SEQUENZA I – LUCIANO BERIO

Sequenza I was written by the composer Luciano Berio in 1958 for the Italian flutist
Severino Gazzelloni1 and premiered in the same year in Darmstadt2.

LUCIANO BERIO AND DARMSTADT SCHOOL

Berio was an italian composer, considered part of the vanguard of the second half of
the XX century and with Bruno Maderna3, he founded the “Studio di fonologia
musicale” at RAI television in Milan.
Thanks to B. Maderna, Berio started to participate at the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik
di Darmstadt4 and it’s there that in 1958 he showed for the first time his new
composition: Sequenza I, the first of a long series of works that explore the full
thecnical possinilities of the instruments.

SEQUENZA I
“Sequenza I è costruita a partire da una sequenza di campi armonici, dai quali scaturiscono con un
massimo di caratterizzazione le altre funzioni musicali. In Sequenza I viene precisato e sviluppato
melodicamente un discorso essenzialmente armonico fino a suggerire un ascolto di tipo polifonico.
Nel 1958 utilizzavo il termine polifonico in senso letterale, e non in senso virtuale, come invece
tenderei a fare adesso lavorando con strumenti monodici. Volevo cioè raggiungere un modo di
ascolto così fortemente condizionante da poter costantemente suggerire una polifonia latente e
implicita.
Sequenza I è stata composta nel 1958 per Severino Gazzelloni.”
Luciano Berio5

1
S. Gazzelloni: 1919 – 1992, Principal flute of RAI orchestra in Rome.
2
Darmstadt: city of Frankfurt Metropolitan Region, South Germany.
3
Bruno Maderna: 1920 – 1973, Italian composer and orchestra conductor.
4
Ferienkurse für Neue Musik di Darmstadt were founded in 1946 by the German musicologist W. Steinecke, with the
aim to reconnect post-war Germany to the new language of music (Second Viennese School) that was suppressed by
Nazi’s regime. Darmstadt School consists in summer classes held by important composers and musicians such as L.
Nono, K. Stockhausen, L. Berio, B.Maderna, P. Boulez …
5
Sequenza I for flute (1958)
The title refers to the fact that the piece is built from a sequence of harmonic fields from which the other, strongly
characterized musical functions are derived. In Sequenza I an essentially harmonic discourse is set out and developed
melodically, suggesting a polyphonic mode of listening. In 1958 I wasn’t using the term “polyphonic” in any
metaphorical sense, as I would do now when working with monodic instruments, but literally. I wanted to establish a
way of listening so strongly conditioned as to constantly suggest a latent, implicit polyphony.
Sequenza I was written in 1958 for Severino Gazzelloni.
Luciano Berio
As it was said before, this work was written for Severino Gazzelloni, the Italian flutist
that in XX century explored and experimented thecnical limits of flute. Gazzelloni was
in 1958 the first performer of Sequenza I in Darmstadt. This opera is considered one
of the most important work for flute solo of XX century.
Sequenza I immediately generated interest, especially for its completely new
proportional notation.

Figure 1 Example of proportional notation - Beginning of Sequenza I ed.1958

This notations seems to give freedom to performers, but it’s not. Proportions are clear
and music must be performed in a determined space of time (70 M.M.). Is for that
reason that Berio “translated” his work with a normal notation and precise rhythm
and sounds.

Figure 2 Example of traditional notation - Beginning of Sequenza I, ed.1992

According to P. Roberts, Berio’s musical assistant: “Sequenza was originally composed

using traditional notation and was barred 2/8 from the beginning until the end”. This
is really helpful to understand the idea behind the music and give brightness to a
certain way of performance interpretation.
According to performers “Sequenza I” doesn’t look always the same. I’ve personally
selected three performance that I would like to compare.
The First one is from the french flutist Sophie Cherrier6. Her performance7 should be
defined really clean and precise, almost a mathematical presicion. It seems that
nothing has been left to the moment of performance but that everything was
calculated with patiente before.
To be more specific, in several passages she took time and calm, especially on
fermatas (from 4 up to 7 seconds). Sometimes she tried to divide and fragment into
small section long phrases as an actor performing his monolog.
About thecnical skills, I want to pay attention to the last line of 2nd page to the first of
the 3rd one. Here Berio wrot a 4 staccato articulation for every note, but it’s interesting
to see how different performes change according to their own skills, trying to keep
composer idea as much as they can. In this case Cherrier started with the written
articulation to fastly change to double tounging and immediately after started with
flatter until the end of the phrase, to emphasize crescendo and fortissimo.
In the 4th page from line 6 she keep phrasing really longer than other performers, and
tongue ram and key click perfectly fit into the music. The end of sequenza in this
performance is really impressive, she started in a certain way a kind of dissolvence of
music since the beginning of the last page until the last sforzato in the end.

The second performance that in my opinion has a rilevant influence is Michele

Marasco8’s one. He cooperated with famous composers from Darmstadt and others
including Berio, Boulez and so on…
The first thing that is clear in his performance9, is his way to go through the piece as
it doesn’t have any fragmentation. This recording is also quite different form
Cherrier’s one, especially in sound, he doesn’t care about beauty of sound but he
forces it to the limits of flutes that sometimes is rude and ugly. It seems that he really
doesn’t care about mathematical details, but his interest is more in that moment
feelings.
About aritculation in 2nd/3rd page, he starts with four as written to change almost
immediately to flatter and his crescendo loses a little bit the emphasis.

6
Sophie Cherrier. Born in 1959 in France, studied with Alain Marion and became part of the Ensemble
Intercontemporain since 1979 under the guide of his founder P. Boulez. S. Cherrier is professor at Conservatoire
Superieur de Musique de Paris since 1998.
7
1998 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin – S. Cherrier – flute - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxglGN-ujjU
8
Italian flutist, he performed as a principal flute in the orchestra of Maggio Fiorentino.
9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRUdqkCPbak – Michele Marasco live performance, Lucca Classica, Mat 4th
2019
The last performance of “Sequenza I” that I have considered is an old recording,
performed by the dedicatee of this work: Severino Gazzelloni. His performance is
really far from others, and it is perceptible the discovering of this new music language.
In his performance is clear the Italian lyricism and the flute is not pushed to limits but
it is solidly controlled in technique and sound. About articulation, he adopted a double
tonging to make it easier.
In this performance, everything is in its place as Berio wrote them, with a constant
vibrato in the sound and a clear way to conduct phrasing, which is different from
contemporary performances.
In conclusion, every performer has his personal way to understand and perform this
music, according of course to the influences they had in their career. As is it possible
to understand, even if with proportional notation, there is not a practical freedom on
rhythm, but it is more psychological and it is up to performers to put into this music
their own idea without leaving the composer’s one.

Luca Quaranta
Rīga 14/01/2022