Virginia Anderson

number), indicating an untitled Improvisation Rite by Christopher Hobbs.

It was also published as the second of Two Compositions, 21 May 1969, as part
of his Word Pieces collection (Hobbs 1972, 47). The text of CH27 is divided by
strokes (as when verse is set within prose) in Nature Study Notes, but it is set
as separate lines (as poetry) in Word Pieces with the indication “Back to the
beginning” at the end. In the poster for the first Scratch Orchestra concert,
at Hampstead Town Hall on 1 November 1969 (which Hobbs, as the youngest
member, presented), the lines of the text (named here as “Second Piece”) were
set as spokes radiating from a central axis, accentuating its cyclical form.
Under Scratch Orchestra genre types, Two Compositions (2) is a composition
(“performable by the orchestra”) (Cardew 1969, 619). Its happy performances
would tend to be interactive ones, its alternative responses observed by all.
Other provisions in Scratch Orchestra compositions include preventing harm
to instruments, the performance space or performers; directions for physical
placement (like Balkan Sobranie); performer hierarchy or equality (is there a
leader to be followed, or is there a provision to ensure each player equal solo
time?); various types of game play; manipulation of perceived time; and so
on. Two Compositions (2) is nearly identical to CH27. CH27 is another genre
type, an Improvisation Rite (“not a musical composition”) (Cardew 1969, 619).
Ideally, an Improvisation Rite describes a situation to facilitate improvisa-
tion, not an instruction for sound. The differences between Improvisation
Rites and Compositions can be almost imperceptible. The placement of Two
Compositions (2) and CH27 (in a collection of compositions and a collection
of Improvisation Rites) alone determines their function. As an Improvisation
Rite, CH27 does not specify instrumentation or pitch structure. Hobbs never
determines the action “play,” so the performer might play games; he does not
specify sound, only vision, so a happy performance could be silent; the “some-
one” who may return the gaze may be unaware that CH27 is being performed
by the subject player, so a happy performance could be solo and covert.
Just as a single piece can have two contextual and generic uses, pieces
within a single genre may look completely different. Although Nature Study
Notes was intended as a collection of Improvisation Rites, there are a num-
ber of entries in this collection that can only be described as compositional.
Tim Mitchell’s Tube Train Rite (TMTTR38; in Cardew, ed. 1969, 6) presents
a set of parallel linear graphics and reads, “mark out a journey (inwardly/
outwardly/spatially). Make it.” Like Young’s grasshoppers, there is nothing
regarding sound, so Tube Train Rite is a true Improvisation Rite. The title
refers to the London Underground. References, or “ancestry,” can appear in
the score or in supplementary authorial notes that appear at the end of Nature
Study Notes (Cardew, ed. 1969, 12–15). In his notes (p. 15), Mitchell asserted
Tube Train Rite’s ancestry to be Cardew’s graphic score Treatise, most likely
due to its linear pattern and graphics. He also mentions William Caxton, an
early English printer, and two steam engine pioneers (James Watt, George
Stephenson [spelled “Stevenson” in the notes]). Nature Study Notes references
included literature, games, laws, other rites and pieces by other experimen-
talists (Mitchell’s reference to Treatise), pop music or (rather sarcastically) the

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