Larum 'Treatise by Cornelius Cardew' [CD]

For this collection of live performances, we approached Treatise not just as a score, but as a piece of visual art—an abstract landscape that drew us in with its raw graphic beauty. We felt compelled to translate it into sound using our instruments, while also engaging with the work on its own terms. In researching Cardew’s notes and his Treatise Handbook, it became clear that he didn’t intend the piece to be an open-ended free-for-all. Rather, he encouraged performers to develop a personal yet logical approach.

So we devised a method: each piece begins at the score’s consistent center line, which we treated as a timeline. From this anchor, we identified waypoints where the geometry converged and used those moments for the performers to meet on a predetermined harmony. We then interpreted the surrounding geometric forms as cues for dynamics, density, and instrumental voicing—allowing the score’s abstract visuals to shape the arc and texture of each performance.