GURDJIEFF/de HARTMANN SACRED MUSIC

Three hundred musical compositions for the piano were composed by Mr. Gurdjieff in collaboration with Thomas de Hartmann during a three-year period in the 1920's. These pieces encompass a broad spectrum, ranging from light-hearted folk melodies to chants and dances inspired by dervish orders of the Near East and Central Asia, and sacred hymns and prayers drawing upon Orthodox Christian traditions. Thus both Eastern and Western influences merge in this unique body of music. To the receptive listener these compositions evoke another world, providing nourishment finer and more subtle than can be accessed through words, for contact with unknown higher parts of oneself.

“It is the consistency and objectivity of his (Gurdjieff’s) essential tone that is so compelling. Whether in a delicate dance, a soulful song, or an uncompromisingly stark hymn, one hears always his call to return to and confront one’s inmost being.”

Laurence Rosenthal