Berio's Sequenzas

Berio's Sequenzas is a music book edited by Janet Halfyard but written by many different musicians. Luciano Berio was an Italian composer from of the modernist school [Cage, Boulez, Stockhausen] and he wrote these pieces titled Sequenza for different instruments. These are a series of works for different instruments that are written for the virtouoso in mind. The book has three parts: 1) Performance Issues, 2) The Compositional Process, and 3) Analytical Approaches. All the parts correspond with each other if you read it that way. 

This sort of book is very important because modernism has in a sense, died and left the building. Replaced by postmodernism, which is nothing in comparison. Now its not unheard of jazz musicians to play rap music for a living. Or for classical musicians' serious 'gigs' to be nothing but pop music gigs. However, back in the 1950s modernism was king. Once you take a look back at the past you realize how important all of this music really was: historically, culturally, musically, and emotionally. 

The section that had the most profound effect on me was the sections regarding Berio's compositional process. "For Berio and the compositional process there was always a question of what does time do?, What is duration and sound? When we experience it, what is the "now" for music." [Amazon review by composer Frank Abbinanti]

There's charts on pitch structure, dynamics, and timbral analysis, as well as performative insights. Written by the musicians who performed the pieces. There's also a lot of information regarding Berio's compositional process as well as his ideas regarding performance aesthetic. All of this had a profound effect on me while reading and upon completion. 

In a way me being a rock and roll jazz guitar player makes me a stranger in a strange land when it comes to this sort of hardcore classical [avant garde, modern] musical analysis. I've been working on Sequenza for Guitar since October but I still have a lot of work before I can actually play the piece in front of anybody. Although I don't think I completely understood everything in the book, I do think I gained a lot of insight regarding music, mainly regarding performance aesthetic, composition, and how to analyze compositions. For that, its a very valuable tool. I think I'll go back to it in due time, and try to see if I can understand parts that I didn't get or misunderstood. 

Listening to all the Sequenzas by themselves is refreshing. Music really was quite something back then. This book is set for retail price of 50 dollars on Amazon. Luckily, my music mentor, and composer Frank Abbinanti gave me a copy back in October. I didn't read it until now. I'm late to the party but I'm glad I finally read it. In some aspects, I can't look at music the same, something has changed. 

And what's changed? Perhaps everything.