Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Readings by Anthony Blake
Gurdjieff/de Hartman music played by Wim van Dullemen
Illustration by Bob Jefferson
Technical Production by Patrick Findlay
These recordings have been made over many years (almost twenty) and consequently vary in tone of voice and delivery. While I have tried to pronounce the sometimes very difficult words of the text correctly - according to how I remember them being pronounced by John Bennett - there are undoubtedly errors, as there are also many imprecise slurring of words. I hope you can bear with me and enjoy the experience of hearing this remarkable book read aloud for its own sake.
It is reported that the early readings of Beelzebub's Tales were often preceeded by piano pieces composed by Thomas de Hartman under the direction of Gurdjieff. I am grateful to Wim van Dullemen for providing piano pieces from that repertoire for a few of the chapters I read. These may help the listener to feel the atmosphere of the text. Little is known of which pieces were played with which chapters. See The relation between the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music and Beelzebub’s Tales for one of the few attempts to summarise what is known (unfortunately I no longer have the url reference for the source).
The text I read from is the one first published in 1950. Since the content of the chapter on Purgatory is of great interest for understanding Gurdjieff's ideas, I have read also the 1931 version.
Though I started with Chapter 1 'The Arousing of Thought' and ended (besides work on corrections) with Chapter 48 'From the Author' the sequence of recording did not follow the order of the chapters.
I am particularly in debt to Patrick Findlay (Edinburgh) for his indefatigable labours in improving the sound quality of the recordings and presenting my readings as best as they could be. And to Karen Stefano for persuading me to undertake this wonderful though arduous task. Of course, in reaching the end I was tempted to start all over again and do it better! And to Bob Gerber for sponsoring the project and enabling me to complete it. Not least, I should also mention Steven Rhodes who helped me initiate the project in the Microsoft studios in Seattle.
I hope that my version will compare favourably with those of William J. Welch and Margaret Flinsch. It gives the option of an English voice.
Technical Advice
It is recommended that you copy the disk onto your hard drive. Windows Media Player is the optimum programme to play tracks. Make use of the playlist file to make your own.
A sample chapter - Chapter 48 'From the Author' - is available to listen to here.
Now available
Price (subject to currency rates) £25 (UK) 30 Euros $40 (USA) plus 10% postage and packing
write to tony@toutley.demon.co.uk
The recordings of Beelzebub's Tales have often been in conjunction with recordings of the poetry of William Blake, Rainer Maria Rilke and T. S. Eliot. These poetry recordings are also available.
| In MP3 format | Title | Music |
First Book
| Chapter 1 | The Arousing of Thought | Sayyid Song |
| Chapter 2 | Why Beelzebub Was in Our Solar System | |
| Chapter 3 | The Cause of the Delay in the Falling of the Ship Karnak | |
| Chapter 4 | The Law of Falling | |
| Chapter 5 | The System of Archangel Hariton | |
| Chapter 6 | Perpetual Motion | |
| Chapter 7 | Becoming Aware of Genuine Being-Duty | |
| Chapter 8 | The Impudent Brat Hassein, Beelzebub's Grandson, Dares to Call Men "Slugs" | |
| Chapter 9 | The Cause of the Genesis of the Moon | |
| Chapter 10 | Why "Men" Are Not Men | |
| Chapter 11 | A Piquant Trait of the Peculiar Psyche of Comtemporary Man | |
| Chapter 12 | The First "Growl" | |
| Chapter 13 | Why in Man's Reason Fantasy May be Perceived as Reality | |
| Chapter 14 | The Beginnings of Perspectives Not Very Cheerful | |
| Chapter 15 | The First Descent of Beelzebub upon the Planet Earth | Moderato |
| Chapter 16 | The Relative Understanding of Time | |
| Chapter 17 | The Arch-absurd: According to the Assertion of Beelzebub, Our Sun Neither Lights Nor Heats | |
| Chapter 18 | The Arch-preposterous | |
| Chapter 19 | Beelzebub's Tales About His Second Descent on to the Planet Earth | |
| Chapter 20 | The Third Flight of Beelzebub to the Planet Earth | |
| Chapter 21 | The First of Beelzebub to India | |
| Chapter 22 | Beelzebub for the First Time in Tibet | |
| Chapter 23 | The Fourth Personal Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth | |
| Chapter 24 | Beelzebub's Flight to the Planet Earth for the Fifth Time | |
| Chapter 25 | The Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, Sent from Above to Earth | Je Suis Pere, Fils |
| Chapter 26 | The Legomonism Concerning the Deliberations of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash Under the Title “Terror of the Situation” | |
| Chapter 27 | The Organisation for Man’s Existence Created by the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash | |
| Chapter 28 | The Chief Culprit in the Destruction of All the Very Saintly Labors of Ashiata Shiemash |
Second Book
| Chapter 29 | The Fruits of Former Civilizations and the Blossoms of the Contemporary | Adam and Eva |
| Chapter 30 | Art | |
| Chapter 31 | The Sixth and Last Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth | |
| Chapter 32 | Hypnotism | |
| Chapter 33 | Beelzebub as Professional Hypnotist | |
| Chapter 34 | Russia | |
| Chapter 35 | A Change in the Appointed Course of the Falling of the Transspace Ship Karnak | |
| Chapter 36 | Just a Wee Bit More About the Germans | |
| Chapter 37 | France | |
| Chapter 38 | Religion | |
| Chapter 39 | The Holy Planet "Purgatory " | Seekers of the Truth |
Third Book
| Chapter 40 | Beelzebub Tells How People Learned and Again Forgot About the Fundamental Cosmic Law of Heptaparaparashinokh | Hymn No. 3 |
| Chapter 41 | The Bokharian Dervish Hadji-Asvatz-Troov | The Bokharian Dervish |
| Chapter 42 | Beelzebub in America | |
| Chapter 43 | Beelzebub’s Survey of the Process of Reciprocal Destruction of Men, or Beelzebub’s Opinion of War | |
| Chapter 44 | In the Opinion of Beelzebub, Man's Understanding of Justice Is for Him in the Objective Sense an Accursed Mirage | |
| Chapter 45 | In the Opinion of Beelzebub, Man's Extraction of Electricity from Nature and Its Destruction During Its Use, Is One of the Chief Causes of the Shortening of the Life of Man | |
| Chapter 46 | Beelzebub Explains to His Grandson the Significance of the Form and Sequence Which He Chose for Expounding the Information Concerning Man | |
| Chapter 47 | The Inevitable Result of Impartial Mentation | Hymn to the Sun |
| Chapter 48 | From the Author | Music 3 |
| 1931 | Purgatory |
TECHNICAL COLLABORATORS
Steven Rhodes Seattle
Anthony Stevenson Charles Town
Gert-Jan Blom Amsterdam
Thomas Gasser Vienna
Patrick Findlay Edinburgh
David Blake Coldstream
MUSICAL COLLABORATION
Wim van Dullmen
Recording The Bokharian Dervish in Vienna 2009
CONCERNING INDIVIDUALS - THREE BRAINED, SAINTLY, & COSMIC - IN THE TALES OF HIS MOST GRACIOUS BEELZEBUB
A compilation illustrated by Bob Jefferson
DENIS SAURAT ON BEELZEBUB'S TALES
Last stages of recording, Edinburgh, September 2010