Treatise, composition by British composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981). Teatise is a graphic musical score comprising 192 pages of lines, symbols, and various geometric or abstract shapes that eshew conventional musical notation (see graphic musical notation). The score neither contains nor is accompanied by any explicit instruction to the performer(s) in how to perform the work. Cardew worked on the composition from 1963 to 1967. Cornelius Cardew (b. ... Musical Graphic notation is a form of Music notation it refers to the use of non-traditional symbols and text to convey information about the performance of a piece of music. ...

Although the score allows for absolute interpretive freedom (no one interpretation will sound like another), the work is not intended to be played spontaneously, as Cardew suggested that performers devise in advance their own rules and methods for interpreting and performing the work. Eliminating the role of the musician as one of accurately and faithfully responding to the score as a set of disciplined instructions, Treatise thus undermines the traditional hierarchy that seperates the role of composer from that of performer. Performances of Treatise, are intended to imply a balance of interpretive freedom and responsibility.

Subsequently Cardew embraced Maoism and wholeheartedly repudiated this and other works of his avant-garde period. A savage indictment of Treatise may be seen in a speech delivered by Cardew at the ‘International Symposium on the Problematic of Today’s Musical Notation’ held in Rome in October 1972, as transcribed in his highly polemical book Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (1974), available in PDF format at UBUweb.

Sonic Youth played an 3:29 minutes - excerpt / variation (p.183) of "Treatise" on their CD "SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century" (1999). Sonic Youth is a rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ...