Some Moments with Gurdjieff

Hi Craig, thanks for the link. What strikes me about the video is how ordinary Gurdjieff seems. There is so much mystique surrounding the man, and while his writings were truly awesome and described the human condition in such an insightful way, he was obviously still a human being. I suppose it holds out hope for the rest of us!
 
I say thanks as well. You're right Joe, he does look so ordinary - however, he also often looked rather bored with what was going on around him, contrasting how excited and animated the other people looked. They appeared to be thrilled to document what to them was a momentous occasion, and he appeared to be quietly putting up with it, waiting to get in the auto and go. I do admit that he looked nothing like how I pictured him, which is very cool indeed.
 
Hi Craig,
Add my thanks to the list, awsome piece of film. I wonder where and how she aquired it!
C
 
I also want to thank Craig for this piece of video.
One of the things that caught my eye was Gurdjieff and some of the others smoking. :D
 
The link to that video seems to be down (perhaps temporarily). Here is an alternative link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2662226021396126308&q=gurdjieff

I'm not 100% sure if this is the same video, since I didn't get a chance to watch the one mentioned above.
 
I thought it was interesting that a lot of the video was devoted to all the people who were hanging around, waiting to get in the car, standing on streets in groups, sitting at tables, scenery, etc, and so little footage of Gurdjieff himself. It is certainly a very nice thing to have a video with a glimpse or two of Gurdjieff, but frustrating that there was so little of him in it.
 
Maybe the movie maker(s) where among the people around, egger to prove their association - understandably.
 
That's a great video...there's just something so captivating about the whole thing. The music really did it for me too...and the fact that (I think) 1949 was the year that Gurdjieff passed on. It was like I watched it with this idea of "this is the first and last time that I'm going to see this man alive..." since I'd only seen pictures of him before. It was a pretty intense experience!
 
Hi, thanks for posting the link I had never seen any footage of Gurdjieff before. Something that struck me a while back was finding a recording online of Gurdjieff's voice, a piece apparently known as "the scotch story", the recording is not great, I can't make out much of what he is saying, but you can hear the quality of his voice, very different to how I had imagined it to be from reading alone.

There is a link to it here: http://www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=16331&starttime=2:53:40
 
Alada said:
Hi, thanks for posting the link I had never seen any footage of Gurdjieff before. Something that struck me a while back was finding a recording online of Gurdjieff's voice, a piece apparently known as "the scotch story", the recording is not great, I can't make out much of what he is saying, but you can hear the quality of his voice, very different to how I had imagined it to be from reading alone.

There is a link to it here: http://www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=16331&starttime=2:53:40
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Thanks. At first I was somewhat doubtful, thinking perhaps it was somebody reading a story of his. But it does seem to be Gurdjieff! I did a search and apparently, it is from something called MP3 Gurdjieff: The Complete Harmonium Recordings 1948-1949:

Recordings said:
Contains the complete, chronological recordings of Gurdjieff's harmonium music, including several recently discovered talks." Also includes "an MPEG1 version of a short movie made by Evelyn Sutta during various trips with Gurdjieff during summer 1949." "Will play on any computer with MP3 software installed and on most recent DVD and CD players."
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It's was nice to hear everybody laughing along. It's left a strange impression on me: it seems that the mental picture I had of Gurdjieff before hearing him was along negative lines, yet he sounds like a very kind, gentle and wonderful man and obviously those sitting with him thought so too. I also thought this: "His knowledge was really a part of his Being..."

I think now, I'll be reading his writings with a different mental-vocal intonation. Funny that... :)
 
tourmaline said:
That's a great video...there's just something so captivating about the whole thing. The music really did it for me too...and the fact that (I think) 1949 was the year that Gurdjieff passed on. It was like I watched it with this idea of "this is the first and last time that I'm going to see this man alive..." since I'd only seen pictures of him before. It was a pretty intense experience!
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Well if you click the above link in my previous post, you'll read this on the site:

Harmonium said:
This collection also includes the very first recordings of Mr. Gurdjieff's harmonium music played at the Wellington Hotel, New York City, between December 1948 and early February 1949—his last visit to America.
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In which, there is this quotation from Gurdjieff:

G.I. Gurdjieff said:
I played objective music to make you cry, answered Mr. Gurdjieff to a question from Dorothy Caruso. "There are many kinds of music—some to make laugh, or to love or to hate. This the beginning of music—sacred music, too, three thousand years old. Your church music comes from such but they don't realize. They have forgotten. This is temple music—very ancient."
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Seems your emotional response was exactly what Gurdjieff sought to "evoke" with this music. I had a similar emotional response the first time I saw a video to a Sacred Movements Dance being performed, and then of course, to the music on the video. I just wanted to weep, but my thoughts quickly interjected to point out how ridiculous is was because I didn't really know why.
 
Craig said:
Seems your emotional response was exactly what Gurdjieff sought to "evoke" with this music. I had a similar emotional response the first time I saw a video to a Sacred Movements Dance being performed, and then of course, to the music on the video. I just wanted to weep, but my thoughts quickly interjected to point out how ridiculous is was because I didn't really know why.
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Ah, but what's the difference in the evocative powers of Gurdjieff's music, and the evocative powers of this music...

http://www.youtube.com/w/France-Gall---Quand-On-Est-Ensemble?v=X5RzaAUoaxo&search=france%20gall

Is this something anyone here can explain? Or do we just have to take Gurdjieff's word for it that he wrote 'objective' music?
 
jake tassell said:
Ah, but what's the difference in the evocative powers of Gurdjieff's music, and the evocative powers of this music...

http://www.youtube.com/w/France-Gall---Quand-On-Est-Ensemble?v=X5RzaAUoaxo&search=france%20gall
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What evocative powers does that music have for you?

jake tassell said:
Is this something anyone here can explain? Or do we just have to take Gurdjieff's word for it that he wrote 'objective' music?
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This article is pretty interesting, maybe you'll find it of use.
http://www.gurdjieff.org/werbock1.htm
 
I thought it was very interesting that the first cathedral in the film was Auch cathedral. It would be great to know what Gurdjieff thought about it. Did he ever mention it in any of the literature published?
 
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