Cardew: The Great Learning

One of the standout titles from Deutsche Grammophon’s original Avant-Garde series, issued between 1968 and 1971, Scratch Orchestra’s performance of Paragraphs 2 and 7 from Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning still feels rich, challenging and deeply rewarding.

After finishing at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1958, Cardew moved to Cologne, where he worked as assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).

John Tilbury described both the Scratch Orchestra and The Great Learning as part of Cardew’s attempt to move beyond Western art’s core assumptions, especially the idea of the artist as aristocrat.

Recorded in 1971, this remains the key document of the Scratch Orchestra on record. Mastered and cut from the original analogue ¼ inch 2-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney Claire Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios. Limited, numbered, 180g vinyl with original artwork, a newly designed sleeve and new liner notes by Bradford Bailey.