Nature Study Notes is a collection of 152 written instructions or 'scores' that was published as a booklet by Cornelius Cardew at the beginning of the Scratch Orchestra in 1969. The scores are called 'rites' and were used in many of the early Scratch Orchestra concerts. This is a music improvisation and visual performance event about one hour duration. “I must say, in hindsight, that the improvisation rites have an overall uniqueness - almost a new art form with elements of theatre, music, visuals - but amounting to something else. They have great variety (reflecting the individual character & preoccupations of the author) but an overall character (if this makes sense!).” – Hugh Shrapnel

“Our improvising, it seems to me, is a matter of entering into relation in the widest possible way: relation with our unconscious, a relation with our materials and expression, a relation with the medium of expression, a relation with imagination, a relation with the recipient of our attempted communications etc. The wider the scope of potential relation then the more possibilities there are to both come across ways in which our activity and expression is determined (by the hidden social messages in language, by the technique of virtuosity, by the closure of product) and to modify and change this determination; to maintain that the social is never fully determined, and its potential for freedom is never closed but persists as the outcome of experimentalism.” – Howard Slater.

Performed by an ensemble of original Scratch Orchestra members and new performers including: Jane Alden, George Chambers, Linn D, Carole Finer, John Hails, Bryn Harris, Les Hutchins, Petri Huurinainen, Eve Libertine, Robbie Lockwood, Geraldine McEwan, Christian Sancto, Matt Scott, Hugh Shrapnel, Howard Slater, Stefan Szczelkun, Emmanuelle Waeckerle & Ali Warner.

“It is impossible to capture the details of such an experience in words, and of course another performance would be an entirely different experience. But this is the beauty of it.” – Bachtrack