Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew (1936 - 1981) was an English avant-garde composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated 'people's liberation music'.
Cornelius Cardew (1936 - 1981) was an English avant-garde composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated 'people's liberation music'.
Member of: AMM
Cardew works 1960-70
2024 stock. Cornelius Cardew's music of the Sixties is arguably from his most creative and experimental period as a composer, beginning with Autumn 60 and ending with the last paragraphs of The Great Learning in 1970. This decade can be divided into two parts, where the first half focuses on indeterminate music and the latter sees a growing emphasis on improvisation. Treatise functions as a bridge between these two periods, as it contains elements of both. This recording is a document of this du…
Sounding Music
AMM's performance at the 2009 Freedom of the City Festival with AMM regular members Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury extended with John Butcher, Chritian Wolff and Ute Kanngiesser. "[...] Certainly in places this sounds like AMM through and through. When Prévost and Tilbury are working together it really cannot be anything else. I find myself hearing the connections between these two musicians through everything else, no matter what other sounds are there to be heard. There are the little climaxes…
Treatise
Rare original edition, a few back in stock. ** 300 copies ** Cornelius Cardew's opus magnus Treatise is a 193 page graphic score written between 1963 and 1967 while he was performing with the improvisation group AMM. The score's graphic notation, with its intricately devised graphic lines, shapes and symbols was intended to question the limits of compositional practice. Decisions concerning pitch, timbre and duration, along with the choice of instruments and the number of performers, are left en…
Consciously
This compilation is a sort of 1970's alternative social history in song. An eclectic mixture of previously unreleased songs, with widely differing styles, performed by a diverse grouping of musicians. This all combines into a unique experience. Musicians: Cornelius Cardew; Pete Devenport, Vicky Silva, Laurie Baker, Hugh Shrapenl, Chris Thompson, Keith Rowe, John Marcangelo, Evan Parker, Pip Pyle, Dave Smith, Hamilton DeGale, John Tilbury, Alec Hill, Huw Warren, Nick Connors, Geoff Pearce, Robert…
It Had Been An Ordinary Enough Day In Pueblo, Colorado
For folks familiar with AMM, this one really doesn’t need much by way of introduction. However, as an entry point, it serves up (relatively) short digestible tracks that illustrate the organic genius of AMM. By the time they recorded this album, this was AMM’s third incarnation. By no means the groups most decisive or challenging work, the songs clearly demonstrate the various shades of free improv mastery that give the group it’s perrenial status as one of the finest examples within the genre. …
We Only Want The Earth
2024 restock. Long out of print, subtitled "the Peoples' Liberation Music Tapes & other Songs", the tracks from this CD come from a rare collection of Cornelius Cardew's live recordings and studio sessions made between 1973-78. Plans to issue them on vinyl LP in the 70s never came to fruition (although small numbers of cassettes circulated). The original songs and arrangements are of the 70s and so reflect that time. Some people find it difficult to accept that revolutionary words can be set to …
Treatise (Prague Version, 1967)
Featured work: "Treatise (Live Recording, Prague 1967)." Performed by: QUaX Ensemble (Petr Kotik, Director). "This performance of Cardew's monumental 193-page graphic score 'Treatise' was recorded live in Prague in 1967 by the Czech QUaX Ensemble, directed by composer/flutist/conductor Petr Kotik. This historical recording offers a unique perspective to hear 'Treatise' as interpreted by Cardew's contemporaries. Kotik met Cardew in Warsaw in 1962, and they began exchanging scores by mail, includi…
The Great Learning / Two Poems
Cornelius Cardew's "The Great Learning," is a great example of his struggles to reconcile his innate musical aesthetics and his intellectual belief that the "avant-garde" was inherently elitist. Written for a mix of musicians & non-musicians, it is a grand improvisatory work that nicely exploits the talents of whomever is performing it. Two of the seven "Paragraph's" are performed here by The Scratch Orchestra, who give the expected first rate performance. Bedford is known to many in the rock w…
The great learning
Long out of print, very rare nowadays - The Great Learning was one of British composer Cornelius Cardew's most important works, a series of seven "paragraphs" with text from the writings of Confucius and scored for generally large numbers of both trained and untrained performers. The original productions of this piece, in fact, served as the genesis of the legendary pro-amateur Scratch Orchestra. This 2000 release includes three of the paragraphs, two from the 1971 Deutsche Grammophon album that…
Generative Themes
very rare, long out of print studio recording from 1982. This marks the recording debut of John Tilbury (piano) in the group, plus the now reunited core of Prévost and Keith Rowe (guitar, electronics). Absolutely stunning improvisational "noise" from a very serious standpoint ensemble. One copy only available, new and unplayed
The Inexhaustible Document
rare original LP, recorded live in London on 1/10/87. Prévost, Rowe, Tilbury, and Rohan de Saram (cello). The organic control of sound on this disc is spectacular; pretty much a must for serious listeners worldwide. One copy only available, new and unplayed
Combine And Laminates
long time deleted now, this recording is one of their finest. "Combine + Laminates" tends to seesaw between aggressive, noisy sections dominated by Prevost and softer drone-like territories with Tilbury's muffled piano tones in the foreground. Both areas are given immense structural support by Keith Rowe's tabletop guitar arsenal: earthshakingly deep tremors in the louder portions, quietly keening harmonics in the more serene ones. Tilbury's unique genius in integrating the piano's more "traditi…
Silver Pyramid
Matchless Recordings presents an historic recording. Eddie Prévost's Silver Pyramid performed by Music Now Ensemble directed by Keith Rowe in London in 1969. Includes Cornelius Cardew, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe and others. The music is continuous. Time codes have been inserted at intervals to assist retrieval. Pre-Scratch Orchestra Ensemble formed by / for the occasion of the four day 'Music Now' event at the Roundhouse, 1969. The motley crew perform Eddie Prévost's 'composition' 'Silver Pyramid'. En…
Morton Feldman
Beautiful collection of Morton Feldman's earliest, shorter piano works from the early 50s, going through the late 70s
Piano Music 1959-70
‘Piano Music 1959-70’ is a reissue of an album that enjoys cult status
among Cardew aficionados. The standout piece remains Volo solo (1965),
conceived originally for Tilbury as an attempt to coin a new type of
virtuosity. Cornelius Cardew expected it to be taken at a reckless tempo so that,
as he wrote, ‘the piano should seem to be breaking apart’. But the
material he gives the pianist – 60 inchoate fragments interlinked by
pauses – trips impetus up, the structure left with a hiccuping
s…
Chamber Music 1955-64
Restocked, reduced price. The works on this CD represent arguably the most experimental and radical works to come out of Britain in the past 40 years. Cornelius Cardew's scores from the early 1960's are notable for their elegant, original and precise notational scores, labyrinthine blueprints for realisation as totally new and original compositions. They are open to ever new interpretations whose possibilities are restricted only by the creativity of the performer. It is this responsibility laid…
Cornelius Cardew. A reader
A very nice book brings together a diverse collection of Cornelius Cardew's major essays and writings from different stages of his career, together with commentaries by other writers associated with his work. It reflects developments, changes and contradictions in his thinking about music from the late 1950s to the end of his life. As a companion volume to John Tilbury's biography 'Cornelius Cardew a life unfinished', Copula, 2006 (ISBN 0 9525492 3 9) it provides essential material for the study…
Apogee
Restocked, reduced price. 2CD Edition. In 1968 Mainstream released an LP with AMM on one side and MEV (Musica Electronica Viva, then based in Italy) on the other. In 2004 the two groups re-convened in London. Two of the five original AMM (Eddie Prevost and Keith Rowe), and three of the original five MEV (Alvin Curran, Frederick Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum) still in place. The only new boy on this CD is their contemporary John Tilbury; since 1980 he has been the stable third AMMusician. On CD …
Live in Allentown USA (1994)
More than any other group creating spontaneously improvised music, the members of AMM have a calm certainty about them, a serene sense of unhurriedness. There appears to be no doubt that whatever musical element is brought to light during their performance, it will prove capable of both generating beauty on its own and assuming its place as a structural element with what has preceded it. This live recording is in many ways typical of the group in its most common configuration of the '80s and '90…
Newfoundland (1992)
Restocked, reduced price. "Since its inception in 1966, the cooperative group AMM has been uncompromising in its commitment to freely improvised music. Often, especially early in its existence, this resulted in a harsh, aggressive sound field, one that even the most inquisitive newcomer might have difficulty approaching. By the mid-'80s, perhaps due to the mellowing that comes with age or the addition of pianist John Tilbury, AMM's music took a turn toward the quieter, more contemplative music e…