When asked to describe his composition, Treatise, Cornelius Cardew replied, "Well, it's a vertebrate." As John Corbett observes in his liner notes, it is indeed music with a spine. That spine is a 193-page-long score consisting of elaborately calligraphic shapes and drawings running over an empty pair of standard five-line musical staffs. For this recording, Art Lange, who had previously produced a wonderful album interpreting several of Anthony Braxton's more abstract pieces, gathered together some of the finest young improvisers working in Chicago in the late '90s, as well as the Argentine reed player Guillermo Gregorio. Needless to say, a score such as this allows substantial room for imaginative readings but it still exerts a form of control, even as the definition of its many symbols is left to the participants. Almost as if preparing for an arcane and mysterious game, the ensemble members constructed loose agreements as to how certain shapes, lines, and numbers would be interpreted, which instruments would read the illustrations above the middle line, which below, and so on. In some ways, Treatise might be seen as anticipatory of game pieces by composers like John Zorn wherein the guidelines, as expansive as they are, still restrict the action in some way, still require a specific sort of communication between players, ensuring a quality of "Treatise-ness." In the midst of what may sound like free improvisation, signposts are reached where, for example, the group will suddenly play a more or less unison passage or play only low tones. In this performance, lasting the full length of two CDs, the sounds tend toward the quiet, with brief and unexpected louder flurries popping up now and then. As in the fine improvisations of AMM (of which Cardew was a founding member), the music unfolds in a natural, unforced manner with no single instrument seeking prominence. The techniques employed are often of the "extended" variety but the overall texture is one of calm, purposeful advancing, with great attention paid to delicious aural mixes. Treatise is considered by many to be Cardew's most important work and, as the only full recording extant as of 2001, Art Lange's interpretation is as beautiful and appreciative as one could hope. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide
Cornelius Cardew (Main Performer), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Cello), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Electronics), Jim O'Rourke (Electronics), Peter Pfister (Mastering), Peter Pfister (Mixing), Pia Uehlinger (Executive Producer), Werner X. Uehlinger (Executive Producer), Jim Baker (Performer), Art Lange (Conductor), Art Lange (Producer), John Corbett (Liner Notes), John Corbett (Production Assistant), Steve Mezger (Engineer), Guillermo Gregorio (Clarinet), Guillermo Gregorio (Sax (Alto)), Carrie Biolo (Percussion), Carrie Biolo (Vibraphone), Carrie Biolo (Performer), Jim Baker (Piano), Jim Baker (Electronics)
Treatise is a musical composition by BritishcomposerCornelius
Cardew (1936-1981). Treatise is a graphic musical score comprising 193
pages of lines, symbols, and various geometric or abstract shapes that eschew conventional musical notation. Implicit in the title is a reference to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, which was of particular inspiration to Cardew in composing the work. The score
neither contains nor is accompanied by any explicit instruction to the performers in how to
perform the work. Cardew worked on the composition from 1963 to 1967.
Although the score allows for absolute interpretive freedom (no one interpretation will sound like another), the work is not
intended to be played spontaneously, as Cardew suggested that performers devise in advance their own rules and methods for
interpreting and performing the work. Eliminating the role of the musician as one of accurately and faithfully responding to the
score as a set of disciplined instructions, Treatise thus undermines the traditional hierarchy that separates the role of
composer from that of performer. Performances of Treatise are intended to imply a balance of interpretive freedom and
responsibility.
Subsequently Cardew embraced Maoism and wholeheartedly repudiated this and other works of his
avant-garde period. A savage indictment of Treatise may be seen in a speech delivered
by Cardew at the ‘International Symposium on the Problematic of Today’s Musical Notation’ held in Rome in October 1972, as
transcribed in his highly polemical book Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (1974), available
in PDF format at UBUweb.
References
Cornelius Cardew, "Wiggly Lines and Wobbly Music," Breaking the Sound Barrier: a Critical Anthology of the New Music,
ed. Gregory Battcock (New York: 1981)
Brian Dennis, "Cardew's Treatise: Maily the Visual Aspects," Tempo 177 (1991): pp. 10-16
Sonic Youth play a 3:29 minute excerpt of page 183 of Treatise on their CD SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century
(1999)
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