Fragments of an Unknown Teaching is a composition for piano by Canadian composer Peter Hatch.
It was inspired by the work of the Russian mystic philosophers G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky. Near the middle of the work, Hatch quotes part of one of Gurdjieff's harmonium improvisations very quietly over a sonorous octave tremolo G played in the low register. While this line is usually played on the piano, in at least one performance (on September 17, 2005, in the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall in Waterloo, Ontario) the harmonium line was played by a harmonium offstage (the composer was present at this performance). The work was commissioned by Terence Kroetsch through the Ontario Arts Council, and was written in 1988.
Famous quotes containing the words fragments of, fragments and/or teaching:
“‘Tis time, my friend, ‘tis time!
For rest the heart is aching;
Days follow days in flight, and every day is taking
Fragments of being, while together you and I
Make plans to live. Look, all is dust, and we shall die.”
—Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837)
“I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped,
some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and
I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew; like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 32:2.