E a proposito di futuro, e di sguardo al passato, Cornelius Cardew ultimò We Sing For The Future poco prima di morire travolto da un'auto nel dicembre 1981: lo hanno ricordato ieri nel giorno del suo compleanno in Other Minds ripescando un'intervista, rilasciata nel pieno della sua seconda fase artistica, in un programma radiofonico dove egli stesso eseguì Four Principles on Ireland e Long Live Chairman Mao.
Born in 1936, Cardew had a traditional music education, studying composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In the late 1950’s he became interested in avant-garde and electronic music, working with Karlheinz Stockhausen, and composing a series of aleatoric pieces influenced by the ideas of John Cage and others. In the late 1960s and 70s Cardew’s interest in Socialist politics, the Chinese Revolution, and the teachings of Mao Zedong, led him to reevaluate the academic avant-garde, essentially rejecting it as elitist, and irrelevant to the struggles of the working class. He went on to be a founding member of both the Scratch Orchestra and the People’s Liberation Music, both of which were nonhierarchical musical collectives with decidedly pro-Socialist intentions. In this program Cardew discusses the political aspects of his music as well as playing a selection of his protest songs and politically inspired solo piano works. Cardew died on December 13, 1981, the victim of a suspicious hit and run accident. Cornellius Cardew was born 85 years ago today in Winchcombe, UK on May 7, 1936.
https://www.otherminds.org
https://archive.org/details/AM_1975_01_25
