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Cardew's ‘Treatise’ (mainly the visual aspects)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Brian Dennis
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Extract

Cornelius Cardew's 193–page Treatise is the longest and most elaborate piece of Graphic Music ever made. Although it was intended for improvisation and realization, using as many or as few pages as required, and with no fixed rules of interpretation, the piece can be regarded as a graphic construction inspired by music – and with ‘music’, in the broadest sense, as its subject matter. It was influenced by the philosophy of Frege and Wittgenstein, and in particular the latter's exhaustive treatise Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which not only inspired the title but almost certainly the composer's economical approach to this endeavour and the rigorous development of his material. It was composed from 1963 to 67.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 177 , June 1991 , pp. 10 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 This was the composer's own expression (Treatise Handbook p.10).

2 In his book Wittgenstein (Fontana, 1971)Google ScholarPubMed. David Pears summarizes the aims of Tractatus in this way. denoting them X, Y & Z.

3 Like everyling else. the page numbers are in Cardew's hand, but as they play no active part in the piece, I mention them only for completeness.

4 Richard Barrett draws particular attention to this section. quoting pp. 130–133. in his excellent article on Cardew in New Music 87 (OUP).

5 Several designs in Treatise, intentionally or otherwise. resemble objects, a fact that was not lost on the players, Christopher Hobbs first drew my attention to the ‘factor’ and always referred to p. 145 as the ‘train–set’ page.

6 Tractus (here in the Pears/McGuinness translation) opens in a quasi–biblical way:

1 The World is all that is the case.

1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things etc.

7 On the 34 at the beginning. we have only the following cryptic remark by the composer to go on: ‘It is a fact that there were 34 blank spaces before the first sign put in an appearance’. Whatever this means (34 attempts to begin the piece perhaps?). it does reinforce the significance of the upturned 7. which by definition is the first sign to appear after the 34 ‘blank spaces’.

8 This ‘graphic’ seven appears frequently throughout the socre: most significantly perhaps on p. 174 (Ex. 11) where it is to be found, this time in a vertical position, above the little string of numbers mentioned above.

9 Silvano Bussotti is, to my mind, closest to Cardew in artistic merit as a creator of graphic or near-graphic music. Many painters have, of course, also made music the subject matter of their work: Paul Klee's Heroic Fiddling (a hommage to his friend, Adolph Busch) for example. Kandinsky's abstract canvasses also owe much to music, as is well known: indeed is choice of title frequently reflects this, eg. Composition No. 4, Improvisution No. 2, etc.

10 From Stockhausen Serves Imperialism and other articles by Cardew, Cornclius, (Latimer, 1974) p. 83 Google Scholar.

11 From Experimental Music: Cage and beyond by Nyman, Michael (Schirtner Books, 1974). p. 100 Google Scholar.