Zartir The Gurdjieff Ensemble & Levon Eskenian

• 1 Pythia 03:35
• 2 No. 10 03:17
• 3 Sayyid Chant and Dance No. 41 03:15
• 4 Introduction and Funeral March 05:19
• 5 Oriental Dance 01:56
• 6 Kankaravor Enker 04:16
• 7 Dard mi ani 03:54
• 8 Thirty Gestures 01:15
• 9 Prayer and Despair 04:42
• 10 Sayyid Chant and Dance No. 42 03:39
• 11 Ashkharhes Me Panjara e 04:16
• 12 Trembling Dervish 04:24
• 13 Zartir 04:19
• 14 The Great Prayer 07:11
• Total Runtime 55:18

Info for Zartir

With his inspired arrangements for folk instrumentation, Levon Eskenian has brought about a re-evaluation of the music of G.I. Gurdjieff (ca. 1877- 1949) and given us many new insights into the sources that inspired the Armenian-born esoteric teacher, philosopher and composer.

Zartir, the third album from Eskenian’s award-winning Gurdjieff Ensemble, is its most adventurous to date, and it opens several new channels of discovery. In several pieces with a focus on the voice, it situates Gurdjieff in a tradition of Armenian ashughs, bards and troubadours including Ashugh Jivani, Baghdasar Tbir and the legendary Sayat-Nova. Gurdjieff’s father, an ashugh who performed under the name Adash, was part of this tradition, and his wide-ranging repertoire would have exposed his son, at an early age, to music and verse from many places. The texts of these songs also resonate with Gurdjieff’s central messages, especially title piece “Zartir” by Baghdasar Tbir (1683-1768). “Zartir” means “Wake up!”, and its lyrics seem to anticipate Gurdjieff’s contention that Mankind is asleep and needs to be roused from its torpor.

Elsewhere, Eskenian emphasizes pieces written for sacred dance, reaching a high point with The Great Prayer, an entrancing collaboration between the Gurdjieff Ensemble and the National Chamber Choir of Armenia, which draws upon ritual music of multiple faiths. Arranger Eskenian says, “I believe The Great Prayer is more than a mere ‘composition’. It is one of the most profound and transformative pieces I have encountered in Gurdjieff’s work.”

References for Eskenian’s work on Zartir have included the piano transcriptions and symphonic scorings of Gurdjieff’s gifted amanuensis, the Ukraine-born composer Thomas de Hartmann. As with the ensemble’s 2011 debut album, however (Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff), Eskenian’s arrangements for folk instruments radically transform the material, and give the listener the experience of hearing Gurdjieff’s music in full, radiant colour, flowering in its natural context.

Georges Gurdjieff composed and dictated volumes of piano music. Levon Eskenian’s Gurdjieff Ensemble reclaims these pieces from the salons of Paris and takes them back to their roots in the Caucasus. They reveal their origins and themselves.” David Honigmann, Financial Times

With his inspired arrangements for folk instrumentation, Levon Eskenian has brought about a re-evaluation of the music of G.I. Gurdjieff (ca. 1877- 1949) and given us many new insights into the sources that inspired the Armenian-born esoteric teacher, philosopher and composer.

Zartir, the third album from Eskenian’s award-winning Gurdjieff Ensemble, is its most adventurous to date, and it opens several new channels of discovery. In several pieces with a focus on the voice, it situates Gurdjieff in a tradition of Armenian ashughs, bards and troubadours including Ashugh Jivani, Baghdasar Tbir and the legendary Sayat-Nova. Gurdjieff’s father, an ashugh who performed under the name Adash, was part of this tradition, and his wide-ranging repertoire would have exposed his son, at an early age, to music and verse from many places. The texts of these songs also resonate with Gurdjieff’s central messages, especially title piece “Zartir” by Baghdasar Tbir (1683-1768). “Zartir” means “Wake up!”, and its lyrics seem to anticipate Gurdjieff’s contention that Mankind is asleep and needs to be roused from its torpor.

Elsewhere, Eskenian emphasizes pieces written for sacred dance, reaching a high point with The Great Prayer, an entrancing collaboration between the Gurdjieff Ensemble and the National Chamber Choir of Armenia, which draws upon ritual music of multiple faiths. Arranger Eskenian says, “I believe The Great Prayer is more than a mere ‘composition’. It is one of the most profound and transformative pieces I have encountered in Gurdjieff’s work.”

References for Eskenian’s work on Zartir have included the piano transcriptions and symphonic scorings of Gurdjieff’s gifted amanuensis, the Ukraine-born composer Thomas de Hartmann. As with the ensemble’s 2011 debut album, however (Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff), Eskenian’s arrangements for folk instruments radically transform the material, and give the listener the experience of hearing Gurdjieff’s music in full, radiant colour, flowering in its natural context.

The Gurdjieff Ensemble
Levon Eskenian, musical director
Robert Mlkeyan, director

No biography found.

Booklet for Zartir