V.

Trombone
ti dico: perch, perch? e sono la secca smorfia di un clown:
perch vuoi sapere, ti dico, perch ti dico perch?
I say to you why, why? and I am the dry grimace of a clown:
why do you want to know, I say to you, why I say to you why?
VI. Viola
il mio capriccioso furore fu gi la tua livida calma:
la mia canzone sar il tuo silenzio lentissimo:
my capricious frenzy was once your livid calm
my song will be the slowness of your silence:
VII. Oboe
il tuo profilo un mio paesaggio frenetico, tenuto a distanza:
un falso fuoco d'amore, che minimo: morto:
your profile is a frenetic landscape of mine, kept at a distance:
it is a false fire of love, near nothing: dead
VIII. Violin
ho moltiplicato per te le miei voci, i miei vocaboli, le mie vocali:
e grido, adesso, che sei il mio vocativo:
for you I have multiplied my voices, my vocabulary, my vowels:
and I cry out, now, that you are my vocative
IXa. Clarinet
sei instabile e immobile, mio fragile frattale:
sei tu, questa mia infranta forma che trema:
you are unstable and immobile, my fragile fractal:
it's you, this shattered form of mine that trembles:
IXb. Saxophone
mia forma fragile, sei instabile e immobile:
sei tu, questo mio infranto frattale che trema:
my fragile form, you are unstable and immobile:
it's you, this shattered fractal of mine that trembles:
Verses by Edoardo Sanguineti
English translations by David Osmond-Smith
Italian author Edoardo Sanguineti began writing the verses for individual Sequenze in 1994. In performance,
each verse can be recited before its respective Sequenza. Berio thought to have Cathy Berberian
read a Sanguineti poema reading that is progressively engulfed by a pre-existent orchestral piece as part
of Epifanie (1959-61), when the two men were working on their first collaboration: Passagigo (1961-2).
The later work is the true foundation of their working relationship, which led to further collaborations
on Laborintus II (1963-65), A-Ronne (1974/75}, and Canticum Novissimi Testamenti II (1989).
The poet presented the texts to his composer friend with the following words:
incipit sequentia sequentiarum, quae est musica musicarum secundum lucianum
Here begins the sequence of sequences, which is the music of musics according to Luciano.
I. Flute
e qui incomincia il tuo desiderio, che il delirio del mio desiderio:
la musica il desiderio dei desideri:
and here begins your desire, which is the delirium of my desire:
music is the desiring of desires
II. Harp
ho ascoltato catene di colori, muscolosamente aggressivi:
ho toccato i tuoi ruvidi rumori rigidi:
I have listened to colour-chains, muscular, aggressive:
I have touched your rough, rigid resonances:
III. Voice
voglio le tue parole: e voglio distruggerle, in fretta, le tue parole:
e voglio distruggermi, me, finalmente, veramente:
I want your words: and I want to destroy them, in haste, your words:
and I want to destroy myself, me, finally, truly:
IV. Piano
mi disegno contro i tuoi tanti specchi, mi modifico con le mie vene, con i miei piedi:
mi chiudo dentro tutti i tuoi occhi:
I etch myself against your many mirrors, through my veins, my feet, I modify myself:
I close myself within every one of your eyes:
XIVb. Double Bass
uhi! uhi! tra timbri, tra tremiti di tropici, i tormenti! viscere vertebrate, quali orienti!
e che ritmi, e che rombi! tra rotti rutti, i rictus pi ridenti! e poi; vivendo!
ooh! ooh! amid timbrals, amid tropic-shudders, torments! vertebrate viscera, what orients!
and what rhythms, what roarings! amid broken belchings, the most smiling of rictuses! and then, a life rush!
Italian text Edoardo Sanguineti, 1994; English translation David Osmond-Smith, 1994 and 2006
X. Trumpet
descrivi i miei confini, e stringimi in echi, in riflessi:
a lungo, e disinvoltamente, diventami me, tu, per me:
describe my boundaries, and clasp me in echoes, in reflections:
without haste or inhibition, turn yourself into me, will you, for me:
XI. Guitar
ti ritrovo, mia puerile pseudodanza innaturale:
ti chiudo in un cuore, in un cerchio: e ti interrompo, ti rompo:
I find you once more, my unnatural, puerile pseudo-dance:
I enclose you in a heart, in a circle: and I interrupt you, I rupture you:
XII. Bassoon
mi muovo piano piano, ti sfaccetto,
ti esploro le facce, ti palpo, meditabondo:
ti volto e rivolto, variandoti, tremando:
ti tormento, tremendo:
I shift myself by degrees, cutting you into facets,
I explore your surfaces, pensive, I palpate you:
I turn you about and again, trembling, making you various:
terrible, I torment you:
XIII. Accordion
e cos ci conforta un accordo, che gentilmente ci chiude, plebeo:
la catastrofe in mezzo, nel cuore: ma ci sta recintata, arroccata:
and thus we find comfort in a chord that, plebean, encloses us courteously:
in the midst, in the heart of it, lies catastrophe: yet there it is hemmed in, encastled:
XIV. Cello
uh uh! che feste! e che lamenti, poi! e che danze! e che dolci dolori!
e che occidenti! e strappa, e squarci, e scoppi! che sbucciature, sbudellate, sferze! e poi, morendo
oh! oh! what celebrations! and what laments to follow! and what dances! and what sweet sorrows!
and what occidents! and rush, and rendings, and burstings! what parings, guttings, lashings! and then, a dying fall
Actor/director Enzo Salomones career began with the Centro Teatro Esse, led by the
avantgarde director Gennaro Vitiello. In 1972, together with Vitiello , he was a founding
member of Cooperativa Teatrale Libera Scena Ensemble, a still active theater coopera-
tive now directed by Renato Carpentieri. Salomone is an actor in theatre, television and
movies, and appears regurarly on Italian Television (RAI) both as actor as well as a host.
F
ascinated with the art of solo writing, numerous
composers throughout the last three centuries
have been showcasing the sound worlds of
instruments initially only used in ensembles and
orchestras. In the twentieth century Luciano Berio
(1925-2003) greatly enriched the solo repertoire for
manifold instruments and voice with his series of four-
teen Sequenze and works such as Psy, Gesti, Rounds
and Fa-Si. Written between 1958 and 2002 and span-
ning almost five decades of Berios creative career,
these solo compositions reflect some of his most crucial
aesthetic ideas and compositional techniques. This CD
set presents for the first time all of Berios compositions
for solo instruments including five arrangements of the
Sequenze for cello, double bass, bass clarinet and
soprano and alto saxophones.
In these short, yet highly influential pieces, Berio
not only reveals his interest in contemporary intellec-
tual thought and the culture at the time, but also
explores new structural possibilities and sounds. The
title sequenza (sequence) given to these pieces, nei-
ther invokes the terms original meaning of a melodic
extension at the end of the medieval alleluia chant,
nor its later definition as a repetition of melodic or
harmonic elements at different pitch levels. Instead
Berio emphasized that sequenza refers to the fact
that each piece was built from a sequence of harmon-
ic fields from which the other, strongly characterized
musical functions were derived.
1
In most of his
Sequenze, Berio strove to control the development
of harmony and melodic density and to excavate the
harmonic and polyphonic implications of monophonic
structures. He intended to melodically develop an
essentially harmonic discourse suggesting, particu-
larly in the case of the monodic instruments, a poly-
phonic mode of listening.
2
All of the Sequenze are marked by new concepts
of virtuosity. Many of them were inspired by the extra-
ordinary skills of specific performers such as the flutist
Severino Gazzelloni, mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian,
trombonist Stuart Dempster or oboist Heinz Holliger
and feature a multitude of novel sonorities produced
by manifold and challenging extended techniques.
3
Berio once remarked: I hold a great respect for virtu-
osity even if this word may provoke derisive smiles
and even conjure up the picture of an elegant and
rather diaphanous man with agile fingers and an
empty head.
4
Yet, Berio also emphasized a virtuosity
of knowledge and a virtuosity of sensibility and
intelligence transcending a mere display of pyrotech-
nics. And while performers of the earlier Sequenze
have to tackle specific theatrical aspects, the players
of his later Sequenze are required to reflect their
understanding of their instruments history. According
to Berio [t]he best solo performers of our time
modern in intelligence, sensibility, and technique
T
his recording of the complete SEQUENZAS has taken
over a decade to complete. It originally began with the
idea to record just a few solo works of Berio with Irvine
Arditti and Garth Knox (then with the Arditti Quartet). After the
landmark performance of the SEQUENZAS in New York City in
1995, Maestro Berio graciously advised me on a selection of
performers who could be used toward a complete set, many of
his suggested performers appear here. The set gradually grew
to include not only the complete SEQUENZAS but also all of
their alternate versions, and all of Berios actual works for solo
instruments (aside from those for the piano, which would be a
disc in itself).
I applaud all of the musicians for their generous involvement in
this project and for working with Mode to make it happen. Many
thanks especially to Irvine Arditti, who tirelessly assisted in
finding ideal performers for several SEQUENZAS. Also thanks
to Carol Robinson for filling out others, to Jane Chapman who
methodically located the appropriate (almost impossible to find)
harpsichord for ROUNDS, and to Rohan de Saram for mention-
ing the unknown CHANSON in passing during a drive in Berlin
(and recording it at the very last minute!).
Brian Brandt, 4 April 2006
E x p loring the Art of Solo Writing:
Luciano Berios Sequenze and Nine Other Wo r k s
by Sabine Feisst 2006
Because of the pieces technical difficulty, Berio
initially used proportional notation, pioneered by
Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and Cage. He wanted to
permit a margin of flexibility in order that the player
might have the freedom psychological rather than
musical to adapt the piece here and there to his
technical stature. Yet dissatisfied with the results, he
rewrote Sequenza I in traditional rhythmic notation in
1991 explaining that the proportional notation had
allowed many players none of them by any means
shining examples of professional integrity to perpe-
trate adaptations that were little short of piratical.
8
In his later Sequenze Berio largely avoided notations
involving indeterminacy. The Sequenza I soon became
a classic in contemporary flute repertoire and influ-
enced other composers.
Sequenza II for harp (1963), composed for and
dedicated to Francis Pierre, has its origin in his
preparatory work for Chemins I for harp and large
orchestra (1965), a piece also written for Pierre. This
Sequenza therefore exists in two forms, one with and
one without orchestral commentary. With this work
Berio provided a counterexample to the clich image
of harp music: French impressionism has left us with
a rather limited vision of this instrument: as if its most
characteristic feature were that it could only be played
by half-naked girls with long, blond hair, who confine
themselves to drawing seductive glissandi from it.
Following the modern harp techniques developed by
Carlos Salzedo, Berio explored the harder, stronger
and more determined side
9
of the instrument. He
included robust palm clusters (produced by striking the
strings with the palm of the hand), Bartk pizzicatos,
string and pedal glissandos as well as percussive
sounds such as the knocking of the harpists knuckle
on the soundboard. These vigorous sounds are contra s t-
ed with dissonant, irregular, yet fluid arpeggios,
dynamically extremely varied bisbigliandi (rapid back-
and-forth motion of the fingers) and chordal passages,
which bring this Sequenza to a close.
Sequenza III for female voi ce (1965-66) was con-
ceived for Berios estranged wife, the extraord i n a r i l y
gifted singer-actress Cathy Berberian, who made this
work a popular success. (Despite a failing marriage,
their unusual collaboration remained successful.) A rep-
resentative of the so-called new vocalism, Berberian
was the muse of many avant-garde composers including
Cage, Sylvano Bussotti and Henri Pousseur. And Berio,
for whom the human voice had a special importance,
wrote numerous vocal works such as Chamber Music
(1953), Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) and Recital I
(for Cathy) (1972) for Berberian.
Sequenza III is based on a short, partly self-
referential and equivocal poem by the Swiss writer
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
Due to the poems nine permutable phrases a n d
informal structure, it can be read horizontally, vertically
and diagonally. In his setting of this text, Berio not
only takes advantage of its open character, but also
fractures words to exploit their phonetic potential.
Coherent words and phrases emerge only here and
there and are often given a wide range of unusual and
subtle timbres by trilling the tongue, singing with the
mouth closed, speaking or whispering.
are those who are capable of acting within a wide his-
torical perspective, and of resolving the tensions
between the creative demands of past and present,
employing their instruments as means of research and
expression.
5
As Berio gradually expanded his Sequenza series
over the years providing one for most of the orchestra
instruments, he derived some from larger works and
revisited others in order to lengthen and thicken them
by adding commentaries, i.e. new ensemble or
orchestral layers. This procedure yielded a new series
for solo instruments and orchestra entitled Chemins I-
VII (the title paths illuminates the presence of various
orchestral s t rands). The sixthSequenza for viola, for
instance, became the basis for Chemins II for viola and
small orchestra, which in turn was transformed into
Chemins IIb, Chemins IIc for bass clarinet and orches-
tra and Chemins III on Chemins II (1968) for viola and
large orchestra. TheSequenze therefore became seeds
for a variety of new works whereby a wealth of inter-
textual relationships link works and work series with
each other in a manner similar to Charles Ivess or
Gustav Mahlers techniques of self-borrowing. The con-
stant recycling of materials in new work contexts a n d
interlinking of compositions through common elements
are characteristic of Berios entire oeuvre, and often the
Sequenze appear as the source and basis for many of
his future compositions.
Berio once stated: A thing done is never finished.
The complete work is the ritual and the commentary
of another work which preceded it, of another work
which will follow it. The question does not provoke a
response but rather a commentary and new questions.
6
Composed in 1958 during one of Berios most
prolific periods, the Sequenza I for flute opens this
set of miniature works. It was written f o r, premiered
by and dedicated to Italian virtuoso flautist Severino
Gazzelloni, for whom Berio also composed two flute-
oriented chamber concertos, Serenata I (1957) and
Tempi concertati (1958-9). Sequenza I with its atonal
melody and leaping dissonant intervals builds on
Berios experience with serialism and exploration of
non-serial approaches to chromaticism as he continu-
ously reinterprets and varies the pitch patterns, rhythm,
register, dynamics and timbre of motivic cells. Berio
also uses a multitude of sound colors and extended
techniques, some of which are featured for the first
time in Edgard Varses pioneering work for flute solo
Density 21.5 of 1936 and Cages experimental Solo for
Flute (from his Concert for Piano and Orchestra, 1957-
58). They include flutter tongue, double stops, key
clicks and multiphonics.
However, Berios main goal was to provide
Sequenza I with implicit counterpoint and polyphony
with the polyphonic melodies of Bachs solo works for
flute, violin and cello in mind. Unlike Bach he
achieved virtual polyphony by contrasting principal
and adjunct notes, pitch and noise, registers, timbres
and expressive gestures. He also thickened the melod-
ic line through third-trills, double and flutter tonguing
and the symbolic use of multiphonics which stand for
his desperate search for polyphony with the most
monodic instrument in history.
7
Further Berio intro-
duced the so-called polyphony of actions where
contrasting modes such as a crescendo of key clicks
and a decrescendo of breath are superimposed.
Yet, as in his previous Sequenze, Berio explores
again concepts of polyphony. Sequenza IV is distin-
guished by the simultaneous development and interac-
tion of two autonomous harmonic sequences. On
the one hand, there is a foreground layer with very
soft, large and dense staccato chords which gradually
change by minimal pitch variation. On the other hand,
there is a background strata of sustained chords and
shimmering harmonics produced by the extensive use
of sostenuto pedal. In the course of the piece, the
chordal materials presented at the opening become
this Sequenzas skeleton and alternate with more linear
formations such as rapid arpeggiations, tremolo pas-
sages, short melodic figurations and single notes.
Sequenza IV closes with the chordal textures of the
opening. The kaleidoscopic textures of this piece are
enhanced and nuanced by highly differentiated
dynamics and the use of unusual pedaling techniques.
The Sequenza V for trombone (1966) was com-
missioned and premiered by the American virtuoso
trombonist Stuart Dempster. Inspired by Berios child-
hood memory of the famous clown Grock (Adrien
Wettach), this piece is the most theatrical of all the
Sequenze. The performer has to wear a white tie.
While walking on stage and performing the first part of
the piece the trombonist is asked to strike the poses
of a variety showman about to sing an old favorite.
He is also required to raise and lower his instrument
as if aiming a mock rifle at imaginary birds and to utter
a bewildered why? Both are direct references to
Grocks gestures and famous use of the German inter-
rogative warum?
14
Berio remarked that Sequenza V
is, amongst other things, a development of the English
equivalent why.
15
Much like Cages Solo for Sliding Trombone of
1958, Sequenza V is a compendium of extended tech-
niques and unusual sounds including breathy and
muted tones and harmonic glissandi on the same note
and various noises produced by inhaling the air from
the instrument and rattling the mute inside the bell of
the trombone. More-over, the instrumentalist must
sing. He must, for instance, sing the word why? by
imitating the instrumental sound (as he is asked to imi-
tate the vowels of why? with his trombone). The
trombonist also needs to sing and play simultaneously
and the singing and playing levels sometimes contrast,
penetrate and transform each other. In the words of
Berio, this is a challenging task for the performer: Its
not easy to get the co-ordination of the two elements
exactly right and the sense and efficacy of the piece
depends on scrupulously respecting the intervals
between voice and instrument. Only in this way is it
possible to attain the required level of transformation
(the vocalization of the instrument and instrumental-
ization of the voice).
16
The simultaneous realization of
different activities such as playing, singing and acting
in this piece refers once again to Berios fascination
with the polyphony of actions.
In this Sequenza Berio resumed proportional nota-
tion to flexibly indicate tempo and rhythm, and ade-
quately notate breathing and the differentiated use of
the metal plunger mute. Pitch, however, is absolute.
Berio used all chromatic notes distributed over circa
three octaves in the first section and he expands the
pitch range upward by another sixth in the second
section of this two-part piece. In Sequenza V with its
surreal technical demands, Berio challenges the notion
of polished virtuosity, and thus provokes a grotesque
Moreover, Berio explored a kaleidoscope of many
different vocal behaviors beyond singing and speaking,
including breathing in, gasping, and mouth clicks. He
elaborated on the reasons for this choice as follows:
I have always been very sensitive, perhaps overly
so, to the excess of connotations that the voice carries,
whatever it is doing. From the grossest of noises to the
most delicate of singing, the voice always means some-
thing, always refers beyond itself and creates a huge
range of associations: cultural, musical, emotive, physi-
ological, or drawn from everyday life, etc Sequenza
III was very important for me because in it I tried to
assimilate many aspects of everyday vocal life, includ-
ing trivial things like coughing, without losing i n t e r m e-
diate levelslaughter becoming coloratura virtuosity
for instanceor indeed real singing. In order to control
such a large range of vocal behavior, I felt I had to
break up the text in an apparently devastating way, so
as to be able to recuperate fragments from it on differ-
ent expressive plains, and to reshape them into units
that were not discursive but musical.
10
Berio dramatizes such vocal behaviors by provid-
ing 44 different quickly alternating psychological cues
(anxious, bewildered, ecstatic, frantic, relieved,
etc.) and by specifying certain facial expressions and
hand and body movements (tapping very rapidly with
one hand against the mouth (action concealed by
other hand), snapping fingers gently, hands down,
etc.). Since the vocal and gestural behaviors and the
psychological states are not prompted by, but imposed
on the text, a polyphony of actions and a multiplicity
of shadows of meaning arise, largely suggesting a
tongue-in-cheek imaginary theatre. Berio once
remarked that the Sequenza III can also be consid-
ered as a dramatic essay whose story, so to speak, is
the relationship between the soloist and her own voice
I like to suggest that behind Sequenza III (and
Sequenza V as well) lurks the memory of Grock, the
last great clown.
11
Formally, this piece implies an arch-like shape in
that, at its center, the word truth is sustained on the
lowest note. However, in the process of continuous
repetition and redefinition of melodic units within a
limited harmonic field and contrapuntally layered
vocal, expressive and gestural activities, a develop-
ment from spoken sounds to predominantly sung pas-
sages becomes evident. The piece opens with tense
muttering. Its last third largely consists of various
types of singing. The notation of Sequenza III manifests
another important structural feature, indeterminacy,
which builds on the syntactic and semantic mobility
of Kutters poem.
12
Notated on one, three or five lines
without clefs, pitch is relative and can be transposed to
fit the performers vocal range. Rhythm is also notated
in an elastic way and can be handled freely within
given ten-second units. In its physical and dramatic vir-
tuosity, Sequenza III showcases Berberians skills and is
a great example of a musical portrait: Sequenza III is
not only written for Cathy but is about Cathy.
13
In contrast to the first three Sequenze, Sequenza
IV for piano (1965-66) reveals a more c o nventional
a p p r o a chto the instrumental writing avoiding extended
techniques and indeterminate notation. And unlike
many other composers at that time, Berio abstained
from preparing the strings of the piano. Commissioned
by Mr. May for Washington University, St. Louis, this
piece was premiered by the Brazilian pianist and
composer Jocy de Carvalho.
double flageolet trills, trills with micro-intervals, and
bisbigliando.
In Sequenza VII virtual polyphony, once again a
major compositional aspect, is achieved through the
use of double flageolets, double trills and other multi-
phonics, but also through the abrupt juxtaposition of
contrasting registers and the addition of an off-stage
pianissimo drone on a B natural, produced by another
sound source (oscillator, clarinet, taped oboe, etc.; the
B drone in Jacqueline Leclairs performance on this CD
was made by the use of three female voices, in tribute
to Berios love of the human voice) and s u s t a i n e d
throughout the entire piece. Interestingly, the B natural,
with which the piece also starts and ends and which
in the German musical alphabet is an H, refers to
the initials of Holligers name. Another reference to
Holligers name can be found in the 13 time units or
measures per each staff system corresponding to the
13 letters of his name.
While devoid of strict serial procedures, this
Sequenza VII is based on a twelve-tone set, whose
pitches are gradually introduced until the chromatic
total is covered and the fortissimo climax on G two
thirds into the piece is reached. On the one hand, it
seems, that with his use of dissonance, unusual tim-
bres and intricate structure, Berio challenges the con-
ventional image of the oboe as a pastoral instrument.
Yet, on the other hand, he evokes the bucolic English
horn solo in the third act of Wagners Tristan und
Isolde which Berios father had played for him at the
piano when he was a child.
A few years after finishing Sequenza VII he
returned to this work again to add layers of string
sound resulting in another piece in the Chemins series:
Chemins IV on Sequenza VII (1975). Berio now
dropped the proportional notation of the oboe solo in
favor of the more precise traditional rhythmic notation.
This led to a revision of the rhythmic notation of
Sequenza VII. The revised version was made by
Jacqueline Leclair, and published with Berios approval
in 2000. Furthermore, the Sequenza VII was adapted
for soprano saxophone and premiered by the French
saxophonist Claude Delangle and published as
Sequenza VIIb (1995).
After a break of seven years, Berio resumed work
on his Sequenza series adding another intense piece
for a string instrument, the Sequenza VIII for violin
(1976-77). Since writing Sequenza VIII was for Berio
like paying a personal debt to the violin which he
considered as one of the most enduring and complex
instruments in existence, this work presents a broad-
er and more historical image of the instrument.
19
According to Berio, this piece alludes to Bachs
Chaconne from the Partita in d minor for violin solo,
in which violin techniques of the past, present and
future coexist.
20
In his eighth Sequenza he explores
the old ostinato principle whereby the two notes A and
B run like a thread through the piece. They become a
compass for the works rather diversified and elabo-
rate progress, in which polyphony is no longer virtual,
as in other Sequenzas, but real.
21
Berio interrupts,
embellishes and expands these recurring notes with
rapid figurations, double stops and four-part chords to
create a polyphonic effect. In the second half of the
piece he interestingly allows the performer to freely
repeat and combine six passages marked by staccato
thirty-second notes.
musical drama alluding to performances of Grock,
the clown.
The Sequenza VI for viola (1967) relates to the
Sequenza II for harp in several ways. Herein Berio
challenges common views about this instrument and
its players and drastically expands the generally limit-
ed range of technical and expressive characteristics.
Instead of lyrical and melancholic melodic lines, fero-
cious tremolo chords relentlessly played fortissisimo
open and penetrate this piece. Only toward the end of
the work, when the violist is exhausted from playing in
this manner, is the performer asked to present a calm
and lyrical melody. Berio admitted that this Sequenza
is an etude in endurance, strength and intensity and
he even called it an indirect and perhaps rather
uncouth homage to Paganinis Capricci.
17
Like many of the other Sequenze, this piece is
a formal study on repetition, on the relations h i p
between modules that are repeated frequently, and
others which appear only once. The idea of tremolo,
which is used in the forms of ordinary, broken, legato
and arpeggiated tremolo, certainly represents repetition
in extreme. Yet in addition, Berio repeats, develops
and transforms the same harmonic sequence of ten
chords throughout the piece gradually proceeding
toward a field of twelve chromatic tones.
18
As before
Berio also strives for polyphony: The piece opens with
four-part chords, and in the following, also suggests a
counterpoint of at least four meandering chromatic
lines.
Sequenza VI shares with the third and fifth
Sequenze a certain degree of indeterminacy. Form is
open where the violist may or may not play alternative
versions of passages in brackets; and pitch is indeter-
minate in sections where Berio requires random mini-
mal or wide sliding of fingers. Sequenza VI was
inspired and premiered in 1967 by violist Walter
Trampler. It is, however, dedicated to the viola player
Serge Collot. In 1981 Rohan de Saram, cellist of the
Arditti Quartet, arranged this piece for cello by tran-
scribing it one octave below the original. He played it
for Berio who approved of the arrangement and even
contemplated its publication. De Saram gave numer-
ous performances of it until Berio, twenty years later,
wrote a Sequenza specifically for his instrument.
As mentioned above, Berio revisited and recycled
the viola Sequenza between 1968 and 1971 again and
again whereby it became a mould for several chamber
and orchestral compositions including Chemins II,
Chemins IIb, Chemins IIc and Chemins III. These works
shed new light on the solo viola piece in that they
develop further harmonic features and textures and
superimpose various commentaries.
Sequenza VIIa for oboe (1969/2000) was written
for and dedicated to one of the foremost oboe virtu-
osos of our time, Heinz Holliger. In fact this Sequenza
is based on the collaboration between Berio and
Holliger. Holliger provided Berio with a comprehen-
sive guide to possible pitch ranges and extended tech-
niques of which Berio made good use. Before the final
version was printed Holliger suggested a variety of
changes and contributed performance notes. This
Sequenza showcases Holligers specific skills and
reveals therefore a multitude of unusual sounds pro-
duced by flageolets, double flageolets, over-blowing,
double trills, trill glissandi, flutter tongue, flageolet trills,
of flutter and doodle tonguing and va l ve tremolos.
During the performance the trumpet player is asked
to stand next to the piano and play toward the inside
when indicated. Sequenza X was embedded in
orchestral textures and became Kol-Od (Chemins V I
on Sequenza X) for trumpet and chamber orch e s t ra
(1995-6) ten years later.
Sequenza XI for guitar (1987-88) is distinguished
by a wide range of traditional and newer guitar tech-
niques, including the flamenco feature rasgado (differ-
ent types of strumming the strings), punteado, tambour
(percussive playing behind the bridge), left-hand glis-
sandi, harmonics, Bartk pizzicato, and optional
checking of tuning as needed. This predominantly
vivid work thus displays a dazzling choreography of
hands and fingers. Berio pointed out that he intended
to link two instrumental and gestural styles in this
Sequenza: one having its roots in the flamenco guitar
tradition, and the other in that of the classical guitar:
the mediation between these two histories was my
experimental approach toward one of my favorite
instruments. Similarly he established a dialogue
between the heavily idiomatic harmony that is tied
with the tuning of the instrument and a different har-
mony: the passport between these two far-flung har-
monic territories being the interval of the augmented
fourth.
25
In other words, the contrasting sonorities of
open strings and a twelve-tone row composed of aug-
mented fourths are negotiated through constant trans-
formational processes of concise musical elements.
American guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk, the dedicatee
of this Sequenza, premiered this work as well as its
orchestral realization Chemins V on Sequenza XI for
guitar and chamber orchestra (1992).
Sequenza XII for bassoon (1995) was commis-
sioned and premiered by the French bassoonist Pascal
Gallois. Similar to the oboe sequenza, this work came
about through the close collaboration between Gallois
and Berio and its score contains performance notes
by this bassoonist. Sequenza XII is at about twenty
minutes the longest piece in the series lasting twice
as long as most other Sequenze. The length of the piece
poses a special challenge to the performer in view of
the fact that it must be performed using double
circular breathing resulting in continuous sound
without rest or interruption for breaths.
26
Because the bassoon is, according to Berio, often
used in extreme registers and suggests contrasting
personalities, he set out to explore these different
characters in this Sequenza by drawing on a wide
variety of melodic, articulatory, timbral, dynamic
and tempo possibilities. Thus, as in the violin, clarinet
and guitar sequenze, Berio plays again on the history
of the instrument by alluding to and transforming the
idiomatic image of the bassoon. Prominent in the
first section of this Sequenza are unusually extended
glissandi (often in pppp) gradually moving back and
forth between distant registers throughout most of the
piece. These glissandi are often interrupted by fast
pitch repetitions or up-and-down figurations featuring
various staccato techniques including soft staccato
(dtach lour), flutter tongue, double staccato, flap
staccato and the novel staccato at the tip of the reed
with a cuivr timbre. The latter part of the piece is
marked by novel and complex timbres produced by
new types of rapid pitch alternations, tremolos and
flutter tongue tremolos between extreme registers
(notated on two staff systems with a tenor and bass clef).
Like the Sequenzas for harp, viola and oboe the
Sequenza VIII received a companion piece, the Corale
on Sequenza VIII (1981) for violin and ensemble. Both
the Sequenza VIII and Corale on Sequenza VIII were
written for and premiered by Italian violinist Carlo
Chiarappa.
The Sequenza IXa for clarinet (1980) originated
in experiments at IRCAM for Chemins V for clarinet
and electronics (1976-80) involving Peppino di
Giugnos 4X programmable digital filtering system.
With this device instrumental sounds were transformed
into voice-like sounds and vice versa. Dissatisfied with
the results, Berio withdrew Chemins V after its pre-
miere in 1980 and recycled the clarinet part in several
other works. He incorporated parts of it in the second
act of his opera La vera storia (1977-81), and he fused
it with Linea for two pianos, marimba and vibraphone
of 1973 into a new work called Mix (1985). He also
obtained Sequenza IXa and Sequenza IXb for alto sax-
ophone from this material. In 1998 Rocco Parisi adapt-
ed this piece for bass clarinet resulting in Sequenza
IXc. He made minimal changes, transposing it down
to enable the multiphonics to be played.
22
Structurally, Berio described this Sequenza as
a long melody, which like almost all melodies,
implies redundancy, symmetries, transformations,
returns. He pointed out that Sequenza IXa develops
a constant transformation between two different pitch
fields: one of seven notes (F sharp, C, D sharp, E, G, B
flat, B) that tends to be almost always fixed in the
same register, and the other of five notes that are
instead in various registers. This latter block of sounds
comments on, penetrates, and modifies, the harmonic
functions of the first field.
23
Moreover Sequenza IX
invokes the history of clarinet writing subtly alluding
to the use of the clarinet by Mozart, Weber and Benny
Goodman. Sequenza IXa was premiered by Michel
Arrignon. It is the only Sequenza without a dedication.
Sequenza IXb for alto saxophone (1981)
is dedicated to Iwan Roth and John Harle who helped
Berio with the transcription of the clarinet Sequenza
for saxophone. The differences between the clarinet
and saxophone versions are, however, minimal. In
1996 Berio reworked Sequenza IXb again by providing
an orchestral commentary resulting in: Rcit (Chemins
VII on Sequenza IXb) for alto saxophone and orchestra
(1996). Sequenza IXb was premiered by John Harle
and Rcit by Claude Delangle.
Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Association and dedicated to its executive director
Ernest Fleishmann, the Sequenza X for trumpet and
piano resonances (1984) was written for and pre-
miered in 1984 in Los Angeles by that orchestras prin-
cipal trumpet Thomas Stevens. The trumpet sequenza
is related to the oboe sequenza in that it invo l ves an
additional sound s o u rce: an amplified grand piano.
While Sequenza V I I, however, can be performed by
one player with an oscillator or a taped oboe produc-
ing the desired B-drone, the Sequenza X requires two
p l ayers. A pianist has to perform from a written-out
score indicating the silently depressed chords and
precise pedal use. With regard to the trumpet part,
Berio does not engage in assimilating, transforming
and ove rcoming idiomatic aspects of the chosen
instrument. With the exception of an allusion to the
national anthem of Israel, the trumpet is used in a
direct and natural way.
24
The trumpet part is marked
by extensive tone repetition also expressed in the form
Whereas the percussive sections reveal homoge-
nous rhythms and melodic figures, the melodic pas-
sages are extremely diversified with respect to pitch,
rhythm, dynamics and timbre drawing on a wide range
of cello techniques. Another interesting facet is that
Sequenza XIV re-quires special tuning of the third
string, since the G sharp has often to be played as an
open string.
M
any instrumentalists waited in vain for a Sequenza
written for their instrument, among them the dou-
ble bassists. For many years they had to content them-
selves with Berios occasional work Psy for double
bass solo (1989), a 100-second long, toccata-style
piece in forte barocco displaying tone repetitions in
perpetual motion and lyrical passages with double
stops, both in high registers.
28
However, after Berios
death Italian bass player Stefano Scodanibbio filled the
sequenza gap arranging the Sequenza XIV for double
bass (2004) premiering and publishing this new ver-
sion in the same year.
Besides Psy, Berio wrote a number of smaller
works for solo instruments, Gesti, Les mots sont alls,
Lied, Gute Nacht, Rounds and Fa-Si. Among all these
compositions, Gesti for recorder (1966), a short virtu-
oso work, reveals perhaps the closest compositional
and aesthetic relationship to the Sequenze III and V,
thus it is often dubbed little sequenza. As in some
of the Sequenze written during the same time period,
Berio aims at different types of polyphony by asking
the performer to play and sing simultaneously, by treat-
ing the activities of blowing and phrasing and the fin-
gering (including such gestures as the fingering of one
or two bars from the Allegro-Giga of a Sonata for
recorder and basso continuo by G. P. Telemann or
noisy finger slapping) in a contrapuntal manner and by
rapidly and frequently changing between contrasting
musical materials. A classic in contemporary recorder
literature, Gesti was written for, dedicated to and pre-
miered by Frans Brggen in 1967 in Amsterdam.
Les mots sont alls recitativo for cello solo
(1978) is one of twelve works commissioned by
Mstislav Rostropovich for the 70th birthday of the
Swiss music patron Paul Sacher. In Les mots Berio used
the English, German and Italian musical alphabets to
inscribe the dedicatees last name in the music. Berio
chose the pitch collection Eb (pronounced S in
German), A, C, B (equals H in the German musical
alphabet), E, D (refers to RE in the Italian alphabet).
Les mots opens with these six notes (Intime, comme
en parlant) and features soft dynamics throughout the
first section of the piece. Only at a later point in this
very short work, the music gains in intensity due to
rhythmic acceleration and an increase of the dynamic
levels. Yet once forte is reached the music quickly qui-
ets down again, allantandosi poco a poco. Les mots
was premiered by Rostropovich in 1979 in Basel.
Chanson pour Pierre Boulez (2000) is, like Les
Mots, a short work for cello solo, that Berio composed
on the occasion of Boulezs 75th birthday in 2000.
Berios last and hitherto unpublished work for cello,
Chanson was premiered by the French cellist
Emmanuelle Bertrand in the same year. In this lyrical
piece, the melody at the opening and end centers on
the pitch D, which also serves as a pedal point in one
of several expressive two-part passages of the middle
section. These double-stop passages are punctuated
by delicate and fast patterns played sul ponticello or
Written for one of the pioneers of the classical
accordion Teodore Anzellotti and dedicated to Klezmer
and tango accordionist Gianni Coscia, Sequenza XIII
(Chanson) for accordion (1995-96) refers to the high-
and low-brow worlds with which these two performers
are associated. The works subtitle, Chanson, howev-
er, underlines its nostalgic flavor and Berios intention
of echoing folk, workers and cabaret songs,
Argentinian tango and jazz and combining them with
classical elements. Berio had used the accordion earli-
er in operatic and orchestral works such as Re in
ascolto (1979-82) and Chemins V (1992), yet he had
never thought of delving into the (social) history and
technique of this instrument and of writing a solo work
for it until he met Anzellotti. Like Holliger and Gallois,
Anzellotti introduced Berio into the sonic and techni-
cal possibilities of his instrument.
Sequenza XIII is a delicate, nuanced and lyrical
piece evident in the song-like melodic phrasing, most-
ly transparent contrapuntal textures, legato playing and
his preference of soft dynamics and single-reed stops.
Berio did not seem to care for this instruments loud
and shrill sonorities. Sequenza XIII opens with a
melody in descending fourths played sempre pianissi-
mo e lontano. The melodys accompaniment in
fourths and fifths reveals idiomatic writing reflecting
the arrangement of the accordions bass notes in the
order of the circle of fifths. The cantabile and linear
structure, how e ver, is repeatedly interrupted by unusual
chord progressions, vibrato accents, bellow shakes,
rapid arpeggi and virtuoso chains of minor thirds. As
in many previous Sequenze, Berio explores harmonic
fields of pitches moving toward a chromatic total, yet
a minor tonality prevails. He not only added another
intriguing piece to his steadily growing series of solo
works, but also to the repertoire of this instrument,
redefining the image of the accordion and widening
the musical canon.
Sequenza XIV for cello (2002), the last piece in
the series and one of the last pieces Berio composed
before he died, was written for Rohan de Saram, the
cellist of the Arditti Quartet. De Saram premiered
Sequenza XIV as well as its two substantially revised
versions between 2002 and 2003. Unlike all the other
Sequenze, this work combines western and non-west-
ern elements paying homage to de Sarams Sri Lankan
descent and diverse musical backgrounds.
Berio had long been interested in the cylindrical-
ly-shaped Kandyan drum with its four sounds, being
one of the most significant instruments in Sri Lanka
and used in ceremonies dating back to pre-buddhistic
e ras. De Saram grew up playing the Kandyan drum
and provided Berio with tapes and his transcriptions
of Kandyan drumming. Berio enriched this cello work
with percussive sections featuring a twelve-beat
Kandyan drum rhythm often expanded or reduced by
one beat. The percussive sounds are notated on two
staves and involve once again the idea of polyphony
of actions:
[T]he player is to produce a percussive sound
which follows the contours and rhythms of the lower
stave, played by four fingers of the right hand on the
body of the instrument . During these sections the
upper stave notates the simultaneous left hand finger
percussion.
27
three manuals each with 16-foot stops and pedal with
two 32-foot stops.
W
ith his Sequenza series and works from Rounds to
Comma spanning over four decades of his prolific
career, Berio provided a wide variety of solo repertoire
and documented the richness of his musical thought.
This unique and comprehensive compilation of record-
ings allows us to (re)discover and relish the scope of
Berios dazzling solo sounds.
I would like to thank Jane Chapman, Jeffrey Lyman, Jorge
Montilla, Carol Robinson, Rohan de Saram and Gary Verkade
for providing me invaluable information on the pieces in this
CD set. Sabine Feisst
FOOTNOTES
1 Luciano Berio, Two Interv i ews with Rossana Dalmonte and
Blint Andrs Varga, trans. and ed. by David Osmond-Smith
(New York: Marion Boyars, 1985), 90.
2 Ibid. p. 97.
3 Similarly John Cage provided, within the framework of his
Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-58), a string of virtu-
oso works for melody instruments that can be performed
solo, the so-called Solos for eleven different instruments.
These works are also based on the close collaboration with
specific performers and feature extended techniques. These
solo works and his famous Aria for voice solo of 1958 pre-
cede and resemble Berios Sequenze.
4 Luciano Berio, Two Interviews, 90.
5 Luciano Berio, Liner Notes for Sequenze No. 1-13,
Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon, 1998.
6 Program note for a concert at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, 18
December 1966.
7 Luciano Berio, Two Interviews, 98.
8 Ibid. 99.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid. 94.
11 Luciano Berio, Liner Notes for Berio, LP Recording,
Candide Vox CE 31027.
12 Luciano Berio, Two Interviews, 95.
13 Ibid. 94.
14 Luciano Berio, Sequenza V (Vienna: Universal Edition,
1968), performance notes.
15 Luciano Berio, Two Interviews, 93.
16 Ibid.
17 Berio quoted in: Nancy Usher, Luciano Berio, Sequenza VI
for solo viola Performance Practices, in: Perspectives of
New Music XXI, 1/2, 1983, 286, and Enzo Restagno (ed.),
Berio (Turin: Edizione di Torino, 1995), 190.
18 Ibid.
19 Enzo Restagno, 191.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 According to clarinetist Carol Robinson, Parisi even took
over the same wrong notes in his transcription, since Berios
corrections (given to performers he worked with) were
never incorporated into later editions of Sequenza IXa until
only recently. This CD recording respects Berios changes
made in this work.
23 Enzo Restagno, 191.
24 Ibid. 192.
25 Ibid.
26 Pascal Gallois, Performance Notes, in: Sequenza XII
(Vienna: Universal Edition, 1998). Gallois, however, does
not explain what is meant by double circular breathing
as opposed to the very common technique of circular
breathing which has been used to perform this sequenza.
27 Luciano Berio, Performance Notes, in: Sequenza XIV per
violoncello (Vienna: Universal Edition, 2002).
28 Corrado Canonici premiered Psy in 1993 in Rome.
29 Built by John Feldberg who learned harpsichord making in
1957 in the J. C. Neupert works in Bamberg, Germany, this
instrument features a 16ft, two 8ft, and two 4ft registers.
spiccato.
Lied for clarinet (1983) is another short occasional
work, which Berio wrote for Edoardo de Benedetti.
Premiered in 1983 by Steven Kanoff, Lied features
smooth and lyrical melodic phrases, which are punc-
tuated by shorter and longer chains of staccato tone
repetitions. The flexible tempo, absence of bar lines and
subtly changing dynamics suggest spontaneity. Indeed
Berio asks the performer to play the piece sempre
molto flessibile, come improvvisando. Comma for Eb
clarinet (1987) was written as part of a group of com-
positions, articles and artworks for French musicologist
Franois Lesure when he retired as director of the
Bibliothque Nationales music department. It is a
short, witty piece which opens with piercing fortissimo
repetitions on F, perhaps alluding to the first letter of
Franois. These pitch reiterations, which penetrate the
whole piece are contrasted by fleeting chromatic fig-
ures. Gute Nacht for trumpet (1986) is the shortest
and easiest of all the solo pieces presented on this CD
set. It was in fact written for the anthology Fanfares:
New Trumpet Pieces for Young Players (edited by
Edward Tarr) which also includes contributions by such
other contemporary composers as Morton Feldman,
Mauricio Kagel and Gyrgy Ligeti. Gute Nacht is
therefore a little march marked by fanfare-like motifs
for fledgling trumpeters.
Finally included in this CD set are also two solo
works for keyboard instruments, Rounds and Fa-Si.
Rounds for harpsichord (1964-5) was written for and
premiered by the Swiss harpsichordist Antoinette
Vischer who commissioned many new works for her
instrument from contemporary composers. Rounds was
specifically composed for Vischers enormous modern
pedal harpsichord, which Vischer played on. For this
recording one of the few Concert Models Feldberg
with five registers, two manuals, eight pedals and three
draw stops was chosen.
29
The music of Rounds is
notated on one page and has four sections of different
length and registration. The music is played through
once, whereupon it is presented in another round
with the score now turned by 180 degrees. For the last
round, the page is put in its original position. Rounds
can also be performed with a vocal part (Rounds with
Voice), and in 1967 Berio arranged the work for piano.
The virtuoso work Fa-Si for organ (1975), dedi-
cated to Berios friends Silvio De Florian and Renzo
Bee, was written for the inauguration of a new organ
in Rovereto, Italy and inspired by the free forms of sev-
enteenth-century keyboard fantasies. In Fa-Si harmonic
patterns, the textural density, tempo and registration
constantly change to convey a sense of spontaneity.
However, most striking is the wide variety of trills and
tremolos including difficult register tremoli which pro-
duce an oscillation in the tone relating to the fast runs,
throbbing thirty-second notes, and trills found through-
out the entire work. The pitches forming sustained
chords in the background are held down with lead
weights placed and removed by the organist. The title
Fa-Si (F-B) points to the tritone f and b, which pene-
trates the whole work and to the overall dissonant
sound of the work. The piece opens and ends softly,
but features several massive climaxes in between.
Berio asks the performer to play the fully notated score
sempre molto flessibile, come improvvisando to
enhance the impression of free music making. Fa-Si
was performed and recorded on the Grnlunds organ
in the Domkyrka in Lule, Sweden. The organ has
the Hat Art label. Professor Cameron performed in a
tour with Ensemble Modern under conductor-compos-
er John Adams, has performed in the Edinburgh
Festival, June in Buffalo, Asian Contemporary Music
Festival (Seoul), and Musikfest-wochen (Lucerne), and
appeared with Topologies in a BBC broadcast concert
in Londons Warehouse. He has given master classes at
major music schools and International Society of
Bassists conventions, and has written dozens of articles
for the Chicago Tribune, American String Teachers, and
Bass World. He attended Indiana University where he
studied with Murray Grodner, Barry Green, and Stuart
Sankey and was the first bassist in over a decade to
receive the coveted Performers Certificate from Indiana.
In 1996 Professor Cameron was appointed National
Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Visiting
Professor at the State University of New York at
Potsdam.
Jane Chapman (harpsichord) was recently described
by the Independent on Sunday as Britains most pro-
gressive harpsichordist, and as a A Fearless Contem-
porary Music Performer by the Guardian. Equally pas-
sionate about contemporary and baroque music, she
has revitalized new repertoire for the instrument inspir-
ing a new generation of composers from completely
diverse backgrounds. Her progressive spirit and com-
prehensive technique have inspired composers to forge
new parameters and sound worlds for the harpsichord
with works of unprecedented musical and technologi-
cal scope (Harpsichord & Fortepiano).
She has premiered over 50 solo pieces by leading
composers and numerous electroacoustic and cham-
ber works for the instrument. Jane is at the forefront
of developing collaborations with artists; creating new
audiences and contexts for harpsichord music, and has
edited two issues of Contemporary Music Review on
new music for harpsichord. She was awarded a British
Council scholarship to study at the Amsterdam
Conservatory with Ton Koopman, and is an Honorary
Fellow of Dartington College of Arts, and an Honorary
Member of the Royal College of Music (June 2006).
Her baroque recordings for Collins Classics were high-
ly acclaimed and described as Stylish and
eloquent by The Times.
Stuart Dempster, Sound Gatherer trombonist, com-
poser, didjeriduist, et al, and Professor Emeritus at the
University of Washington, has recorded for numerous
labels including Columbia, Nonesuch, and New
Albion. His New Albion recording In the Great Abbey
of Clement VI at Avignon has become, in the words of
one reviewer, a cult classic. Also on New Albion is
Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel that
consists of music sources for a 1995 Merce Cunningham
Dance Company commission. His grants include:
Creative Associate at SUNYAB (1967-68); Fellow,
Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois (1971-
72); Fulbright Scholar in Australia (1973); NEA
Composer Grant (1978); US/UK Fellowship (1979);
Guggenheim Fellowship (1981). Dempster, a leading
figureindeed, a pioneer in the development of
trombone technique and performance, published his
landmark book The Modern Trombone: A Definition of
Its Idioms in 1979. As a regular member of Cathedral
Band, and a founding member of Deep Listening
Band, he has toured extensively and produced the first
three DLB recordings including award winning Deep
In addition to his phenomenal career as first violinist
of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti continues to excel
as an extraordinary soloist. Born in London in 1953,
Irvine Arditti began his studies at the Royal Academy
of Music at the age of 16. He joined the London
Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and after two years, at
the age of 25, became its Co-Concert Master. He left
the orchestra in 1980 in order to devote more time to
the Arditti Quartet which he had formed while still a
student. He has premiered many large-scalewo r k s
written for him, among them Xenakiss Dox Orkh and
Hosokawas Landscape III, both for violin and orches-
tra, as well as Ferneyhoughs Terrain , Francesconis Riti
Neurali, Dillons Vernal Showers and Harveys Scena,
all for violin and ensemble. His performances of many
concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in
particular Ligeti and Dutilleux.
As well as having recorded over 100 CDs with the
Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive
catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin
works by composers such as Carter, Estrada,
Ferneyhough and Donatoni, as well as his recording of
Nonos La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne,
have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of
Cages Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his
complete Cage violin music series on Mode, has made
musical history.
Alain Billard (bass clarinet) began clarinet lessons at
the age of five, continuing with Richard Vieille at the
Paris CNR and completing studies at the Superior
National Conservatoire of Lyon with Jacques Di
Donato. He is a prize-winner of several international
competitions: ARD of Munich (Germany), Chamber
Music of Osaka (Japan), Quintette with Winds of
Marseille (France). In 2003, he created the trio
Modulations with Odile Auboin and Hideki Nagano
(clarinet, viola and piano). In 1995, Billard joined the
Ensemble Intercontemporain under by Pierre Boulez,
where he performs on bass clarinet, basset-horn and
contra-bass clarinet. Billard has appeared as soloist
with conductors David Robertson and Jonathan Nott,
and he has premiered Boulezs Drive 2 (version 2001),
Contacting the Dead by Liza Lim, Agobets First Triple
Concerto (with Michel Portal, Paul Meyer and the
Orchestra Nationnal of Strasbourg), and mit ausdruck
for bass clarinet and orchestra by Bruno Mantovani.
He collaborates in educational programs for the Cit
de la Musique in Paris and has given masterclasses in
Conservatoires and the Universities around the world.
Billard works with the Selmer on the development of
new instruments.
Michael Cameron (double-bass) has premiered dozens
of works for bass, including pieces by Johnston,
Dinescu, Yannay, Brun, Lund, and Andrew Simpson.
He has also performed a number of American pre-
mieres by such composers as Gubaidulina, Saariaho,
and Kurtag. Of his 1996 recording, Progression, on the
Zuma label, The Strad wrote, Cameron performs with
panache and flair ... all these pieces are dispatched
with chameleon-like facility of style and understand-
ing. His disc Basso Solo includes unaccompanied
works of Bach, Donatoni, Berio, Perle, Morton, and
Thelonius Monk. He has also recorded three discs of
works by Anthony Braxton and Guillermo Gregorio for
the Hanns Eisler Acadamy of Music in Berlin.
The New York Times has called Isabelle Ganz a virtu-
osic performer. This accomplished American mezzo-
soprano explores the world of todays composers, as
well as the classics of the mezzo literature. She has
appeared as vocal soloist with symphony orchestras
and chamber ensembles throughout the world, includ-
ing the Seattle Symphony under the direction of Gerard
Schwartz, the Brooklyn Philharmonic under the baton
of Lukas Foss, and the Slovak Radio Orchestra directed
by Robert Black. Works she has premiered include
Ryoanji for Voice and Percussion by John Cage, written
for her and percussionist Michael Pugliese and record-
ed by them for Mode Records. A specialist in theatrical
works, her performance as the Proprietess of the Caf
de Chinita in The Houston Ballets production of The
Cruel Garden was called riveting and compelling
by the press. Her Sephardic music ensemble, Alhambra,
based in New York, has toured Europe, South America,
Turkey, and the U. S.
Ms. Ganz has received a Fulbright grant to teach
voice and 20th century music at the Rubin Academy
of Music in Jerusalem (1997) as well as a Solo Recitalist
Grant from the U. S. National Endow-ment for the Arts
(1992-93). She conducts master classes and workshops
in contemporary vocal techniques throughout Europe,
as well as in America. She has produced over 20
recordings, primarily of works by living composers and
of Sephardic music from Turkey and the Balkans.
Stefan Hussong (accordion) was born in Koellerbach
an der Saar, Germany, and received scholarships from
the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, DAAD,
Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Art Foundation of
Baden-Wuerttemberg State. In 1987 he received the
first prize at the International Gaudeamus Interpreters
Competition for contemporary Music. Hussong was
awarded the Echo Classic Prize of the German
Phonoacademy in the category Best Performer of the
Year 1999. That same year his Solo-CD published by
DENON with works by John Cage won the Best
Record Award of the year. Hussong has premiered
more than 80 works dedicated to him and he has
recorded more than 25 CD`s, some of which have
won several prizes. Hussong has performed as a soloist
with, among others, the Orchestre de la Suisse
Romande, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony,
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern,
Klangforum Wien, Rundfunk Symphonieorchester
Saarbruecken and Tokyo Shin Nippon Philharmonic
Orchestra. He is professor for Accordion and Chamber
music at the Musikhochschule Wurzburg.
Susan Jolles (harp) is regarded as one of the foremost
interpreters of contemporary music for the instrument.
In 1963 she received a Fromm Fellowship in the per-
formance of contemporary music at Tanglewood. This
led to an association with the Contemporary Chamber
Ensemble and the Group for Contemporary Music,
thereby beginning a lifelong involvement in the musi-
cal world of New York. In 1966, Luciano Berio invited
Ms. Jolles to join the newly formed Juilliard Ensemble
with whom she toured the United States and Europe
for several years.
Ms. Jolles was appointed principal harpist of
several prominent groups including the American
Composers Orchestra, the New York Chamber
Listening CD on New Albion, the first CD made in the
now infamous Fort Worden (Port Townsend, WA) cis-
tern with its 45" reverberation. Dempster is also known
for soothing aches, pains,
and psychic sores with his healing, yet playful, Sound
Massage Parlor. These and other environmental/site
specific works, such as SWAMI (State of Washington
As a Musical Instrument), have earned him a reputa-
tion as a composer/performer whose work is at once
deep, meditative, and amusing. Sequenza V was com-
missioned by Stuart Dempster and first performed by
him in San Francisco on March 21, 1966.
http://faculty.washington.edu/dempster/
Rohan de Saram (cello) studied cello from the age of
12 with Gaspar Cassado at the Academia Chigiana in
Siena & with Pablo Casals in Puerto Rico. Six years
later he was honored with the Suggia Award. As a
soloist, he has played throughout Europe, Asia,
Australia and the former Soviet Union with the major
orchestras and leading conductors such as Barbirolli,
Boult, Colin Davis, Mehta, Ozawa & Sargent. His
debut recital in the USA was with the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall at the
invitation of Dmitri Mitropoulos. De Saram was a
member of the Arditti Quartet for almost 30 years.
One of the outstanding cellists and interpreters of
contemporary music, he has performed numerous
compositions by leading contemporary composers,
many of whom have also written works especially for
him, Dillon, Pousseur, Xenakis & Berio, to name a few.
After de Sarams performance of the UK premiere of
Berios work for solo cello and orchestra, Il Ritorno
degli Snovidenia, Berio wrote to de Saram: Your per-
formance of Ritorno is splendid, but besides Ritorno,
your sound, your perfect intonation, your phrasing and
bowing technique make you a great performer of any
music. As a result, Berio wrote Sequenza XIV for de
Saram. The cello Sequenza includes sections which
were inspired by the rhythms of the Kandyan drum
of Sri Lanka, of which de Saram has made a special
study & an instrument which he has played since his
childhood.
William Forman (trumpet) was born in New York in
1959. After the completion of his studies at the Hartt
School in Hartford, CT he came to Europe in 1981.
Formans diverse career has taken him to the forefront
of all realms of classical and new music. During the
1980s he occupied positions in symphony and opera
orchestras in Germany and Belgium and in 1986-87
was awarded prizes as a trumpet soloist at the interna-
tional music competitions in Prague, Markneukirchen,
and Geneva. From 1990 until 2001, Forman was the
trumpeter of the Frankfurt based Ensemble Modern.
Forman has appeared as a soloist with many of the
worlds renowned orchestras, including the Orchestre
de la Suisse Romande, the Czech Philharmonic Orch-
estra, and the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition to all of
the standard trumpet repertoire, his performances
include works by Stockhausen, Kagel, Ligeti, Frank
Zappa and countless others, theater pieces by Heiner
Goebbels, and baroque music on the natural trumpet.
A renowned pedagogue, he has given workshops and
courses for new music and brass music around the
world. Since 1994 Forman is professor for trumpet at
trate on his solo career. As a soloist, he has given pre-
mieres by Henze (the Viola Sonata is dedicated to
him), Ligeti, Schnittke, Ferneyhough, Dillon, Benjamin
and many others. He has recently become a pioneer of
the viola damore, exploring its possibilities in new
music, with and without electronics, and is in the
process of creating a new repertoire for this instru-
ment. He now lives in Paris and is currently professor
of viola at Musikene in San Sebastian.
Ulrich Krieger (soprano saxophone) was born in 1962
in Freiburg; since 1983 he has lived and worked in
Berlin. He is known both as saxophonist in the realm
of contemporary composed and freely improvised
music and as a composer of electronic music and
chamber music. More recently he has again concerned
himself more intensely with his old passion neglected
for some time: the frayed experimental edges of con-
temporary pop culture. He worked with Lou Reed,
LaMonte Young, Phill Niblock, Lee Ranaldo, Alan
Licht, David First, Mario Bertoncini, John Duncan,
Merzbow, DJ Olive, Christian Marclay, John White,
Ensemble United Berlin, Ensemble Modern, Berliner
Philharmoniker, Seth Josel, Soldier String Quartet, and
others. He has received many awards and fellowships
including fellowships for composers from the
Kunststiftung Baden-Wrttemberg, the Deutsche
Studienzentrum Venedig e.V., the Akademie der Knste
Berlin, the Meet-the-Composer Forum, New York,
the German Academic E x change Service (DAAD), the
Darmstdter Ferienkurse fr Neue Musik. He lived in
New York for a long time and was composer-in-resi-
dence in Los Angeles, Rome, Venice and Bologna for
several months respectively. He studied saxophone,
composition andelectronic music at the Universitt der
Knste in Berlin and the Manhattan School of Music in
New York and taught himself to play the Didjeridu. His
concerts have led him through Europe, America and
Asia. Several CDs document his manifold musical
activities.
Jacqueline Leclair is a freelance oboist and educator
living in New York City. She is the oboist for Alarm Will
Sound, Sequitur and the Curiously Strong Winds and is
on the faculty at Mannes College, Montclair State and
Hofstra Universities. Throughout the year, Ms. Leclair
can be heard performing with many New York City en-
sembles, including Ensemble 21, Carnegie Halls
Making Music Series, the Guggenheim Works and
Process Series and the Steve Reich Ensemble.
Ms. Leclair has premiered many works, and regu-
larly presents classes in contemporary music and its
techniques at such schools as the Eastman School of
Music, UCLA, Brigham Young University and The
North Carolina School for the Arts. She also performs
and lectures at major conferences.
Ms. Leclair received degrees from the Eastman
School of Music and the State University of New York
at Stony Brook, where she studied with Richard
Killmer and Ronald Roseman. She will receive her
doctorate from Stony Brook in 2006.
Ms. Leclair has written widely about oboe
techniques, and Luciano Berios Sequenza VII
Supplementary Edition by Jacqueline Leclair is pub-
lished by Universal Edition, Vienna (UE31263).
Brian McWhorter (trumpet) performs, composes, and
improvises contemporary music as a solo artist and in
Symphony, and Musica Viva. She is also associate
harpist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Ms.
Jolles has gained recognition as a chamber music
artist, winning the Naumburg Chamber Music Award
as a member of the Jubal Trio. She continues to con-
certize with daughter Renee Jolles, violinist, as the
Jolles Duo, and appears with Weekends for Chamber
Music and the Da Capo Chamber Players among others.
Ms. Jolles has an extensive discography of solo,
chamber and orchestral works that encompasses styles
from classical to contemporary to world music. She is
on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and
the Mannes College of Music.
Seth Josel (guitar), originally from New York, now
resides in Berlin. As a soloist he has concertized
throughout Europe, Israel, the US and Canada. He
has performed as a guest with leading orchestras and
ensembles of Europe, including the BBC Symphony
Orchestra the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin,
the Staatskappelle Berlin and the Schnberg Ensemble
of Amsterdam, and has appeared at several major
European festivals including the Salzburg Festspiele,
Ars Musica, Donaueschingen, The Holland Festival,
Munich Biennale and Londons South Bank Festival.
From 1991 till 2000 he was a permanent member of
the Ensemble Musikfabrik NRW, devoted to the perfor-
mance of contemporary music.
As ensemble player and soloist Seth Josel has been
involved in the first performances of more than 100
works. He has collaborated and consulted closely with
such composers as Louis Andriessen, Kagel,
Lachenmann and Tenney. In addition, he has been
highly committed to working with several of the lead-
ing young composers of our time, including Ablinger,
Barrett, Corbett, Czernowin, and Stahnke, all of whom
have written works featuring his talents.
He has released solo CDs on CRI and O.O. Discs.
In addition to having published articles which concern
issues related to New Art Music, Seth Josel is co-
founder of "www.sheerpluck.de", a website dedicated
to contemporary guitar music which has been online
since the summer of 2003.
He has acquired degrees from the Manhattan
School of Music and Yale. His teachers included
Manuel Barrueco, Eliot Fisk and harpsichordist Richard
Rephann; as well, he has participated in the master
classes of Oscar Ghiglia and Andrs Segovia.
Garth Knox (viola) was born in Ireland and grew up in
Scotland. The youngest of four children who all played
string instruments, he was encouraged to take up the
viola, and he quickly decided to make this his career.
He studied at the Royal College of Music in London
with Fredrick Riddle, where he won several prizes for
viola and for chamber music. Thereafter he played
with most of the leading groups in London in a mixture
of all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary music.
In 1983 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to
become a member of the Ensemble InterContempora i n
in Paris, where he had the chance to do much solo
playing (including concertos directed by Pierre Boulez)
and chamber music. In 1990 Garth Knox joined the
Arditti String Quartet, working closely with and giving
first performances of pieces by most of todays leading
composers including Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio, Xenakis,
Lachenmann, Cage, Feldman and Stockhausen.
In 1998, Garth Knox left the quartet to concen-
at Lincoln Center and the Marlboro and Santa Fe
Music Festivals. A founding member of the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ms. Robison held the
prestigious title of artist-member for twenty seasons.
During the same period she was co-director with Scott
Nickrenz of the Concerti di Mezzogiorno at the Spoleto
Festival, earning her the 1987 Adelaide Ristori Prize for
her contribution to Italian cultural life. Ms. Robisons
friendship with Luciano Berio began in the late 1960s
while he was teaching at The Juilliard School. She
studied Sequenza I with him and subsequently toured
a program of works by Berio and Debussy with the
composer and legendary soprano Cathy Berberian. In
1995, Ms. Robison participated in New Yorks 92nd
Street Ys historic concert of The Complete Sequenzas
in honor of Luciano Berios 70th birthday.
Paula Robisons teaching has taken her all over the
world, including a Franz Liszt residency in Budapest. A
faculty member at the New England Conservatory, she
is the first occupant of the Donna Hieken Flute Chair.
Stefano Scodanibbio, contrabass soloist and com-
poser, was born in Macerata, Italy, June 18th 1956. In
the 1980s and 1990s his name has been prominently
linked to the renaissance of the double bass, playing
in the major festivals throughout the world dozens of
works written especially for him by such composers
as Bussotti, Donatoni, Estrada, Ferneyhough, Frith,
Globokar, Sciarrino, Xenakis.
He has created new techniques extending the colors
and range of the double bass heretofore thought
impossible on this instrument. He collaborated with
Luigi Nono (arco mobile la Stefano Scodanibbio is
written on Prometeos score) and with Giacinto Scelsi.
He regularly plays in Duo with Rohan de Saram and,
furthermore, with Markus Stockhausen. Since 1996 he
has been teaching contrabass at Darmstadt Ferien-
kurse. Active as a composer his catalogue consists of
more than 40 works principally written for strings, and
he was chosen three times for the ISCM, International
Society of Contemporary Music. Of particular impor-
tance is his collaboration with Terry Riley and with
Edoardo Sanguineti. In 1983 he founded the Rassegna
di Nuova Musica, New Music Festival held every year
in Macerata, Italy. He has recorded for Montaigne
Auvidis, col legno, New Albion, Dischi di Angelica,
Ricordi, Stradivarius, Wergo.
In June 2004 he premiered the Sequenza XIV by
Luciano Berio in his own version for contrabass, from
the original for cello.
After graduating from the State University for Music
and Arts in Tokyo, Noriko Shimada went to Germany
to continue studying with Klaus Thunemann. Shortly
after finishing her studies, Noriko was offered member-
ship of the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt in 1989.
Noriko has made countless recordings with the
Ensemble Modern both on bassoon and contrabassoon,
and has had several pieces composed especially for
her. Besides playing contemporary music, Noriko
worked with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Sharoun
Ensemble, Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra and the
Chamber Orchestra of Europe. As contrabassoonist
with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe she has appeared
on several recordings including: Beethovens 5th
Symphony, Missa Solemnis and Fidelio with Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, Schoenbergs Chamber Symphony Op. 9
with Claudio Abbado and the Complete Wind Music
groups such as the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the film-
accompanying After Quartet, and thepercussion-trum-
pet duo Endy Emby. He has recorded with the
American Brass Quintet, the New Jersey Symphony
Orchestra, the Absolute Ensemble, and the chamber/
pop group The Sharp Things, and After Quartet on an
album that featured his original compositions for two
silent films. He was a founding member of Extension
Ensemble, an award-winning brass quintet responsible
for numerous commissions of progressive composers.
Hailed as a terrific trumpeter by The New York
Times, McWhorter is a graduate of the Juilliard School
and the University of Oregon and held teaching posi-
tions at Princeton University and Greenwich House
Music School before teaching Louisiana State
University.
Lucia Mense, recorder player and traverse flutist,
resides in Cologne, after completing her studies there
at the H o chschule fr Musik as well as Milano and
Amsterdam where she received a diploma from the
Sweelinck Konservatorium. Her teachers have includ-
ed Walter van Hauwe, Marijke Miessen, Gnther
Hller and Pedro Memelsdorff. Her repertoire encom-
passes works from the Medieval, Renaissance and
Baroque periods, as well as the contemporary flute lit-
erature, which she is actively expanding and develop-
ing. She has concertized throughout Europe and the
U.S.A. as a soloist and as chamber musician. She has
recorded for various radio stations in Germany as well
as for CD labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Ars Musici,
Los Angeles River Records and Touch Records/London.
She played for 10 years in the renowned quartet
Flautando Kln and presently, she is a member of
Canzoni Coelln; as well she is a stipend recipient
from the Stiftung Kunst und Kultur NRW and Pro
Musica Viva.
Carol Robinson (clarinets) plays both repertoire and
experimental music with equal ease and interest. She
performs in major concert halls and international festi-
vals, working closely with a great variety of com-
posers Recently released recordings include classical
and improvised music as well as music by Giacinto
Scelsi, Luigi Nono, Morton Feldman, etc. Her own
compositions are played in concert and recorded by
European broadcasting networks (Hessischer
Rundfunk, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Lithuanian
National Radio, Radio France, etc.). Many of her
works combine acoustic sound with electronic trans-
formations, and integrate aleatory elements.
Particularly interested in working with movement, she
has received numerous commissions to write for inno-
vative dance productions. Born in the United States,
she graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory before
settling in Paris.
Paula Robisons flute playing spans a strikingly
diverse repertoire and she has commissioned well
over 30 works for flute. Beyond the concert stage, Ms.
Robison is renowned for her masterclasses, original
transcriptions and books on the art of flute playing.
She has commissioned concertos by Kirchner,
Takemitsu, Knussen, Beaser and Frazelle. She has col-
laborated with many distinguished artists and organi-
zations, including the New York Philharmonic and
Leipzig Gewandhaus Bach Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti,
the Budapest Strings, New Yorks Mostly Mozart, Jazz
practice of old music, and composition. Dr. Verkade is
presently Professor of Organ at Musikhgskolan i
Pite, Sweden where he continues to teach, perform,
compose, record, improvise, and write about music.
by Richard Strauss by Heinz Holliger. After leaving the
Ensemble Modern in 2002, Noriko joined the Sydney
Symphony as contrabassoonist. She also plays regularly
with the contempora r y music ensemble, Elision.
Aki Takahashi made her public debut shortly after
graduating from the Tokyo University of Arts with a
masters degree in 1970. While acknowledged for her
classical musicianship, her enthusiasm and acclaim as
a new music interpreter have attracted the attention of
many composers. Cage, Feldman, Takemitsu, Yun,
Oliveros, Ruders, Satoh, Lucier and Garland, to name
a few, have all created works for her.
Ms. Takahashi received the first Kenzo Nakajima
prize in 1982, and was recipient of the first Kyoto
Music Award (1986). She directed the New Ears con-
cert series in Yokohama (1983-97), was artist-in-resi-
dence at SUNY Buffalo (1980-81) and guest professor
at the California Institute of the Arts (1984).
Her landmark recording of 20 contemporary
piano works, Aki Takahashi Piano Space, received the
Merit Prize at the Japan Art Festival (1973). Her series
of Erik Satie concerts (1975-77) heralded a Satie boom
in Japan, resulting in her editing all of his piano works
for Zen-On and recording them on Toshiba-EMI. She
created the Hyper-Beatles project with Toshiba, which
invited 47 international composers to arrange/recom-
pose their favorite Beatles tunes.
Kelland Thomas (alto saxophone) has performed in
recital and with orchestras throughout the U.S. and in
Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. An active
chamber musician, Thomas has been a member of the
Resounding Winds Saxophone Quartet, Michigan
Saxophone Quartet with Donald Sinta, and has per-
formed with the PRISM Saxophone Quartet and MIDI
Ensemble. As a member of the Borealis Saxophone
Quartet, he won first prizes at the Coleman, Carmel,
and Fischoff Chamber Music Competitions. In 1997 he
toured Japan with world-renowned marimbist Keiko
Abe and the Michigan Chamber Players. Thomas
earned a Bachelor of Music in saxophone Performance
from Michigan State University, and holds degrees
Master of Music in Saxophone Performance, in Music
Theory, and Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone
Performance from the University of Michigan, where
he studied with Donald Sinta. He has recorded for the
Albany and AUR labels. He is currently Associate
Professor of Music at the University of Arizona, where
he is Coordinator of the Camerata Career Development
Program and Medici Faculty Fellow.
Gary Verkade (organ) was born in Chicago and stud-
ied music, including organ performance, composition,
form and analysis, counterpoint and musicology, at
Calvin College (BA) and the University of Iowa (MFA,
DMA) in the U.S. and from the Folkwang-Hochschule
in Essen, Germany the Knstlerische Reifeprfung and
Konzertexamen. He has been a guest professor/lectur-
er/performer at universities in Europe and the United
States. Verkade has performed throughout Europe and
the United States, including many premiers of New
Music. He composes music for organ, electronics,
chamber and improvisation ensembles; and is co-
founder of the Essen, Germany-based improvisation
ensemble SYNTHESE, in which he performs on synthe-
sizers and computer. He has published essays and arti-
cles on subjects relating to organ playing, performance