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Gurdjieff International Review

Thomas de Hartmann

1886–1956


Thomas de Hartmann was born in the Ukraine and was already an acclaimed composer in Russia when he first met Gurdjieff. He spent the years 1917–1929 as a pupil and confidant of Gurdjieff where at the Prieuré, he collaborated with Gurdjieff to compose the musical work that continues to inspire to this day. He later was one of the founding members of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York.

Thomas de Hartmann: A Composer’s Life

By his early twenties, Thomas de Hartmann was one of the best-known living composers in all of Russia. This informative biography of de Hartmann by John Mangan, the Dean of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University, is reprinted from Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, by permission of the Music Library Association.

On Thomas de Hartmann

This biographical sketch by Thomas C. Daly and Thomas A. G. Daly was originally published in Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff: Definitive Edition, London: Penguin Arkana, 1992, 277p.

Music: Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff

Written by Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, this account of the musical collaboration between Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann was first published as Chapter 25 of Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff: Definitive Edition.

Music Manuscript Sample Page

This first page of Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling is taken from de Hartmann’s music manuscripts. It is also partially reproduced in the Triangle Editions record album and CD notes. Besides showing de Hartmann’s elegant music calligraphy, it contains his English handwriting, and connects to expressions used in Beelzebub’s Tales.

A Talk by Mr. de Hartmann: Attention—Wish—Will—Free Will

Tom Daly read Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous on its publication in 1949, then had the good fortune to meet and befriend the de Hartmanns while they were living near Montreal in 1951. First published here, he describes the setting and impact of Thomas de Hartmann’s 1954 talk to the then fledgling Toronto group.

On Listening to the Gurdjieff / de Hartmann Music

This anonymous commentary was written for the Gurdjieff International Review by a senior member of the Gurdjieff Society in London. For the author “it became apparent that for music to say what it had to say depended as much on the listening as what was listened to.”

The Sound of Gurdjieff

This essay by Laurence Rosenthal was originally published in Parabola Magazine, Volume XI (3) 1985, as a review of the four-record album brought out by Triangle Editions in 1985. Reprinted with kind permission of Parabola and the author.

Attention Is Absolutely Indispensable

“Mr. Gurdjieff made it clear that if we didn’t study attention—not study in the ordinary way, but putting all our attention on developing that attention—we would arrive nowhere.”

Discography

An inventory of recorded Gurdjieff / de Hartmann music is summarized.

This webpage © 2015 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing
Revision: October 25, 2015