Treatiseand theTractatus

Abstract

Abstract Cornelius Cardew named his monumental graphic scoreTreatiseafter Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early philosophical masterpieceTractatus logico-philosophicus, and this well-known fact has engendered speculation about whether there might be other connections between Cardew’s composition and Wittgenstein’s book. Previous commentaries have focused on possible allusions to theTractatusin the visual imagery employed by Cardew, and this article includes further suggestions of this type. However, it concentrates on more general affinities betweenTreatise, as Cardew conceived of it prior to his involvement with the free improvisation group AMM, and the philosophy adumbrated in theTractatus.Foremost among these is a striking concordance between Cardew’s initial enthusiasm for an isomorphic mode of interpretingTreatiseand Wittgenstein’s picture theory of the proposition. The article also excavates traces of the picture theory in the numerological basis ofVolo solo, a more conventionally notated by-product of theTreatiseproject.

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