Music of Georges I Gurdjieff

This is a fabulous collection of Armenian and Middle Eastern folk music with a fascinating story behind it. The tunes were composed by Georges Gurdjieff, best known as a mystic philosopher and author of Meetings with Remarkable Men, turned into a film by Peter Brook. But Gurdjieff was also a composer who dictated his music to his pupil Thomas de Hartmann (presumably because he was unable to notate it himself). Gurdjieff was born in Armenia, but travelled widely in the Middle East and became fascinated with the traditional music he heard. In 1920 he was in Istanbul, living close to the Mevlevi meeting place in Galata and ‘Sayyid Chant and Dance No 29’ on this disc is very reminiscent of the Whirling Dervish music he would have heard there. So this CD is a something like what Muzsikás did on their Bartók Album, using his compositions to recreate the sort of music he would have heard and collected. It's been arranged by Levon Eskenian for his Yerevan-based group called The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble including plaintive duduks (Armenian oboes), oud (lute), tar (lute), kamancheh (fiddle), kanun (zither), blul (flute) and tombak (drum). A lot of the music comes from Gurdjieff's native Armenia, notably the opening ‘Chant from a Holy Book’, a plangent, spiritual duduk tune and a gorgeous Armenian song. Another track named ‘Assyrian Women Mourners’ is arranged for four duduks and frame drum, confirming what Djivan Gasparyan once told me about duduks being used for funerals in Armenia. Two of the most delightful tracks are enigmatically called ‘No.11’ and ‘No.40’, arrangements from a collection called ‘Asian Songs & Rhythms’, and have a spontaneous, improvisatory quality, while ‘Caucasian Dance’ has all the verve of the mountain music of Georgia and Armenia. A remarkable work.