Newsletter 2/2004
A few reflections on the collected
soundtracks of Gurdjieff‘s harmonium-playing and voice
by Wim van Dullemen
After years of hard and dedicated work an independent researcher seems now to
have finished a task that, given the circumstances, could be qualified as next
to impossible;
the collecting and publishing of all the tape-recordings made in Gurdjieff‘s
private atmosphere during the last years of his life.
This researcher is Gert Jan Blom without whose diligence, musical competence
and political gifts this work could not have been completed. Although I have
not seen the end result yet , I have heard and seen enough of the whole project
to be able to have a few personal reflections on the subject.
The recordings and especially Blom‘s ‚diary-approach‘ represent
a definite advance in the ongoing Gurdjieff - research, as well as a crucial
step in the availability of the Master‘s music.
All this contrasts sharply with the ever growing number of books and articles
who with very few exceptions - as such can be named the excellent works of Paul
Beekman Taylor- are at best speculations or at worst just another mix of the
same old quotes.
The material presented here is historical and as such hard rock in a sea of vague
assumptions and biased subjective views. The sound-tracks offer examples of Gurdjieff‘s
voice, even a few long explanations of his.
To hear his voice is a direct experience for which it is difficult to find words,
but just hearing it conveys something of the man that nothing else can convey.
People sometimes asked me, when talking about these sound-tracks, what his voice
was like and , not being able to find a better description, I liked to compare
it with the voices of old fishermen sitting at night in the local harbour-pub
- just outside the sound of the waves - and talking together , slow and with
absolute honesty and simpleness, of course drinking their ‚jenever‘.
Another phenomenon that happened to me while hearing his longer talks was that
I understood again in a new way how strong his influence on those around him
must have been. This timing and phrase- melody was nothing new to me, I had heard
it already countless times by his direct pupils, all of whom talked in the same
manner, that means they all copied, probably unconsciously, the way the melody
in the phrase is suspended and, mostly at the end, comes up slightly in tonality.
Through this project everybody interested in Gurdjieff‘s teaching can now
finally hear him talk and expose his ideas himself . This sure is a great gift,
and Gert Jan Blom deserves our gratitude for this .
Gurdjieff‘s harmonium playing will prove to be a more difficult and controversial
subject than his talks. At least this is what it is for me. I have known this
music for decades and perhaps this gives me the right to formulate my own opinion.
Let us use an analogy first. A photograph can transmit direct and useful information,
but it can also provide an image that has no significance for anybody outside
a small circle personally acquinted with the subject. In this way an old photograph
of a woman that we find at a flea-market can only have a vague meaning for us,
while for her children the very same photograph provides a wealth of memory and
feeling.
For me it is the same with Gurdjieff‘s harmonium-music. To me it seems
to be more of a personal , intimate and private memory than real music. That
means than music structured in the way to enable it to reach others. In this
case those not directly involved in the experience of hearing Gurdjieff play,
who were not themselves present during those long evenings and nights, filled
with all kinds of experiences and usually concluded with his harmonium-playing.
There is a difference between intimate personal memories and art.
If we really want to appreciate Gurdjief‘s musical genius we have to listen
to the way De Hartmann has heard it and has prepared it for us to be able to
understand it. That is art and I must add that the lack of structure in Gurdjieff's
harmonium playing is disappointing to me personally, but nevertheless would like
to conclude my reflections quoting Solange Claustres (1) :
‚
I was personally present when Gurdjieff took his small harmonium and improvised
music which evoked the sense of a story, a a legend, poetry itself, a prayer
or an appeal to develop more feeling. These improvisations had a sweetness which
no language could ever express so directly and surely.‘
Wim van Dullemen, Berlin november 2004
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