Berio, L. Sequenza III for female voice

This piece was unlike anything I had ever heard before. I found it completely by accident and simply had to comment on it because it was so unique.
Luciano Berio was an Italian composer who was mostly known for his experimental work in the Sequenza series. These were a number of works for solo instruments where the main focus was to explore every possible expression of an instrument.

In Sequenza III the instrument is a woman, and simply looking at the score one can see how demanding the piece would be to sing. She is instructed to sing through every emotion one could express, moving from angry to dreamy in a second. There is no traditional melodic structure, but rather pitch indicators for the singer to follow.

The way in which her voice is forced through these motions shows her skill as i would imagine it would take a lot of strength and discipline to move from singing or almost screaming to the opposite sound with very little time for preparation. The way in which the piece begins is almost comical because you do not expect her to start the piece in the way she does. I think Berio meant for it to do this, take the audience by surprise.

Generally a great piece to listen to which aptly explores the idea of serialism.

- Sascha

Berio’s “O King”

Oh boy, looks like Berio is popular this week! Oh, and Peter, do you like the picture I’ve put up? The only audible words sung are “Martin Luther King” so guess who that is in the picture?

Essentially I have two comments regaring this piece. Firstly, I will cover the employment of texture and timbre; and secondly, because I know Peter would liek me two, I will describe some melodic transformation.

The most striking and engaging feature of this piece is the almost ethereal sound created through the orchestration. Personally, I found this what made me really engage with this composition. So how does Berio achieve this? I will look at the first six bars to provide an analytical explanation.  Berio utilises a cycle of four pitches: F, A, B, and C#. He more or less allots a pitch a certain bar, but the intruments are rhythmically dispersed. Thus we see that at bar five the piano, voice, cello and clarinet are playing C# on the first beat; whilst the flute plays C# shortly after. The violin, meanwhile, glissandis down from the previous pitch, B, into the pitch of the next bar, A. Because Berio has the instrumentalists play at the lowest dynamic possible, the piece sounds it is not played by five instrumentalists and a singer, but rather by one instrument which is gradually oscillating between sounds.

Now, let’s discuss melodic transformation. As said before, Berio uses a cycle of F, A, B and C#.  Naturally, if nothing changed in this cycle, the piece would probably be boring. But guess what? Berio changes it. At “A,” the pitch A is flattened, and Bb. Later, we see Berio adding a D to the piece as well; and atone point he shortens the rhythm of this melody to quavers in the flute part – C, Ab, Bb, C# and D.

Also worth mentioning is that Berio uses rhythmic transformation. Originally, a cycle of 4/4, 2/4, 3/8 and 3/4 is used, but as the piece progresses, Berio lenghtens the amount of time between changes in time signature.

Joseph Schwanter- ‘Sparrows’

Sparrows is a chamber piece, comprised of piano, strings, percussion, a harp, clarinet, flute, choir and soprano voice. What’s notable about this piece is that the ‘choir’ is actually the instrumentalists themselves, who are required to sight read and play both their own instrument and a seperate choir part. This proves quite difficult as 2 corresponding parts with both instrument and choir often contrast, though often Schwanter arranges for voice when long sustained notes are being played, which works well for the performers.

The attention to detail is remarkable and proves to be a demanding task to replicate the piece. For example, a crotchet rest with dots on both sides, which states ‘subtract half the value of the dot which follows the note.’ Also, accidentals only ‘apply to the pitches they immediately precede,’ unless they’re tied or repeated immediately. There’s specific tuning specifications for string players, requirement for hard mallets for crotale players and instructions for the performers to sing in a ‘child like’ voice. Key instruments like the violin and piano are constantly being played at a rapid rate, yet so quietly they blend together to form an etheral ambience to accompany the soprano singer, before rising to a crashing climax.

The score itself is not arranged in a traditional manner, while structured cohesively, its presentation appears more like modules, or blocks. This is necessary considering that many instruments appear only sporadically and for a short period of time, so when a block of new instruments appear it is easy to identify. Overall Sparrows is an intriguing listen and worth a look.

Shannon

George Crumb’s “Ancient Voices of Children”

Hey guys,

For this week I chose the afore-mentioned piece for two reasons:

1) I loved Crumb’s  Black Angels

2) This work has a choral focus, which is of particular interest to me for I will be composing for an amateur choir this semester

As with my previous experience, I loved this piece. The exploration of timbral effects that dominates Crumb’s music is remarkable. I think that rather than learning a complex compositional technique, I discovered something simple yet far more important. Crumb’s focus is to investigate possible manipulations of sound. The experimentation present in this piece gives it distinction, and makes it a joy to listen to. For me, it was like seeing an excellent drama that leaves the audience on the edge of their seats, pondering what the creator would do next.

Thus, I found the score unhelpful to my listening experience – rather, it was a hindrance. Personally, I, who have always worked with pen and paper, constantly analysing what I had written, forgot that  notation was far subservient to sound.

Now, to fulfill the requirements of this study, I will describe some of the characteristics of this piece.  Crumb, as I mentioned earlier, is chiefly concerned with  sonic manipulation (as, I suppose, we all should). many effects I have never heard before are produced under his instruction. The mezzo-soprano is told to sing into an open piano, which produces an eerie resonance. He employs non-traditional instruments, such as percussion instruments from around the world and a “musical saw” to achieve his desired effects. He is also specific about instrumental placement and amplification techniques, and the soprano recieves intructions regarding her formations of sounds.

all the best,

Timothy