The individual as structure in Cornelius Cardew'sthe great learning:paragraph 7

Abstract

Abstract The experimental works of Cornelius Cardew from the 1960's reflect his philosophy that the individual, both musically trained and untrained, was the most important resource that he as a composer could tap. This paper traces the roots of that belief through Cardew's experiments in graphic notation and through his later investigations into combining traditional and verbal notations. His search culminated in the composition of Paragraph 7 of The Great Learning. The strength of this work lies in its formal unity created through a “process‐oriented style as well as through graphic and linguistic links to the Chinese language and to Confucian philosophy. An appendix to the paper traces Cardew's ideological changes in the early 1970's and their effect on revisions of The Great Learning.