Cornelius Cardew (1936), a former assistant to Stockhausen in Cologne (1958-60), of Petrassi in Rome (1963-65) and of Cage in America, composed monumental works for the Centre for Experimental Music that he established in London. He also embarked in illuminating performances of free improvisation with the group AMM (from 1966) which also included guitarist Keith Rowe, saxophonist Lou Gare and percussionist Eddie Prevost, but a steady Marxist awareness led him to repudiate first his own teachers and then even his own art, accusing everybody of being complicit in the evils of the Establishment.

And so his masterpiece The Great Learning (1968) for choir of non-singers, in which the performers can make any noise with the mouth as long as it is not musical (influenced by John Cage's principles of indeterminacy), shouldn't even be mentioned. This is a four-hour composition, based on the Confucian classic, in which several groups of singers engage in a very slow, long-tone melody while a drummer with each group of singers shifts through a series of 26 rhythm patterns.

And, in fact, the monumental Treatise (1967), whose score is a 193-page manual of instructions, was only performed posthumously in february 1998.

Chamber Music 1955-64 - Apartment House (Matchless) is a retrospective of early compositions.

In 1969 Cardew founded the Scratch Orchestra, an open-ended ensemble for the performance of avantgarde music inspired by Maoist principles. The ensemble was devoted to militant folk music, such as the Thalmann Variations (recorded in january 1975) for piano on themes of political songs. Cardew even created a Scratch Orchestra Ideology Group to ensure that the Scratch Orchestra stuck to Maoist principles.

Tilbury's Piano Music 1959-70 (2014) contains Cardew's February Piece, Volo Solo, Unintended Piano Music, Material and Treatise.

Keith Rowe, Eddie Prevost, Cornelius Cardew, Gavin Bryars and many other composers and free improvisers created the Music Now Ensemble that recorded Silver Pyramid (1969).

Four Principles On Ireland and Other Pieces (Cramps, 1974 - Ampersand, 2001) contains brief piano compositions inspired by revolutionary songs of different countries.

We Only Want The Earth (Musicnow, 2002) and We Sing For The Future (New Albion) collect music inspired by Maoism.

Cardew Works 1960-70 (Confront, 2010) collects six compositions.

The 4CD boxset The Great Learning delivers a five-hour recording from july 2010 that should be the definitive version.

Consciously (2013) collects unreleased Cardew compositions dating back to 1972-1980.

Industria (october 2015) collects a live performance by John Tilbury (piano) and Eddie Prevost (percussion).

Cornelius Cardew died in 1981 in a car accident.