The Legacy of Cornelius Cardew

Tony Harris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138272590
• eBook ISBN: 9781317025924
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Cornelius Cardew is an enigma. Depending on which sources one consults he is either an influential and iconic figure of British musical culture or a marginal curiosity, a footnote to a misguided musical phenomenon. He is both praised for his uncompromising commitment to world-changing politics, and mocked for being blindly caught up in a maelstrom of naïve political folly. His works are both widely lauded as landmark achievements of the British avant-garde and ridiculed as an archaic and irrelevant footnote to the established musical culture. Even the events of his death are shrouded in mystery and lack a sense of closure. As long ago as 1967, Morton Feldman cited Cardew as an influential figure, central to the future of modern music-making. The extent to which Cardew has been a central figure and a force for new ideas in music forms the backbone to this book. Harris demonstrates that Cardew was an original thinker, a charismatic leader, an able facilitator, and a committed activist. He argues that Cardew exerted considerable influence on numerous individuals and groups, but also demonstrates how the composer's significance has been variously underestimated, undermined and misrepresented. Cardew's diverse body of work and activity is here given coherence by its sharing in the values and principles that underpinned the composer's world view. The apparently disparate and contradictory episodes of Cardew's career are shown to be fused by a cohesive 'Cardew aesthetic' that permeates the man, his politics and his music.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Cornelius Cardew is an enigma. Depending on which sources one consults he is either an influential and iconic figure of British musical culture or a marginal curiosity and a footnote to a misguided musical phenomenon. He is either praised for his uncompromising commitment to world-changing politics, or mocked for being blindly caught up in a maelstrom of naïve political folly. His works are either widely lauded as landmark achievements of the British avant-garde, or ridiculed as archaic and an irrelevant aside to the established musical culture. Even the events of his death are shrouded in mystery and lack a sense of closure.

As long ago as 1967, Morton Feldman cited Cardew as an influential figure, central to the future of modern music-making:

Any direction modern music will take in England will come about only through Cardew, because of him, by way of him. If the new ideas in music are felt today as a movement in England, it’s because he acts as a moral force, a moral centre. (Feldman 1967: 43)

These words, though often cited in the literature related to Cardew, are rarely critically assessed. This book aims to do just that. What follows will demonstrate that Cardew was an original thinker, a charismatic leader, an able facilitator, and a committed activist. I argue that he exerted considerable influence on numerous individuals and groups despite being, at times, misguided and ideologically flawed. Indeed, central to this book is how did a character so mired in controversy and contradiction achieve the almost hagiographic status attested by some of those who have contributed to this investigation?

But I also argue that Cardew is a figure whose significance has been variously underestimated, undermined and misrepresented. I attempt to demonstrate that Feldman’s prophecy stands up to scrutiny and that Cardew has indeed played a central part in the emergence of ‘new ideas’ in the 1960s and 70s and their perpetuation since.

In 1969 Cornelius Cardew, along with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons, founded the Scratch Orchestra, a collective defined, in the draft constitution published in The Musical Times, as ‘a large number of enthusiasts pooling their resources (not primarily material resources) and assembling for action (music-making, performance, edification)’ (Cardew 1969a: 617). The constitution goes on to outline the range of activities the Orchestra might engage with: improvising, the playing of popular classics, compositions submitted by members of the Orchestra, and ‘scratch’ music, a form of sonic doodling that will be discussed in detail later on. What ensued was perhaps the most significant series of events of Cardew’s career – a period of anarchic, sometimes chaotic, often thought-provoking and intellectually engaging activity that shaped Cardew’s thinking and the mindset of many of those involved. This period and its impact will be dissected in Chapter 5 but for now we will fast-forward 30 years to a young music teacher in a comprehensive school in the midlands of the UK.

This was my first teaching post in a rather downtrodden secondary school that had little in the way of a musical tradition. Instrumental learners were few, resources were limited, but what the students lacked in physical resources and technical competence they made up for with a touching willingness to make lots of noise. Thus was born the School Scratch Orchestra.

I had become aware of some of Cardew’s music and ideas as an undergraduate and used the original Scratch Orchestra draft constitution as a basis for our own. The constitution was rewritten in student-friendly language but broadly maintained the original ethos and categories of activity. It would be a democratic organisation, open to anyone who wished to join, committed to the performance of a range of music, including sharing and developing our own newly devised ideas. The Orchestra of about 25 participants initially met weekly, with no particular public event in mind, and explored a multitude of starting points for creating music. We explored graphic notations, turned images and texts into sound, worked with a range of templates and structures for improvising, developed musical ideas brought to the sessions by members of the Orchestra, and attempted to play music I composed specifically for them. As confidence in their abilities grew we began to collaborate with the school’s drama department and the first year of the Orchestra’s existence culminated in the public outdoors performance of Romeo and Juliet, a production devised and directed by students with an original score created and performed by the school Scratch Orchestra. The significance of the project to myself and this book is that it was, for me, an embodiment of a rather vague and ad hoc understanding of what I perceived to be a Cardew approach – Shakespeare and contemporary music, devised as a democratic process between participants of a varied range of experience and ability, presented to an open public, for no cost, in an unconventional setting, and accessible to people who might not otherwise have the opportunity or inclination to access either Shakespeare or contemporary music. The direct adoption of what I considered to be a Cardew approach seemed to positively contribute to young people’s lives.

Following this experience I became aware that nowhere in the sources relating to Cardew does this approach seem to be defined or investigated. I had somehow picked up a sense of Cardew’s ‘essence’. I had experienced its value at first hand, but could not locate confirmation of my experience in any of the expected places. I was not at all certain what the essence of Cardew actually was. This book seeks to address that void. It attempts to identify and define a ‘Cardew aesthetic’: a framework of underpinning principles and values that inform an approach and attitude towards music making. It identifies the significant unifying threads and character traits apparent across the diverse body of Cardew’s work and argues that they represent a new way of approaching musical activity. This book suggests that this aesthetic is the legacy of Cornelius Cardew.

Cardew and Posterity

Compared to other figures of twentieth-century music, Cardew’s portfolio of posterity is relatively slim and this is seen most pertinently when exploring the existing literature base. Cardew’s own writing is dominated by the polemical Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (Cardew, 1974a), to be discussed in Chapter 2, though this was preceded by a variety of more modest outputs. Cardew contributed reviews and commentaries to numerous publications with some regularity throughout the 1960s, seemingly establishing himself as something of an authority on the leading avant-garde and experimental figures of the day: on La Monte Young (1962c, 1966b, 1967a), Morton Feldman (1962b), Karlheinz Stockhausen (1961a, 1961b, 1965b, 1966a, 1967b), John Cage (1962a) and his collaborations with Merce Cunningham (1964b), Christian Wolff and Earle Brown (1962a) and a review of the final concert of the 1964 Darmstadt summer school (1964a). These mostly brief pieces provide glimpses of Cardew’s emerging attitudes towards the diverging trends of the day. He describes, for instance, Berg’s music as having ‘superficial clarity rather than depth and richness of expression’ (Cardew 1964a in Prévost 2006: 65) and Stockhausen’s works of the 1950s as being in ‘a very self devouring phase, obsessively concerned with internal problems of musical organization’ (Cardew 1965b in Prévost 2006: 72). Cage’s work, on the other hand, is described as being ‘unquestionably the most important development in musical composition since the war, and will exert more influence on the future evolutions and changes in composition and performance than the work of any European composers’ (Cardew 1964b: 659–60).

Elsewhere, Cardew’s preoccupation with notational precedents and developments is in evidence. ‘Notation – Interpretation, etc.’ (1961c) discusses a range of ‘new’ notations and their implementation, drawing on work by Cage, Feldman, Wolff and Stockhausen alongside reference to how this was informing Cardew’s own work of that period. Some of the ideas presented here are picked up again in Cardew’s discussion of his own Autumn ’60 (1962b), and later once again in the Treatise Handbook (1971a). Additionally, two reports on the creation of Stockhausen’s Carré– on which Cardew collaborated with Stockhausen – were filed with The Musical Times (1961a, 1961b) and represent the earliest published evidence of Cardew’s growing disaffection with the European traditions that seemed to hold sway in the early 1960s. These are discussed in Chapter 3.

Other writings of significance include the essay ‘Towards an Ethic of Improvisation’ (1968a) that appears in a number of places, most notably in the Treatise Handbook (1971a). The essay springs from the period in which Cardew was becoming increasingly consumed by notions of improvised music and represents an important turning point in his attitude towards music making, immediately preceding the inception of the Scratch Orchestra of which the ‘draft constitution’ (1969a), Nature Study Notes (1971b), and Scratch Music (1972a) are the significant starting points. Other important direct sources are the often brief but illuminating performance and introductory notes to his scores, most notably Octet ’61 for Jasper Johns (1961d), February Pieces for Piano (1961e), Four Works (1966c) and Piano Album (1973), all of which provide insights into Cardew’s attitudes and are referred to elsewhere in this book.

Following Stockhausen Serves Imperialism Cardew’s published output significantly diminishes and what is available is provocatively challenging. ‘Wiggly Lines and Wobbly Music’ (1976a) continues where Stockhausen Serves Imperialism finishes in its deconstruction of the ‘new’ notations Cardew previously expounded. More recently, transcripts of speeches and talks Cardew gave at various events have become available (1974b, 1978, 1980). Other useful sources from this period include interviews with Cardew: a particularly provocative exchange with Adrian Jack (1975) in which Jack challenges Cardew’s political stance, and a more sympathetic approach from Keith Potter (1975). Parsons (1974) and Tilbury (1981, 1982b) also discuss Cardew’s overtly political phase from Cardew’s own contemporary perspective.

The year 1974 saw the original publication of Michael Nyman’s Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Nyman 1999), now regarded as a seminal text. The work was significant in the attention it gave to the experimental scene in England. It also highlighted the gulf between the avant-garde and experimental traditions that Cardew pre-supposed in his earlier writings. Through his discussion of a range of experimental musical practice Nyman essentially attempts to define experimental music:

I shall make an attempt to isolate and identify what experimental music is, and what distinguishes it from the music of such avant-garde composers as Boulez, Kagel, Xenakis, Birtwistle, Berio, Stockhausen, Bussotti, which is conceived and executed along the well-trodden but sanctified path of the post-Renaissance tradition. (Nyman 1999: 1)

This distinction between the avant-garde and experimental labels is less well-defined in the literature preceding Nyman’s book, the terms being employed loosely and, at times, interchangeably. Cardew himself variously labels Cage as an ‘experimental’ composer (for instance, 1964b: 660), yet later refers to Cage as an exponent of the avant-garde (1974a: 33) demonstrating the flexibility with which the language of the time was employed.1

The identification of ‘experimental music’ as a distinct musical phenomenon, and the prominence Nyman affords to Cardew and those associated with him, set the scene for future investigative work into this area. This work was not quickly forthcoming however, and literature on Cardew is characterised by a dearth of sources from the period immediately following Cardew’s death in 1981. For many years John Tilbury’s biographical essay (1983) was the only authoritative overview of Cardew’s work, and as such is referenced extensively throughout this book. Barrett (1987) is also a valuable source in providing a broad overview of the Cardew story. Virginia Anderson’s MA thesis of 1983, British Experimental Music: Cornelius Cardew and his Contemporaries, represented the first investigative academic work into Cardew just two years after his death. Informed by a range of interviews with those who worked with Cardew it is notable for its discussion of Cardew’s earlier work and the activities of the Scratch Orchestra. Rod Eley (1974) had already provided ‘A History of the Scratch Orchestra 1969–1972’ as the first chapter of Stockhausen Serves Imperialism and Anderson complements what is a rather personal and overtly Marxist perspective with a more objective account. This was, again, an academic endeavour that seemed to fail to gather momentum, however, with nothing of note relating to the Scratch Orchestra appearing until the Orchestra’s 30th Anniversary Symposium in 1999 (Ascough, Parsons and Chant 1999).

Journal articles have been scarce with just a handful of notable texts. Timothy D. Taylor’s ‘Moving in Decency: The Music and Radical Politics of Cornelius Cardew’ (1998) was the first piece to critically assess Cardew’s political stance and contradictions, and as such is increasingly referred to in the slowly growing literature base. Michael Parsons’ ‘The Scratch Orchestra and the Visual Arts’ (2001) reflects on the continuing but rarely discussed influence of the Scratch phenomenon beyond the field of music. Coriun Aharonián’s ‘Cardew as a Basis for a Discussion on Ethical Options’ (2001) is significant in being the first work to begin considering the notion of a Cardew aesthetic as something that might inform future generations. Additionally, Dennis (1991) looks specifically at the visual aspects of Cardew’s Treatise, Anderson (2004a) investigates the use of Chinese characters in Cardew’s The Great Learning, and my own modest offerings (Harris 2004 and 2008) present ideas investigated through this book. The only PhD thesis to appear has been Walker (1995) until Virginia Anderson’s own thesis was completed in 2004 (Anderson 2004b), though both of these are concerned with British experimental music more broadly. In the non-academic press, The Wire published its first detailed account of Cardew’s work in 2001 (Cowley 2001), a publication that seemed to coincide with a more general emergence of largely internet-based interest in Cardew, and the release of a number of new and re-issued recordings.

In the more general writings on twentieth-century music Cardew tends to attract little or no attention. The significance projected by Nyman is rarely corroborated and Cardew is most often discussed in the shadow of Cage and Stockhausen. Paul Griffiths’ Modern Music (1994) is such an example. Cardew is afforded a brief mention for bringing Cage’s ideas to London and for later adopting a more directly political approach (Griffiths 1994: 184). A page from The Great Learning is reproduced but, curiously, not discussed. In Griffiths’ defence the text is only intended to be ‘a concise history’. In Alex Ross’s recent The Rest is Noise (2008), a widely acclaimed and otherwise comprehensive account of music in the twentieth century, Cardew is mentioned in passing just twice: firstly, in reference to him being Stockhausen’s assistant and later on as Stockhausen’s former assistant (Ross 2008: 459–60). Salzman’s Twentieth-Century Music (1988) similarly name-checks Cardew as Stockhausen’s assistant along with a passing mention of Treatise and the Scratch Orchestra (Salzman 1988: 214). Morgan’s Twentieth-Century Music (1991) devotes four paragraphs to Cardew, identifying him as a figure of note, though dismissing the later work as ‘nothing so much as nineteenth-century salon music’ (Morgan 1991: 458). Lebrecht’s The Complete Companion to 20th Century Music (2000) is simply incorrect, implying that the Scratch Orchestra was a result of Cardew’s conversion to Maoism, and seemingly then confusing it with the Portsmouth Sinfonia (Lebrecht 2000: 68).

The broader perception of Cardew and his work would, then, appear to be as a marginal figure. One area in which there seems to be greater recognition is in the field of music education. There are a couple of specific references to Cardew in Paynter and Aston’s seminal text of 1970, Sound and Silence, and to experimental music and the avant-garde more widely in some of the associated literature: Paynter (1972, 1982 and 1992), Dennis (1970 and 1975), Self (1967 and 1976), Schafer (1967, 1970 and 1975). The influence of these texts is discussed in Pitts (2000) and Rainbow with Cox (2006), though not with specific reference to Cardew. Laycock (2005) does make a direct link with Cardew, citing his influence on the way some composers practice, especially within education and community settings. These texts will be considered more thoroughly in Chapter 9.

Two relatively recent publications have helped to raise the status of Cardew. In 2006 Copula Press published Cornelius Cardew: A Reader (Prévost 2006) a collection of most of the available literature published by Cardew himself and commentaries by others dating from 1959–2001, much of it mentioned here. The result is a fascinating but relatively slim volume that offered nothing new to the public domain except a brief introduction by Parsons and the ability to access this material without the copious detective work. Most significantly, in 2008, John Tilbury published his epic, comprehensive and long-awaited biography of Cardew, 25 years in the making, helping to establish a basis for illuminating our knowledge about Cardew (Tilbury 2008).

And so we come to this book, the aim of which is to complement the historical sources, the limited academic investigation, and Tilbury’s considerable biographical detail by laying the foundations for what we might call ‘Cardew studies’. This book considers why Cardew should be investigated, why his work remains relevant almost 30 years after his death, and why he should not be relegated to a footnote in the history of British music-making.

Research Methods and Navigating the Book

Alongside the historical documents and existing texts this book is significantly informed by a series of interviews conducted by the author with a number of individuals who are either associated directly with Cardew, or whose work is informed by the adoption of what might be a Cardew aesthetic. I interviewed four individuals who are closely associated with Cardew: Scratch Orchestra founders and composers Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons; pianist and Cardew biographer John Tilbury; and Scratch member and composer Dave Smith. I also interviewed a further three individuals who have no direct personal connection to Cardew but whose wo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Stockhausen Serves Imperialism
• 3 The Formative Years
• 4 Cardew the Bourgeois Composer?
• 5 Scratch: Embodiment and Change
• 6 Cardew the Revolutionary
• 7 Music for the Masses
• 8 Towards a Definition of ‘Cardewism’
• 9 ‘Well, Well, Cornelius’
• 10 Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index