MUSIC BY GURDJIEFF, BACK TO THE ROOTS

Gurdjieff Foundation

October 25, 2011

(Classical Detours meanders through stylistic byways, exploring new
recordings from the fringes of classical music.)

A new album, directed by Levon Eskenian, sets music by the spiritual
leader and composer G. I. Gurdjieff for traditional Eastern
instruments.

Many westerners (me included) had never heard of George Ivanovich
Gurdjieff until the early 1980s when pianist Keith Jarrett released
Sacred Hymns, a rather austere but beautiful album devoted to
Gurdjieff’s music.

After I first heard those Eastern-tinged melodies, a little research
revealed that Gurdjieff was much more than a composer. He was in fact
a major spiritual leader, philosopher, author and traveler who was
born sometime around 1866 in the Russian city Alexandropol, which is
now Gyumri, Armenia.

Gurdjieff was very much a “who am I, why am I here?” kind of guy. To
seek his answers, he traveled to many places in the Middle East,
Central Asia, India and North Africa, absorbing a vast range of
musical styles along the way.

After roaming the East for years, Gurdjieff switched to the West in
the 1920s and set up one of his teaching centers in Paris, calling it
the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. He also focused
on his music, dictating over 300 pieces to Russian composer Thomas
de Hartmann, one of his many pupils.

Over the years, Gurdjieff’s music has been heard in various guises and
instrumentation, but this new release, Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff,
brings the composer’s music back to its folk roots, thanks to Armenian
musician Levon Eskenian.

In playing and listening to the music, Eskenian found that many of
Gurdjieff’s pieces sounded familiar to him from music he heard in his
childhood in the Middle East and Armenia. In his head, he kept hearing
the melodies performed on traditional folk instruments – and that’s
what inspired him to form the Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress