inside luciano berios serialism

7/22/2019 Inside Luciano Berios Serialism

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ILBs Smusa_275 301..348

Like many other composers who later distanced themselves from serialism,

Luciano Berio (19252003) embraced the technique for a number of years in the

1950s. His ultimate rejection of serialism notwithstanding, Berio credited it as a

significant source of inspiration during a period of his life in which, as he later put

it, I really made up for all the time Id lost in the provinces, especially during the

war, and in Milan immediately after the war (Berio 1985 [1981], p. 63).Without

aligning himself too closely with any particular school of serial thought for too

long, Berio adopted and developed the techniques he encountered in the musicof his contemporaries especially Luigi Dallapiccola, Henri Pousseur, Karel

Goeyvaerts, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Bruno Maderna before relinquishing

serialism altogether by 1958. Despite Berios eventual rejection of the technique,

the serial experience of those years continued to have a strong impact on his

development as a composer into the 1960s and beyond.

Ex. 1 lists the serial works from 1951 to 1958, spanning the time from his

early twelve-note composition Due pezzi for violin and piano to the works justprior to the fluteSequenza.The first six works listed, up to Nones, employ largelyorthodox serial procedures where the pitch rows are generally recognisable on

the musical surface, with serial principles eventually extending into parametersother than pitch (inNones). In the remaining works listed, written between 1955and 1958, Berio subjects his serial materials to more elaborate processes of

transformation which are much more difficult to decipher. Although the prin-

ciples of Berios early serialism from 1951 to 1954 are well known, his later serial

techniques from 1955 to 1958 are still little understood.1 There are three reasons

for this: first, in his writings and interviews Berio provided only limited infor-

mation on his serial works;2 second, it is nearly impossible to decipher the

composers later, complex serial techniques from the published scores alone; and

third, only one sketch survives for the works listed from 19558, for Allelujah I,making this the only one of these serial compositions whose serial structure can

be determined with certainty.

This article examines Berios compositional techniques in three serial works

from his serial period:Nones (1954),Quartetto per archi(19556) andAllelujah I(19556). The aim of this study is threefold, namely to show which serial

materials Berio used, how he employed them, and why he used them in the ways

he did. I have chosen these pieces not only because of their chronological

proximity and shared compositional aesthetic, but also because they are

advanced serial works from the composers oeuvre for which a number of

helpful, if incomplete, sources exist. These include Berios own comments on

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2011.00275.x

Music Analysis, 28/ii-iii (2009) 301 2011 The Author.

Music Analysis 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA


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Allelujah Iin his 1956 article Aspetti di artigianato formale (Aspects of FormalCraft), two pages of analytical notes on Nones, a preliminary draft score for

Allelujah I, program notes forNones andAllelujah IIand various discussions ofserialism in his writings and interviews. No sketches survive for the Quartetto;nevertheless, valuable information on its construction can be found in the articleon Berio by Piero Santi, published in Die Reihe 4 in 1958. In view of the sparseextant primary sources, I shall demonstrate that Berios serialism from 1955

onwards is best understood from a historical angle which has thus far been little

explored: the influence of Bruno Maderna (19201973), Berios mentor and

close collaborator at the Studio di fonologia musicale in Milan at the time.

Since first-hand information on why and, albeit to a much lesser extent, how

Berio employed serial techniques can be obtained from his own commentaries,

his thoughts on serial composition will be reviewed in Part I. Part II examines

Nonesand shows how the integral serialism of this work (involving pitch, rhythm,dynamics and modes of attack), while subject to specific rules, presented Berio

with considerable flexibility in his compositional choices. Part III investigates the

serial materials in the Quartetto in comparison with Madernas String Quartet,written a year earlier, whose manuscript draft score, complete with its compos-

ers analytical markings, Berio owned. As will be shown, Maderna paired strict

serial techniques with a flexibility of application in composition, a procedure

which appealed greatly to Berio. Part IV demonstrates how one can decode the

serialism employed inAllelujah Ithrough a close reading of Berios discussion ofthe work (as incomplete, from a technical point of view, as that discussion may

be) in conjunction with an analysis of the surviving draft score. While priorcommentators, possibly misled by Berios own account, have suggested that the

works principal structure is only partially serial, it will be shown here that the

structure is in fact serialised throughout. The later stages of the compositional

process inAllelujah I where Berio recombines and transforms the serial mate-rials with considerable freedom clearly show the influence of Maderna.

I. Berios Views on Serialism

Berio expressed his thoughts on serialism in largely critical terms. A number of

excerpts from his writings and interviews illustrating what he saw as the benefits

Ex. 1 Berios major serial works of 19518

Due pezzifor violin and piano (195I, rev. 1966)Studyfor string quartet (1952, rev. 1985)Cinque variazionifor piano ( 19523, rev. 1966)Chamber Musicfor female voice, cello, clarinet and harp ( 1953)

Variazionifor chamber orchestra (19534)Nonesfor orchestra (1954)Quartetto per archi(1955-6)

Allelujah lfor six instrumental groups (19556)Serenata lfor flute and fourteen instruments (1957)

Allelujah IIfor five instrumental groups (19568)

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and pitfalls of serial composition can help us better understand why and how the

composer adopted serialism in the 1950s, and why serial thinking strongly

influenced his entire compositional career. A close reading of Berios comments,

in conjunction with an examination of his compositional strategies in the three

selected works, will confirm that his famous attack on the Twelve-Tone Horse,

from 1968, did not represent a change in his attitude towards serialism. Rather,

with this attack he pointed precisely at the kinds of problems which he himself

had recognised and already overcome a decade earlier.

Berio saw serialism as, at its best, a powerful tool for discovering new musical

territories; at its worst, however, it was too vulnerable to formalistic attitudes

devoid of musical substance.The latter point lies at the core of his 1968 polemic:

I would go as far as to say (as my anger comes back) that any attempt to codify

musical reality into a kind of imitation grammar (I refer mainly to the efforts

associated with theTwelve-Tone System) is a brand of fetishism which shares with

Fascism and racism the tendency to reduce live processes to immobile, labeled

objects, the tendency to deal with formalities rather than substance ... . This is

why I am very much against the formalistic and escapist attitude of twelve-tone

composition. In losing himself in the manipulation of a dozen notes, a composer

runs the risk of forgetting that these notes are simply symbols of reality; he may,

in addition, end up ignoring what sound really is. (Berio 1968, p. 169)

For Berio, at the heart of the problem lies a common misunderstanding of the

relationship between analysis-turned-theory and composition:

A composer can give a descriptive analysis of his own work and can bring to bearthe analytical tools from past musical experience. A structural description of a

piece of music cannot, however, account for the meaningof that piece unless it isplaced in a historical continuity. By the same token a theory derived from

analysis can never legitimately be used as a tool for producingmusic. Attempts todo this betray an idea of musical language based solely on procedures for com-

bining elements, which is, to say the least, irrelevant to any serious discussion of

music. (Berio 1968, pp. 16970)

And Berio concludes:

A theory cannot substitute for meaning and idea; a discrete analytical tool cannever be turned to creation by dint of polishing and perfecting it. It is poetics

which guide discovery and not procedural attitudes; it is idea and not

style ... . This basic fact has been missed by those who insist on trying to create

a twelve-tone utopia of twelve-tone coherence by forcing on us the dubious

gift of twelve-tone melodies in which, as someone has written, the twelve-tone

rhythmic structuralization is totally identical (sic) with the structuralization of thetwelve tones.3 Alas, this industrialized twelve-tone horse, dull on the outside and

empty inside, constantly being perfected and dragged to a new Troy in shadow

of an ideological war long since fought and won by responsible minds like

Schoenberg, with neither systems nor scholarship for armor! (Berio 1968,

p. 171)

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Although Berio briefly embraced integral serialism himself, he never believed

in excessive interchangeability between acoustic parameters (Berio 1985

[1981], p. 65). Separating out musical parameters made sense to him only

insofar as he could be certain that these came out of, and would ultimately be

reintegrated back into, a meaningful whole. Looking back in 1981, he explained:

As everybody knows, one of the most important and symptomatic aspects of the

serialist experience was the separation of musical parameters ... . When this

dividing up of parameters was applied scholastically, for analytical purposes, to

musical pieces where the solidarity between intervals, durations, instrumental

timbre, intensity and register was organically implicit in the expressive and struc-

tural design of the piece, then the operation had, and still has, a meaning. It was

rather like examining the separate pieces of a motor while knowing that the

elementary sum of these parts didnt constitute the motor (our perception always

plays such tricks on us).The problems started when, inevitably, people began going

in the opposite direction, taking unattached pieces, separate parameters, and

putting them together under the indifferent and uniform light of abstract propor-

tions, and the waiting for the unveiling of the piece (or the non-piece which is after

all the same thing because, as you know, by night all cats are grey). 4 (Berio 1985

[1981], pp. 689)

In order for a structure to be meaningful, Berio believed, it must thus be

conceived as an entity, as a concrete musical object which makes sense, rather

than as an assembly of disparate components (as integrated as the compilation of

the parameters may be from a serial point of view).5 At the centre of Berios serial

practices lies the design of such concrete musical objects which in turn are

subjected to various processes of transformation, serial or otherwise. In Nones,the basic materials are pitch series with characteristic rhythmic and dynamicprofiles which are transformed according to a rule regulating the possible choices

of durations, dynamics and articulation. The Quartetto consists of differentreadings of a basic sound material which freely omit (and possibly add) pitches,

change rhythms and registers, and vary timbre and instrumentation.6 And in

Allelujah IBerio established an initial material, fully worked out in terms of pitch,rhythm and (provisional) register, whose internal serial pitch layers are then

reread by projecting them onto different rhythmic planes and then superimpos-

ing and re-orchestrating the resulting structures.The three works to be discussed

here are serial in the sense that their initial sound materials (whose pitch andrhythmic dimensions, at least, are fully worked out) are built from one or several

pitch series. The transformations of these materials may be guided by serial rules

(as in the choices of parameter values in Nones or the rhythmic projections inAllelujah I), or may be free.Whatever the principles of transformation, however,Berios aim was to create coherence and musical sense that transcended the

serial machinery. He had a clear vision of, and maintained full control over, how

the music would ultimately sound. In Piero Santis words:

Never during the entire creative process [inNones] does Berio forget what is to be

its end-product. Here is the basis of his artistic freedom and his excellence as a

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craftsman. These are still more clearly manifest in theQuartet, since the connec-tions tying them to the basic scheme, though less directly visible than inNones, areclear within the musical coherence of the whole work, as that unity of all details

that I have already mentioned. In his most recent work [the Quartet] Berio againshows, more clearly than before, that he relies not on the formal guarantee

provided by an abstract, cerebral scheme, but on his own creative energy. Beriosfantasy does indeed always create a plan, but this is in order to play within its

limits, to vary it without invalidating it, to enrich it without obscuring it beneath

a mass of dovetailings and superstructures. His fantasy loves clear form, of the

kind demanded by the artistic tradition to which Berio himself belongs. (Santi

1960 [1958], pp. 1012)

II. Nones

Berio composedNonesin 19534, after he first attended the Darmstadt SummerCourses.7 Whereas the previous works leading up to the Variazioniwere modeledon the serial counterpoint of the Second Viennese School and Luigi Dallapi-

ccola, with whom the composer had studied at Tanglewood in 1952,Nones wasBerios first (and possibly only) integrally serial work in which serial transfor-

mation is applied to four distinct parameters. The choice of the four parameters

pitch or pitch class, duration, dynamics and mode of attack was influenced by

developments which took place at Darmstadt in the four years prior to Berios

arrival: Olivier Messiaen had defined these parameters, although without treat-

ing them serially, in his piano tude Mode de valeurs et dintensits, written at the

Darmstadt courses in 1949.8 Soon thereafter, Karel Goeyvaerts (in his SonataforTwo Pianos, 19501), Karlheinz Stockhausen (inKreuzspiel, 1951) and PierreBoulez (inStructure Ia, 19512), among others, began to subject each of thesefour parameters to serial permutation.9 In the years which followed, the number

of parameters was expanded to include more dimensions, such as density (the

number of attacks per time unit and the number of pitches per set, among

others), tempo, register, and so on.10 Beginning in 1952, Stockhausen adopted

what he would later come to call group composition (Gruppenkomposition), atechnique dedicated to producing an agglomeration of sound.11 Berio rapidly

absorbed what he encountered in Darmstadt and soon went beyond it. Charac-

terising Nones as his first reaction to Darmstadt, he subjected the by thenclassical four parameters of pitch class, duration, dynamics and mode of attack

to a permutational procedure that was based on a clearly defined rule, yet which

at the same time gave him a welcome degree of choice. 12

Ex. 2 presents a translation of an analytical note for Nones in which Berioexplains how numerical values were assigned to the four parameters and then

combined.13 The choice of parameters followed the rule stated at the bottom of

the note: for any event, the numerical values of the four parameters must always

add up to nine or more; if the sum exceeds nine, the event will have to be

followed by a quaver rest. The series, shown at the top of the example, is

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RI-symmetrical and contains thirteen elements, duplicating pitch class D in the

second- and penultimate-order positions. The members of the series are num-bered from 1 to 13, but in the compositional process Berio used the numbering

added below in square brackets.14 The durations are assigned values 1 to 4, with

a choice of two durations for each of values 2 to 4. (The second choices consist

of durations shorter than a quaver, the first choices of durations longer than a

quaver.) The dynamics are listed with values 1 to 5, with two choices each for

values 1 and 2. (The second choices present the softest dynamics.) The modes of

attack are assigned values of 1, 2 or 3, with multiple choices for each of them. 15

Berios rule stated at the bottom is modelled after the synthetic number

pioneered by Goeyvaerts in his Sonata for Two Pianos. In the central two

movements of this work, pitch classes, durations, dynamics and modes of attack

are assigned numerical values ranging from 0 to 4; every pitch in the score is

assigned a duration, dynamic level and mode of attack such that the numerical

values sum to exactly 7.16 Berios synthetic number is 9, a reference to the title

of the poem by W. H. Auden which inspiredNones.17

As in Goeyvaertss work, Berios preparatory materials and governing rule

define a type of integral serialism which permits the composer a good deal of

freedom. Not only are there multiple ways of balancing the numerical values

among the four parameters, but there are frequently multiple choices for a

particular value.18

This allows Berio to influence the outcome of his serial

Ex. 2 Translation of Berios analytical note forNones (Berio 1985, plate 4, secondpage)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [6] [5] [4] [3] [2] [1]

pitches +

3

+ [a]

3

[b]

choice

durations

dynamics + [a] all values beyond 9 become a quaver rest

[b]

mode of attack + [a] free

[= no ind.]

tenuto stacc.

legato [b]frull[ato]

[c] tremolo

[a] trill

[b]

The pitches will be realised always keeping in mind that the sum of the individual elements reaches and also surpasses 9 every unit exceeding 9 is worth a quaver rest.

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processes more directly and to a degree unavailable in more rigid serial struc-

tures. For example, the composer may decide to use mainly the short note values

(between a semiquaver and a quaver) or mainly the longer note values (between

a quaver and a crotchet) within the full range of numbers 1 to 4. Or, he may

choose to use only soft dynamics, balancing the corresponding numerical values

in the other parameters accordingly. Ex. 3 reproduces the opening twelve bars of

the work, where four serial layers (P5, P7, P10and P11) are superimposed.The P11layer is extracted in Ex. 4a (the harp and alto saxophone of bars 110). Ex. 4b

summarises Berios choices for each of the four parameters. Ex. 4c converts the

entries in Ex. 4b to the corresponding numerical values and shows the sum for

each of the thirteen events.19 The sums are either 9 or 10; in addition, they form

a palindrome,20 a property not imposed by anya prioristipulation. Rather, Beriochooses to stretch the succession of thirteen pitches by inserting a quaver rest

following every odd-numbered event except the first and last, as shown by the

vertical arrows in Ex. 4a. The option of inserting a quaver rest is provided byBerios rule positioned at the bottom of Ex. 2, which requires a sum of 10 or

higher for the addition of such a rest. The choice of the actual numerical value

(above 9) and location within the series is free, however.

As is evident from Ex. 4c, the fact that all sums are 9 or 10 requires Berio to

counterbalance the gradual numerical increase and decrease on the first line

(given by the pitch-class series) elsewhere in the chart. He chooses to do this by

gradually decreasing and increasing the numerical values for the durations and

dynamics on the second and third line (although exceptions occur). The entries

on the fourth line are mainly set to the smallest value, 1, with few if any attack

indications given.21

The flexibility built into Berios rule allows him to generate textures with widely

differing characteristics and to create a kind of musical coherence which lies

beyond the abstract serial structure.At the beginning of the work (see again Ex. 3),

all four serial layers start out with predominantly louder dynamics; they then turn

to primarily softer dynamics in bars 47 before achieving a mixture of soft and

loud in bars 712. This clear overall dynamic development, in which all serial

layers participate, contributes in tandem with other factors to the passages

sense of direction and cohesion.As is typical for much of Berios serial music, these

bars combine pointillist attacks with melodic gestures, such as the expressive leap

in the clarinet in bars 23 and similar leaps in the other instruments, including

violin (bar 5) and contrabassoon (bar 6). The succession of these latter gestures

generates direction; not only does the clarinet crescendo on Din bar 2 lead us to

anticipate a consequent event an expectation which is fulfilled by the high A in

bar 3 but the entire clarinet gesture in bars 23 is then echoed and carried on by

the ensuing expressive leaps in the other instrumental parts.22 In other words,

these gestures are not isolated events, but rather form a larger network of

corresponding elements. And this is why the gestures are meaningful; they have a

function beyond their individual appearance. (The compositional aesthetic here,

as throughoutNones, owes much to Webern in this respect.)

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Ex. 3Continued

pizz.

3

3

3

3gliss.

II. via sord.3

I.

I.

7

(P :)

(P :)

(P :)

(P :)

(P :)

10

5

7

10

11

E

[E ]

D

FA

F

F

B

C

C G

D G

B

D

D F

B A F D E

(P :)3

C B G F (etc.)

E F D B

Fl.

Ob.

Cl.

Sax.

Bsn

Tbn.

Timp.

Tamb.

Cel.

El. guitar

Harp

Vns

Vlas

Vlc.

Cb.

[ ]

(etc.)

[B ?]

[B ?]

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The rule guiding the combination of parameters illustrated in Ex. 2 requires

the composer to make decisions with a clear sense of what the result is intended

to sound like, since the choice of one parameter affects the choices available with

respect to all of the others. In addition, the flexibility built into the rule (sums can

be greater than 9 leading to added rests, multiple choices for some parameters)

provides further options which again need to be considered with a clear vision of

the expected sonic outcome. In the excerpt shown in Ex. 5, Berio chose a texture

(via the same serial rule) which pits the solo violins mostly rapid and delicate

gestures against a background of longer sustained dyads and single notes as well

as non-pitched percussion. All dynamics are soft. Ex. 6a analyses the parameters

Ex. 4 Analysis ofNones, P11 layer, bars 110(a) P11 layer

(b) Parameters of P11 layer

(c) Analysis of numeric values of the four parameters in the P11 layer

6

63

5 43

3

Sax.

2 1

Harp

1 2

(a)4 5 6 73

3

1

3 3

3

modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 5 4 3 2 16

4b 3a 3b 2a 3b 1 1 1 3b 2a 3b 4a 4b

3 3 3 2a 1a 1a 1b 1a 1b 2a 3 1 2a

1a 1a 1b 1a 1a 1a 1a 1a 1a 1a 1a 2a 2b

sums: 9 9 10 9 10 10 10 109 9 9 9 9

(c)

modes of attack: no attack indication

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: B D B G E E A D C A F

legato

D

staccato

F

3 3 3 3 3 3

(b)

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assigned to the main series I0 in the solo violin. (All other serial statements are

fragments.) The low values for the dynamics (1 or 2 forppp top) and modes ofattack (1 and 2 for tenuto,legato,staccato and no attack mark) require Berio tocounterbalance the gradually increasing and decreasing values for the pitch

classes with overall decreasing and increasing numbers for the durations, in order

to keep the sums within a narrow band (between 8 and 11).23 Where he has a

choice of two note values, Berio always picks the same alternative (in every case

a semiquaver for 4, a dotted quaver for 3 and a dotted semiquaver for 2), and

generally prefers the shorter duration.24 The note values form a palindrome

which is ultimately distorted by the rests inserted in the final version. Ex. 6b and

Ex. 5Nones, bars 4048, with serial analysis

Cb.

div. uniti

pizz.arco

div. uniti

pizz.

Vlc.

1 Solo3 pizz.

tuttiarco div.

pizz.

uniti

Vn solo

3

Vibr.

3

T. T.

Tamb.

Cl.

Timp.

40= 126

(suono deco )

sord.

I :0

I (14):

P (14):

5

C A C

F

B D

D

E G A

G

B G

A

E B B D F A F

I (15):

p (15):

5

5

F

F A

D F

E C

A C

B

11

3

G. C.

Cymbals

Guitar

3

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c analyse the parameter values assigned to the remaining serial fragments in

Ex. 5. Here, Berio tends to realise durations using the larger of the available note

values (for example, value 4 in Ex. 6b is realised as a crotchet rather than a

semiquaver in the double basses of Ex. 5) in order to create the sustained

sonorities which contrast with the faster violin gestures.25 In 1981 Berio

described his experience inNones:

My first reaction to Darmstadt and to Brunos beneficial influence, in other words

my first exorcism[,] was Nones for orchestra which has nothing of Darmstadt orMaderna in it, but which develops what was for me the main focus of research and

musical excitement during those years: the possibility of thinking musically in

terms of process and not of form [that is, form types] or procedure.26 (Berio (1985

[1981]), p. 62)

By combining twelve-note serialism in the pitch domain with a kind of multiple-

choice integral serialism involving the other parameters (see again Ex. 2), Berio

provided himself with a framework which pushed his imagination towards dis-

covering new musical avenues that would otherwise have remained unexplored.

Ex. 6Nones, parameters for bars 4048(a) Parameters for I0 (solo violin)

(b) Parameters for I5/P11 (fragments) in bars 4042

(c) Parameters for I5/P5 (fragments) in bars 4348

modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4

4a 3b+ 1 3a

2b 2b 1b 2b

2* 2** 2b*** 1a

(* legato/staccatoin percussion, ** legato in guitar, ***pizz. = stacc.)

9 9 7(!) 10sums:

(b)

modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4

4a 3b+ 1 3a

2b 2b 1b 2b

2a 2a 2a 2a

sums: 9 9 7(!) 11

5

4b

1b

2b

12

(c)

modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 5 4 3 2 16

4b 4b 4b 2b 2b 3a 1 3a 2b 2b 4b 4b 4b

2b 2b 2b 1b 1b 1a 1b 1b 1b 1b 1b 1b 2b

2a 2a 2b 1a 1a 1b 1a 1b 1a 2a 2b 2b 2b

sums : 9 10 11 8(!) 9 10 9 1011 11 9 9 9

(a)

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And it is in this sense that integral serialism led him to what the composer

termed an objective enlargement of musical means, the chance to control a

larger musical terrain (Berio 1985 [1981], p. 65).

III. Quartetto per archi

Transformation of the parameters assigned to pitch material as in the Nonesseries remained a central feature of Berios serial music. But given the absence

of sketches for most of the works from the 1950s, determining the transforma-

tion processes and the structures to which they were applied is no easy task. For

the serialQuartetto per archi, written in 19556, no sketches survive which woulddocument the compositional procedures, nor has the manuscript fair copy been

preserved.The only source of analytical information which probably goes back

to the composer himself can be found in Piero Santis article of 1958. Santi

explains, without providing score examples:

In the String Quartet there is less inner dependence [than in Nones] betweenmaterial and the scheme of construction, on one side, and, on the other, the way

they are carried through in music.The Quartet is built up wholly on permutations

of pitch-series, which recur in each sequence, and on sequence-permutations

which recur in each structure, because of the use of six different durations and a

particular intensity for each sequence. [In footnote:] Each structure consists of six

series of six sequences each. All the durations in these six series of six sequences,

i.e., 36 durations, are multiples of one of six basic values: semiquaver, demisemi-

quaver, triplet semiquaver, quintuplet semiquaver, triplet demisemiquaver, and

quintuplet demisemiquaver.Thus for example in the first structure the durations in

each of the six series of sequences are multiples of 1,3, 5,7, 9 or 11.This means that

each duration in the first sequence-series is one of the six fundamental values, while

in the second sequence-series each duration corresponds to one of the fundamental

values multiplied by three; in the third series the fundamental value is multiplied by

five, in the fourth by seven, etc. Sequences, sequence-series and structures follow

each other exactly according to the scheme, in order then to achieve a synthesis in

the free articulation of the quartet-texture. [Continued in main text:] Thus it is a

matter of six differentreadings of the same material.27 (Santi 1960 [1958]), p. 100)

Ex. 7ac reproduce three excerpts from the one-movement work, each of which

likely corresponds to what Santi calls a sequence. Each passage is built from the

same pitch-class materials, the two chromatic hexachords A and B. In Ex. 7ac,

the solid circles mark the members of hexachord A (AB BCCD), and the

dotted circles contain its complement, hexachord B.The segmentation into these

complementary hexachords is suggested by the rhythmic values used in Ex. 7a, to

be discussed shortly. With one exception, each statement of hexachord A in

Ex. 7ac presents the six pitch classes in a different ordering.28 Likewise, hexa-

chord B is reordered each time it recurs. Some statements are fragmented, such as

in bars 150 (Ex. 7b) and 224228 (Ex. 7c).The three excerpts present different

readings of the same hexachords. Santi describes Berios rereading practice as

follows:

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But Berio makes the rigid skeleton of the structures produce stimuli and ideas,

and also a certain coherence within his material. Here he moves with unrestricted

freedom; he may leave out notes and durations or add some, he divides up

durations into periodically beaten rhythms, chooses registers with complete

freedom, and in all this he adheres by and large to the prescribed dynamics, within

the limits of his own taste, exploiting effects of timbre and instrumentation verydelicately. It would be interesting to follow from bar to bar the onward course and

the melting-down of the elements, while keeping the basic scheme before one. It

is typical of Berio that he lingers a short time over each of the individual elements,

till these take on a figurative shape within the resulting overall picture they do

this less as pointillistic formations than as a collective agglomerate. (Santi 1960

[1958], p. 100)

The three passages in Ex. 7ac give us a good idea of how this works. In

Ex. 7a Berio creates coherence by means of two timbral strata. Percussive,

irregular pizzicato attacks are pitted against sharp arco gestures of single ordouble attacks, most of them played downbow. The two timbres chase eachother, creating forward momentum. Only the central register of the quartet is

used here, making the four instruments sound alike (all four parts here could in

fact be played by violins) and leaving the high and low ranges for later explora-

tion. The distribution of timbres (pizzicato versus arco) cuts across the hexa-chordal structure. This also holds for Ex. 7b, where a third type of attack is

added,col legno battuto. Unlike the beginning of the work, the texture here iswidely spaced and the mood calm; the passage ends with a stark dynamic

contrast in the last bar. In Ex. 7c different types of attack again frequently cut

across the two hexachords. This passage too is quiet in character, this timecontrasting shortarcoandpizzicatogestures with longer sustained notes, the lasttwo played as ethereal harmonics. The semiquaver leaps which succeed each

other in the first, second and fourth bars (first violin, viola and cello), together

with the sustained pitches, provide gestural coherence.

But what is the rigid skeleton of the structures or basic scheme, mentioned

by Santi, which is being reread and transformed? Santis description suggests

that pitch (or pitch-class) structure, durations and possibly dynamics are part of

this scheme, while other dimensions such as register, timbre and instrumentation

are not prescribed by a particular plan. Since we have no documentation of the

basic scheme, it is perhaps appropriate to turn to a historical source which does

provide a plausible context for Berios serial techniques, namely Bruno Mader-

nasQuartetto per archi in due tempifrom 1955. Maderna dedicated his Quartetto Berio; Berio returned the favour the following year, dedicating his own

Quartetto to Maderna, at a time when the two composers were in very closecontact.29 Madernas Quartet is in two movements, with the second presenting

an altered reading of the retrograde of the first, freely filtering out pitches and

changing rhythms, dynamics, register and instrumentation. In 1981 Berio dis-

cussed the relationship between the first and second movements of Madernas

Quartet:

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16/48

[Madernas]Quartettois in two parts.The first, in all its aspects, is the product ofa strict combinatorial procedure; the second part is a retrograde reading of the

first. But on the quantitative level its an impoverishing reading, one that filters,

eliminates, introduces spaces, and thus reorganizes the time-span and the material

that have just been heard on a different level, a level of the highest expressive

quality. (Berio 1985 [1981], p. 68)

Ex. 8a reproduces the end of the first movement and Ex. 8b the beginning of

the second movement of Madernas Quartet. Ex. 8b is a varied retrograde of

Ex. 8a, projecting a markedly different, more aggressive character. Longer note

values are often subdivided or realised as loudtremoliin Ex. 8b (as in the first andsecond violins of bars 12). I have indicated the omitted pitch classes in square

brackets in Ex. 8b. In all probability, Berio must have studied not only the final

version of Madernas Quartet, but also the latters short-score draft with its

analytical annotations.This manuscript, a brief excerpt from which is transcribed

in Ex. 9, was in Berios possession.30

The dotted line in the second bar indicates

Ex. 8a Bruno Maderna,Quartetto per archi in due tempi, end of first movement

5T pizz.

55

(T) arco

V NV T

T

V NV

188

5

T

NV

5

C

(V)

C

(NV)

3T

(pizz.)3

33 3

3

T

V

3NV(V)

8

C

3

3

184

3 3

T

316



17/48

the juncture between the two movements, from the point at which the texture

runs backwards. As the sketch reveals, Maderna superimposes two different

rhythmic strata. The one on the upper stave moves from triplet semiquavers to

quintuplet semiquavers and crotchets, and vice versa for the lower stave.31

BeriosQuartettomakes similar use of rhythmic layering. Ex. 10 segments thefirst six bars into the three distinct rhythmic layers, each of which is shown on a

separate stave (demisemiquavers on stave 1, triplet demisemiquavers on stave 2

and quintuplet demisemiquavers on stave 3). One can easily recognise how each

rhythmic layer articulates its own pitch-class material.The first layer presents two

statements of hexachord A, as bracketed in the example, omitting D on the

second occasion. The third layer contains the same hexachord, in permuted

order and with Comitted. By contrast, the second layer uses mainly members of

the complementary hexachord B, with the addition of one D (at *) and a single

Ex. 8b Maderna,Quartetto, beginning of second movement (omitted pcs shown insquare brackets)

legno batt. 33pizz.

3 3legno

al tall.

33 3

T

4P

C pizz.5 5

53 3

C

NV

al tall.

NV

C al tall.

NV

C al tall.

met arco

NV

= 112 circa

[G, B ] [D, F] [C , E, G , E , A , B ]

[D, F][G, A, C ] [G] [E ] [C ]

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18/48

C(at **). As will become clear, the latter two pitch classes are migrants from the

first and third layers (D is missing once from the first layer and C once from the

third).32

A partial rereading of the same pitch-class material occurs in the excerpt

shown in Ex. 11a (from the third section of the work).The analysis of Ex. 11b illu-

strates how the pitch-class succession of the first layer is slightly rearranged

(compared to Ex. 10), with A omitted on the second occasion and an additional

fragment CB added at the end. This layer is realised in Ex. 11a mainly with

durations of a crotchet or five semiquavers, often subdivided into repeated notes

ortremoli, or shortened by rests (in bars 127128), similar to the example est-ablished in Madernas Quartet.The second layer in Ex. 11b remains incomplete.

The segmentation into the distinct pitch-class layers shown in Exs. 10 and 11b is

Ex. 9 Maderna,Quartetto, excerpt from the short-score draft (Paul Sacher Founda-tion, Luciano Berio Collection)

De

5 5 3 33 3 3

3

Dd

5

5

5533

Db

Dd

ef f

g

ed

d

eeb

Ex. 10 Pitch-class material of the three distinct rhythmic layers at the opening of

BeriosQuartetto

5 5 5

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

abars: 1 2 3 4 5 6

[D]

**

[C ]

(1)

(2)

(3)

*

hexachord A

hexachord B(+D, C )

hexachord A

3

5

318



19/48

suggested by Berios rhythmic structure, which in turn is most likely modelled on

the rhythmic layering found in Madernas Quartet. But Berio does not always

realise the different pitch-class layers as rhythmically distinct units. Ex. 12a

reproduces the full score of the beginning of the third section (bars 9299).

Ex. 12b presents a distributional analysis of the pitch-class material used in this

excerpt and illustrates how Berio again combines the two chromatic hexachords

A and B.33 (Members of hexachord A are stemmed upwards, those of hexachord

B downwards.) The pitch-class succession of the entire excerpt is shown in three

large segments (bars 9294, 9597 and 9799), aligned in the example to illustrate

how each segment starts with the same pitch-class orderings. Bars 9293 corre-

spond to bars 9596 and bar 97; other occasional correspondences occur later as

Ex. 11a Berio,Quartetto, bars 120128

3arco

pizz.

legno s. arco

via sord.

124 3 3

pizz.

3 3 pont .

pizz. 3 3 sord. arco

120= 96

Ex. 11b Pitch-class material of the two layers in bars 120128

1

2

a a

[A]

hexachord A

from hexachord B

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20/48

Ex. 12a Berio,Quartetto, bars 9299

3

3

legno b.

3

arco

3

via sord. legno b.

3

arco

98via sord.

pizz.arco

3 55

sord.3

sord.

3

arco5

3

955 5

legno b. arco

5arco

5

3arco pizz.

pizz.arco

(sord.)

legno b.

92 = 72 circa 5

sord.

legno b.

pizz.

arco

via sord.

320



21/48

well. The pitch classes are grouped by beams to show the distinct hexachordal

statements, some of them fragmented. Fragments occur mostly at the end of each

segment, as indicated; they are effectively interrupted by what follows.34 The

lower-case letters identify specific orderings of hexachord A (ordering a is shownin Exs. 10 and 11b).

The foregoing examples illustrate with the help of information from Santis

article and through comparison with Madernas Quartet the ways in which

BeriosQuartettois built from rereadings of a basic pitch-class material generatedfrom permutations of pitch-series. Santi tells us, as noted earlier, that the work

consists of six large sections (structures), each subdivided into six subsections

(sequences). Each of the six large sections with the exception of the fourth

starts with durations taken predominantly from the six basic note values, fol-

lowed by subsections which introduce increasingly longer durations that are

multiples of these basic values.35 Exs. 7a and 12a reproduce the beginnings of

large sections (sections 1 and 3 respectively) using mostly the six basic durations,

whereas Ex. 11a reproduces a third subsection (of section 3) which introduces

quintuples of semiquavers and of triplet semiquavers (subdivided in bar 121)

alongside shorter values.36

According to Santi, Berio groups rhythmic values into cells of various pat-

terns. They range from single attacks and groups of two or more successive

attacks to patterns containing rests. Ex. 13 shows the most prevalent cells as

listed by Santi.37 Smaller cells are frequently embedded within larger ones, such

as the two demisemiquavers at the beginning of (a) embedded in the second cell

Ex. 12b Analysis of pitch-class materials

a

97 contd

[G]

b

98

[D , F ]

d

[F]

99

e

fragm.

[C]

95

[G]

b

96 fragm.of c

97

92bars: 93 94

b c a

fragm.

fragm.

IL Bs S 321



22/48

of (b), and the two dotted semiquavers at the end of (a) embedded in the first cell

of (b). Some of these patterns occur in the score excerpts we have seen. The

analysis of Ex. 14a shows how the opening of the work is built from single attacks

and cells of double attacks. Here, most rhythmic cells are assigned to pitch

classes from the same hexachordal layer (an exception is the D in the first layer,

marked with an asterisk). In Ex. 12a, on the other hand, the rhythmic cells cut

across the hexachordal layers. Most cells consist of two successive attacks. Single

attacks and patterns of 1 + rest +2, 1 +rest + 1 and three unequally spaced

Ex. 13 Rhythmic cells mentioned by Santi (1960 [1958], pp. 1001)

3 3 3 3

3 5

; ; ; etc.

; ; ; etc.

(a) two attacks in a row

(b) cells of 3 + rest + 1

(c) cell of 4 + rest + 1

Ex. 14a Analysis of rhythmic cells assigned in bars 16 (compare with Ex. 10)

3 3

3

3

3

5

3

5

33

5

(1)

(2)

(3)

3

5

1bar: 2 3 4 5 6

*

Hexachord A

Hexachord A

Hexachord B

Ex. 14b Analysis of rhythmic cells assigned in bars 9294

bar:

5 5 3 3 55

92 93 94

Hexachord A

Hexachord B

322



23/48

attacks also occur (Ex. 14b).38 Not all pitches assigned to these attacks are

equally prominent in the texture, however, since Berio mixes together arco(sordino),col legno battuto andpizzicato timbres.

Berios work with rhythmic cells parallels similar practices found in the music

of other Darmstadt composers at the time. In particular, Pierre Boulez under

the influence of Olivier Messiaens rhythmic techniques and his own (and

presumably Messiaens) analysis ofThe Rite of Spring designed various proce-dures to synthesise a handful of basic rhythmic cells into larger patterns, as found

in works such asPolyphonie X(19501, withdrawn) and Le marteau sans matre(19535, rev. 1957).39 Madernas and Luigi Nonos early serial works often

employed rhythmic cells as well, many of them abstracted from popular music

and political songs.40

In the fourth section of the Quartetto, Berio combines rhythmic cells withanother technique which at the time was frequently associated with serialism:

canon. The opening of this section is reproduced in Ex. 15a, with the first threecanonic entries signalled by arrows (bars 161, 168 and 175). The successive

events in each canonic voice, including rests, are numbered.The order numbers

for statement 2 are shown in square brackets, those for statement 3 in italics.

Ex. 15b analyses the canonic theme, reduced here to its succession of pitch

classes and rests (the latter indicated generically by crotchet rests).41 As the

beamed groups illustrate, the pitch-class material again arises from a combina-

tion of the two complementary hexachords A and B, this time combined to form

a single canonic voice.The first ordering of hexachord A corresponds to permu-

tation a (see again Ex. 10, bars 12, with D omitted, and Ex. 12b, bars 94 at a

and 9798 at a). The other orderings of the hexachords in Ex. 15b introducenew permutations.

Berios canon is a proportion canon: the first entry of the theme moves in

dotted crotchets, followed by the second entry in minims and the third again in

dotted crotchets.42 Irregularities, such as shortened or lengthened events, attest

to the flexibility with which Berio handles his materials.43 This canon presents a

contrapuntal technique that is not used anywhere else in theQuartetto, but thatties in nicely with Berios general approach to serialism: like the other sections of

theQuartetto, the canon of section 4 consists of different readings of the samepitch-class material, in this case a fixed succession of 32 events, read at different

speeds in contrapuntal imitation. In each reading Berio freely omits and adds

pitch classes, freely alters rhythms and freely rearranges register, articulation and

(probably) dynamics. In addition, the canonic theme itself is a rereading of

pitch-class combinations used elsewhere in the work, constructed from permu-

tations of the two chromatic hexachords A and B. Many of the gestures in the

canon use rhythmic cells found throughout the other sections of the work in

augmentation.44

This investigation into the serial materials of theQuartetto per archinecessarilyremains speculative. Although the excerpts discussed here confirm permutations

of pitch-series by reorderings of the two chromatic hexachords, in the end it is

IL Bs S 323



24/48


25/48

impossible to be sure that Berio in fact developed the permutations from these

exact hexachords, as strong as the analytical evidence may be. In addition, the

principle of permutation remains unclear. In light of the influence of Madernas

serial practices at the time, one might wonder whether Berios permutations of

pitch-series may have followed a strict principle comparable to Madernas use of

magic and other squares in order to generate serial permutations.45 Since no

documentation of the compositional process survives, and since, as noted above,

Santi states that Berio move[d] with unrestricted freedom in realising his serial

materials (he may leave out notes and durations or add some), the basic serial

scheme remains hidden in the final version.

IV. Allelujah I

As the following examination of the draft score for Allelujah I shows,46 Beriodeveloped the basic materials for the work from strict serial procedures. As in the

Quartetto, these materials were then subjected to multiple readings. Beriodescribes the process in his early article Aspetti di artigianato formale, which

appeared in the first issue of his journal Incontri musicali in 1956. He explainsthat Allelujah I (then still titled Allelujah) is based on a continually recurringmaterial, first presented in the opening 21 bars, which Berio calls the matrix for

the entire piece (Berio 1956, pp. 567). More specifically, he states:

InAllelujah, the initial structure (first group) was conceived from the outset as asingle and, in certain aspects, intuitive whole where the vertical pitch relationships

were not the consequence of a horizontal pitch succession (or vice versa), wherethe distribution and disposition of the instruments was [sic] not a direct conse-quence of [predetermined] registral zones, and where the succession of durations

was not analysable as a series of note values ... [b]ut where, on the contrary, all

sonorous aspects were chosen and given unequivocally because they had to be

chosen and given thus, and not otherwise; and where, finally, the sonorities of this

first formal object [the first 21 bars] could successively provide materials to bebroken down [elements of analysis] and for the formal structure, whenever taken

deliberately in their concrete sense.47

Ex. 15b Theme of the canon in bars 161214

1a [D]

42 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

(or D /E)

IL Bs S 325



26/48

Ex. 16a reproduces the opening of the work. Each time the material estab-

lished in the first 21 bars reappears Ex. 16b and c show the beginning of the

second and third sections the pitch-class structure is preserved, while the

rhythms are varied to a limited degree, and register, orchestration and mode of

attack are changed more drastically.48 For instance, most pitch classes in bar 1 of

Ex. 16a are reassigned new registers and completely different timbres in bars

2223 (Ex. 16b) and 6162 (Ex. 16c).49 In addition, Berio alters the temporal

alignment. The two simultaneities from bar 1 (CG and CD in Ex. 16a) are

pulled apart in bars 2223 (Ex. 16b) and 6162 (Ex. 16c).Whereas all attacks in

Ex. 16a fall on a quaver beat or semiquaver offbeat, Ex. 16b and c introduce

new triplet and quintuplet subdivisions of the beat, obliterating the metric pulse

audible in Ex. 16a.

Allelujah Iis built from different readings of the first 21 bars and from different

combinations of such readings, such as the superimposition of one version and

Ex. 16aAllelujah I, bars 14

8va

8va

1

= 132 ca.

Fl. 1

Picc.

Picc.

Picc.

Ob. 1

Cl. 1

Harp 1

Harp 2

Vibr.

VnVI

III

I

[sic]

326



27/48

the retrograde of another. Berios strategy of generating new textures by com-

pletely recasting the attributes of his chosen material arose, in the composers

own words, from the conviction, that to render unrecognisable, or better, to vary

continuously the acoustic characteristics of the same sonorous material means

equally (in relation to a formal design) toproducea new sonorous material.50 Buthow did he construct the basic material of the first 21 bars in the first place?

Berios draft housed at the Paul Sacher Foundation presents the pitch-class

and rhythmic structure in short score (31 pages), to be worked out further in the

final version.The draft contains only a few analytical annotations, including the

listings of two series in letter notation, one twelve-note (on p. 12) and one

eleven-note repeating one pitch class (on p. 27). No other series are identified,

however. Berios discussion of the work in Aspetti di artigianato formale does

not clarify to what extent, or even whether, he used pitch-class series. Pointing

out how various readings and recombinations of such readings of the first 21 bars

enabled him to create widely different textures, Berio writes:

Ex. 16bAllelujah I, bars 2226

pizz.

3 3

33

3

3 3

3 3

322

Fl. 1

Fl. 3

Cl. 1

Vlc.

Alto sax.

E cl.

Bsn 1

Cb.

Harp 1III

II

I

sord.3

IL Bs S 327



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The interest I have put into cancelling the signs of the continuous presence of the

material of the first group of pitches [that is, the first 21 bars] was not an end in

itself. Nothing, indeed, could have prevented me from reconstituting the groups

[that is, the different sections of the work] on the basis of a twelve-tone series,

permuting and transposing its elements.What interested me was to go along with

Ex. 16cAllelujah I, bars 6165

(pizz.)

via sord. 3 5

arco

3 3

pizz.

3

5 +

+

sord. scura

arco

3

3 3

3

3 3

3 3 3 3 3

3 3

61

E cl.

Alto sax.

Ten. sax.

Bsn

Cbsn

Cb.

1

2

2

3

Tpts

Hns

Cymbals

Tamb. mil.

Vns

Vlas

VI

IV

II

328



29/48

the formal suggestions derived from the destruction of that initial material and,

inversely, to discover which material would have satisfied those suggestions,

overcoming, that is, the concept of interval and pitch series.51

In order to understand what is meant here, we need to examine Berios

commentary alongside his draft score. Transcribed at the top of Ex. 17 are the

first 8 bars of the draft (at I).52 Below this, at II, appears a transcription of the

corresponding bars 2235 of the second section, aligned here with I so as to show

the shared pitch-class material. The bottom of the example, at III, presents a

transcription of the corresponding bars 5465 from the third section, again

aligned in order to show how this section rereads the same pitch-class materials.

It soon becomes evident that section I opens with the successive entries of five

different twelve-note series, as labelled in bars 15.53 In section II these five series

are realigned temporally. Series 4 enters earlier. Series 2 starts slightly sooner and

unfolds somewhat faster than in bars 15. In section III, the five series are slightlyshifted once again.54

Of these five series, the second is the one later listed in the draft in letter

notation.55 Although none of the others are identified by Berio, their identities

become evident once we compare the rhythmic profiles of I with those of II and

III. Series 1, 3 and 5 appear in II with the same note values and rests as in I.

Series 2 and 4 retain the same note values but shorten all rests by one-third.

Series 2 and 5 occur in III with the same durations as in I. Series 1 and 4 keep

the same note values (quavers) but shorten the rests by one-third, while series 3

expands the note values to quintuplet dotted quavers and shortens all rests by

one-fifth (with some exceptions). The layering of different series with distinctrhythmic profiles resembles what we have already seen in Madernas and Berios

String Quartets. Once we recognise this general principle in the draft forAllelujahI, it is possible to determine via a distributional analysis which takes intoaccount Berios rhythmic transformations that the entire first section of 21 bars

is in fact constructed serially. The result of this analysis is shown in Ex. 18ac.

Ex. 18a demonstrates that section I (bars 121) is constructed from twelve

different twelve-tone series, none of which relates to any of the others via

canonical twelve-tone operations. Each pitch class is assigned a duration of one

quaver. All rests are multiples of quavers or semiquavers.56 Ex. 18b shows that

section II (bars 2253) is built from exactly the same twelve pitch-class series.

The odd-numbered series retain the same rhythmic profile as in Ex. 18a; all

even-numbered series preserve the durations assigned to the pitch classes (always

a quaver) but shorten the rests by one-third, including the rests which precede

the first pitch class to enter.57 As a result, the temporal relationships among the

odd-numbered series remain the same, while those involving the even-numbered

series change. The latter unfold more quickly in section II than in section I.

As Ex. 18c demonstrates, section III (bars 5480 of the draft, bars 6187 of

the final version) is again built from the same twelve twelve-note series, two-

thirds of which is subjected to rhythmic diminution of the kind seen in Ex. 18b.

IL Bs S 329



30/48


31/48


32/48

In series 1, 4, 7 and 10 of Ex. 18c Berio retains the note values (always a quaver)

and shortens the rests by one-third compared to Ex. 18a. The rests in series 3, 6,

9 and 12 of Ex. 18c are shortened by one-fifth.The durations of the pitch classes

increase in series 3 and 6 to a quintuplet dotted quaver, while in series 9 and 12

the durations are changed irregularly. Since series 11 remains mostly unaltered

in Ex. 18ac and enters in approximately the same place in all three sections

(after a rest of 109 or 108 semiquavers respectively), and since series 12 always

ends before series 11, all three sections have approximately the same length in

the draft (section II is one semiquaver shorter and section III two semiquavers

shorter than section I).58

As Ex. 18ac prove, the temporal realignment of the pitch-class material in

sections IIII follows strict transformational procedures; sections II and III are not

simply free rhythmic rereadings of the same pitch-class material. Berios

comment, cited above, that in section I the vertical pitch relationships were not

Ex. 18a Allelujah I, the twelve twelve-note series and their assigned durations insection I

12 (124 )

11 (109 )

10 (101 )

9 (89 )

8 (69 )

7 (59 )

6 (37 )

5 (32 )

4 (20 )

3 (9 )

2

1

332



33/48


34/48


35/48

21 bars, each time completely recasting the registers, dynamics, modes of attack

and orchestration.62 Key to this process was the fact that Berio chose material for

the first 21 bars of his draft which he considered to be broadly flexible in terms

of possible compositional realisations. Thus it is possible to detect the seeds of

what would become a central element in the composers music: namely, the

notion of openness. In the article of 1956, Berio speaks of the multi-polarity of

the music ofAllelujah I, with respect to the act of composition as well as theprocess of listening. For Berio, the basic material ofAllelujah I(the first 21 bars)was multi-polar in that it availed itself of a wide range of compositional reali-

sations. Furthermore, Berio scored this material and its transformations in such

a manner that the resulting textures, and with them the work itself, remained

ambiguous in the sense that each listener would, and was expected to, hear them

in his or her own way:

In short, I wished to grant each aspect of the composition the possibility of beingequivocal and to provide a multiplicity of resolutions as regards not only the

sonorous and structural aspects of the work, but also those strictly practical and

functional that concern the habits of listening; in order also to give the listener an

active part in the realisation of the work.63

For Berio, the physical location of the sounds in the concert hall plays a central

role in the listening process.The six groups (zones) of the orchestra are seated on

stage as far apart from each other as possible.64 Each section of the work rereads

the same pitch (or pitch-class) material (varying the rhythms, registers, and so on)

but distributes it differently among the orchestral groups.65 Hence, in each section

the pitch materials move differently in space. In addition, their paths sound

somewhat different for each listener depending on where he or she is seated.The

work is thus multi-polar not only in the sense that each listener will likely perceive

the complex textures in a different way (focusing on different aspects of them), but

also in that the sounds move differently in space depending on where the listener

is positioned.66 Ultimately, however, Berio was dissatisfied with the result of the

distribution of the six orchestral groups on stage and subsequently reworked the

composition into an expanded version for five orchestral groups scattered through

the audience. In his program note for this new version, Allelujah II, Berio

addressed the function of space and its role in the listening process:

In 1955, when I composed Allelujah for six orchestral groups (dedicated toKarlheinz Stockhausen and first performed in that same year [sic] in Cologne withMichael Gielen conducting), I was interested in an extremely elaborate and

concentrated development of a simple initial statement. But the distribution of six

orchestral groups on a conventional concert stage was not acoustically suitable.

This is why, in 19571958, I wrote Allelujah IIfor five orchestral groups, where Ifurther developed that same initial statement, in search of a deeper homogeneity

and coherence between the acoustic and spatial dimension on [the] one side and

the musical dimension on the other ... . The five orchestral groups ofAllelujah II

are no longer crowded together on the stage: they are distributed in the hall so as

IL Bs S 335



36/48

to surround the audience. The purpose, given the complexity of the score, is to

help the audience approach the work from different acoustic standpoints and to

become more involved with the musical development, in a continuous alleluiatic

expansion.67

In his next instrumental work Berio extended the notion of openness beyondthe compositional means and the listening process to include the act of perfor-

mance itself. In the fluteSequenza(1958) the realisation of the rhythms is flexiblein that Berios notation no longer fixes the exact note values. The performer

makes the specific rhythmic choices according to the distribution of the pitches

within the time units marked in the score.68 Although it uses some serial ele-

ments,Sequenza Iis no longer serial in any strict sense.69

Berio recognised early the dangers of using serialism in dogmatic and inflexible

ways.The examples from the mid-1950s examined here show clearly the ways in

which Berio evaded the formalistic and escapist attitude of twelve-tone compo-

sition in his own serial music. Looking back in 1968, he wrote: To me ... it is

essential that the composer be able to prove the relative nature of musical

processes: their structural models, based on past experience, generate not only

rules but also the transformation and the destruction of those very rules (Berio

1968, p. 169). Although Berio had abandoned serialism by 1958, thinking in terms

of musical parameters and serial ordering processes would remain characteristic

of his musical aesthetic.Traces of serial thinking can be found throughout his later

oeuvre, and in this sense serialism shaped the rest of his compositional career.

NOTES

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Societyfor Music Theory. I wish to thank Talia Pecker Berio for sharing her extensive knowledgeof Berios music and writings with me, and for her comments and suggestions on the draft

of this article. All primary sources are quoted and reproduced here with her permission.Research visits to the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel were supported by grants fromMcGill University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.My thanks go to the scholars and staff at the Paul Sacher Foundation for their assistance.My transcriptions of Berios and Madernas sketches are reprinted by permission from theFoundation. Berios note forNones is translated in Ex. 2 with permission from Marion

Boyars Publishers, London. Excerpts from BeriosNones,Allelujah Iand theQuartetto perarchiand from MadernasQuartetto per archi in due tempiare reproduced by permission ofSugarmusic S.p.A. Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milan. Ex. 13 is cited by permission ofUniversal Edition A.G., Vienna. An excerpt from a letter from Berio to Luigi Nono isquoted by permission of the Luigi Nono Archive,Venice. Its president, Nuria SchoenbergNono,and artistic director,ClaudiaVincis,gave much helpful advice during my time there.I am grateful to Federico Andreoni for his help with my translations.

1. The serialism ofDue pezziis analysed in Borio (1997), pp. 3836. Seither (2000), p.12, discusses the general features ofStudy.The work is analysed in Hermann (2009).Cinque variazioniand Chamber Music are briefly discussed in Allen (1974), pp. 234.

Excerpts from these two works are also analysed in Osmond-Smith (1991), pp. 610.

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Santi (1960 [1958]), p. 101, addresses selected features ofVariazioni. The mostfrequently discussed work from this period is the integrally serial Nones; see Santi1960 [1958]), pp. 99100; Smith Brindle (1958), pp. 96101; Allen (1974), pp.2430; Stoianova (1985), pp. 37982; Hicks (1989); Osmond-Smith (1991), pp.1619; and Carone (20078), pp. 2846. Score excerpts from Allelujah I are

discussed in Berio (1956), Osmond-Smith (1991), pp. 1921, and Fein (2001), pp.25163. No extensive analyses of Allelujah I, Quartetto or Serenata I have beenpublished to this date.The earliest and most specific analytical information on theQuartetto is found in Santi (1960 [1958], pp. 1001). Excerpts from this work are alsodiscussed in Allen (1974), pp. 303; Fein (2001), pp. 2638; and Hermann (2009).

Allelujah IIis examined in detail in Carone (20078).

2. Quartetto, Serenata I,Allelujah IandAllelujah IIare mentioned (but not discussed inany detail) in Berio (1985 [1981]), pp. 63, 65, 90 and 154. Allelujah I is discussedin Berio (1956). Additional brief comments by Berio onSerenata Iare reproducedin Stoianova (1985), pp. 3835.

3. Berio must be quoting Milton Babbitt here, who in his review of Ren LeibowitzsSchoenberg et son cole and Quest-ce que la musique de douze sons? from 1950 discussedthe possibility of applying twelve-note principles in both rhythmic and pitch domains.Babbitts exact wording is: Thus there arises the reality of a rhythmic structuraliza-tion totally identical with the tonal structuralization, the two elements integratingwith each other without harm to the individuality of either one (Babbitt 1950, p. 14).Babbitt clearly uses the term tonal here to mean pitch in the context of twelve-tonecomposition.The paragraph from Babbitts review which contains this sentence hadbeen cited three years prior to Berios article in Peter Westergaards critique of

Babbitts procedures in Some Problems Raised by the Rhythmic Procedures inMilton Babbitts Composition for Twelve Instruments. Westergaards article

appeared in what was at the time the journal of the American serialists, Perspectives ofNew Music (Westergaard 1965).

4. Berio here paraphrases Hegels to give out its [knowledges] Absolute as the nightin which, as we say, all cows are black that is the very navet of emptiness ofknowledge (Hegel 1964, p. 79). In his first Norton lecture, given in 1993, Beriolikewise emphasises solidarity among musical elements (Berio 2006, p. 11).

5. As an example of what constitutes a meaningful whole, Berio recalls: As I pointedout to Pousseur myself, the processes that generate melody cannot be manufacturedfrom one day to the next melodies are born spontaneously within collective groupsor in a stylistic frame when all the parameters of music are at peace, and start

singing together (Berio 1985 [1981], p. 79).6. See Santi (1960 [1958]), p. 100.

7. See Berio (1985 [1981]), pp. 51 and 62.Whether Berio first attended Darmstadt in1953 or 1954 remains uncertain, however. See Carone (20078), p. 29.

8. Messiaen was probably not aware of Milton Babbitts work at the time. BabbittsThree Compositions for Piano (1947), with their individual treatment of the param-eters pitch, rhythm, dynamics and articulation pre-dateMode de valeurs et dintensitsby two years. See also Mead (1994), pp. 235.

9. Stockhausen wroteKreuzspielunder the influence of Goeyvaertss Sonata for Two

Pianos after the two composers first met in Darmstadt in the summer of 1951

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(Goeyvaerts 1994, p. 45). Also predating Kreuzspiel and Structure Ia is MichelFanos Sonata for Two Pianos (1951), which serialises the parameters of pitch

class, rhythm and dynamics, but not the modes of attack. See Toop (1974),pp. 1649.

10. See for example Pousseur (1959), especially pp. 6788.

11. See Stockhausen (1963). The article was written in 1955.

12. See Berio (1985 [1981]), p. 62.

13. Ex. 2 is a translation of the second of the two pages of this note. On the firstpage Berio explains the intervallic properties and symmetries of the thirteen-note series and mentions the use of harmonies ranging from the interval of an

octave to the total chromatic. A facsimile of this note appears in Berio (1985),plate 4 (n.p.). All translations of sources in Italian, unless indicated otherwise, are

mine.

14. This is mentioned in Hicks (1989), p. 255.

15. Added information which does not appear in Berios original note is shown insquare brackets in the example. I have identified multiple choices with [a], [b] and[c] for later reference.

16. Goeyvaerts assigns the values 0, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 2 and 1 to the twelve pitchclasses from Ethrough to D, values 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2 and 3 to seven durations (rangingfrom a quaver to nine quavers), values 14 to four dynamics (pp,p,mfandf) and

values 1 and 2 to four different modes of attack. See Sabbe (1981), pp. 910, and(1994), p. 55.

17. The title refers to the ninth canonical hour. Berio had originally plannedNones asa great secular oratorio with solos, chorus and orchestra, but the length andcomplexity of Audens poem stalled the ambitious project. The final version of

Nones assembles five orchestral episodes from the original uncompleted project(Berio 1985 [1981], pp. 623).

18. In addition, unlike Goeyvaerts, Berio allows his sums to exceed the synthetic

number, adding even more flexibility to his choices.

19. The suffixes a and b denote the specific choices made where Berio would havehad multiple options.

20. See also Hicks (1989), p. 267.

21. Similar tendencies in the numerical distribution are apparent in the remainingthree serial layers which open the work, although the sums do not formpalindromic patterns and, mistakenly, occasionally even fall below 9. As inlayer P11, the values for the durations and dynamics in the remaining threelayers largely decrease from either end towards the centre (again, there are

exceptions):

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modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 5 4 3 2 16

3b 4a 4a 3b 3b 1 3a 3a 2b 2b 4b 3b 4b

4 1a 2a 1a 1b 1a 1b 1a 1a 2a 1b 2a 2a

1b 2a 2a 1a 2a 2a 1a 1a 1a 1a 1a 2a 2a

sums: 9 9 11 9 11 12 9 910 11 9 9 9

modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 5 4 3 2 16

4a 3b 3a 2b 2b 4b 1 1 3a 2b 2b 4a 4a

1a 3 2a 1a 1b 1a 1a 1a 1b 1a 2a 1a 2a

3c 1b 1a 2a 2a 1a 2a 1a 1a 1b 1b 2a 3c

sums: 9 9 9 9 10 11 10 8(!)12 9 8(!) 9 10

modes of attack:

dynamics:

durations :

pcs: 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 5 4 3 2 16

4a 4a 4a 1 3b 2b 2b 3a 2b 1 3a 3b 4b

2a 2a 2a 3 5 1a 1a 1b 2a 1a 1a 2a 3

2a 2a 2a 1a 1b 2a 1b 1a 1a 2a 1a 2a 2b

sums : 9 10 11 9 14 11 10 8(!)11 11 8(!) 9 10

P layer5

P layer7

P layer10

Berio does not always add a quaver rest to an event whose sum exceeds 9, as

otherwise required by the rule. Another statement of P10 starts in bar 5 (violin A).

Bruno Maderna analysed the first four serial layers (without calculating the numeri-

cal values) in his lecture notes for Darmstadt in 1954. The corresponding page is

reproduced in Berio (1985), plate 5 (n.p.).

22. Not all of the leaps are equally prominent in the full texture, however, depending ontheir surroundings. The forward drive of such gestures is strongest where a cre-scendo and/or glissando is involved, such as in the electric guitar in bars 89, thesaxophone in bars 910 and the timpani in bars 910 and 1112.

23. As before, sum 8 does not satisfy Berios rule and must be an exception.

24. The exception is 3, which occurs only twice, realised with the larger of the twopossible values.

25. Again, the sums smaller than 9 in Ex. 6b and c are inconsistent with Berios

rule. Berio also follows only partially the stipulation that any event whosesum is larger than 9 be followed by a quaver rest. David Osmond-Smith (1991),pp. 1718, with reference to Bergian practice, analyses the lower strings and

timpani in bars 4042 as the first half of a derived series which reads P11 from

both ends to the centre (BFD[D]BF, and so on). This reading correspondsclosely to the analysis shown in Ex. 5, as I5 and P11 are literal retrogrades ofeach other. Osmond-Smith interprets what I have analysed as the superpo-sition of the beginning of I5 and P5 in bars 4348 as a partial statement of P 8(P9 in his terminology), reading the pcs in the order 71134105968.An analysis of the sums based on Osmond-Smiths reading also leads tovalues occasionally smaller than 9. I have no explanation for the timpani in

bar 45.

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26. Berio uses the term form here in the sense of formal scheme or form type, that is,in the sense of a preestablished, conventionalised framework. The preference for

thinking in terms of process (or formation) rather than form is likely influencedby Edgard Varse, among others; see Varse (1971), pp. 2831. For an excellentanalysis of Berios concepts of form and formation in the broader intellectual

context of the 1950s and beyond, see Carone (20078).

27. The authors who wrote for Die Reihe were either the composers themselves orauthors close to them (Grant 2001, p. 223). In addition to the Quartetto, Santisarticle also discussesNones andVariazioniand briefly mentions Cinque variazioni,Chamber Music andMimusique No. 2. The two musical diagrams in Santis articlepertaining toNonesand his description of the properties of the thirteen-note seriesfor the work are virtually identical with what appears on the first page of Beriosown analytical note (the second page of which was seen in Ex. 2), pointing to thecomposer as the source of information.

28. The exception is the ordering of hexachord A in bars 25 (Ex. 7a) and bars 2246

(Ex. 7c).

29. I was very close to him [Maderna] for a number of years: from 1953 to 1959 it wasalmost as if we were living together (Berio 1985 [1981], p. 52).

30. It is now held in the Collection Luciano Berio at the Paul Sacher Foundation.

31. Space does not permit me to go into the complex serial structure of MadernasQuartet, analysed in Fein (2001), pp. 13383, Borio (2003), pp. 10711 and

Neidhfer (2009). Maderna subjects the twelve-note series of the work to anelaborate and strict permutational procedure which regroups the pitch classes intosuccessions of single pitch classes, dyads, trichords and rests. Ex. 9 shows the

different permutations of the series labelled by Maderna with lowercase letters.Each distinct permutation is realised with one of the twelve basic note values usedin the work (ranging from septuplet demisemiquavers to crotchets). Madernassketches suggest that aside from the pitch-class structure and rhythms, no otheraspects were serially determined.

32. Allen (1974), pp. 303, demonstrates how the ordered set CBBC, canonicaltransformations thereof and unordered sets of set class 33 [0, 1, 4] from theopening of the work recur in later sections. As the present analysis shows, these andother sets are part of a larger transformational structure characterised by the use ofthe two complementary hexachords.

33. The term distributional analysis was coined by David Lidov (1992), pp. 678.Themethod was first introduced, as paradigmatic analysis, by Nicolas Ruwet (1966)

and later integrated into a semiological model by Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990).

34. Berios work with chromatic sets such as the two complementary hexachords A andB may have been influenced by his study of the music of Anton Webern and by thediscussions of Weberns music which had taken place at Darmstadt, especially after1953. Particularly influential at the time was Henri Pousseurs analysis WebernsOrganic Chromaticism, which eventually appeared in the second volume ofDieReihe in 1955 (Pousseur 1958).

35. As mentioned by Santi (1960 [1958]), p. 100, in the first section Berio multiplies

the six basic note values by factors of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 respectively.

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36. The six large sections of the work, according to the assignment of rhythmic valuesspan bars 157, 5891, 92160, 161223, 224249 and 250287. See also Fein

(2001), pp. 2647.

37. See Santi (1960 [1958]), pp. 1001.

38. Other analytical interpretations would be possible too. Each of the rhythmic cellsshown in Ex. 14b uses one or two of the six basic note values. It is likely that Beriothought of these small cells as forming larger ones. Santi states, for instance, that thecell shown in Ex. 13c returns in different forms at the beginning of each structure[i.e. section] (Santi 1960 [1958], p. 100). This longer cell is a compound of two

double attacks followed by a rest and a single attack. The compound could beshown at the beginning of Ex. 14b, which reduces the opening of the third section,by grouping together the first five attacks, including the rest between the fourth andfifth attack.

39. The technique is explained in Boulez (1991b), pp. 1216. Boulezs analysis ofThe

Rite of Spring(completed in 1951) appears in Boulez (1991a), pp. 55110. Messi-aens analysis of the same work was published posthumously in Messiaen (1995),pp. 93147.

40. For a discussion of Nonos early serial rhythmic techniques and a comparisonwith Boulezs practice, see Borio (2003). Madernas use of rhythmic cells is dis-cussed in Borio (1990), pp. 323, Fearn (1990), p. 14 and Borio (1997), pp.37581.

41. This canon has been analysed in part previously by Fein (2001), pp. 2667. Myreconstruction of the theme differs from his in a few places, making it possible toaccount for more of the pitch material. In particular, events 12, 14 and 2232 of the

theme (shown in Ex. 15b) are not included in Feins reconstruction. Allen (1974),pp. 312A, identifies the first five events of the theme (called motive) in bars161163 and their restatement in bars 168171, 175178 and 194197. He also

shows various recurrences between bars 174 and 216 of the first four pitch classesof the motive or twelve-note transformations thereof.

42. A fourth and last thematic statement (not shown in the example) in mostly dottedcrotchets starts in bar 194 and ends in bar 214.

43. As marked (underlined), events 12 and 14 in bars 167170 double the note value(dotted minim instead of dotted crotchet). Events 6 and 10 of the second statementof the theme in bars 172 (dotted crotchet rest in the second violin) and 175

(crotchet G in the viola) shorten the regular note value (minim). Event 12 of thesame statement in bars 176178 (C in the first violin) is extended and subdividedinto repeated quaver attacks.

44. See, for instance, the two-note gestures in the cello and viola, followed by a single

attack in the second violin at the beginning of Ex. 15a.

45. For a discussion of Madernas use of such squares, see for example Rizzardi (2003).

46. The draft is housed in the Collection Luciano Berio at the Paul Sacher Foundation.The published score ofAllelujah I, issued under the titleAllelujahby Suvini Zerboniin 1957, was copied by Juan Hidalgo in December 1956, as indicated on the last

page of the score. The work was probably composed after theQuartetto per archi,

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because Santis article does not mention Allelujah and refers to the Quartetto asBerios most recent work (Santi 1

inside luciano berios serialism

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