Luciano Berio, Sequenza IV, for piano (part 1)

Sequenza IV for piano (1966) focuses on harmonic processes that Berio had been developing since his experiences with serialism in the early 1950s. Chords grow or change one pitch at a time while quick, scurrilous figures spin off into arpeggios or fragmented melodies. Berio's use of the sustain pedal allows for a two-tiered chordal writing, with chords sometimes ringing through rapid staccato progressions of different character. The piece is highly virtuosic, characterized by mercurial rhythms and large improvisatory gestures that form structural blocks on both small- and large-scale levels. Silence, used specifically as a textural layer, also permeates the piece.

Sequenza IV was written for Jocy de Corvalho and was premiered in St. Louis, Missouri in 1966

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Luciano
• Berio
• Sequenza
• IV
• for
• piano
• avantgarde
• serial
• classical
• modern
• composer
• 20th
• century

[fja6]

Please: Who's the pianist?

[GreggaryPeccary]

@fja6 David Arden

[earlymusicof]

O. Messiaen points out: Every piece of music is written in a mode (even though it might not have a specified key). The mode is defined by the notes chosen and the rhythm adopted. There is virtually no piece of music than can be completely pan-tonal (atonal) because, from a practical standpoint, it's impossible to have an absolutely even distribution of the twelve tones. Even if all tones are evenly distributed through a piece, certain tones would predominate in parts.

[theretheyare65]

Is your point music is only real music when someone prescribed it by jotting notes on notation paper?

[Telogismick]

Hello, I'm no expert on this subject so I have curiosity to know if this piece is written in a serial system of composition or is written in a tonal system. thanks

[RudolfMing]

Maybe it's music, but not for my ears...

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@earlymusicof When all factors other than harmony are omitted, sure.

When things like rhythm, register, dynamics, ect are manipulated in ways unconventional to pre-20th century music, harmony loses its power to convey tonality (although 'tonic' and 'dominantic' ideas can still be expressed).

[thimkthimk]

@earlymusicof where is that information from?

[mekore]

@earlymusicof thats a simple fact, no need to cite messiaen

[jocydeoliveira]

Sequenza IV was written to Jocy de Oliveira . Please correct the right name

[Superape613]

@earlymusicof clearly someone hasn't heard of Anton Webern or Arnold Schoenberg.

[TaterGumfries]

@earlymusicof Once you choose your tones from a set that don't got no near sonorities, that problem goes away. 18 tet or 11 tet, for instance.

[NevinJarek]

sigh

[mod07]

@MarkGrindell What the fuck!!!! he is postserialist.