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Newsletter 1/2003
New Sheet Music
by Wim van Dullemen
Feelings and thoughts evoked by Schott’s publication
of Volume III of the Gurdjieff-De Hartmann music for the piano
This article consists of what I can remember of my own feelings
and thoughts evoked in me by the recent publication of this
album of sheet music. Actually, those feelings and thoughts
came to me while driving from Amsterdam to Berlin.
Looking at the new blue album, lying next to me on the passenger
seat, I felt glad. I knew I was just one of the many, many
musicians who had eagerly looked forward to this new album.
And its long delay, the intended release was scheduled in
1998, was at once forgotten! ‘Look what happened’
I said to myself joyfully, ‘the most important music
publishing house in the world has added these compositions
to its list of published music, a list that includes the collected
works of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner! Who would have believed
this at the time I started playing this music. But really,
this is the place where those composers belong.’ And
I felt proud, driving my car through deserted streets in the
darkness of the early morning. A quick glance through its
contents had already assured me that the quality of this new
album was of the same high level as the previous ones. The
inspired work of the preparing committee, guided by Thomas
Daly, guarantees that even the most minute details have been
taken care of and that the final printed version is the result
of studying and comparing all existing sources.
‘This book is a real treasure’ it resounded in
me, while steering my car from the streets of the town onto
the large highway heading east. At this time of the morning,
only the heavy sounds of an occasional truck could be heard.
‘I would not know any other twentieth-century compositions
for piano with the same depth, the same powerful capacity
to create silence in me, trust, and above all the longing
to become myself.’ And that is what I need, because
again and again I am swept out of myself, losing the thread
of my own existence.
’No other composer? Now wait a minute... What about
Bartok, his songs of mourning?’ When driving on a lonely
highway, it is easy to talk aloud by yourself without anybody
thinking that you are crazy. ‘Well ok..... that is high
quality too’ I argued with myself, ‘and he even
used the same harmonisations as De Hartmann, but somehow or
other it is more musical, while the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann
music seems to be not only music, something seems to be added’.
An old memory came up. A pupil of Gurdjieff once explained
to me, while we were sitting somewhere in the Swiss Alps:
‘Gurdjieff was not a musician, but he knew music, he
knew it from the inside’. For me, that is as far as
words can go, describing Gurdjieff’s and De Hartmann’s
music. By association, Bartok’s name called up another
image in my memory. I heard my piano teacher, long ago, playing
a fast dance from the Microcosmos collection. I just stood
and listened. It was one of those moments in which Time seems
to hold its breath. My teacher was a friend of Bartok and
the music touched me to the very bone. The car’s speed
swept an endless row of black trees on the side of the road
through an unusually large yellow moon, hollowed out by the
shadow of the earth.
A necessary project: a reliable catalogue
of the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann music
Passing the border, I noticed a car of the German Highway
Patrol checking every car entering Germany. They did not bother
to pay attention to me. Why do I have to feel guilty when
I see police? Stupid feelings, always repeat themselves without
any reason, and they quite obviously have done so ever since
childhood! Now some hundred more kilometres to go before I
reach my favourite stop, a little wayside restaurant serving
excellent cappuccino 24 hours a day. Just thinking about that
coffee keeps me on the road for a while!
‘Yes, back to business, where were we, what can I add
to my article’ I thought. ‘Should I discuss my
hobbyhorse: The Missing Catalogue?’ The talking in myself
continued: ‘Who the hell cares anyway, isn‘t this
catalogue thing becoming an obsession? Well, the hell it isn’t!’
The internal discussion was becoming quite heated. ‘Isn’t
it idiotic enough already that the world had to wait 75 years
before this music became available for everybody? And isn‘t
it equally absurd that even now an overview of all the musical
works of Gurdjieff and De Hartmann still doesn‘t exist?‘
I remembered my earlier attempts, now obsolete, of compiling
a catalogue of this music myself, because nobody else did
it. Frustrating work, because only bits and pieces of information
were available and the outlines of this musical oeuvre became
visible only very slowly. The title chaos, for instance, still
continues. Even in these hymns now published, and them forming
the simplest part in this respect, there are many examples.
The title Essene Hymn caught my attention. What piece could
that be? Ah...that piece was recorded in the well-known 23
Pieces for Piano, but in that selection it is called Hymn
for Christmas, while in the equally well-known Triangle CDs,
De Hartmann plays an Essene Hymn as well, but that again is
another piece, a third one, which will be published in the
last Volume by Schott where it is called Hymn from a Great
Temple number 10. If you cannot follow all this, you are forgiven.
Fact remains that a clear and concise overview of these important
musical works is needed.
’Couldn‘t the Schott editions themselves function
as an overview?’, I heard myself ask. And I did not
have to wait long for my answer: ‘Of course not, first
of all the Schott editions will not represent the total body
of works by Gurdjieff and De Hartmann written for piano. They
will be far from complete. Not only is the music for the Movements
left out, a number of other pieces is also not included, for
reasons that I do not know.’
’Let’s calculate: the three albums now published
by Schott have a total of 164 compositions, while the copyright
list made for Janus in 1950 lists no fewer than 237 pieces
already, and that does not even include very many of the Movements
compositions. The fourth, and last, Schott Volume will contain
22 pieces (The Hymns of a Great Temple series, The Struggle
of the Magicians Fragments and some more, like the Initiation
of a Priestess ). A substantial part of the oeuvre, in fact
some thirty percent, will not be published by Schott at all.
So how could the Schott albums function as a catalogue? And
this is not to mention the ‘title chaos‘. Somebody
should make a good list, providing all titles and dates as
well.
Vaguely remembering that our Movements Foundation has the
work on such a projects, for both music and Movements, as
one of its aims, I quickly dismiss any future possibility
of that dreadful and frustrating work, and take the turn to
the wayside side restaurant. I earned that good cappuccino
at last, and quickly decide for the compromise that for the
time being the Schott albums should function as a sort of
catalogue, something being better than nothing.
It is obligatory for anybody trying
to play this sheet music to hear and study Thomas de Hartmann
playing his own compositions?
‘Coffee Machine temporarily out of order’ was
written in big letters all over the machine, and another handwriting
informs me that: ‘don’t think we will make coffee
for you any other way!!’ My inner world loses its coherence
‘temporarily’ and I have to drive on, without
coffee. I forget my martyrdom, as well as my inner slave who
keeps mumbling ‘coffee please, coffee please’
when I see the sun rising above the horizon, in all its splendour.
More and more trucks have joined me now, together we are climbing
uphill into the Wiesen Hills and Mountains. I cannot think
of any music now, I am afraid of icy roads on this altitude
and listen as well as I can to the sounds of the tyres on
the road to detect ice. I want to arrive home safe and sound
and remember that in life, nothing is predictable, I too can
have an accident, and many people do.
Leaving the hills behind me, my article comes back fortissimo.
‘I have to stress how important it is for anybody interested
in playing this music to hear De Hartmann play himself. I
really don’t think that studying the sheet music is
enough, you have to hear De Hartmann’s own interpretations’.
Many pianist have played the hymns in this new volume, but
De Hartmann’s own playing is by far the best reference.
Like a compass, that shows how to direct our efforts. Fortunately
the 3-CD set, originally from Triangle, with recordings of
De Hartmann playing can be bought from our own website.
And there is another reason for studying his playing. He
does not stick to the written music, he demonstrates an inner
freedom, a tendency towards creation and improvisation. The
committee that prepared the album recognises this and, at
the end, three transcriptions of these freely played hymns,
as a contrast with the original sheet music are provided.
But many, many more could be given. I have understood that
an enormous number of recordings of De Hartmann playing this
music exists, and I really hope that more selections will
be made available to the general public. I think that this
is a necessity for the pianists aspiring to play these works.
Arriving in former Eastern Germany, I have some 200 more
kilometres to go, almost no cities, just snow-covered trees,
silence. I think about the following problem:
A difficult one: if De Hartmann plays
with full inspiration and yet ignores or changes his own sheet
music, what should have preference: his own interpretation
or the sheet music in the album?
An example: Easter Hymn, the second system has a sudden change
at the end from ff to pp. I have two recordings of De Hartmann
playing this piece. In the first, he plays exactly what is
on the sheet music. But in the second, he just pounds out
the pp-section with triple Forte! Why?? Did he not see the
pp-sign the first time? Was he carried away by his own music?
To me the fff sounds much more convincing.
Now if I am performing this piece, what am I going to do?
The most acceptable guideline seems to be that De Hartmann
is more a composer than a performer. While playing a piece,
he was listening to his most inner responses. His musical
sensitivities and intuitions mixed with his memories of the
actual structure of the piece, which he was thus recreating.
No doubt, the music evoked in him emotional and conscious
memories of Gurdjieff, and those who have read his autobiography,
as well as the unpublished autobiography of his wife (What
for? ) know how significant and crucial these were to him.
Another example: The hymn of 14 February 1926. Clear differences
with the recording on the Triangle CDs, but to me these are
improvements, and any performance of 'just' the sheet music
would sound dull in comparison. I will certainly take the
recorded version if I would play this piece.
Why? Because I think, it is just because of those contradictions
that we come closer to the mystery of this music. We can hear
and follow De Hartmann’s musical sensitivities and how
these translate into immediate musical responses. In fact,
we advance more towards the creative process, or better said,
the MYSTERY of the creation of this music. To a certain extent,
I am convinced that even we, when we play this album, should
be on the same line as De Hartmann.. We too have to listen
to the flow of our musical associations, rather than just
look at the sheet music. De Hartmann himself convinces us.
What he seems to tell us is: ‘listen inwardly, feel
the music, and only then: play!’
Gurdjieff’s music is an organic part of his whole teaching:
oral teaching, books, music and movements
While driving that endless road to the east , the low winter
sun now right in front of me and blinding me all the time,
a funny thought came to me: ‘Can an atheist sing a Gregorian
song convincingly?’
Let me explain this weird question: Gurdjieff’s music
was composed for people who worked. This means for those who
practised his teaching. It is not different now. This music
resounds in our inner life, and yes, I do think that you have
to try to live Gurdjieff‘s Work to fully understand
this music.
Because his music was in integral part of his teaching, my
last point, and probably most serious criticism on this last
Schott Volume, is that the link between Gurdjieff‘s
books and music seems to be lost.
In Gurdjieff‘s music, his ideas are realised emotionally
while in his books they are realised intellectually. They
were meant to be complementary
Several authentic sources confirm the above statement (Zigrosser,
Orage, Bennett ).
Gurdjieff thought that his books could be understood better
if the emotions were tuned into them. For that reason, he
composed music to be played before and after reading of his
books. It is such a pity that we know so little about the
possible connections between certain compositions and chapters
from Gurdjieff’s books.
Our own experiments combining music with reading gave excellent
results. We can recommend this procedure to every serious
student of All and Everything.
Then, my car entered Berlin. From one second to the other,
you exchange a large highway for an old beautiful lane, full
with trees. The Berlin trees always welcome me after my long
drive, they make me feel good.
If you want to buy
the sheet music
please visit our shop
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