Although music can never be reduced to rationality,
even a superficial form-analysis of Gurdjieff's music cannot fall
to show examples in which he represented these laws in a musical format.
After some brief remarks about the music of Gurdjieff and De Hartmann,
two examples will be played and discussed step-by-step: 'Hymn from
a great Temple nr.1' and 'Prayer and Despair'.
Music is a world in itself. Each child, man and woman has his/her
own experience, of irreplaceable value, in this God-given realm. Trying
to improve your understanding of music however, demands discipline.
In this discipline, we have first to define the context of a musical
specimen and then we have to analyse it to the limit of where the
intellectual insight can bring us. Having reached that frontier, we
try to open ourselves completely to the possible emotional meaning
and the reason, in real music always sacred, why this music exists.
'The intellectual approach is only a small part of the total exercise
and should never have an aggressive impact. It should be like studying
a flower, so carefully that it is not damaged.' [1] The interpretations
of the two hymns of Gurdjieff and De Hartmann given here serve only
as an example to encourage others to explore the music their own way.
They indicate a possible way of being open to the music, that is all.
No Interpretation whatsoever can replace music, they present only
passing visions that continually have to be changed and renewed through
new efforts in listening, analysing and playing.
In trying to find examples of Gurdjieff's Laws of Three and Seven,
the danger is of course that we are looking for something we have
already found; the most unscientific approach possible! This is what
the Germans call: 'hineininterpretieren'. It resembles the procedure
of the poor devil who started calculating all night long until his
calculations showed him that he actually was a rich man! I shall try
to avoid that danger as much as possible by splitting up the observations
in 'facts and fantasies'; that means basic textual analysis and subjective
interpretation.
Hymn from a great Temple I
This composition is 'antiphonal' in the extreme. That means it is
in a pure call-response format. This musical practice is widely used
in classical music, but only in a disguised way. In its plain form
it is practised only in folk and religious music, f.i. it is still
alive in New Guinean and African musical traditions. The last influence
can still be detected in spiritual and chain-gang work songs in the
U.S.A. Another variety can be heard in Liturgical chanting; where
the priest chants a short phrase - f.i. Kyrie Eleison - and the community
answers with the same phrase, with a slight melodic modification.
The reason for the extreme antiphonal character of this piece must
be that we are dealing here with a representation on the keyboard
of a Liturgy Ceremony.
I have no doubts whatsoever - based on textual evidence, f.i. the
length, limited range and absence of large intervals - that in this
composition the 'calls' - 6 in total - were sung by a community. Neither
do I have any doubts, although I cannot prove it, that this music
was the result of an impressive effort by Gurdjieff to pass on all
the sounds of a particular liturgy exactly as he remembered them;
including non-musical sounds, like mumbling of prayers, sacred gestures
and the sounding of heavy objects. [3]
The 'response' part is highly characteristic of this hymn. It is a
seven-note pattern in the low bass region that is repeated in the
same form throughout the piece seven times. De Hartmann has emphasised
that each note should be struck with force. Therefore the response
was not chanted. It could be a staccato low growl by one or a few
elderly men, but more likely it is the sound of an unusual heavy and
large stringed instrument. Further in 3 places notes in the lowest
keyboard-region are hit, without any melodic or rhythmic function.
These echo the liturgical sounding of three (!) different large objects;
bells or massive gongs.
To illustrate the musical pattern of this composition I refer to my
graphic representation (illustration 1). I am indebted for this particular
musical notation-system to the inventors of it; Georg Balan and the
directors of the 'Musicosophia' Institute in Germany, who were so
kind to instruct me in its use.
It shows that the ceremony opens and closes with the same musical
statement. In between are the six calls and seven responses. The seven
responses are divided by two highly irregular rhythmic interventions
that each time push the calls higher up in the melodic scale. Much
could be added about this piece, where each note does have a function,
but I have to limit myself in this written account. Obviously it will
be hard to deny a total analogy between the Law of Seven and the musical
structure of this piece, that in all likelihood represents a ceremony
performed to anchor the specific characteristics of this law into
the life of the community.
Prayer and Despair
(second hymn from the album 'Sacred Hymns)
Basic Textual Facts:
'Prayer and Despair' consists of one small melodic formula that is
repeated throughout (hereafter referred to as: 'the formula'). This
form of music is called 'iterative' and is usually associated with
primitive or simple traditional folk music. The formula of this hymn,
however, is not only of an astonishing beauty, but is a mathematical
pattern in which the numbers 3 and 7 are interwoven. It has 3 units,
divided over 7 counts, the first unit being in its turn also divided
in 7 smaller sub-counts. ( see overhead 2)
The composition starts with the statement of the formula in its pure
form, played in the middle region of the instrument. Then it is repeated
a number of times in the bass region, adding more and more embellishments.
[4] This process is repeated 3 times, until an entirely new melodic
influence intervenes, after which the piece ends with the last Statement
of the formula.
Formula + left hand repeats give respectively the numbers 14, 7 and
8, suggesting strongly that the formula itself is part of a greater
cycle of 7.
The 7 subcounts of the first unit of the formula are enlarged in 7
counts of the formula and again enlarged in the 7 (with the one 8
as exception) repeats of the formula. 3 cycles of 7 embedded within
each other.
The formula - in either pure or embellished formal - is repeated 32
times. This chain of repetition is broken up in 3 well-defined places,
where the formula falls apart in a bass line to sustain the melody.
These deviations are melody driven and are indicated below. The most
striking of these is the 32-component [5], where a new melody is coming
in.
Start:
right hand formula; 7-counts
left hand formulas in counts: 8-7-7-7-8-8-7-7-7-8-7-7-4
right hand formula renewed
left hand formulas in counts: 7-7-7-8-7-7
right hand formula renewed
left hand formulas in counts: 7-7-9-6-11-8-7
right hand formula renewed twice
new melodic Intervention in counts: 4-4-32
right hand formula renewed for the last time
end.
In the context of the 'Laws' of Gurdjieff it is of course difficult
to avoid the association between the two break-ups (see above 8 and
9) and the two intervals in the 'Law of Seven' and not to interpret
the 32-component at the end of the piece as a breakthrough of a new
octave. The more so because this whole composition is an extremely
complex labyrinth of musical units of three and seven.
Each time the left hand takes over the formula, a higher placed melody
starts; a long line without any rest or pause; it never breaks or
stops: an 'unending'-melody. It becomes temporarily silent each time
the formula is renewed.
So the composition consists of three basic components: the formula
itself, the variations of the formula in the bass and the melody line.
These are placed in three defined and limited regions of the keyboard
and do not intermingle. These three components suggest to me totally
different atmospheres that, although they do not touch each other,
maintain a balance together, like three planets circling around each
other in a blue sky.
In the middle of the piece the whole delicately balanced construction
is threatened by a flood of left-hand arpeggios. This flood, representing
no doubt the 'despair' component, is brought about by a harmonic shift
in the formula as played in the bass. Instead of the fifth note of
the scale (a) the formula stops, again and again until the end of
the entire composition only at the fourth note (g), creating tension
because the unfinished 'sub-tonic' is denied the harmonic solution
of the 'tonic'.
It is noteworthy that whereas the bass cannot resolve the tension
of the sub-tonic 'g', the formula in the right hand goes on unaltered
- and keeps sounding the resolution-note 'a'. Further it should not
be missed that even after the new melodic Intervention, that sounds
like grace from heaven, the bass cannot raise the 'g' to the 'a' level
and diminish the tension. That leaves the piece with an open end:
the bass is unresolved, the prayer, the 'formula', is in harmony with
itself, but neither 'formula' nor the new melody that sheds its light
and consolation can reach or influence the unfinished state-of-affairs
within the bass-formula.
Interpretation:
With reference to the limitations of any interpretation given earlier
in this article I will quite simply give my vision as stimulated by
the basic facts.
This piece has at least a title - thank God - and therefore we
know that it is about prayer and despair.
The 'formula' represents the inner praying of man. Its sounds resigned,
quietly and withdrawn, in between all the turmoils. It has to be
renewed all the time, has to be continuous.
The unending melody line sounds far off, another world, where creation
is expanding all the time.
The bass line stands for the earth. The first interval occurs;
how remarkable that listeners are not mentally aware that something
is happening, but their feeling and sensation notice a difference.
The bass line continues in a seemingly harmonious state but then......it
reaches the first long held note ('fermate'). This note sounds like
a sombre warning, something is going to happen, tension accumulates,
but we do not know what is going to come. This note is the 'g'.
Would it be accidental that the last 'warning-gong' of the First
Temple Hymn was a 'g' also?
Would it be accidental that g-minor is the tonality that Mozart
exclusively employs for his most desperate moments? [6]
No. This note is a symbol for the unfinished state
of the earth and the suffering caused by that. The despair comes in
like roiling waves that shake the house. But the prayer inside man
is renewed, again and again. Then, after the prayer has been repeated
twice, a heavenly melody breaks through like a ray of sunlight. This
tenderness pervades everything, but the bass sounds again soft, like
a sombre echo, the 'g' as a remembrance that the state of the earth
is not and cannot be altered.
What strikes the most is the inner relation of the three components:
earth - inner prayer - heaven. Only the inner prayer is able to
reach the harmony note 'a', provided this prayer is according to
the intricate pattern of three and seven. This suggest that without
the inner prayer, not only the whole construction would fall apart
but the earth note would have to fall down the scale from 'g' back
to 'd', which means here 'Holy The Firm' below the low end of the
octave. This musical piece becomes unforgettable the moment one
realises that it tells us that only the inner prayer of mankind
keeps this creation in balance.
If one can visualise the mathematical construction while remaining
open towards the emotional impact of this composition, one is overcome
by such awe that all further words stop.
Wim van Dullemen
[1]...Quotation from Uwe Fricke, Director of the Int. School for Education
in Conscious Music Listening, Germany, from a private conversation
'97
[3]...A transcription of sounds in another medium is called 'onomatopoeia',
and I do have reason to believe that they occur in the musical work
of Gurdjieff.
[4]...De Hartmann did not 'bar' this manuscript, which is an unusual
practice.
[5]...Remember that the total repeat of formula is also 32! I doubt
if the slightest note in this piece is accidental and the recurrence
of the number 32 is reminiscent of Bach's famous number trick in the
first prelude of 'Das Wohltemperierte Klavier' .
[6]...Misha Donat 'Mozart's Piano Concertos' 1993, included in the
Philips-cassette of the piano performances by Mitsuko Uchida.
Hymn from a great Temple I
The Formula:
consits of: 3 units and 7 counts
first unit consists of: 7 counts
Architecture of the 'magnified' formula: 3 concentric circles:
first seven counts form one unit in seven counts; these seven counts
form one count in a greater cycle of seven counts.
Architecture of whole composition:
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