The author discusses the relationship between the music and the politics of Cornelius Cardew, placing it in the context of his background and the period in which he worked. As a socially committed composer trained in elite and avant-garde conventions, Cardew struggled to create a music “for the people.” The results, if contradictory, have nevertheless proven to be of enduring value for his contemporaries and successors.

Any attempt to theorize about Latin American composition will necessarily involve a prejudgment of which composers to consider. In addition the context of a colonial system of cultural transmission should not be ignored. This context makes it important to evaluate a composer's significance in terms of his or her distinctiveness in the light of metropolitan composers and compositions. A number of characteristic trends can be seen in the works of composers who meet these criteria, including a distinctive sense of time; use of nondiscursive, reiterative processes; austerity; violence; the breach of technological and cultural boundaries; and an interest in cultural identity.