left so many pieces, and also Movements, untitled. Gurdjieff did not consider these fixed products; “Never think of results, just do” (de Hartmann and de Hartmann 207). This was the case with his ballet Struggle of the Magicians, which was intensely rehearsed by pupils for an expected performance, only to be abruptly abandoned when Gurdjieff was found destroying the props with an axe, explaining, “We have done it, so we don’t need it anymore. Now it can go to the dump” (de Hartmann and de Hartmann 147). The end product was irrelevant; the benefit of this exercise was in the attention and effort exerted in preparation for a performance. Regardless of this philosophy, soon after Gurdji- eff’s death in 1949 pupils began to preserve the music in published and recorded form, and a stream of recordings soon followed. xiii Publications of the Sheet Music

Between 1950 and 1955 de Hartmann oversaw the private publication of five volumes of the piano sheet music by Janus Editions in Paris, for use only within Gurdjieff Foundation groups. These volumes are: Hymnes Du’un Grand Temple (1950) (nine pieces) and the four volume series Oeuvres Musicales De G. Gurdji- eff, consisting of Chants Et Rhythmes D’Orient (1951) (nineteen pieces), Dances and Chants of the Seids (fourteen pieces), Chants Et Danses Derviches (1954) (ten pieces), and Sacred Hymns (1955) (seventeen pieces). For twenty years this

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 84 petsche sheet music was closely guarded, only to be played at special Foundation events in very small quantities; “It was thought that if it were played too much it would dilute itself and almost disappear” (Barrett, personal interview). In 1970, fourteen years after Thomas de Hartmann’s death, his wife Olga organized a second private publication of Gurdjieff music previously unpublished by Janus. These are three volumes: Seekers of the Truth (nineteen pieces), Journey to Inaccessi- ble Places (nine pieces), and Rituals of a Sufi Order (eight pieces). In 1983 the third and final music publication project began, headed by Gur- djieff’s designated successor in the Work, Jeanne de Salzmann. Four volumes of sheet music were published in the prestigious Schott editions: Asian Songs and Rhythms (1996) (forty-nine pieces), Music of the Sayyids and the Dervishes (1996) (forty-two pieces), Hymns, Prayers and Rituals (2002) (fifty-one pieces plus variant versions of three pieces), and Hymns from a Great Temple and other Selected Works (2005) (twenty-four pieces plus variant versions of two pieces from Struggle of the Magicians). The Schott editions were available to the public, a decision driven by de Salzmann’s concern to pre-empt other less- informed publications of the music. This meant that people outside the Work were allowed, for the first time, an opportunity to experience, perform and record this music. Even music teachers with no connection to the Work bought the Schott editions because much of the music was suited to piano students, and the unusual musical techniques added appeal. All previously published and recorded pieces were included in the Schott editions, with approximately sixty never before seen or heard pieces included, though ten of these were for Movements or from the ballet Struggle of the Magi- cians. The Schott editions were marketed as “definitive,” though a substantial number of pieces from original manuscripts were not included. This was for two related reasons: Schott executives encouraged the editors to narrow the music down after realizing that there were so many pieces, and Jeanne de Salz- mann decided not to include pieces that she considered inferior or too similar sounding to others (Daly, personal interview). xiv Recordings of the Gurdjieff-de Hartmann Piano Music

Recordings of the piano music by pianists in and outside the Work began to emerge from 1980 onwards and now hundreds of diverse recordings exist, which represent the music’s greatest cultural penetration into wider society. Notable piano recordings include Keith Jarrett’s G. I. Gurdjieff Sacred Hymns (1980), Thomas de Hartmann’s The Music of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann (1985 [1950s]), Alain Kremski’s Gurdjieff/ de Hartmann in twelve volumes (1988–

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 85

2004), Cecil Lytle’s Seekers of the Truth (1987) and Reading of a Sacred Book (1988), Herbert Henck’s Gurdjieff De Hartmann (1988), Wim van Dullemen’s The Music of G. I. Gurdjieff (1996), Rosenthal, Ketcham and Daniel-Spitz’s four- volume series Gurdjieff/de Hartmann: Music for the Piano (1998, 1998, 1999, 2001), Elan Sicroff’s Journey to Inaccessible Places (1985), Sicroff Plays Gurdji- eff (2002) and Laudamus … (2010), Helen Adie’s Music of the Search (2006), and Laurence Rosenthal’s Music By Gurdjieff De Hartmann volumes one (2006), two (2007) and three (2010). These are most easily obtained on the internet through Gurdjieff-related websites, though mainstream websites like Amazon and eBay also sell them. One can generally detect the difference between recordings by those in the Work and those outside the Work. Work pianists aim to play with minimal personal expression and this stems from Gurdjieff’s differentiation between “subjective art,” based on the personal perceptions and sensations of the artist, and “objective art” based on mathematics (Ouspensky 26). InTales he describes “subjective art” as “maleficent,” “harmful” and a “contemporary evil” (Gurdji- eff, All and Everything 450–451). This was also a view expressed by twentieth- century composers who rejected the emotional excess of the Romantic and Expressionist movements. Stravinsky stated, “[i]ndividualism in art, philosophy and religion implies a state of revolt against God” (Walsh 504). This performance philosophy also relates to Gurdjieff’s championing of “essence” and disparagement of “personality,” discussed above. In their recordings Work members also emphasise Gurdjieff the composer, rather than themselves as performers. This is obvious on the Wergo recordings that correspond with the Schott sheet music. Here the three alternating pianists remain anonymous to avoid an egoistic attachment to their performances, as “[t]he Work is the most important thing in these sorts of projects” (Daly, personal interview). Musi- cians outside the Work do not necessarily share this philosophy. For example Elan Sicroff’s recording, which is boldly entitled Sicroff Plays Gurdjieff, displays on the cover both names in equal size, and Tsabropoulos and Lechner’s two albums do not even cite Gurdjieff on the covers. A rendition worth special mention is G. I. Gurdjieff Sacred Hymns (1980) by acclaimed jazz and classical pianist Keith Jarrett who was, at the time of recording, at the height of his career. His landmark improvised recording, The Köln Concert (1975), sold more than five million copies and became the top-selling solo piano album of any genre (Ouellette 38). There is no doubt that Jarrett’s Gurdjieff album was a catalyst in drawing attention to the music for a mainstream audience, and it remains the best-selling recording of Gurdjieff’s music to date (Lake, personal interview). This album marked the first time that Gur- djieff’s piano music was exposed to the public, and on the prestigious German

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 86 petsche record label ecm (Editions of Contemporary Music) to boot. (ecm has now produced four cds that include Gurdjieff’s music. These are Jarrett’s G. I. Gur- djieff Sacred Hymns, Tsabropoulos and Lechner’s Chants, Hymns and Dances and Melos, Trygve Seim and Frode Halti’s Yeraz, and Levon Eskenian’s Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff.) This was also the first time that someone outside the Work recorded the music. Jarrett became interested in Gurdjieff in the late 1960s through fellow band member Charles Lloyd, who was at that time, to quote Jarrett, “on a Gurdjieff kick” (Carr 41). Jarrett read virtually all of Gurdji- eff’s writings (Carr 128), and it is clear from comments in interviews and album liner notes that Gurdjieff’s teachings facilitated Jarrett in conceptualising and articulating his experiences improvising (Petsche 138–158). However, he did not join theWork. A member of the London Gurdjieff Foundation simply suggested the idea to Jarrett, who says of the album, “[i]t was the most appropriate thing for me to record at the time, given that I knew more about it than just the music, and also given that I was asked by [a member of] the London group whether I would do it or not. That was enough for me. But it was also an exercise in disappearing personality. In the so-called Gurdjieff world, personality is not a positive thing … So I used that recording as an exercise in not inflicting that music with my personality” (Carr 129). Jarrett does make an effort to control his usual eccentric vocalizations and animated mannerisms on the recording. Although Jarrett stands alone as the only popular musician to devote a recording to the Gurdjieff-de Hartmann music, other notable jazz and pop musicians have acknowledged Gurdjieff’s influence on their music and thought. The eccentric electronic keyboardist Sun Ra (1914–1993) was interested in Gurdjieffian philosophy, no doubt attracted to the theme of outer space in Gurdjieff’s Tales, since Sun Ra claimed to be from Saturn, of the “Angel Race,” and sent by the Creator to redeem Earthlings through his music. His band performed in “Saturn gowns,” “galaxy caps” and “cosmic rosaries” (Budds 139). Jazz pianist George Russell (b. 1923) was also fascinated by Gurdjieffian esotericism and wrote The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953), an all- encompassing system of harmony that he referred to as the “all and everything of tonality,” noting that there is “a lot of correlation” between his book and Gurdjieff’s teachings (Monson, Freedom Sounds 291). Russell wrote the song “Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub” (1956) (Monson, “Oh Freedom” 155). Jazz pianist Charles Mingus (1922–1979) similarly dedicated a song to Gurdjieff, “Myself When I Am Real” (1963). English guitarist Robert Fripp (b. 1946), best known as a member of King Crimson, and collaborator English singer-songwriter David Sylvian (b. 1958) cultivated an interest in Gurdjieff through unorthodox Work teacher J. G. Bennett in the 1970s. Eclectic English singer-songwriter Kate Bush (b. 1958) makes reference to Gurdjieff in her song “Them Heavy People” (1978)

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 87 and to “self-remembering” in “Fullhouse” (1978), and Sicilian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato’s interest in Gurdjieff is apparent in the title of his popular song “Centro di gravita permanente” (“Permanent Centre of Gravity”), with the repeated line, “I look for a centre.” This appears on La voce del padrone (The Master’s Voice), the first Italian lp to sell more than one million copies. Finally, Swedish symphonic metal band Therion released the song “The Voyage of Gur- djieff” (2004), with chorus, “Dance a Sufi dance and fall into a trance, Like a dervish you dance, Dance with Yezidis and learn their secret lore, Of the voyage of Gurdjieff.” Gurdjieff’s music may not have been an influence, but his philosophy certainly attracted musicians, probably because he himself expressed it through the cultural production of music. xv Instrumental Arrangements

As more recordings are released, it has become increasingly difficult for musicians to keep the music sounding fresh. This has led to the emergence of a different species of recordings in which musicians in and outside of the Work play arrangements for instruments. Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and German cellist Anja Lechner released two albums with ecm, Chants Hymns and Dances (2004) and Melos (2008), the latter also featuring Italian jazz drum- mer U. T. Gandhi. Chants Hymns and Dances became a best-selling recording of Gurdjieff’s music, topping both the us and Amazon classical charts (Lake, personal interview). Pieces are arranged for cello and piano, and cello, piano and drums, and these are interspersed with compositions by Tsabropoulos. Their style can be characterized as a fusion of ambient jazz with flavors of Byzan- tine and Greek Orthodox hymn sounds. Their albums are, in typical ecm style, presented sleekly and minimally, designed to appeal to a “trendy” audience. Sydney based pianist Dorine Tolley and soprano Christene Bauden’s Making a New Sound: Music Arrangements of G. I. Gurdjieff and T. de Hartmann (2008) does not only contain arrangements of the piano music for harmonium, mono- chord, drum and flute, but also voice, masterfully transforming Gurdjieff’s piano pieces into devotional songs, with lyrics by Bauden that came intuitively to her, inspired by her interest in Gurdjieff and his music (Bauden, personal interview). Though some Work members speak negatively about recordings of the Gurdjieff music, there are still a number of recordings made by Work members. Ensemble Resonance, a group of six musicians from Gurdjieff groups in Paris and New York, have released two recordings of arrangements of the music, Resonance (2002) and Resonance ii (2004), for two guitars, oboe, piano, bassoon and flute.

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 88 petsche xvi Work Members on the Value of Recordings

Interviewed Work members generally reacted negatively to recordings of the music, arguing that recordings allow listeners to hear the music outside of the Work environment, which devalues the music and neglects Gurdjieff’s intentions for it. Their opinion is that without a connection to the teachings, the music will not give the intended “results.” Gurdjieff may not have organized for the music to be recorded, but on at least one occasion he did encourage its performance for “outsiders.” This was in New York in 1929, while promoting his writings. At this time he “let people hear some of his new music,” played by de Hartmann (de Hartmann and de Hartmann 252). Another concern for Work members is that recordings promote listening to many of the pieces in a row. Again, it seems that Gurdjieff himself was not averse to this, as during his trip to New York there were occasions “devoted entirely to music” (253), which implies that a series of pieces were played at the one occasion. Work members argue that listening to a small number of pieces is ideal because one can remain attentive in a short period, though they accept that it is possible to listen attentively for longer if pieces are placed in the right order. For example, according to a Work member, when Jeanne de Salzmann organized programs of ten or so pieces for performances within Work groups she arranged them in a way in which more serious pieces were carefully interspersed with lighter pieces so that changes in mood helped sustain listeners’ attention, and so that the performance was unified and the whole gamut of emotions experienced. It is unclear whether Gurdjieff’s Law of Seven governed this positioning of pieces. One Work member argues that recordings of the music change the atmosphere and meaning originally created by Gurdjieff, and likens this to the fixing of Gurdjieff’s ideas in print. He said that pupils were used to hearing Gurdjieff’s ideas being read aloud until Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous came out, and then the atmosphere, energy, and meaning Gurdjieff created was missed. In a similar way, before Keith Jarrett’s recording no one had heard this music outside of that atmosphere. Recordings are seen as a kind of anti-atmosphere and it is considered sacrilege for the music to be heard in this way. However, this same Work member presented the counter-argument that the music itself has its own meaning and it can be conveyed. He argued that at some point the music needed to be “fixed.” It is interesting that some Work members’ disdain for recordings of the Gurdjieff music extends to all musical recordings, and this stems from Gurd- jieff’s notion, discussed earlier, that music is a “food” that can be “received” consciously and digested in the body. If the music is live, the pianist can connect with the audience at that moment and “transmit” the music’s sub-

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 89 stance directly to the audience.This is articulated by Don Barrett, a Movements pianist, associated with the Gurdjieff Foundation:

You have the highest form of music: improvisation. This is of that moment. Then you descend down the octave to a lower form of music, composition. Chopin and Beethoven improvised, and these were often considered much better than their compositions. The next step down is the performance of other people’s compositions, and the next is recording compositions. With every step down you are losing the spontaneity of the instant expression of the music in that moment. On different days you play the same piece in different ways. The great disadvantage in recordings is that they are always exactly the same. This matters if you are thinking of this music as transmitting something, for example a food that we need. And with an instrument or the voice you get a richness of sound of which the overtones go off to infinity.The very higher, finer parts of the material of the music are there. If you record it on an analogue device, you lose a lot of that and if you record it digitally you lose a lot more. For optimum benefits you need, first and foremost, a good piano that is beautifully tuned, then a reasonable pianist, and of course a live performance. barrett, personal interview

Barrett suggests that Gurdjieff’s music is particularly vulnerable to the recording process because, due to compositional techniques that emphasize the subtleties of overtones, it is especially inclined to “transmit finer substances.” Barrett refers to pauses placed over final chords in hymns, where overtones ring through as these chords die away (Barrett, personal interview). The significance of this technique for Barrett may relate to Gurdjieff’s teachings on “inner octaves,” interpreted by musicians in the Work to mean overtones. Ous- pensky describes “inner octaves” as having “finer substance” which can influence humans (136–137), and in one drawn out musical note there can appear “melodies of ‘inner octaves,’ which are inaudible to the ears but felt by the emotional centre” (297). If one accepts that Gurdjieff’s music taps into the subtle laws of ‘inner octaves,’ then recordings must be considered all the more degrad- ing, as subtleties of overtones are largely lost in the recording process.

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 90 petsche xvii Recordings of the Music and “Work Philosophy” in Light of Scholarship on Cultural Production and Esotericism

It has been shown that Gurdjieff was not interested in cultural production per se, but intended his piano music to be a tool for transforming his pupils spiritually. However, after Gurdjieff’s death Work members were impelled to release Gurdjieff’s music publicly, primarily by way of recordings, to challenge the further release of what were considered less-informed recordings from pianists outside the Work. This was despite the belief by Work members that Gurdjieff’s music does not fulfil its spiritual purpose outside the Work environment. From a “production-of-culture perspective,” Peterson and Anand label an examination of the tensions between the goals of a closed esoteric group and the push by others to produce products from that group, a “synchronic mode of analysis” (676–677). Cultural productions of Gurdjieff’s music organized from within the Work, such as publications of the sheet music and recordings by Work pianists, rely largely on word of mouth and are generally circulated withinWork groups. However, it is ironic that, despite the concerns of Work groups, some of these products, such as Jarrett’s Sacred Hymns or Tsabropoulos and Lech- ner’s Chants, Hymns and Dances, went on to promote Gurdjieff and his music to a mainstream musically-inclined audience. This no doubt led a number of listeners, who were otherwise unaware of Gurdjieff, to join Gurdjieff Work groups. According to Peterson and Anand, a new cultural product’s presence or absence of coverage, rather than its favorable or unfavorable interpretation, is the important variable in terms of public awareness of that product (647). Through these successful recordings the music was brought to public attention, and Gurdjieff has been linked with a much larger audience. The belief that one must experience teachings firsthand from within a group is prominent in esoteric or initiatory circles. Eminent scholar Antoine Faivre gives as a meaning for “esotericism,” “a type of knowledge, emanating from a spiritual center to be attained after transcending the prescribed ways and techniques … that can lead to it” (Faivre 5). Esoteric circles aim to preserve sacred teachings and materials, thus protecting them from “outsiders” who, with no experience of the system, might misinterpret them and at worst, misuse them and/or spread a misconstrued version of the true teachings. Esoteric ideas are traditionally thought to be extremely powerful, even potentially dangerous if exposed to people who do not have the capability to understand them. An additional perspective on this “Work philosophy” is that, through arguing that recordings are meaningless when heard outside the Work, Work members are deliberately “cultivating mystery.” Faivre argues that esotericists knowingly “cultivate mystery,” which “inspires reverie” and “confers a dimension of depth

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 91 on the world and that things too familiar easily lose their attraction” (5). This discussion will be brought to a close with a counter-argument to these esoteric notions by Gurdjieff music researcher Gert-Jan Blom, who argues for the public expression of the music:

Gurdjieffians, particularly those who were present when this music was first composed/ performed, consider this music “sacred.” They argue that this music was created as part of the teaching that they were involved in at the time, and that, as such, it was never intended for use “outside” of The Work, let alone for commercial release to the general public! However, it can also be argued that the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music has been preserved within Work-groups long enough and that it now deserves a chance to speak with its own voice and, hopefully, reach a wider audience. The steady stream of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann related albums that have come out in recent years are confirmation of this development. Lechner and Tsabopoulos’s Chants, Hymns and Dances even reached a Top Ten position in the Billboard Hot 100! This suggests that there is a much larger audience for the Gurdjieff/ de Hartmann music than the mere confines of The Work. Instead, a broader knowledge and availability of this music might awaken people to the other aspects of the teaching. blom, personal interview xviii Music in Work Groups Today

There is no one set way in which Gurdjieff’s piano music is employed in Work groups, though it seems that the music is always played live by a pianist in the Work, and mainly played in two contexts. First, before and after group readings of the writings of Gurdjieff or Ouspensky and second, at the end of a period of Work, be it a day, weekend or week. Barrett states that when the music is played after a period of Work, the music gains additional power; “The quality of the piece is revealed in the context of the work on the self that has gone on the days before. A special inner state achieved over days of work allows the music to touch you in a different way. It touches you in a way that is very different to the way it would if you were listening to a recording of it” (Barrett, personal interview). Members of Work groups unanimously argued that, ideally, before listening to the music one sits quietly in a prepared room in a Work context and senses the body because this prepares one for listening attentively. Only a small number of pieces, carefully selected for that particular occasion, should be played. Some groups have adapted the piano

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access 92 petsche music for instruments played by group members, or for a choir within the group. For example, the piece “Alleluia” is sometimes sung, with the word “Alleluia” repeated throughout. Singing the hymns was a practice begun by Gurdjieff at the Prieuré (de Hartmann and de Hartmann 205) and in the final manuscripts of some hymns there are indications that voice parts were to be added. For example, words appear in the manuscripts of “Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling,” “Hymn to Our Endless Creator,” and “Alleluia.” The manuscript of “Rejoice, Beelzebub!” also indicates that it may have been intended to be sung, as there is a blank page after the music, possibly for words, although none were written (Daly, personal interview). xix Conclusion

To conclude, it has been shown how G. I. Gurdjieff’s piano music of 1925 to 1927, particularly his “hymn” music, is a cultural product that connects intimately with his esoteric ideas in two ways. First, music was considered a vehicle for cultivating the emotional center, just as Gurdjieff’s writings were aimed at the intellectual center and his Movements at the physical center. Pupils understood the piano music to express emotionally the intellectual ideas in Gurdjieff’s writings, leading to a more complete understanding of these ideas. Listening to music also made it possible for pupils to examine the habitual behaviors of the emotional center, with the objective of struggling against these behaviors by listening in a new way. Pupils’ accounts indicate that they were instructed to listen with control, avoiding habitual reactions and identifications. Second, it was shown how through musical devices like meandering melodies, ambiguous harmonies, and irregular rhythmic structures, Gurdjieff demands from listeners attention and patience, keeping listeners “awake” in the moment of listening. His music, like his other methods, aimed at re-educating habitual and mechanical behavior and leading people to higher states of consciousness and to the formation of a soul. Although Gurdjieff showed no signs of wanting his piano music recorded or published, after his death recordings of the music gradually emerged from in and outside the Work, and private publications of the sheet music were organized. When it became clear that the music was being disclosed to the public, a team of musicians from within the Work, led by Jeanne de Salzmann, were impelled to release publicly a “definitive” set of sheet music and corresponding recordings. This made accessible a large quantity of the music to pianists, enabling more diverse recordings of the music. Currently hundreds of these recordings are available, representing the music’s greatest cultural pen-

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 70–95 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 02:23:20AM via free access g. i. gurdjieff’s piano music in and outside “the work” 93 etration into wider society. However, most Work members are critical of these recordings, arguing that the music only has value when experienced live and in a Work context. The belief that one must experience teachings firsthand from within a group is prominent in esoteric or initiatory circles, which aim to preserve sacred teachings and materials and protect them from “outsiders” who may misinterpret or misuse them. Esoteric ideas are traditionally thought to be powerful, even dangerous if exposed to people without the capacity to understand them. This philosophy may further work to “cultivate mystery” and “inspire reverie” (Faivre 5). Regardless of this protective Work philosophy, due to the enthusiasm of musicians in and outside the Work, the very character of the music, and an interested general public, this music has and will continue to reach an audience outside the Work. In fact the music’s emergence into the public seems to have facilitated its preservation in a way that could not be guaranteed within closed Work groups, and this public expo- sure may well represent one of the most effective avenues through which the elusive and obscure figure of Gurdjieff can reach people outside the Work today.

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