Sequenza

Sequenze (Italian: plural of the singular Sequenza ) refers to a series of works by Italian composer Luciano Berio ( 1925-2003 ). Each individual Sequenza are verses of Edoardo Sanguineti Italian poet, with the Berio also in the works A- Ronne ( 1975) had worked, prefixed. The Sequenza III for female voice " dubbed " a text by the Swiss writer Markus Kutter.

Historical Background

Ever since the invention and introduction of the well- tempered tuning by Andreas Werckmeister ( 1691), Johann Sebastian Bach in his two volumes of the Well-Tempered Clavier resolutely made ​​to prevail, the musical thinking and compositional practice were equally determined by the piano. Had the well-tempered tuning the composer opened new possibilities of the modulation, the piano was an instrument by the new compositional freedom quasi manifested itself tangibly - material. This development culminated in the 19th century. The culmination of the harmonic- tonal development in Wagner's Tristan marked but at the same time the beginning of their resolution.

In the 20th century, the compositional situation is characterized by two closely related principles. With the brittleness or the loss of tonality at the same time created the need for new organizing principles, such as they are and where they documented detaching serialism in the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schönberg. At the time of the creation of Sequenze however serialism or at least claim to absoluteness long been a matter is again up for grabs. Microtonality and spectral music make for example, the total chromatic Tonordnung, maybe the idea of ​​a pre- arranged order system of tones at all in question.

In contrast stands the vehemently driven search for new unused expression: this includes in particular the discovery and invention of new gaming practices of each instrument, as she had also demonstrated using examples in the development of the speaking voice, for example Schönberg.

One hand, the piano itself a conversion and revaluation must undergo: stand this example John Cage's experiments with the prepared piano. But above all, without exception, all now fallen, and neglected instruments again. In the field of view of compositional interest

Looking for a redefinition of the musical material, the role of the instrument converts at all: it is no longer merely phonetic manifestation and vehicle of expression of musical thought, but will also be involved in the functions of the material itself.

The playing technique and aural exploration of the possibilities of each instrument ( and of course their combinations ) is a compositional challenge of the utmost importance. The appeal of this task Berio has taken in his Sequenze same in a whole cycle successively formed.

The cycle

  • Sequenza I für Flöte (1958)
  • Sequenza II for harp (1963 )
  • Sequenza III for female voice ( 1965-66 )
  • Sequenza IV for piano ( 1965-66 )
  • Sequenza V for trombone ( 1965)
  • Sequenza VI for viola (1967 )
  • Sequenza VII for oboe (1969 )
  • Sequenza VIII for violin ( 1976-77 )
  • Sequenza IXa for clarinet ( 1980)
  • Sequenza IXb for Alto Saxophone ( 1981)
  • Sequenza X for trumpet in C and piano resonance ( 1984)
  • Sequenza XI for guitar ( 1987-88 )
  • Sequenza XII for bassoon (1995 )
  • Sequenza XIII ( Chanson ) for accordion ( 1995-96 )
  • Sequenza XIV (Dual ) for cello ( 2001-02)

Int.processing

Berio has reused the material more Sequenze and versions for solo instrument and ensemble made ​​, the cycle Chemins ( with the subtitle su Sequenza ), the solo parts are partly identical with, some variants of the Sequenze. Arrangements of Sequenze but also carry some other title.

  • I Chemins II su Sequenza for Harp and Orchestra ( 1965)
  • Chemins II ( 1967) originated from Sequenza VI (1967) and is for viola and ensemble (9 players). Chemins II was to Chemins III (1968 ) by the addition of an orchestra. There also exists Chemins IIb (1970), a version of Chemins II without the solo viola but with a larger ensemble ( 34 players), and Chemins IIc, identical with Chemins IIb but also a bass clarinet as a solo instrument (1972).
  • Chemins II su Sequenza III su Chemins VI for viola, ensemble and orchestra (1968).
  • Chemins IV su Sequenza VII for oboe and 11 strings (1975 )
  • Chemins V for clarinet and digital system (1980 ) abandoned / withdrawn.
  • Chemins V Sequenza XI for guitar and chamber orchestra ( 1992)
  • "Kol - Od " - Chemins VI su Sequenza X ( 1995-96 ) for trumpet and instrumental groups
  • " Recit " - Chemins VII su Sequenza IXb for alto saxophone and small orchestra (1996 )
  • Chorale su Sequenza VIII ( 1981), for violin, 2 horns and strings.

The concept Sequenza

"The title sequences underlines the fact that the installation of the pieces almost always keep their output goes from a series of harmonic fields, revealing also the other musical functions with maximum characteristics. " ( Berio, 1998, p 23)

The case sought impression of a polyphonic hearing even with monophonic instruments is already prefigured in the tradition of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin or cello suites makes his polyphonic thinking as a linear counterpoint law. Berio be extended for the entanglement playing technique and tonal aspects.

"Almost all the sequences actually follow the common goal of an essentially harmonic progression to clarify melodic ways, and to develop. Polyphony ... is here understood in a figurative sense, as a demonstration and superposition of modes of action of different instruments and characters. " ( Berio 1998, p 23)

A common feature of all sequences is their main feature virtuoso. The aspect referred to instrumental technique outlines not only the instrumental busyness in the strict sense, but is intended to encompass the entire relationship between the virtuoso and his instrument.

" The best soloists of our time - modern in their intelligence, their sensitivity, their technique - are also able to move in a broad historical perspective, and the tensions between the creative impulses of yesterday and up today: they put their instruments as a means of search and an expression. Her virtuosity is not exhausted by manual skill or philological specialization. Done it, even with different degrees of consciousness sharpness - they can devote themselves only the single virtuosity that is today: that of the sensitivity and intelligence. This ... is perhaps one reason why I've never tried in all my sequences to alter the genetic makeup of an instrument still use it against his own nature. " ( Berio 1998, pp. 24f )

The Edoardo Sanguineti Motti

  • Sequenza 1: and here begins your desire, which is the delusion of my desire: / music is the desire of desires:
  • Sequenza 2: I have heard chains of colors, muscular and aggressive: / I have touched your harsh, harsh noise:
  • Sequenza 3: I want your words: and I will destroy it in a hurry, your words: / and I want to destroy me, me, finally, really:
  • Sequenza 4: I draw myself against your many levels, I'm changing my veins, / with my feet: I concur in all of your eyes:
  • Sequenza 5: I ask you: why, why? and I'm the dry grimace of a clown / why you want to know, I ask you, why I ask you, why?
  • Sequenza 6: my capricious fury has been your livid calm / my song will be your slow silence
  • Sequenza 7: Your profile is one of my raging landscapes, held at a distance / it is a false fire of love, the poor: is dead
  • Sequenza 8: I have multiplied my votes for you, my words, my vowels / and I cry, now that you're my vocative
  • Sequenza 9a: you're fickle and motionless, my fragile fractal / you this, my broken form that trembles
  • Sequenza 9b: my fragile form, you're fickle and immobile: / it's you that my broken fractal returns and shakes:
  • Sequenza 10: describe my limits, and enclose me in echoes in reflections / long and unsecured start, you will me me, you, for me
  • Sequenza 11: I find you again, my childish, unstable pseudo - dance / I close you in a circle: and I interrupt you, racking up
  • Sequenza 12: I move quietly, softly, I reveal you, I discover your faces, I ertaste you, thoughtfully, / I turn up and turn back and forth, you changing, trembling: I torment you, terrible:
  • Sequenza 13: and so comforts us a chord that closes us friendly, simply: / the catastrophe is in the middle, is in the heart: but it remains fenced there, entrenched:

From this aesthetic position is understandable why Berio each sequence preceded by lines of poetry of Edoardo Sanguineti as Motti. The custom instrumental compositions explanatory title above (or as in the case of the two volumes of the Préludes by Debussy ) mimic, is common practice. Especially Robert Schumann has extensively made ​​in his piano works, use of it, when it came to him, the poetic content of a piece emphasized to counteract the performers and audience of the presentation of Mechanical Etudes sticking and expel the pieces as a poetic structure and autonomous works of art. He also has the possibility of entire verses (such as in the the Davidsbünlertänzen op 6 prefixed motto ) made ​​use of. The verses used by Edoardo Sanguineti Berio are also offered in a substantive context and show as Berio's desire also to clamp the individual sequences with each other. Thus, an inner cohesion is at least underlined, perhaps even targeted the possibility of cyclical performance.

Sequenza III

The Sequenza III ( for female voice ) is based on the following text by Markus Kutter:

The words, however, are thereby widely distributed over the piece and partially repeated. In addition, the piece contains no text to be sung tones and carried forward by the singer sounds, including various forms of laughter.

Well temperament Claude Debussy Musical tone
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