Download Powerpoint

Survey
yes no Was this document useful for you?
   Thank you for your participation!

* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project

Document related concepts

History of music wikipedia , lookup

Figured bass wikipedia , lookup

Tonality wikipedia , lookup

Music-related memory wikipedia , lookup

Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony wikipedia , lookup

Harmony wikipedia , lookup

Music theory wikipedia , lookup

Transcript
SEQUENZA III FOR FEMALE
VOICE - BERIO
L.O – to understand the musical characteristics of
experimental music and analyse how they have
been used by Berio
LUCIANO BERIO (1925-2003)
Avant-garde Italian composer
 Accompany singers on the piano in his spare time
 Met his wife, Cathy Berberian (American)
through his work
 Eventually divorced, but Berio continued to work
with her and composed Sequenza III for her to
perform.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT
EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC?








The focus was to find new ways of composing
Expressing a musical idea
Experimenting with different ways of producing
sound from instruments (playing them in a nonconventional way)
Graphic scores to replace traditional Western
notation.
Unconventional playing techniques
Breaks the rules of pitch and harmony.
Use of sound sources other than conventional musical
instruments
Extended vocal techniques, such as use of speech,
growling.
PERFORMING FORCES AND THEIR
HANDLING
Virtuoso demands on the performer.
 Extended techniques created by the composer.
 The piece requires acting as well as singing
abilities.
 Berio described Sequenza III as being a 3 part
invention built on elements of text, gesture and
expression
 Different sound types accompanied by hand or
body gestures
 Performer has to show widely varying and
developing emotions

PERFORMING FORCES AND THEIR
HANDLING
Unaccompanied
 Even though each performance would be
different, the directions on the score are very
precise
 Requires a virtuoso performer
 3 main approaches to pitch


1. Speaking, whispering, laughing, coughing,
etc. i.e. no discernible pitch, indicated by a one
line stave. This range of sounds also includes nonvocal techniques, like finger clicking.
2. Singing, using relative pitch, indicated by a
three line stave – here the performer sings higher
or lower (or the same notes), depending on the
position of ‘notes’ on the stave. There is no particular
intended pitch, and the intervals between the notes
don’t need to be exact.
 3. Singing with prescribed intervals, indicated by
a five line stave. Intervals between notes need to be
sung accurately. As the singer can have a variety of
possible voice types, i.e. soprano, mezzo-soprano or
alto, the starting note of these phrases can vary.
Pitches have a wide range from high to very low.
Some of the lowest pitches are at the end.
 Look at the anthology. What other techniques are
required by the performer?

PERFORMING FORCES AND THEIR
HANDLING
How could you describe the setting of the
text/words in this piece?
 Disjointed phonemes (the separate individual
sounds of words) like to, co, us and for at the
beginning.
 Repeated rapidly at random
 Audible words gradually emerge
 Full words and phrases are disjointed (being
separated by other sounds)
 Some words are left out altogether, e.g. Without
worrying and house.

TEXTURE
Is it monophonic, homophonic or polyphonic?
 Monophonic

STRUCTURE
Through-composed
 Small scale repetitions do occur. Some sounds
or groups of sounds are supposed to be repeated
quickly in a random and slightly discontinuous
way.
 The music is organised according to specific
timings indicated on the score
 The piece alternates between the different
vocal styles (mentioned previously in
approaches to pitch)
 The music reaches an increasingly lower pitch
at the end, appearing to fade away.

TONALITY
What is the tonality of the piece?
 No specific tonality.
 Singer sometimes tries to pitch her note towards
B natural and Gb at the end

HARMONY
How can you describe the harmony of this piece?
 In a monophonic performance there is no
harmony.
 Suggestions of a B minor outlined chord just after
3 minutes

MELODY






Melody can only be noticed in the passages with five
line notation, where exact intervals need to be
performed.
Repeated notes are an important feature, usually
set to different phonemes
There are occasionally very large, angular leaps,
like a minor 13th leap downwards on the words
noble truth.
Minor 2nd intervals are sometimes prominent, e.g.
shortly before the end.
Minor 3rd intervals are also quite common.
Intonation contours are sometimes used to indicate
the rough direction of pitch of a spoken passage.
RHYTHM AND METRE
There is no sense of metre
 There are no specific note lengths
 Speed is, however important. It is governed by:

The timing, which divides the music into 10 second
sections
 Though at the beginning, as the performer comes on
to the stage, the timing depends partly on the
length of the applause (if any!).
 The instructions indicate that phrases with specific
invented rhythmic groupings need to be as fast as
possible.
 Other new types of rhythmic grouping indicate a
range of speeds from slow to fast.





Is Sequenza III merely a showpiece for the voice, or
does it make more profound statements as a work of
art? Explain your argument.
Why do you think Berio wrote this specifically for a
female voice?
In what ways might Sequenza III challenge an
audience used to listening to more traditional music?
Do you think that such a challenge to orthodox views
can have beneficial results?
Cathy Berberian described Sequenza III as ‘like an Xray of a woman’s inner life’. To what extent do you
agree with this view? Give musical examples to back
up your answer.