1.

“To foreigners, Eastern music seems monotonous, they only wonder at its crudity and musical poverty. But what sounds like one note to them is a whole melody for the local inhabitants—a melody contained in one note. This kind of melody is much more difficult than ours. If an Eastern musician makes a mistake in his melody the result is cacophony for them, but for a European the whole thing is a rhythmic monotone. In this respect, only a man who grew up there can distinguish good and bad music.” (G. I. Gurdjieff – Views from the real world)

2.

“Every ceremony, if it continues to be practiced without change, has value. Rituals like ancient dances which were guidebooks where truth was written down. But to understand one must have a key (…)

Ancient art has a certain inner content. In the past, art served the same purpose as is served today by books—the purpose of preserving and transmitting certain knowledge. In ancient times they did not write books but expressed knowledge in works of art. We shall find many ideas in the ancient art which has reached us, if we know how to read it. Every art was like that then, including music. And people of ancient times looked on art in this way.

The second purpose of dances is study. Certain movements carry a proof in them, a definite knowledge, or religious and philosophical ideas. In some of them one can even read a recipe for cooking some dish.

In many parts of the [world] the inner content of one or another dance is now almost forgotten, yet people continue to dance it simply from habit.” (G.I.Gurdjieff)