Allowing the Performer to Choose a Different Route
Circles (for Harp, Percussion and Voice)
Advanced Pedaling Techniques and “Random” Sostenuto Pedal
APPENDIX – Examples of Berio's Notation
Extensions to the Nominal Language
(Sequenza for Cello, use of “cloud accidentals”)
Extended Technique – Organ (in “Fa-Si”)
Removing the Blocks Later in “Fa-Si”
Extended Techniques – Gesti for Alto Recorder
Extended Techniques – Harp (Chemins I)
Notating Narrated Text (Opus Number Zoo, Mov't 1)
Other Ways of Specifying Rhythm in Narration (Opus Number Zoo, Mov't 3)
Extended Vocal Technique – Sequenza for Voice (excerpt from instructions)
Uses of Repeated Patterns
Uses of Notational Mirroring or Symmetry
Instructions to Rounds for Harpsichord
Berio and Notation
by William Andrew Burnson
Background
Little research has been done on the subject of Berio's notation. This is surprising considering
the copious amount of highly varied music that he wrote, the extended techniques he made use
of in the Sequenzas, and his use of commentary in music.
Existing Research
A dissertation by Benedict Weisser Notational Practice in Contemporary Music: A Critique of
Three Compositional Models (Luciano Berio, John Cage, and Brian Ferneyhough) which
includes an interview with the composer regarding notation, and an analysis of Berio's
proportional-to-rational renotation of the Flute Sequenza.
Weisser asks Berio:
“A very important issue in your music is how notation becomes a matter worthy of its own
exploration. . . can you talk generally about the role notation plays in your music and how that
has changed over time?”
Berio replies:
“I don't agree particularly with what you said before. Usually, I'm not concerned with notation
itself. When I'm concerned, that means there's a problem. The issue of notation comes out, at
least in my own musical perspective, when there is a dilemma, when there is a problem to be
solved. And that pushes me to find solutions that maybe I was never pushed to find before.”
Weisser concludes:
“Not only were Berio's works from this period progressive by nature (speaking in terms of their
language and aesthetic outlook), but they also represented a progression in the sense that each
work invented a system to solve a new and different sort of notation problem or addressed a
certain issue. By contrast, his music today [1997] seems to drift towards the same elements of
rhetoric and artifice that in 1958 were things to be 'overcome,' to be 'gone over' and 'made freer.'
This stasis and lack of logical progression or sense of discovery and play in Berio's recent
notational techniques is matched by a lack of progression in his music as a whole. If, as Berio
told me, 'there are no implicit codes,' then he certainly is not taking it upon himself to invent
them any more.”
The Gamut of Berio's Use of Extended Notation
NOTATION AS PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Basic extensions to the nominal language and convenience features
Extensions to instrumental techniques
Partially specified rhythm (for narration), specifying specific rhythms on a per-language basis
Allowing player to make choices between alternatives
Randomness (random pedaling, random continuation of a predefined set of notes)
Facilitation of cues between players (Circles)
Theatrical staging directions and commentary (i.e. Sinfonia, Recital I for Cathy)
Extensions that inform composition (i.e. mirroring in Rounds and Mauricio)
[also, extensions that solve a problem caused by another notational choice]
NOTATION AS COMPOSITION