Italian composer Luciano Berio (October 24, 1925 May 27,

2003) was notorious for his experimental works.

Recognised as a pioneer of electronic music.
Specialised in piano, conducting and scomposition at the Milan
Conservatoire. Upon graduating he worked as an operatic
coach and conductor.
Berio established the first Italian electronic music studio
Studio di Fonologia Musicale.

Berio composed a series of virtuosic works for solo

instrument/voice, all with the inclusion of extended technique.
In Sequenza III I tried to assimilate many aspects of everyday
vocal life, including trivial ones, without losing intermediate
levels or indeed normal singing. Berio
Written for singing actress such as Berios then wife Cathy
Berberian.
Composed of only nine short phrases, the words are often
incidental and unrecognisable; incidently it is not the words
that produce the music.
Catherine Anahid Berberian (1925-1983) was an American
virtuosic soprano, also noted for her composition.
Acclaimed for her interpretations of contemporary avantgarde music.
Berio dedicated Sequenza III to her.
When hearing Berio, we are invading the mind of the
singer. The music is about the abstract expressions of
fragility, nervousness, excitement, hope or insecurity; the
singer baring her soul privately through her voice. She is not
singing to tell the world. She would almost certainly stop
singing if she knew we were listening. A girl in a womans
body.
Listen to song

Approaching this work a singer must consult Berios

extensive notes and performance directions.
Rapid dramatic change - Berio can make the singer
move from nervous laughter to slight anguish, to
playfulness, to panic in seconds.

Pitch ambiguity - intervals on the five-line staff are to

be observed but the singer may choose their own vocal
range.
Although the notation and performance directions are
specific, the emotional and dynamics markings require
performer interpretation and create vocal
gesture.
Where does the performer begin interpretation with the
absence of text? Berio asks librettist Marus Kutter to give a
few words for a woman to sing, the poem forms a modular
text in which the words are purely of a descriptive function.
The are never heard in order or in its intirety,
Phonetic text, fragmentation treating voice as pure
timbre (Annibaldi) Fluctuation in drama- Segmented text is
presented with emotional direction creating vocal gesture.
Some sounds are notated phonetically using the international
phonetic alphabet, whilst some are indicated more
conventionaly such as give me some words

In Sequenza III the emphasis is given to the sound symbolism of

vocal and sometimes visual gestures, with their accompanying
shadows of meaning, and the associations and conflicts suggested
by them. For this reason Sequenza III can also be considered as a
dramatic essay whose story, so to speak, is the relationship
between the soloist and her own voice
Sequenza III.
Berio
Thank you