Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew ( born May 7, 1936 in Winchcombe / Gloucestershire, † December 13, 1981 in London) was a British composer and improviser.

Life and work

Cardew studied 1953-1957 at the Royal Academy of Music in London, cello and piano, also composition with Howard Ferguson. In 1957 he made his study of electronic music with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Cologne University of Music, and later he worked as an assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1958 he was involved as an accompanist at the European premiere of John Cage's Piano Concerto.

Cardew returned in 1961 to England, where he worked as a graphic artist and gave concerts. In 1964, he studied composition with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome. In 1965 he joined the improvisation ensemble AMM, where he served until 1971. 1966 and 1967 he worked at the Center of Creative and Performing Arts at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York before he became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Together with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons in 1969 he founded the Scratch Orchestra, in which composers, professional musicians, amateur, visual artists and actors had come together to perform music.

In 1974 the composer wrote in 1975 at Goldsmith 's College, London started her own song class, many political songs, including for performances of the Maoist People's Liberation Group. He was also active as a musician with John Tilbury on demonstrations, supported striking workers and for a scholarship stay in Berlin, the struggle for a children's hospital in Bethany House, for which he composed the " Bethany Song." When his most important compositions are today "The Great Learning" viewed " Treatise " and.

Discography (selection)

• The Great Learning Paragraphs 2 and 7 ( 1971, republished 2002) German Grammophon.
• Thalmann Variations (1975, published 1986)
• Cornelius Cardew Piano Music MusicNow 1991
• We Sing for the Future! Interpretations of two Compositions for solo piano with Frederic Rzewski (2002) ( New Albion )
• Four Principles On Ireland And Other Pieces ( ampersand)
• Treatise ( Hat [ Now ] type )
• Chamber Music 1955-1964 Apartment House ( 2001) ( Matchless Recordings mrcd45 )
• Material ( Hat [ Now ] type )
• Cornelius Cardew - piano music 1959-70 (1996 ) with John Tilbury ( Matchless Recordings mrcd29 )

Bibliography

• Coriún Aharonian, " Cardew as a Basis for a Discussion on Ethical Options" Leonardo Music Journal 11 (2001) pp. 13-15
• Virginia Anderson, " Chinese Characters and Experimental Structure in Cornelius Cardew 's The Great Learning " Journal of Experimental Music Studies
• Hanno Ehrler, "The Great Learning: The London Scratch Orchestra " feature for the Hessischer Rundfunk (pdf, 38 kB)
• Brian Eno, "Generating and Organizing Variety in the Arts, " Christoph Cox & Daniel Warner eds. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music (New York & London: Continuum Books, 2005 ) An insightful study of "Paragraph 7" of The Great Learning
• Michael Nyman, " Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond" ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
• Michael Parsons, "The Scratch Orchestra and the Visual Arts" Leonardo Music Journal (Vol. 11, 2001), pp. 5-11
• Victor Schonfield, " Cornelius Cardew, AMM, and the Path to Perfect Hearing" Jazz Monthly ( May 1968)
• Timothy D. Taylor, "Moving in Decency: The Music and Radical Politics of Cornelius Cardew " Music & Letters 79:4 ( November 1998): pp.. 555-576
• John Tilbury, " Cornelius Cardew " Contact No. 26 ( Spring 1983) pp. 4-12
• John Tilbury, "The Experimental Years: A View from the Left" Journal of Experimental Music Studies. Originally published in Contact 22 (1981) 16-21
• Daniel Varela, " ' A Question of Language': Frederic Rzewski in conversation about Cornelius Cardew ," Journal of Experimental Music Studies
• Eddie Prévost (ed.), Cornelius Cardew: A Reader ( Copula, 2006). A collection of Cornelius Cardew 's published writings together with commentaries and responses from Richard Barrett, Christopher Fox, Brian Dennis, Anton Lukoszevieze, Michael Nyman, Eddie Prévost, David Ryan, Howard Skempton, Dave Smith, John Tilbury and Christian Wolff. Introduction by Michael Parsons. 400pp illustrated. ISBN 0-9525492-2-0.