CARDEW (A SCORE IS A SCREEN... ...TOWARDS A BETTER WORLD)

pictures by Chun-Han Chiang

Saturday 13 January 2018, 20:00

Treatise by DNK Ensemble (Seamus Cater / Koen Nutters / Martijn Tellinga / Reinier van Houdt)

The great learning (Paragraph 7) by DNK Ensemble and 32 volunteers

A score is a screen... ... towards a better world

Open scores and graphic notation as a parallel of a less hierarchical and authoritarian society.

Cardew was an English composer who tried to erase his own experimental work because of his Marxist background. He was convinced that it did not further the cause of the working man, or propose a better way to give shape to society.

These performances aim to illuminate the fact that experimental art can indeed connect with the world. Art could serve to create better circumstances for the working class. The open-ness of the structure and process of performing a piece of music spreads a sense of equality and collaboration. The practice of collaborative composition is used as a proposition for creating a better future together.

Treatise (DNK Ensemble)

The DNK Ensemble will perform a graphic score by Cornelius Cardew created to challenge interpreters to create their own world of meaning inside the open signs and shapes used by the composer.

The Great Learning (DNK Ensemble and 32 participants)

A work from Cardew's late experimental phase is composed to be played by The Scratch Orchestra. This piece is based on a text by Confucius and calls for as many (amateur) singers as possible to participate. It challenges each of them to find their way through the space and through the simple seeming text-score. See for an example: https://vimeo.com/58869858

These projects are all collaborative and experimental works. They are created out of an open environment using non-specific instructions by the composer, to be interpreted by the performer.