THE MUSIC OF GURDJIEFF-HARMONIC DEVELOPMENT

'HARMONIC DEVELOPMENT' describes the 1948-1949 recordings of G.I.GURDJIEFF playing the Harmonium, a much forgotten and neglected instrument these days. Aside from his playing certain 'tunes', his actual voice is also heard during these special sessions that set up certain 'vibes' in their listeners...to give such a modern twist for contemporary persons who claim to like 'music'.... I spent all weekend listening to to these recordings,some similar ones selected from this group apparently but redone differently, and a CD, featuring a singer and a piano player, of GURDJIEFF'S HYMNS & PRAYERS. Hearing the voices of people now long dead can be an experience in itself.....different from watching old movies of long dead actors, however,unless we knew them personally. I sometimes listen to recorded phone calls with deceased friends and associates that I have when I have time and inclination).However, I wish these recordings had been available to be before now but, even so, they will, after long sessions listening to them,convey impresssions and focus vibrations which are part of the Science of Harmonics. Of particular interest to me were the 'thumpings' or'beats' Gurdjieff did or gave at teh end of some of the pieces on the wood of the Harmonium with his hand(s). These 'struck a chord' with me because the pattern, the rhythm, is one I tend to do when beating my palms or drumming on wood, tables, or other surfaces. This gave me pause to reflect on why I have done this since a child until now at certain times. Some claim that Gurdjieff is giving or was giving, as he is now dead, a message or a 'code' but I suspect it was done to wake up the listeneers, the group,the audience, those 'present',etc. from their 'journey' from the atmosphere created by him,etc. and to re-enforce the vibrations apart from the instrument-that the vibrations of this sort are not needed to create the rhythms or vibrations found in ourselves and in the Universe...that an instrument only serves to focus and channel them or make them audible and so on.....but that is my own speculation... GURDJIEFF'S LAUGHTER, and also that of those with him,and his voice give a different aspect to the teachings as read from the books he wrote or,for that matter, from that of books others have written in an attempt to explain, expound, or elucidate the Work in some way, even their personal accounts and reactions to such....... You sense that all these are present in Gurdjieff, that is, the teachings and wisdom he brought are all in him: experienced by him, are alive in him rather than imagined or fantasized like those of others.....but this is difficult to express or explain and has to be intuitively grasped when in the process of listening to his voice.....which makes one wish he had read ALL AND EVERYTHING himself and had it recorded with his own voice.....too bad there are not any hidden recordings of such somewhere.... When I thought of all this I had not as yet listened to the orchestral music of 1923-1924 called 'ORIENTAL SUITE' because I wished to let the Harmonium Musice make an impact on me,an impression/influence of some kind and to resonate in my centers in hopes that any of them will awaken and become aware even if only briefly......