Cornelius Cardew - The great learning .
Ceea ce a facut Cardew aduce intr-o anumita masura cu ceea ce facem noi
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The original Scratch Orchestra was founded on paper rather than in practice. Their manifesto, the “Draft Constitution,” was penned by Cornelius Cardew and published in the journal Musical Times as both their statement of purpose and an open call for members. The text describes the ideological and political leanings of the group, as well as illustrating specific improvisation-based performance practices that express these agendas.
HISTORY OF THE SCRATCH ORCHESTRA
In 1968 the Scratch Orchestra was jointly conceived by English composers Cornelius Cardew, Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons during a class on experimental music at London's Morely College. An outcry against both the traditional symphony orchestra and the hermetic musical avant-garde, the orchestra was to be democratically run by its members and include both amateur and professional musicians. Founded on paper rather than in practice, the group announced itself with the publication of the "Draft Constitution"-- a manifesto penned by Cardew-- in The Musical Times journal (see HERE for this text.)
The Constitution laid out the Orchestra's motives and method: "Definition: A Scratch Orchestra is a large number of enthusiasts pooling their resources (not primarily material resources) and assembling for action (music-making, performance, edification)." A number of improvisation-based exercises were proposed, as well as the stipulation that all members must regularly pen scores of “Scratchmusic” for the group (to "be accomplished using any means--verbal, graphic, musical, collage, etc.”) Announcing the date of their prospective first concert, the Constitution also served as an open call for new members. In the end the group was constituted by a combination of professional musicians, trained and untrained amateurs and a large contingent of performance-oriented visual artists; several members were from Leeds College of Art, including the well-known Fluxus artist George Brecht-- a faculty member there.
The orchestra achieved notoriety in its time-- they performed regularly in England, received government funding, aired broadcasts on the BBC and published a book of "Scratch music" excerpts with MIT Press. Concerts included works by such well-known composers as John Cage, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, and Cardew himself. But dissent between the "serious" musicians and Fluxus-inspired performance artists eventually brought about irresolvable tensions within the members. And the group’s interactions with the public sphere were no less thorny-- a controversial performance resulted in a smear campaign, with the press attempting to strip Cardew of his government grant money and tenure at the Royal Academy of Music.
Mirroring the global tendency for communalist leftism to revert to dictatorship, as Cardew's political commitments became more fervent he attempted to use the Orchestra to advance a distinct political outlook-- namely that of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist.) In reaction to the failure of the groups democratic premise, members started disrupting the group's own concerts through interruptions and protests. Discontent was addressed by the founding of the Scratch Ideological Group, a makeshift book club to study Marx, Lenin and Mao.
Though intended to unify the group's purpose, the Scratch Ideological Group may have been the final blow to the ensemble. The group officially disbanded in 1974.
A SCRATCH ORCHESTRA: DRAFT CONSTITUTION
The Constitution laid out the Orchestra's motives and method: "Definition: A Scratch Orchestra is a large number of enthusiasts pooling their resources (not primarily material resources) and assembling for action (music-making, performance, edification)."
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Alte texte :
Towards an Ethic of Improvisation Cornelius Cardew
Chinese Characters and Experimental Structure in Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning
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