Newsletter 1/2006

New Publication by Schott
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Music for the Piano
Edition 4
Hymns from a Great Temple, and other Selected Works
Composer: Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff - Thomas de Hartmann
Editor: Tom C. Daly - Linda Daniel - Charles Ketcham - Laurence Rosenthal
Instrumentation: Piano


Schott, one of the world’s leading publishers of classical music, recently published their last and definitive album dedicated to the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann sheet music: Gurdjieff-De Hartmann, music for the piano, Album number four: “Hymns from a Great Temple and other selected Works” Schott - International (Mainz, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Tokyo,Toronto), Catalogue number: ED 7844
Referring to my earlier article in Newsletter 1/2003, I confirm that this last album is an absolute must for everyone interested in the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann music. It contains key material from their musical heritage, pieces of an almost unearthtly beauty. What’s more, even pianists with limited technical abilities, like myself, will have sufficient access to this material for enriching their musical understanding, and so, their lives.
Those who already have the earlier, privately published albums by De Hartmann, of around 1950, and those published by his widow in 1970, should note that this album does include several important pieces never published before, notably the Struggle of the Magicians cycle. Furher, they will find a wealth of details in the critical notes. Reading and studying these notes is a “sine qua non” for a relevant understanding and performance of these pieces.
We have all reasons to be grateful to Thomas Daly and his committee (who worked on the edition for Schott), for their painstakingly precise work, resulting in another magnificent album of music, in which at least two masterworks of Gurdjieff/De Hartmann are represented: the cycles “Hymns of a Great Temple” and the “Fragments from the Struggle of the Magicians”. These cycles alone can be the source for a long creative research into the realm of ritual and meditative music. Although the pieces in themselves seem relatively simple, new shades of musical meaning will continuously manifest themselves for those interested in the precious and intricate interrelation of sound, feeling and awareness.
Apart from my obvious joy that Schott’s committee, under guidance of Thomas Daly, has now completed their work, opening a significant part of the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann musical heritage to anyone interested, I must admit that in my eyes, the situation regarding this music is still far from ideal. I regret, for instance, that eighty years after the composition of this music, there is not even a simple and straightforward catalogue of their oeuvre.
Further, the four Schott albums by no means cover the whole oeuvre of these composers. My rough estimate would be that at least sixty to seventy pieces still remain unpublished and the criteria of selection remain unclear to me. Equally confusing is the selection of the music composed for the Movements. Some of these pieces have been included, like the “Initiation of a priestess”, “Big Group” and “Women‘s Prayer”. Why the majority of these pieces are excluded, among which highlights of the whole oeuvre, like the music for the Great Prayer, is unclear.
Perhaps one reason is that De Hartmann in the fifties, when he recorded many of these compositions, never played Movements pieces. Whatever the reasons, I do hope they have nothing to do with so-called “esoteric” considerations. These have already harmed the Gurdjieff heritage enough by now.
My dear reader, by no means let yourself be influenced by my last critical remarks. Buy this album as soon as possible and, as said above, enrich your life with it.

Wim van Dullemen, Berlin, February 2006