Luciano Berio (1925­2003)

Born in Oneglia (Italy), he studied with Giulio Paribeni and Giorgio Ghedini at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan. In 1953, together with Bruno Maderna, he founded the Studio di Fonologia Musicale della rai in Milan and was its head until 1961. In 1956 he set up the Incontri Musicali magazine and until 1960 was in charge of concerts under the same name. He taught composition in the United States at Tanglewood (1960,1982), Mills College, Oakland (1962), and Harvard University, and in Europe at Darmstadt, Cologne, and the Dartington Summer School of Music (1961, 1962).
>From 1965 to 1972 he was a member of the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He founded the Julliard Ensemble. In 1974­1979 he collaborated with Pierre Boulez at ircam in Paris. In 1987 he founded the Centro Tempo Reale di Firenze. In 1980 he was given an honorary doctorate from the City University of London. During the latter years of his life, he was showered with awards and distinctions, including the Ernst von Siemens Award (1989), the Award of the Wolf Foundation in Jerusalem (1991), the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale (1995), honorary doctorates from the Universities in Siena (1995) and Turin (1999) and the Peaemium Imperiale of the Japanese Arts Association (1996). In 2000 he was appointed President and Artistic Director of the famous Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. A year later he was Artistic Director of a wide-ranging European project OL'Arte della Fuga1, which comprised concerts in Spoleto, The Hague, Lyon and London. His honours also include the Premio Internazionale OLuigi Vanvitelli1 in Caserta.
Luciano Berio was also active as a conductor, appearing with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and Europe.
His last completed work, Stanze for baritone, three male choirs and orchestra will be premiered on 22 January 2004 at the Théâtre Mogardon in Paris, with Christoph Eschenbach conducting.
Luciano Berio died on 27 May 2003 in Rome.

Selected works (since 1980): Entrata for orchestra (1980), Corale for violin, strings and two horns (1981), Accordo per quattro grupi di bande (1981), Duo, theatre of imagination for baritone, two violins, mixed choir and orchestra (1982), Requies for orchestra (1983­84), Voci for viola and two instrumental groups (1984), Brahms/Berio: Opus 120 Nr. 1 for clarinet or viola and orchestra (1984­86), Naturale, ballet (1985­86), Ricorrenze for wind quintet (1985­87), String Quartet (1986­90), Formazioni for orchestra (1986), Sequenze I­XI for various instruments and solo voice (1958­88), Concerto II (Echoing Curves) for piano and two instrumental groups (1988), Ofanim for two instrumental groups, two children1s choirs, female voice and real time computer music system (1988), Canticum Novissimi Testamenti (Ballata) for a cappella mixed choir (1988; 2nd section for four solo voices, four clarinets and saxophone quartet ­ 1989), Continuo for orchestra (1989­91), Schubert/Berio: Rendering for orchestra (1989), psy for double-bass (1989), Verdi/Berio: 8 Romanze for tenor and orchestra (1990), Leaf for piano (1990), Brin for piano (1990), Notturno (Quartetto III) for string quartet (1993; version for string orchestra ­ 1995), Compass, ballet (1995), Sequenza XII for bassoon (1995), Sequenza XIII for bassoon (1995), kol-od (Chemins VI) for trumpet and chamber orchestra (1996), Outis, opera (1996), Récit (Chemins VII) for alto sax and orchestra (1996), Ekphrasis (Continuo II) for orchestra (1997), Alternatim, double concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra (1997), Glosse for string quartet (1997), Korót for eight cellos (1998), Cronaca del Luogo, music campaign (1998­1999), Solo for trombone and orchestra (1999), Stanze for baritone, three male choirs and orchestra (2003).

Voci (Folk Songs II)
The act of transcription (like that of translation) may imply three different conditions: the identification of the composer with the original musical text, the turning of the text into a pretext for analytical experimentation and, finally, the overpowering of the text, its de-construction and its philological Oabuse1. I believe that an ideal situation occurs only when these three conditions come to blend and coexist. Only then may transcription become a truly creative and constructive act.
Voci (Folk Songs II), written in 1984 for Aldo Bennici and dedicated to Laura and Paolo Martelli, deals precisely with the problem of converging those three dimensions. I am deeply indebted to Aldo Bennici for providing me with the original musical material for the work: songs of work and love, lullabies and Ostreet cries1 from different parts of Sicily. With Voci I hope to contribute to the enhancement of a more profound interest in the Sicilian folklore which, along with that of Sardinia, is certainly the richest, most complex and incandescent of our Mediterranean culture.
Luciano Berio

Sequenza III is a stage composition for voice. Although the borderline between speaking and singing voice will often be blurred in actual performance, the vocal actions written in one line are spoken, while those written on three or five lines are sung. On five lines precise intervals are given, but their pitch is not absolute: each sequence of intervals can be transported to fit the vocal range of the performer. Hand, facial and bodily gestures beside those specified in the score are to be employed at the discretion of the performer according to the indicated patterns of emotions and vocal behaviour (tense, urgent, distant, dreamy etc.). The performer, however, must not try to represent or pantomime tension, urgency, distance or dreaminess... but must let these cues act as a spontaneous conditioning factor to hear vocal action and body attitudes. The processes involved in this conditioning are not assumed to be conventionalized; they must be experimented with by the performer herself according to her own emotional code, her vocal flexibility and her dramaturgy. The words are by Markus Kutter:

give me a few words for a woman
to sing a truth allowing us
to build a house without worrying
before night comes...

Sequenza III was written in 1966 and is dedicated to Cathy Barberian.
Luciano Berio
(Note from the programme book of the 1974 OWarsaw Autumn1)