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levi_masuli's review against another edition
5.0
Cornelius Cardew attacks John Cage, Stockhausen, etc, and most remarkably, his own work as leader of The Scratch Orchestra. Cardew's scathing criticism/ self-criticism of the said composers, including himself, as reactionary formalist provocateurs provides a dimension on the criticism of American avant garde that strays away from the usual focus on their works' non-musical aspects. He focused on how the American avant garde's experimentalism was naively heralded as the emancipation of sound from the artistic 'Genius', but was not fully aware of the political implications of 'chance', neutrality and repetition in a society where these very categories were 'pre-digested'and pre-configured to assume a form of apparent revolt.
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