Download dossier

Ensemble Sarband
Journeys to Unreachable Places
G. I. Gurdjieff's mystical music meets the Whirling Dervishes
Mustafa Doğan Dikmen: Voice / Celaleddin Biçer: Ney & Kanun / Christopher
Miltenberger: Piano / "Ahmet Kadri Rizeli: Kemençe / Uğur Işık: Cello / Vladimir Ivanoff:
Percussion, Arrangements, Musical Director / "Judith Haug: Projections / İbrahim Birlikay,
Metin Erkuş: Mevlevi Dervishes
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (?-1949) is one of the most colorful and enigmatic
personalities in the spiritual scene of the early 20th century.
He was probably born between 1866 and 1877 in what was then the border area of Turkey
and Russia. His origin and many years of his life have remained undocumented, as
Gurdjieff was known to make up stories and people. Nevertheless, he might actually have
undertaken several of his journeys through Asia and Northern Africa, during which he
came in contact with many different esoteric schools, mainly Sufi orders. It is certain that
he returned to Europe at the very beginning of the 20th century, bringing with him
knowledge that had been widely unfamiliar there before as well as teachings based upon
the experiences and cognitions gained during his travels. He started teaching in Moscow
and St. Petersburg, but in 1918 he had to flee in the course of the Revolution and reached
France after an adventurous odyssey together with a group of his students. Near
Fontainebleau in the surroundings of Paris he founded his “Institute for the Harmonious
Development of Mankind”. In 1933, Gurdjieff moved to Paris, where he continued
teaching until his death in 1949 and composed extensive writings. Between 1924 and 1927,
Gurdjieff created many works for piano - together with the composer and pianist Thomas
de Hartmann -, for the most part based upon his spiritual and musical impressions
brought back from his journeys.
“I had a very difficult and trying time with this music. Mr Gurdjieff sometimes whistled or played
on the piano with one finger a very complicated sort of melody—as are all Eastern melodies,
although they seem at first to be monotonous. To grasp this melody, to transcribe it in European
notation, required a tour de force.” (Thomas de Hartmann).
Thomas Alexandrovitch de Hartmann (1885-1956) was born near Kiev, graduated from the
conservatory of St. Petersburg in 1908, studied with Felix Mottl, then musical director of
the Munich Opera House, until 1912 and was a member of the artist community “Blauer
Reiter” together with his friend Vassily Kandinsky. In 1916, he accompanied Gurdjieff on
an adventurous journey that finally led them to France. There he worked as a composer
and became a close friend of Pablo Casals. After Gurdjieff’s death he promoted his
teachings in the USA.
Gurdjieff’s teachings contain mystical elements of Sufism, Buddhism, Christianity, Gnosis,
Zoroastrism and the Cabbala. His summons was radical: “Awake! Awake from your
unsuspected hypnotic sleep, rise to awareness and conscience!” Exactly this call is one of
the most important foundations of Sufism. In 1920, Gurdjieff moved into an Istanbul
apartment together with his pupil and musical partner, Thomas de Hartmann, which lay
in direct neighborhood to the Mevlevi Dervishes’ meeting hall in the quarter of Galata.
Almost every day they witnessed this Sufi order's ritual of music and dance, and thus
absorbed decisive spiritual and musical impressions that later became part of their ritual
choreographies and piano compositions.
Even though some of them are even composed for piano and obbligato frame drum
(bendir), the “Danses Derviche”, “Chants et Danses Sayyid” and “Mélodies Orientales”
are no slavish imitations of traditional ethnic music. Gurdjieff and de Hartmann
transformed the archetypes of ancient Eastern spiritual and musical traditions for the
West's archetypical instrument, the piano, in order to answer questions that can only be
faced by East and West jointly. Our “Retour de Voyage” unites piano, traditional music
from the Mevlevi Sema and the whirling of the Dervishes from the Golden Horn, that had
inspired Gurdjieff and de Hartmann already a century ago, in an East-Western ritual for
the cathedral of post-modern faith: the concert hall.
Press reviews
“… great interest and enthusiastic applause … a glance into a distant yet very near
world.” – Thomas Ahnert, Saale Zeitung (Germany), 11.01.2011
“Part of the audience… lost themselves in the exotic music, while others marvelled at this
insight into an unfamiliar religious world. … applause lasted several minutes.”
– Angelika Silberbach, Mainpost (Germany), 11.01.2011
Technical Rider
Stage:
- 5 chairs without arm rests
- 1 piano bench
- 5 music stands
- grand piano
Lighting / projection:
- video projector
- screen: ratio 4:3
Contact
Sarband / Dr. Vladimir Ivanoff
Orionstrasse 2
D-85716 Unterschleissheim / Germany
Tel.: +49 89 272 42 43
Mob.: +49 172 8638799
e-Mail: [email protected]