Treatise (1963-67)

Cornelius Cardew

A 192-page graphic score which allows for considerablefreedom of interpretation.

Following the demise of the Orchestra, Cardew becamemore directly involved in left-wing politics and abandonedavant-garde music altogether, adopting a populistthough post-romantic tonal style. He spent 1973 in WestBerlin on an artist’s grant from the City, where he wasactive in a campaign for a children’s clinic. During the1970s, he produced many songs, often drawing fromtraditional English folk music put at the service oflengthy Marxist-Maoist exhortations; representativeexamples are Smash the Social Contract and There IsOnly One Lie, There Is Only One Truth. In 1974, he publisheda book entitled Stockhausen Serves Imperialism,which denounced, in Maoist self-critical style, his owninvolvement with Stockhausen and the Western avantgardetradition.

Cornelius Cardew was killed on the 13th December 1981,by a hit and run driver near his home in East London.There’s been conspiracies about involvement from theBritish secret service.