|
'GURDJIEFF'S MOVEMENTS' Film |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Gurdjieff's Movements' Book
|
|
Book Name Gurdjieff’s Movements: The pattern of all and everything
Author Wim van Dullemen
Book Contents Preface Part 1 – Background 1. Georg Ivanovitch Gurdjieff 2. Inventory and Classification of Gurdjieff’s Legacy 3. Gurdjieff’s Conveyance of his Teaching 4. The ‘Struggle of the Magicians’ 5. Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson 6. Gurdjieff’s Final Years, his Death and the Succession 7. Regarding ‘Gurdjieff Groups’ 8. The Flip Side 9. Gurdjieff’s Teachings 10. The Two Rudimentary Elements 11. Music by Gurdjieff/De Hartmann 12. Objectivity and Subjectivity in Art
Part 2 – Gurdjieff’s Movements 13 . What are Movements? 14 . My First Experience with Movements 15. The Soul of a Doll 16. The Discovery of ‘The Great Prayer’ 17. The Chronological Triptych 18. Traditional Dances and Gurdjieff’s own Creations 19. The Music for the Movements 20. Historical Performances and Film Registrations 21. The Transmission of Movements after Gurdjieff’s death 22. Possibilities and Impossibilities of Choreographs 23. Recent Developments
About the film Addendum I Addendum II
A Few Highlights An old lady, seated at the piano, more elderly than her, hammered out a strange, almost hypnotic melody, as she desperately searched for the right keys. The movements my body performed while hearing this music had a sudden effect on me. It was as if a blinding light filled everything in the dance hall, including me, and I was convinced that I had stumbled across something of incredible meaning and power. That was my first encounter with Gurdjieff’s Movements.
That was the part of the interview in which Ms Claustres clearly explained what the Movements involve. It is important to me that the answer to the question of what Movements are was given by one of Gurdjieff’s pupils who received years of instruction in his classes and subsequently devoted her life, alongside her psychoanalytical practice, to the teaching of Movements. She was a talented interpreter, which is clear from the fact that Gurdjieff, when he was absent due to travelling, entrusted his class to her many times and from her place in the front row of Gurdjieff’s class during performances or film recordings after his death. At the moment that she came into contact with Movements she was well prepared: not only had she attained a ‘Premier Prix piano’ at a college of music, but she also had a black belt and seventh Dan in judo. (p.142).
This raises the question of whether or not there is a hierarchy of Movements, in other words are Movements from a certain period more important than Movements from another. Jeanne de Salzmann has answered this question with her selection for the film recordings. Dushka Howarth agreed with her mother that the ‘old’ Movements ranked the highest, because they are accompanied by Gurdjieff’s own music and above all have remained better intact. Others have a higher opinion of the ‘39’ series. This is not surprising, because the accompanying music for this series was written by Thomas de Hartmann, admittedly after Gurdjieff’s death, but no other musician who wrote music for Movements had such unique experience of Gurdjieff, or such compositional skills. Besides, (p.176).
Solange Claustres has captured this splendidly. ‘When Gurdjieff travelled to the United States and asked me to take over his classes, there was still no music written for a number of the Movements and he instructed me to improvise the music during the lessons. This was far from easy, but it taught me a lot about the function of the music. It is absolutely not an ‘accompaniment’ but a living component of the inner work that takes place in the class. The sound determines everything; it has to compliment the inner process that the movements have evoked.’ (p.210).
|
|
|
|
|