The Earlier and the Later Movements

Gurdjieff created his Movements in two periods of his life: the first from 1918 until 1924, the year of his almost fatal car accident, and the second from 1939 until his death in 1949. The earlier ones were performed on stage in 1923 in Paris and in 1924 in America and consisted of obligatory exercises, work dances, dervish dances, a group of women's dances and several elaborate prayer rituals and ceremonies.
During the last decade of his life, Gurdjieff organised Movements classes for different groups almost every day and gave scores of new Movements and exercises until his death in 1949. In this period, he created what became known as the "39 Series."
An important difference between the old Movements and the new exercises is in their musical accompaniment. Gurdjieff composed the music for his early Movements in co-operation with Thomas de Hartmann. The music for the 39 Series was composed by de Hartmann after Gurdjieff's death. This time he had to compose alone, without Gurdjieff's guidance, but he used the same style as in his earlier musical co-operation with him.
Although there were two main periods for the creation of the Movements, we find it useful to divide them into three categories: