The History of the Music

In his autobiography, de Hartmann attributes The Essentuki Prayer to 1918, the first conception of the music for The Struggle of the Magicians to 1919, work on the Ho-Ya and The Great Prayer to 1920, and the remaining Movements music to the period between 1920-1924 when the last pieces were dictated. In de Hartmann's privately published Movements book, he not only included Gurdjieff's earliest music, but also some of his own compositions made after Gurdjieff's death. This has created some confusion. One inconsistency needs explanation.
Although the Six Obligatories actually belong to Gurdjieff's oldest works, they are not included in the selection for this album (Gurdjieff's Music for the Movements, Channel Crossings CCS 15298) simply because de Hartmann places them after the 39 Series in his second Movements book. Some of the music for the newer exercises was composed after Gurdjieff's death by Helen Adie in collaboration with Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, by Edward Michael and several others. De Hartmann's position remains unique, for his contribution provided a compositional framework that was subsequently consulted by all other composers in this field. They stuck to the same concept, sometimes to the extent that they sound predictable, a danger de Hartmann always knew how to avoid.
During the decade that Gurdjieff gave his new exercises and gradually established the 39 Series, not only was the making of choreographic notes explicitly forbidden by him, but another of his strict orders was that the music should be improvised by the pianist. He would give a rhythm to the pianist and his instructions were generally limited to, "Now, just do it!" In fact, it is reported that the choice of a particular rhythm often provided Gurdjieff with the fundamentals out of which he created the whole structure of the new Movement.