The Legacy of Cornelius Cardew

The extent to which Cornelius Cardew has been a central figure and a force for new ideas in music forms the backbone to this book. Cardew’s diverse body of work and activity is here given coherence by its sharing in the values and principles that underpinned the composer’s world view. The apparently disparate and contradictory episodes of Cardew’s career are shown to be fused by a cohesive ’Cardew aesthetic’ that permeates the man, his politics and his music.

Tony Harris is Senior Lecturer in Music Education at Nottingham Trent University. An active composer, performer and improviser, he is founder member of the experimental duo The Pound Shop Boys. He has also performed with the Cornelius Cardew Ensemble and is resident percussionist with the CoMA East Midlands ensemble.