ECM NEW SERIES

Luciano Berio
■

Kim Kashkashian
\[i

Luciano Berio
Kim Kashkashian/Robyn Schulkowsky V O C l ECM New Series 1735
RSO Wien/Dennis Russell Davies 461 808-2
V O C I

Luciano Berio
Voci
Kim Kashkashian, viola ECM 1735
Radio Symphonieorchester Wien
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor*
'Coproduction
ECM Records/ORF Wien
Sicilian Folk Music
An ECM Production

Luciano Berio ® 2001 ECM Records GmbH

Naturale © 2001 ECM Records GmbH
Kim Kashkashian, viola ECM Records
Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion Postfach 600 331,81203 Miinchen

[69:42]

Produced by Manfred Eicher

ECM NEW SECIES

91930 31 Aueiuj00 ui peiuud 2-808 1917 98Z.L seues M9N |AI03

ECM New Series 1735
461 808-2
V O C I

Luciano Berio (*1925)

Kim Kashkashian, viola

Radio Symphonieorchester Wien
Dennis Russell Davies,conductor

Kim Kashkashian,viola
Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion

NATURALE
 Luciano Berio Luciano Berio

1 Voci (Folk Songs II)
Kim Kashkashian, viola
Radio Symphonieorchester Wien
Dennis Russell Davies,conductor
32:09 7 Naturale (Su melodie siciliane) 22:14
per viola sola e percussione
Kim Kashkashian, viola
Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion

Sicilian Folk Music

recordings from the Ethnomusicological
Archives of the Accademia Nazionale di
Santa Cecilia, Rome

2-6 Grido del venditore di pesce i:22

Canzuna i:35
Lamento per il Venerdi Santo 5:45
Novena di Natale 3:28
Ninna nanna i:46
Specchiu di I'occhi mei 1:20
Luciano Berios Muttersprache
von Jurg Stenzl
Eine Verbindung von Volksmusik mit Kunstmusik - wer wurde dabei
nicht an Bela Bartok denken; Bartoks kunstlerisches Credo bestand
darin, die Traditionen der europaischen Kunstmusik, denen er sich ver-
pflichtet fuhlte, aufzugreifen: den Kontrapunkt und die Polyphonie von
Johann Sebastian Bach, die motivisch-thematische Arbeit von Ludwig
van Beethoven und die harmonisch-klangliche Kunst von Claude De¬
bussy. Eine Synthese dieser Traditionen sollte aber Jn der eigenen -
Muttersprache" erfolgen. Diese war fur Bartok die „Bauernmusik", ein
„neuer Geist der Musik aus musikalischen Kraften, die der Erde ent-
sprossen sind". Diese „Muttersprache" hatte Bartok zusammen mit Zol-
tan Kodaly recht eigentlich entdeckt. Nicht nur entdeckt, die beiden
Komponisten fanden in ihrer „Naturkraft" tonale wie rhythmische Ele-
mente, die es in der abendlandischen Kunstmusik nicht gab. Claude
Debussy hatte in den asiatischen Musiken, die er in der Weltausstel-
lung horte, bereits fruher Vorwegnahmen dessen gefunden, was er sel-
ber suchte. Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg fanden dann eine ganze Reihe
mitteleuropaischer Komponisten im amerikanischen Jazz (oder dem,
was sie dafur hielten) eine vergleichbare „kunstlose Modernitat". In der
ersten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts war das musikalisch Eigene, eine
nur mundlich verbreitete Musik der „einfachen Leute", nicht mehr nur
ein Lokalkolorit, mit dessen Hilfe man einen nationalen - und haufig
auch nationalistischen - Anspruch zur Geltung brachte, sondern sie be-
deutete nichts Geringeres als eine „Muttersprache". Fur Bela Bartok
aber verfugten zentrale europaische Nationen wie die Habsburgmonar-
chie Osterreich und Frankreich uber keine derartige musikalische „Mut-
tersprache"; sie hatten stattdessen in der Kunstmusik ihre Mutterspra¬
che gefunden.
Bei keinem italienischen Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts lasst sich
ein asthetisches Programm finden, das auch nur entfernt an Bartoks
Idee einer Synthese von Kunst- und Volksmusik erinnert. Wenn sich
Komponisten wie Alfredo Casella, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Goffredo
Petrassi oder Luigi Dallapiccola auf „spezifisch Italienisches" bezogen,
so war es nicht italienische Volksmusik, auch nicht die wiederentdeck-
ten.offensichtlich archaischen musikalischen Traditionen in Sizilien oder
Sardinien, sondern sie rekurrierten auf die Geschichte der italienischen
Musikkultur: auf Palestrina und Scarlatti, auf Monteverdi und sogar Ros¬
sini. Nicht „Folklorismus", sondern „Neoklassik". Paradoxerweise stamm-
te das Modell fur eine derartige italienische Neoklassik von einem Rus-
sen: Die Art, wie Igor Strawinsky 1920 Musik von Pergolesi (die aller-
dings grofttenteils Pergolesi blofe unterschoben wurde) in seiner Pulci-
nel/a-Suite verarbeitet hatte, bewies, dass in der alten italienischen
Kunstmusik Material fur eine moderne Italianita steckte. Einer der fuh-
renden italienischen Komponisten der ersten Jahrhunderthalfte, Gian
Francesco Malipiero, war seit 1926 auch der Flerausgeber der Claudio-
Monteverdi-Gesamtausgabe. Durch Malipiero lernte der eigentliche
Vater der neuen italienischen Musik nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg,
Bruno Maderna (1920 -1972), die alte Musik der Renaissance und des
Fruhbarock kennen. Sie hat in seinen Werken wie in jenen seines
Schulers Luigi Nono unverkennbare Spuren hinterlassen.
Luciano Berio wurde 1925 in eine Musikerfamilie geboren, welche seit
derm 18. Jahrhundert in Oneglia (bei Imperia) das Amt des Organisten
innehatte. Das erinnert an Giacomo Puccini: Auch die Puccinis wirkten
seit dem 18. Jahrhundert kontinuierlich - in Lucca - als Kapellmeister.
Den ersten Musikunterricht erhielt Berio durch Groftvater und Vater.
Seine Jugend war nicht durch Kunst- sondern durch Alltagsmusik ge-
pragt, Musik war selbstverstandlich, Teil des taglichen Lebens. Die Titel
fruher Werke zeugen davon: Preludio per una festa marina fur Strei-
cher (1944), Due cori popolari (1946), Tre canzoni popotari fur Sing-
stimme und Klavier (1948) und „brauchbare,/Musik wie ein O bone Jesu
fur Chor (1946). Unmittelbar nach dem Krieg lernte Berio bei seinem
Kompositionslehrer Giorgio Federico Ghedini auch viel alte, insbeson-
dere barocke Musik kennen. Charakteristisch fur ihn ist ein unmittelba-
res und durchaus praktisches Musikverstandnis, das er bis heute in
immer neuen,aber nicht grundsatzlich veranderten Formen beibehalten
hat. Luciano Berio ist kein spekulativer Komponist, der weitreichende as-
thetische Theorien entwickelt, bevor er zu komponieren beginnt. Auch
seine komplexesten Partituren zeichnen sich durch eine Unmittelbar-
keit, eine Sinnlichkeit und Korperhaftigkeit aus, die eine der Ursachen
seines Erfolges ist. Nirgends kann man das besser studieren als an der
langen Reihe seiner Werke fur Soloinstrumente mit dem Titel Sequen-
za. Jedes dieser Werke verbindet die instrumentale Virtuositat seines
Spielers und die Ausweitung der Klangmoglichkeiten jedes einzelnen
Instruments mit einer formalen Idee, die unmittelbar aus diesem Klang-
material gewonnen wurde. Jede Sequenza ist in gewisser Weise ein
Mehrfachportrat: ein Portrat des Instruments und seiner klanglichen
Moglichkeiten, meist auch eine Art Portrat des lnterpreten,fur den diese
eine Sequenza entstanden ist, und schlieftlich ein Portrat der ebenso
reichen wie genau kontrollierten Kreativitat des Komponisten.
Bezeichnenderweise drangte Luciano Berios Kreativitat jedoch immer
wieder uber das Einzelwerk hinaus: In einer ganzen Reihe mit Chemins
(Wege) betitelter Werke komponierte er einige der Sequenze weiter.
Aus dem Konzentrat einer Sequenza erwuchsen die Chemins fur einen
Solisten und ein ihn umhullendes und sich doch frei entfaltendes
Ensemble. Der Komponist konnte denn auch sagen, dass seine Che¬
mins die beste Analyse seiner Sequenze seien, Expansionen und Kom-
mentare, in denen vor allem die latente Harmonik der Sequenze entfal-
tet wird. Das Verhaltnis von Sequenza und Chemins hat er plastisch
beschrieben: „Sie hangen zusammen wie die Haute einer Zwiebel:
Eigenstandig, voneinander getrennt, aber dennoch eng miteinander ver-
klebt, jede Haut schafft eine neue Oberflache, wenngleich sie eng mit
der vorhergehenden verbunden bleibt, und jede alte Haut enthalt eine
neue Funktion, sobald sie verdeckt ist." Und zu seiner Gewohnheit, auf
eigene Werke zuruckzukommen, bemerkte er: „ln der Tat liebe ich es,
den ,Kannibalen' zu spielen: Ich esse meine Stucke, konnte man sagen,
verschlinge sie."
Der „Kannibale" Luciano Berio hat allerdings nicht nur eigene Werke
verschlungen. In seinem Werkkatalog nehmen Bearbeitungen von Mu¬
sik anderer Komponisten einen erstaunlich breiten Raum ein. Nur in
wenigen Fallen handelt es sich um blofee Orchestrierungen wie jene
des Klavierparts von Manuel de Fallas Siete canciones popolares Oder
um die Herstellung einer„Gebrauchsfassung"wie jene von Monteverdis
Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Seine Bearbeitungen neigen
dazu, die Vorlagen zu analysieren, zu kommentieren, zu erhellen, ob es
sich nun um Romanzen von Giuseppe Verdi, Klarinettensonaten von
Johannes Brahms, Sinfoniefragmente von Franz Schubert, Songs der
Beatles Oder um Volkslieder handelt. „Meine Verbindungen zur Volks-
musik sind haufig emotionaler Art. Wenn ich mit dieser Musik arbeite,
erfasst mich immer die Freude des Entdeckers." Das hat mit den Tre
canzoni sici/iani begonnen, fur die er schon 1946/47 einfache Klavier-
begleitungen schuf. In den USA griff er viele Jahre spater zwei dieser
Lieder erneut auf, schrieb eine Begleitung fur sieben Instrumente, er-
ganzte sie zu einem seiner erfolgreichsten Werke mit dem programma-
tischen Titel Folk Songs. Dass dieses Werk zur Zeit der Flower-Power-
Bewegung in Kalifornien entstand, ist kaum zufallig. Berio hat es als
Teil einer Utopie verstanden, die kaum zu verwirklichen sei: „lch kehre
immer wieder zur Volksmusik zuruck, weil ich einen Kontakt zwischen
ihr und meinen eigenen Ideen uber Musik herstellen mochte. Ich habe
einen utopischen Traum, von dem ich weiss, dass er nicht realisiert wer-
den kann: Ich mochte eine Einheit zwischen Volksmusik und unserer
Musik schaffen, eine wirkliche, horbare, verstehbare Kontinuitat zwi¬
schen altem Volksmusik-Machen, das gleich nahe bei unserer Alltags-
arbeit wie unserer Musik ist." Kein Zufall auch, dass sich in den Folk
Songs, die der Italiener Berio fur seine damalige Gattin, die aus Arme-
nien stammende Cathy Berberian, schrieb, Volkslieder aus der halben
Welt ein Stelldichein geben. Dass es sich, wie bei den Eigenbearbei-
tungen der Sequenze, auch bei den einstimmigen Liedern um eigent-
liche Analysen und Kommentare des Komponisten handelt, versteht
sich fast von selbst: „Meine Transkriptionen sind immer Analysen der
Volkslieder, und sie vermitteln gleichzeitig den Geruch dieser Musik,
wie ich ihn empfinde", sagte der Komponist. „Um das uberlieferte Roh-
material" - so Thomas Gartmann in seinem bemerkenswerten Berio-
Buch -„spinnt Berio ein schillerndes Netz von Instrumentalklangen und
bereitet es fur unsere Zeit neu auf. Zugleich ubernimmt er viele Ver-
fahren, die man von anderen Kulturen Oder auch vom europaischen
Mittelalter her kennt. So lasst er in improvisatorischer Manier Vor-,
Zwischen- und Nachspiele intonieren [...], Bordunklange, liegende Ak-
korde, Imitationen, Auszierungen, Umspielungen und Gegenmelodien,
barocke chromatische Bassgange, eng gewobene heterophone Klang-
teppiche [...] — voller Raffinesse bietet Berio alle moglichen nicht-akkor-
dischen Begleitpraktiken auf." Berios Freude uber die Lieder erzeugt
eine Komponierlust, die sich als Horlust auf das Publikum ubertragt.
Hier ist eine schopferische Kraft und ein Erfindungsreichtum am Werk,
die in dem Musikverstandnis der Alltagsmusik seines Elternhauses wur-
zeln, hier ist wieder der Jungling mit der Gitarre, wie er auf einem Foto
aus dem Jahre 1941 zu erkennen ist. Fur Luciano Berio sind Volks- und
Kunstmusik, populare und gelehrte Kunst keine getrennten Welten,
selbst wenn sie fur die Musikfreunde als solche erscheinen. Fur seine
Musik ist diese Verbindung nie zum Problem geworden.
Damit sind wir langst schon mitten in den Klangwelten der auf dieser
CD vereinten Werke, selbst wenn sie fast zwanzig Jahre nach den Folk
Songs entstanden sind. Die Voci (Stimmen) fur Viola und zwei Instru-
mentalgruppen wurden 1984 komponiert und durch den Untertitel
(Folk Songs II) unmittelbar mit den Folk Songs von 1963/64 verbun-
den. Durch den Musikforscher Aldo Bennici hat Berio eine ganze Reihe
von Originalaufnahmen sizilianischer Volksmusik kennen gelernt: Ar-
beitslieder, Wiegenlieder, Liebeslieder aus den verschiedenen Regio-
nen der Insel. Wieder weckten sie die Entdeckerfreude des Komponis-
ten, der mit seiner Bearbeitung dazu beitragen mbchte, „ein tieferes
Interesse fur die sizilianische Folklore zu wecken", eine Volksmusik, die
„neben der sardischen sicherlich die reichhaltigste, umfassendste und
gluhendste unserer mediterranen Kultur ist".
Die sizilianischen Lieder, deren Originalaufnahmen hier zu horen sind,
bilden die Ausgangspunkte und Zentren der halbstundigen Partitur,
sechs „Herzstucke", auf die die Musik hinsteuert und von der sie sich
wegbewegt. Jch bin kein Ethnomusikologe"-meinte Berio „nur ein
pragmatischer Egoist. So neige ich dazu, mich nur fur jene Techniken
und Ausdrucksweisen der Volksmusik zu interessieren, die ich in dieser
oder jener Weise ohne stilistischen Bruch assimilieren kann und die es
mir erlauben,auf der Suche nach einer untergriindigen Einheit musika-
lischer Welten, die sich offensichtlich fremd gegenuberstehen, einige
Schritte weiterzugehen."
Seine Vorgehensweise ist die Transkription, und sein Ideal besteht da-
rin, drei unterschiedliche Transkriptionsweisen so zu verwenden, dass
sie sich einander angleichen und gegenseitig rechtfertigen. Die erste
besteht in einer Identifizierung mit dem Original, die zweite darin, die¬
ses als Anlass fur Experimente zu verwenden; in der dritten schlieGlich
wurden die Originale uberwaltigt, geradezu missbraucht. Werden diese
drei Transkriptionsweisen gleichzeitig verwendet, wird die Transkription
zu einer individuellen, kreativen und konstruktiven Tatigkeit, die sich um
ganz unmittelbaren musikalischen Ausdruck bemuht. Da aber der ur-
sprungliche Text entfallt und die Soloviola stattdessen zu einer Sange-
rin dieser Melodien wird, muss der Komponist kunstvolle Maftnahmen
ergreifen, um deren ursprungliche „Lebensraume" zu ersetzen. Das ge-
schieht durch eine Art Inszenierung in einem Horraum. Zur Soloviola
tritt - im Vordergrund - eine erste, im Hintergrund eine zweite Orches-
tergruppe: Zwischen diesen sind, weit voneinander entfernt, die drei
Schlagzeuger aufgestellt. In diesen Klang- und Resonanzraum hinein
spielt die Solistin. Dort verklingen die Melodien, oder sie werden aufge-
griffen, nachgesungen, transformiert und kehren aus diesen Kollektiven
wieder zur Vorspielerin zuruck. Im Mittelpunkt aber bleiben stets die
melodischen Substanzen und die charakteristischen Affekte dieser Me¬
lodien. Der Horer merkt sich diese sogleich und kann die vielfaltigen
Transformationen nun umso leichter verfolgen. Berios Folk Songs und
die Voci sind eben keine „Volkslied-Arrangements", „begleitete" Volks-
lieder, sondern Beispiele eines schopferischen Verarbeitens durch den
Komponisten und die Interpreten, Versuche, die „unmdgliche Utopie"
einer Einheit von modernem Komponieren und Popularity dennoch zu
verwirklichen.
Wie so haufig in Berios Schaffen stellen auch die Voci keinen Schluss-
punkt dar. Gut ein Jahr nach ihrer Urauffuhrung in Basel ist der Kom¬
ponist auf die sizilianischen Melodien in Natura/e fur Viola, Marimba-
phon, Tam-Tam und Tonband zuruckgekommen, indem er sie neu und
andersartig inszenierte. Anlass war ein Auftrag des „Ater Balletto" in
Reggio Emilia fur ein Ballett,fur eine-wie Berio sie nennt-„tanzerische
Handlung". Er habe die Volkslieder sozusagen aus l/oc/,,herausgefiltert".
Durch diese Filterung entfiel in erster Linie das CY7e/77//7s-artige von
Voci, das Hin und Her zwischen Solistin und Orchestergruppen. Sie sind
durch eine vollig neue Dimension ersetzt worden: Ein italienischer
Volkssanger, den Berio selbst in Palermo aufgenommen hatte, tritt hin-
zu. In der Art eines „cantastorie", als singender Erzahler vom Tonband,
trifft er jetzt auf die instrumentale Viola-Sangerin, deren Spiel auf diskre-
te Weise durch das Schlagzeug kontrapunktiert und rhythmisiert wird.
Narrativer Sprechgesang und instrumentales Singen treffen in einem
szenischen oder konzertanten Spiel aufeinander. Diese Gegenuberstel-
lung von „roher" Natur mit kunstvoll „Gekochtem" verweist auf den auch
fur Berio seit langer Zeit wichtigen Text Le cru et le cuit des fran-
zosischen Anthropologen Claude Levi-Strauss. Bei einer tanzerischen
Realisierung kommt dann der visuellen Dimension die Chemins-ari\ge
Rolle zu, das „Rohe" und das „Gekochte" kommentierend und reflek-
tierend zu verbinden. Bei einer konzertanten Auffuhrung, die Berio als
gleichberechtigt erachtet, wird diese Rolle des Erkundens einer „Einheit
zwischen Volksmusik und unserer Musik" dem kreativen Horen uber-
tragen.
Die Ausdrucksintensitat der „gluhenden" sizilianischen Musiker hat Lu¬
ciano Berio fasziniert und zu schopferischem Antworten angeregt; sie
hat die Bratschistin Kim Kashkashian, die Schlagzeugerin Robyn Schul-
kowsky, den Dirigenten Dennis Russell Davies und die Musiker des
Radio Symphonieorchesters Wien ergriffen - und sie wird auch jeden
Horer in ihren Bann ziehen.
Uber sizilianische Volksmusik
von Walter Brunetto
In der sizilianischen Volksmusik gibt es Repertoires und Vortragsweisen,
die sich auf verschiedene, zeitlich gestaffelte musikalische Systeme
zuruckfuhren lassen: pramodale Strukturen, modale, deren Form in der
griechischen Klassik oder im Mittelalter festgelegt worden ist, oder sol-
che, die auf den Dur- und Molltonarten der spateren europaischen Tra¬
dition beruhen.
Einen archaischen Stil verkorpern die abbanniatine,6\e Rufe der Markt-
schreier. Mit ihnen, die gewohnlich eine absteigende Tonfolge haben,
sollte die Aufmerksamkeit der Passanten erregt werden. Die melodi-
schen und ornamentalen Formeln stellten das „Logo" des jeweiligen
Handlers dar. In dem ersten Stuck, Grido del venditore di pesce (Ruf
des Fischverkaufers), wird der den Aufbau bestimmende Tetrachord
durch den Wechsel von groften und kleinen Sekunden zwischen dem
Grundton und der zweiten Stufe ambivalent gehalten.
Ein verbales Schema, das in der sizilianischen Vokalmusik haufig vor-
kommt, besteht aus vier elfsilbigen Doppelversen mit Wechselreimen,
oft in Alliteration. Dieses Schema tragt den Namen Cartzuna (Lied), wie
in dem Stuck Nr. 2, in dem zwei Motive sich wiederholen, mit Kadenzen
abwechselnd auf der funften und auf der ersten Stufe, die dem Grund¬
ton der Maultrommel entspricht.
Im christlichen Kirchenkalender, der dem bauerlichen Kalender uberge-
stulpt worden ist, hat der Osterzyklus zentrale Bedeutung. Wahrend der
Prozessionen in der Karwoche ist es ublich, singend die Ereignisse der
Passion Christi zu erzahlen. In dem dritten Stuck, Lamento per H Vener-
d1 Santo (Klage zum Karfreitag), wechseln sich zwei Solisten ab, unter-
stutzt von einem unisono einfallenden Chor, der die kadenzartigen Mo-
mente in der ersten Halfte des Verses wie auch in der langen abschlie-
ftenden Coda hervorhebt.
Eine weit verbreitete Form der Volksfrommigkeit ist die „Novene", eine
Andachtsubung, bei der an neun aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen, zur Vor-
bereitung auf liturgische Feste, bestimmte Gebete Oder Gesange rezi-
tiert werden. Manchmal verbindet sich mit diesen Rezitationen auch die
questua, ein Almosensammeln, bei dem man singend von Plaus zu Plaus
zog. In dem Stuck Nr. 4, Novena di Nata/e (Weihnachtsnovene), in dem
die Stimme erst in der Mitte einsetzt, dominieren ungewohnliche chro-
matische Reibungen und Dissonanzen, die sich zwischen den Tonen
der beiden Melodiepfeifen des Dudelsacks ergeben. Dieses Instrument
ist in Sizilien verbreitet in der Version mit zwei gleich langen Melodie-
pfeifen (zampogna a paro) sowie zwei Oder drei Pfeifen mit Bordun-
funktion, die jeweils einen unveranderlichen Ton produzieren; der Sack
besteht aus einem umgestulpten Ziegenbalg.
In den bauerlich-pastoralen Kulturen beschrankt sich der Sinn fur das
Heilige nicht auf die Beachtung der Vorschriften des liturgischen Ka-
lenders; enge Bande verknupfen zum Beispiel das Wiegenlied mit
der Totenklage, zwei Gesangsformen, die sich auf die beiden Randmo-
mente des Lebens beziehen ebenso wie auf die Welt der Magie,
indem sie besanftigende Worte an die Heiligen Oder die Muttergot-
tes richten. Das Stuck Nr. 5, Ninna nanna (Wiegenlied), in dem jeder
Vers auf demselben Ton endet, hat archaische Zuge. Man beachte das
Uberwiegen der kleinen Terz und den Glottisschlag am Ende einiger
Strophen.
Auf das Wiegenlied folgt das Stuck Specchiu di I'occhi mei (Spiegel
meiner Augen), ein Karrner- Oder Fuhrmannslied, dessen verbaler Auf-
bau dem der Canzuna entspricht. Im Repertoire der Karrner verbergen
sich unter den komplexen Melismen und der rhythmischen Freiheit sehr
klar strukturierte Ablaufe. In dem melodischen Modell, das sich in
jedem Doppelvers wiederholt, verlauft die Gesangslinie absteigend und
halt sich im hohen Register, bis sie im letzten Halbvers auf den Grund-
ton abfallt. Der Bauplan bestimmt sich durch die Uberlagerung zweier
unverbundener Tetrachorde dorischen Typs. Die Karrner forderten ein-
ander in Gesangswettbewerben heraus, bei denen die individuelle Kre-
ativitat sich vor allem in der Wahl der ornamentalen Noten und in der
rhythmischen Interpretation zeigte. Die abgerissene Vortragsweise ver-
leiht diesen Gesangen eine grofte Ausdrucksintensitat.
Die hier vorgestellte Reihe von Tondokumenten aus dem ethnomusi-
kologischen Archiv der Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rom, er-
hebt keinen Anspruch auf Vollstandigkeit. Festgemacht an charakteris-
tischen Merkmalen der vokalen Ausfuhrungen oder bestimmter instru-
mentaler Momente der Kompositionen Voci und Naturale, folgt sie
vielmehr einer rein evokativen Linie, indem sie das Bild um Elemente er-
weitert, die eine Brucke schlagen zwischen sehr alten klanglichen Aus-
drucksformen und dem Wunsch Luciano Berios, sie sich anzueignen
und in einer anderen Perspektive neu vorzulegen.
Aus dem Italienischen von Burkhart Kroeber
 .
,; ;

_
La lingua madre di Luciano Berio
di Jurg Stenzl
L'unione di musica popolare e musica d'arte - e a chi non verrebbe in
mente Bela Bartok? II credo artistico di Bartok consisteva nel riprendere
le tradizioni della musica d'arte europea, verso le quali egli si sentiva
legato: il contrappunto e la polifonia di Johann Sebastian Bach, I'elabo-
razione motivica di Ludwig van Beethoven e I'arte armonico-timbrica di
Claude Debussy. Una sintesi di queste tradizioni doveva pero avvenire
«nella propria lingua madre». Questa lingua madre era per Bartok la
«musica contadina», un «nuovo spirito della musica scaturito da forze
musicali che sono sgorgate da I la terra». Bartok aveva scoperto questa
«lingua madre» insieme a Zoltan Kodaly. Non soltanto scoperto: nella
sua «forza naturale» i due compositori avevano trovato elementi tonali e
ritmici che non esistevano nella musica d'arte occidentale. Gia prima
Claude Debussy aveva trovato anticipazioni di cio che egli stesso cer-
cava nelle musiche asiatiche che aveva ascoltato all'Esposizione uni¬
versale. Dopo la prima guerra mondiale poi, un'intera serie di compo¬
sitori mitteleuropei trovo nel jazz americano (o in quello che essi con-
sideravano jazz) un tipo analogo di «modernita spontanea». Nella prima
meta del 20. secolo il proprio patrimonio musicale - una musica della
«gente semplice» diffusa soltanto oralmente - non era piu una cou/eur
locale, con la quale si rivendicavano valori nazionali (e spesso anche
nazionalistici), ma semplicemente una «lingua madre». Per Bela Bartok
pero nazioni europee come la Monarchia Asburgica austriaca e la Fran-
cia non disponevano di tale «lingua madre» musicale e avevano invece
trovato la propria lingua madre nella musica d'arte.
In nessun compositore italiano del 20. secolo si pud trovare un program-
ma estetico che ricordi anche solo lontanamente I'idea bartokiana di
una sintesi di musica d'arte e di musica popolare. Quando compositori
come Alfredo Casella, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Goffredo Petrassi o
Luigi Dallapiccola si riferivano a qualcosa di «specificamente italiano»,
questo non erano ne la musica popolare, ne le tradizioni musicali, evi-
dentemente arcaiche, riscoperte in Sicilia o Sardegna. Essi si rifacevano
invece alia storia della cultura musicale italiana: a Palestrina e Scarlatti,
a Monteverdi e addirittura a Rossini. Non «folklore», ma «neoclassicis-
mo». Paradossalmente il modello di tale neoclassicismo italiano fu for-
nito da un russo. La maniera in cui Igor Stravinky nel 1920 aveva riela-
borato nella sua suite Pulcinella la musica di Pergolesi (peraltro, per la
maggior parte, soltanto «attribuita» a Pergolesi), dimostrava che nell'an-
tica musica d'arte italiana si nascondeva materiale per una moderna
«italianita». Uno dei maggiori compositori italiani della prima meta del
secolo, Gian Francesco Malipiero, fu dal 1926 anche il curatore dell'edi-
zione integrale delle opere di Claudio Monteverdi. Tramite Malipiero il
vero padre della nuova musica italiana dopo la seconda guerra mondia¬
le, Bruno Maderna (1920-1972), venne a conoscere quella musica del
Rinascimento e del primo Barocco, che ha lasciato tracce inconfondibi-
li nei suoi lavori,cosi come in quelli del suo allievo Luigi Nono.
Luciano Berio e nato nel 1925 in una famiglia di musicisti che dal 18.
secolo aveva ricoperto la carica di organista a Oneglia (presso Imperia).
Questo particolare biografico ricorda Giacomo Puccini: anche i Puccini
furono attivi a Lucca come maestri di cappella senza interruzione dal
18. secolo. La prima educazione musicale fu impartita a Berio dal nonno
e dal padre. La sua giovinezza trascorse aH'insegna non della musica
d'arte, ma della musica di ogni giorno, dal momento che la musica fa-
ceva naturalmente parte della vita quotidiana. I titoli dei primi lavori
ne danno testimonianza: Preludio per una festa marina per archi
(1944), Due cori popolari (1946), Tre canzoni popo/ari per voce e pia¬
noforte (1948) e musica «funzionale» come O bone Jesu per coro
(1946). Subito dopo la guerra Berio conobbe tramite il suo insegnante
di composizione Giorgio Federico Ghedini anche molta musica antica,
soprattutto barocca. Caratteristica di Berio e una concezione musicale
immediata e pratica che il compositore ha mantenuto in forme sempre
nuove, ma non sostanzialmente modificate, fino ad oggi. Luciano Berio
non e un compositore speculativo che sviluppa ampie teorie estetiche
prima di cominciare a comporre. Anche le sue partiture piu complesse
sono connotate da una immediatezza, da una sensuality e da una cor¬
poreity che sono una delle ragioni del suo successo. In nessuna com¬
posizione cio puo cogliersi meglio che nella lunga serie di lavori per
strumenti solistici che portano il titolo Sequenza. Ognuna di queste
composizioni collega il virtuosismo strumentale dell'esecutore e lo spie-
gamento delle possibility sonore del singolo strumento con una idea
formale che viene direttamente ricavata dal materiale sonoro. Ogni
Sequenza e, in un certo qual modo, un ritratto multiplo: un ritratto dello
strumento e delle sue possibility timbriche, perlopiu anche una sorta di
ritratto dell'interprete per il quale e stata creata quella particolare Se-
quenza e, infine, un ritratto della ricca quanto controllata creativity del
compositore.
Significativamente pero la creativity di Luciano Berio si e spinta sempre
oltre la realizzazione del singolo lavoro: in un'intera serie di lavori in-
titolati Chemins (vie), egli ha continuato a comporre alcune delle Se-
quenze. Dal concentrato di una Sequenza sono nati gli Chemins per
solista e un ensemble (dove quest'ultimo «avvolge» il solista e nello
stesso tempo si sviluppa liberamente). II compositore ha potuto infatti
anche dire che i suoi Chemins sono la migliore analisi delle sue Se-
quenze, espansioni e commenti nei quali si dispiega soprattutto I'ar-
monia latente delle Sequenze. Egli ha descritto in maniera icastica il
rapporto tra Sequenza e Chemins'. «Essi sono reciprocamente dipen-
denti come gli strati di una cipolla: autonomi, separati, eppure cosl
strettamente aderenti I'uno all'altro; ogni strato crea una nuova super-
ficie, sebbene rimanga strettamente collegato con il precedente,e ogni
vecchio strato racchiude una nuova funzione non appena viene coper-
to.» E sulla sua abitudine a ritornare su propri lavori osserva: «Effettiva-
mente mi piace fare la parte del <cannibale>: io mangio i miei pezzi, si
potrebbe dire, li divoro.»
II «cannibale» Luciano Berio ha divorato peraltro non solo lavori propri.
Nel catalogo delle sue opere uno spazio sorprendentemente ampio e
occupato da rielaborazioni di musica di altri compositori. Soltanto in
pochi casi si tratta di semplici orchestrazioni come quella della parte
pianistica delle Siete canciones popo/ares di Manuel de Falla o della
realizzazione di una «versione pratica» come quella del Combattimento
di Tancredi e Ciorinda di Monteverdi. Le sue rielaborazioni tendono ad
analizzare, commentare e chiarire i modelli,sia che si tratti di romanze di
Giuseppe Verdi, di sonate per clarinetto di Brahms o di frammenti sin-
fonici di Franz Schubert, sia di canzoni dei Beatles o di canzoni popo-
lari. «l miei legami con la musica popolare sono spesso di natura emo-
zionale. Quando io lavoro con questa musica sono preso sempre dal-
I'entusiasmo dell'esploratore.» Questa tendenza ha avuto inizio con le
Tre canzoni sici/iane per le quali egli realizzo nel 1946/47 un semplice
accompagnamento pianistico. Negli Stati Uniti Berio riprese molti anni
dopo due di queste canzoni, scrivendovi un accompagnamento per
sette strumenti e completandole, con il titolo programmatico di Folk
Songs, fino a farle diventare uno dei suoi lavori di maggior successo.
Non e un caso che questo lavoro sia venuto alia luce al tempo del mo-
vimento californiano dei «figli dei fiori». Berio lo ha concepito come
parte di una utopia quasi impossibile da attuare:«lo ritorno sempre alia
musica popolare perche desidero stabilire un contatto tra essa e le mie
idee sulla musica. Ho un sogno utopistico che so che non puo essere
realizzato: vorrei stabilire una unita tra musica popolare e la nostra musi¬
ca, una reale, udibile e comprensibile continuity con I'antica e popolare
attivita di fare musica, che e talmente vicina al lavoro quotidiano e alia
nostra musica. Non e neanche un caso che nei Folk Songs scritti dal-
I'italiano Berio per la cantante d'origine armena Cathy Berberian, allora
sua moglie, si incontrino canzoni popolari provenienti da mezzo mondo.
Si capisce ovviamente che, non diversamente dalle sue elaborazioni
delle Sequenze, anche nel caso delle canzoni monodiche si tratta in
realta di analisi e commenti del compositore: «Le mie trascrizione sono
sempre analisi delle canzoni popolari e trasmettono contemporanea-
mente la fragranza di questa musica cosi come io la sento», ha affer-
mato il compositore. «lntorno al materiale grezzo tramandato» - cosi
scrive Thomas Gartmann nel suo significativo libro su Berio-«Berio
tesse una rete cangiante di suoni strumentali e lo rinnova, preparandolo
per il nostro tempo. Contemporaneamente riprende molti procedimenti
noti da altre culture o anche dal medioevo europeo. Cosi fa intonare a
mo' di improvvisazione introduzioni, interludi e postludi [...], suoni in
bordone, accordi tenuti, imitazioni, abbellimenti, parafrasi, barocchi pas-
saggi cromatici del basso, fasce sonore eterofone finemente intessu-
te[...]-con grande raffinatezza Berio mette in azione tutte le possibile
pratiche di accompagnamento non accordale.» La passione di Berio per
questi canti genera un piacere compositivo che si trasmette come go-
dimento uditivo al pubblico. Si tratta qui di una forza creativa e di una
ricchezza di idee che affondano le loro radici nella concezione musicale
«quotidiana» ereditata dalla famiglia, qui sembra di rivedere il giovane
con la chitarra come e raffigurato in una foto dell'anno 1941. Per Lu¬
ciano Berio musica popolare e musica d'arte,arte popolare e dotta non
sono mondi separati, anche se come tali appaiono per gli amici della
musica. Per la sua musica questo legame non e mai diventato un pro-
blema.
Con questo ci troviamo gia tra i mondi sonori delle composizioni riunite
in questo cd, sebbene esse risalgano a quasi vent'anni dopo i Folk
Songs. Le Voci per viola e due gruppi strumentali sono state composte
nel 1984 e collegate attraverso il sottotitolo Folk Songs II direttamente
con le FolkSongs del 1963/64. Grazie al musicologo Aldo Bennici, Berio
e venuto a conoscenza di un'intera serie di registrazioni originali di
musica popolare siciliana: canti di lavoro, ninne nanne, canzoni d'amore
provenienti da diverse zone dell'isola. Queste musiche hanno risveglia-
to ancora una volta I'entusiasmo esplorativo del compositore, il quale
desidera contribuire con la sua rielaborazione «a risvegliere un piu pro-
fondo interesse per il folklore siciliano», una musica popolare che
«accanto a quella sarda e sicuramente la piu ricca,ampia e fervida della
nostra cultura mediterranean
Le canzoni siciliani le cui registrazioni originali si possono ascoltare su
questo cd, costituiscono i punti di partenza e i nuclei centrali della par-
titura (la cui esecuzione dura mezz'ora), sei «centri nevralgici», verso i
quali la musica si dirige e e dai quali si allontana.«lo non sono un etno-
musicologo» - ha sostenuto Berio -«solo un egoista pragmatico. Cos!
ho I'inclinazione ad interessarmi soltanto di quelle tecniche e di quei
modi d'espressione della musica popolare che posso assimilare in un
modo o nell'altro senza una frattura stilistica, e che mi permettono di
compiere alcuni passi nella ricerca di una unita sottesa a mondi musi-
cali evidentemente estranei I'uno all'altro.»
II suo modo di procedere e la trascrizione e il suo ideale consiste nel-
I'utilizzare tre diversi modi di trascrizione in modo tale che essi si adat-
tino I'uno all'altro e si giustifichino reciprocamente. II primo consiste in
un'identificazione con I'originale, il secondo nell'utilizzazione di tale ori-
ginale come occasione per esperimenti; nel terzo infine gli originali
sarebbero sopraffatti, addirittura abusati.Se questi modi di trascrizione
vengono utilizzati contemporaneamente, la trascrizione diventa un'atti-
vita individual, creativa e costruttiva, che si sforza di dare un'espres-
sione musicale del tutto immediata. Poiche pero il testo originale viene
meno e al suo posto la viola solista diventa la cantante di queste me-
lodie, il compositore deve ricorrere ad alcuni espedienti per sostituire i
loro originari «spazi vitali». Cio avviene attraverso una sorta di messa
in scena in un auditorio. Alla viola solista si aggiunge- in primo piano-
un primo gruppo orchestrale, sullo sfondo un secondo: tra questi due,
assai lontani I'uno dall'altro, sono disposti i tre percussionisti. Dentro a
questo spazio sonoro ricco di risonanze suona la solista. Qui le melodie
si perdono o vengono raccolte, ricantate, trasformate e, da questi corpi
sonori collettivi, ritornano di nuovo da colei che le ha introdotte. Al
centro dell'attenzione pero rimangono costantemente le sostanze melo-
diche e gli affetti caratteristici di queste melodie. L'ascoltatore le ricorda
immediatamente e puo tanto piu facilmente seguire le molteplici tras-
formazioni. I Folk Songs e le Voci di Berio non sono dunque «arrangia-
menti di musica popolare», canti popolari «accompagnati», ma esempi
di una rielaborazione creativa da parte del compositore e degli interpre-
ti, tentativi di realizzare l'«impossibile utopia» di un'unita tra maniera
compositiva moderna e espressione popolaresca.
Come si verifica spesso nell'opera di Berio, anche le Voci non rappre-
sentano un punto conclusivo. Un buon anno dopo la loro prima esecu¬
zione a Basilea il compositore e ritornato alle melodie siciliane in
Naturale per viola, marimba, tam-tam e nastro magnetico, mettendole
in scena in modo nuovo e diverso. A dargliene I'occasione e stato un
incarico dell'«Ater Balletto» a Reggio Emilia per la composizione di un
balletto, per una «azione coreografica»- come la chiama Berio -, per la
quale egli avrebbe, per cosi dire,«fiItrato fuori» da Voci i canti popolari.
Attraverso questo filtro e venuto meno in primo luogo quanto in Voci
 era tipico anche di Chem/ns, il viavai tra solista e gruppi orchestrali.
Questi sono stati sostituiti da una dimensione completamente nuova:
viene aggiunto un cantante italiano di musica popolare la cui voce era
stata registrata da Berio stesso a Palermo. A mo' di un «cantastorie»,
come narratore-cantante su nastro, si inserisce sulla «cantante», cioe la
viola strumentale, il cui canto viene contrappuntato e ritmizzato in
maniera discreta dalle percussioni. Recitativo narrante e canto stru¬
mentale si fondono in un'esecuzione scenica e concertante. Questa
contrapposizione tra natura «cruda» e artificio «cucinato» rimanda al
testo Le cru et le cult dell'antropologo francese Claude Levi-Strauss, da
tempo importante anche per Berio. In una realizzazione coreografica
spetta dunque alia dimensione visiva il ruolo, come in Chemins, di col-
legare, commentando e riflettendo, il «crudo» e il «cotto». In una esecu-
zione concertante, che Berio ritiene ugualmente legittima, il compito di
trovare un'«unita tra musica popolare e la nostra musica» viene trasferi-
to aN'ascoltatore creativo.
L'intensita dei «fervidi» musicisti siciliani ha affascinato Luciano Berio e
lo ha ispirato a risposte creative; essa ha catturato la violista Kim Kash-
kashian, la percussionista Robyn Schulkowsky, il direttore Dennis Rus¬
sell Davies e i musicisti dell'orchestra sinfonica della radio di Vienna-e
catturera, nel suo incantesimo, anche ogni ascoltatore.
Traduzione: Agnese Pavanello
Sulla musica popolare siciliana
di Walter Brunetto
Nella musica popolare della Sicilia sono presenti repertori e stili ese-
cutivi riconducibili a diversi sistemi musicali sovrappostisi nel tempo:
strutture pre-modali, modali formalmente codificate nella Grecia classi-
ca, nel Medio Evo o basate sui modi maggiore e minore di derivazione
eurocolta.
Uno stile arcaico e quello delle «abbanniatine», le grida dei venditori
ambulanti. Queste, generalmente di andamento discendente, servivano
per richiamare I'attenzione dei passanti. Le formule melodiche e orna-
mentali costituivano il «logo» del singolo imbonitore. Nel brano nr. 1
Grido del venditore di pesce, il tetracordo d'impianto e reso ambiguo
dall'alternarsi di seconde maggiori e minori fra la nota fondamentale ed
il secondo grado.
Uno schema verbale assai frequente nella musica vocale siciliana e
costituito da quattro distici di endecasillabi a rima alterna, spesso in al-
litterazione. Questo schema prende il nome di Canzuna, come nel bra¬
no nr. 2, in cui due frasi musicali si ripetono alternando cadenze sul
quinto e sul primo grado, che corrisponde alia nota prodotta dal mar-
ranzanu (scacciapensieri).
Nel calendario liturgico cristiano, sovrappostosi al calendario agricolo,
ha importanza centrale il ciclo pasquale. Durante le processioni della
Settimana Santa e diffuso I'uso di narrare, cantando, gli avvenimenti
della Passione del Cristo. Nel brano nr. 3 Lamento per il Venerdi
Santo si alternano due solisti supportati dall'intervento all'unisono del
corn, che sottolinea i momenti cadenzali sia nella prima meta del ver¬
so che nella lunga coda finale.
Una diffusa forma di devozione popolare e la «novena», che consiste
nella recitazione di preghiere o canti per nove giorni consecutivi, in pre-
parazione di determinate ricorrenze liturgiche. Talvolta a queste perfor¬
mances si associava la questua,atto che consisteva nel portare il canto
di casa in casa in cambio di doni. Nel brano nr. 4 Novena di Natale, in
cui la voce interviene a meta,sono evidenti gli inusuali cromatismi e gli
urti che si producono tra le note suonate dalle due canne melodiche
della zampogna. Tale strumento e diffuso in Sicilia nel tipo «a paro»,
cosi chiamato perche dispone di due canne melodiche di uguale lun-
ghezza, oltre che di due o tre canne che producono un solo suono fisso,
con funzione di bordone; I'otre e formato da una pelle di capra rove-
sciata.
Nelle civilta agro-pastorali il senso del sacro non e ristretto all'osser-
vanza degli obblighi dettati dal calendario liturgico; nessi stretti, ad
esempio, collegano le ninne nanne alia lamentazione funebre, canti re-
lativi ai momenti estremi del ciclo della vita, cos] come al mondo magi-
co, tramite espressioni propiziatorie rivolte ai Santi o alia Madonna. II
brano nr. 5 Ninna nanna, in cui ogni verso cadenza sulla stessa nota,
ha caratteristiche arcaiche.Vi si notino la preponderanza dell'intervallo
di terza minore ed il colpo di gola alia fine di alcune strofe.
Alla ninna nanna e unito il brano Specchiu di i'occhi mei, un canto di
carrettiere la cui struttura verbale corrisponde a quella della Canzuna.
Nel repertorio dei carrettieri si nascondono, dietro i complessi melismi
e la elasticity ritmica, meccanismi strutturali ben definiti. Nel modello
melodico, che si ripete ad ogni distico, la linea del canto e ad andamen-
to discendente e si mantiene nel registro alto fino all'ultimo emistichio,
in cui precipita verso la nota fondamentale, la piu bassa. II modo d'im-
pianto e determinate dalla sovrapposizione di due tetracordi disgiunti
di tipo dorico. I carrettieri si sfidavano in gare di canto in cui la creativity
individuale si manifestava soprattutto nella scelta delle note di orna-
mentazione e nell'interpretazione ritmica. L'emissione vocale lacerata
conferisce a questi canti una grande intensity espressiva.
La sequenza di documenti sonori qui illustrata tratti dagli Archivi di Et-
nomusicologia dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma, non ha
pretese antologiche; agganciandosi, invece, ad alcune caratteristiche
delle esecuzioni vocali o di frammenti strumentali delle composizioni
Voci e Natura/e, tende a seguire un filo puramente evocativo, allargan-
do il quadro a suggestioni che gettino un ponte fra comportamenti so¬
nori sedimentati nel tempo ed il desiderio di Luciano Berio di appro-
priarsene e riproporli in una diversa prospettiva.
Luciano Berio's Native Language
by Jurg Stenzl
A cross between folk music and art music? Who would not immedi¬
ately think of Bela Bartok? Bartok's artistic credo was to take up those
traditions of European art music that he felt duty-bound to cultivate:
the counterpoint of Johann Sebastian Bach, the motivic-thematic de¬
velopment of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the timbral and harmonic
universe of Claude Debussy. But he wanted to synthesize these tradi¬
tions in "his own native language". For Bartok, this native language was
the music of the peasants - a "new spirit in music, emanating from mu¬
sical forces rooted in the soil". Actually, he and Zoltan Kodaly discovered
this music. But more than that, they also found tonal and rhythmic ele¬
ments in this "force of nature" that did not exist in western art music.
Long before then, Debussy, listening to Asian musics at the Paris Expo¬
sition, had come across early inklings of the things he was searching
for. Later, in the aftermath of World War I, Central European composers
discovered a similar "artless modernism" in American jazz, or what they
took to be jazz. Yet indigenous music - the music of "simple people"
handed down by oral tradition - changed function in the first half of
the twentieth century. It no longer served merely as local color, helping
composers to raise claims to a national (or frequently nationalistic) iden¬
tity. Instead, it became nothing less than a "native language". In Bartok's
view, the leading nations of Europe, such as France and the Flabsburg
Empire, did not have a musical native language of this sort at all, but had
found their native language in art music.
No Italian composer of the twentieth century followed an aesthetic pro¬
gram even remotely akin to Bartok's attempted synthesis of art and folk
music. When composers such as Alfredo Casella,Gian Francesco Mali-
piero, Goffredo Petrassi,and Luigi Dallapiccola drew on "specifically Ital¬
ian" material, they did not turn to Italian folk music - not even the newly
rediscovered, obviously ancient musical traditions of Sicily and Sardinia.
Rather, they took recourse in Italian music history: in Palestrina, Scarlatti,
Monteverdi, even Rossini. Their battle-cry was not "folk culture" but
"neoclassicism". Paradoxically, the model for this Italianate species of
neoclassicism was provided by a Russian, Igor Stravinsky. The manner
in which Stravinsky reworked the music of Pergolesi (much of it ad¬
mittedly spurious) in his Pulcinella of 1920 demonstrated that it was
precisely Italy's early art music that harbored material for a modern
Italian ethos. One of the leading Italian composers of the first half of the
century, Gian Francesco Malipiero, began to edit the complete works
of Monteverdi in 1926. It was Malipiero who brought the venerable mu¬
sic of the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque to the attention of the
true founder of post-war contemporary Italian music, Bruno Maderna
(1920-1972). It left an unmistakable imprint on Maderna's own music,
and on that of his pupil Luigi Nono.
Luciano Berio was born in 1925 into a musical family whose members
had occupied the organist's post in Oneglia (near Imperia) since the
eighteenth century. In this respect he resembles Giacomo Puccini: the
Puccinis too had been maestri di cappella in Lucca in an unbroken tra¬
dition dating back to the eighteenth century. Berio received his. first
 music lessons from his grandfather and his father. His adolescence was
dominated, not by art music, but by everyday music, the sort that was
taken for granted as part of daily life. Evidence of this background can
be found in the titles of his early works: Preludio per una festa marina
for strings (1944), Due cori popo/ari (1946), Tre canzoni popotari for
voice and piano (1948), and "utility" music such as his O bone Jesu for
chorus (1946). Shortly after the war Berio became acquainted with a
good deal of early music, especially that of the Baroque, from his com¬
position teacher Giorgio Federico Ghedini. He developed a character¬
istically direct and pragmatic approach toward music that he has re¬
tained to the present day, in ever-new but basically unchanged guises.
Berio is not a speculative composer who spins far-reaching aesthetic
theories before he sets out to write his music. Even his most complex
scores are noteworthy for their immediacy, sensuality, and corporeality,
these being among the reasons for their success. Nowhere is this easier
to study than in his long series of works for unaccompanied instru¬
ments, the Sequenze. Each of these works unites the instrumental vir¬
tuosity of the player, the expanded timbral possibilities of the instru¬
ment, and a formal idea directly extrapolated from this material. Each
Sequenza is what we might call a multiple portrait: a portrait of the
instrument and its timbral resources, usually a portrait of the musician
for whom it was written, and a portrait of the composer's own richly
inventive yet tightly controlled creativity.
Revealingly, however, Berio's creative impetus extends again and again
beyond the individual work. He thus projected several of the Sequenze
into another series entitled Chemins (Roads). Here the terse distillate of
the Sequenza is expanded into another piece for soloist, but embedded
in a freely unfolding instrumental ensemble. Berio has even claimed
that his Chemins are the "best analyses" of the Sequenze. They are en¬
largements and commentaries that primarily explore the latent harmo¬
ny of the earlier works. Here is how he describes the relation between
the Sequenze and the Chemins: "They are connected like the layers of
an onion: distinct, self-contained, yet intimately contoured on each
other: each new layer creates a new, though closely related surface, and
each older layer assumes a new function the moment it is covered."
Berio also pokes fun at his fondness for returning to his earlier compo¬
sitions: "In fact, I love to play the cannibal. I eat my pieces; one might
say I devour them."
But it is not only his own music that Berio "cannibalizes". His catalogue
of works includes an amazingly large proportion of arrangements of
pieces by other composers. In very few cases these are simply orches¬
tral arrangements: his instrumentation of the piano accompaniments to
Manuel de Falla's Siete canciones popo/ares, for example, or his cre¬
ation of a "utilizable version" of Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi
e Ciorinda. Berio's arrangements tend to analyze, comment on, and il¬
luminate their original models, whether romances by Giuseppe Verdi,
Brahms's clarinet sonatas, symphonic fragments by Franz Schubert,
Beatles's tunes, or folk songs. "My relations to folk music are often emo¬
tional in nature. When I work with this music, I always experience the
thrill of the explorer." Berio's interest in folk music dates as far back as
the simple piano accompaniments he wrote for Tre canzoni sici/iani in
1946/47. Years later, in the United States, he returned to two of these
songs, writing a new accompaniment for seven instruments and ex¬
panding the set into one of his most successful works, the appositely
titled Folk Songs. It is not accidental that this piece originated at the
same time as the Flower Power movement in California. Berio has re¬
garded it as a glimpse into a utopia that has little chance of becoming
a reality: "I return again and again to folk music because I try to estab¬
lish contact between that and my own ideas about music. I have a Uto¬
pian dream, though I know it cannot be realized: I would like to create
a unity between folk music and our music - a real, perceptible, under¬
standable continuity between ancient popular music-making which is
equally close to our daily work and to our music." Nor is it accidental
that the Folk Songs, written by the Italian Berio for his Armenian-Ameri-
can wife Cathy Berberian, are a rendezvous for folk tunes from half the
countries of the world. It practically goes without saying that, like his
reworking of the Sequenze, these arrangements of monodic song inva¬
riably analyze and comment on their original models:"My transcriptions
are analyses of folk songs", the composer explains, "and at the same
time convey the flavor of that music as I see it "Thomas Gartmann, in his
remarkable book on Berio, explains how this happens: "Berio weaves an
iridescent net of instrumental sounds around the traditional raw ma¬
terial and offers it afresh for our own age. At the same time he adopts
many procedures familiar from other cultures, or even from the Euro¬
pean Middle Ages. For example, he gives us quasi-improvised preludes,
interludes, and postludes [...], drones, sustained chords, imitation, orna¬
ments, embellishment, counter-melodies, chromatic bass patterns from
the Baroque, tightly woven layers of heterophonic sound [...] - full of
wit and ingenuity, he offers every conceivable form of nonchordal ac¬
companiment." The delight that Berio took in these songs found expres¬
sion in a compositional verve that has proved equally infectious on audi¬
ences. What we find at work here are a creative dynamism and a wealth
of invention that ultimately derive from Berio's understanding of every¬
day music in his parental home. Flere, once again, we can recognize the
young man with guitar as he appears in a photograph taken in 1941. For
Luciano Berio, folk and art music, popular and learned art, are not sep¬
arate entities, no matter how much they may seem so to music lovers.
He has never had any problems combining the two in his music.
By this point we have long since entered the worlds of the works on
our CD, although they originated almost twenty years later than Folk
Songs. Voci (Voices), for viola and two instrumental ensembles, was
composed in 1984. The link with the Folk Songs of 1963/64 is directly
stated in its subtitle: Folk Songs II. Berio's attention was directed by
the music researcher Aldo Bennici to a large body of original recordings
of Sicilian folk music: work songs, lullabies, love songs, all from different
regions of the island. Once again Berio experienced the thrill of discov¬
ery. This time his arrangement was designed "to kindle a deeper interest
in Sicilian folk art", a music that "surely stands alongside Sardinian folk
music as the richest, most extensive, and most vibrant of our Mediterra¬
nean culture".
The Sicilian songs are heard here in historical recordings. They form the
starting points and the nuclei of a score lasting half an hour, six "core
pieces" that the music heads toward and moves away from."I'm not an
ethnomusicologist", Berio confesses, "just a pragmatic egoist: so I tend
to be interested only in those folk techniques and means of expression
that I can in one way or another assimilate without a stylistic break, and
that allow me to take a few steps forward in the search for a unity
underlying musical worlds that are apparently alien to one another"
Berio's avenue to this music is transcription. His ideal is to employ three
contrasting types of transcription in such a way that they begin to re¬
semble and mutually vindicate each other. The first consists of an identi¬
fication with the original; the second takes the original as a spring¬
board for experimentation; the third overwhelms and virtually defaces
the original. When these three modes are used simultaneously, tran¬
scription becomes a personal, creative, and constructive activity con¬
cerned with immediately accessible musical expression. Berio leaves
out the original words, however, and allows the solo viola to function in
lieu of a singer. As a result, he must turn to the devices of art music to
recreate the original "living space" He does this with a sort of semi-stag¬
ing within the auditorium: the solo viola is joined by one instrumental
ensemble in the foreground, another in the background, and three per¬
cussionists spaced far apart between the two ensembles. It is into this
space of sound and resonance that the viola projects its music. There
the melodies fade away or re-emerge - repeated, transformed, restored
from the musical collective to the soloist. The heart of the music, how¬
ever, is always the melodic substance and characteristic mood of the
melodies. The listener notices them immediately, thus making it all the
easier to follow their kaleidoscopic transmutations. Berio's Folk Songs
and Voci, far from being "folk song arrangements" or "accompanied folk
songs", are examples of creative manipulation by the composer and his
performers. They are attempts to turn into a living reality the "impossible
utopia" of a unity between modern composition and popular art.
As so often in Berio's music, Voci does not end there. Roughly one year
after its premiere in Basel,the composer returned to these same Sicilian
melodies in Naturale for viola, marimba, tam-tam, and tape, this time
giving them a new and unfamiliar staging. The piece arose from a ballet
commission from the "Ater Balletto" in Reggio Emilia, who asked Berio
to produce what the composer calls a "danced plot". Berio claims to
have "filtered" the folk songs out of Voci. The primary sacrifice of this
filtering process was that aspect of Voci that comes closest to Che-
mins, namely, the acoustical tug-of-war between the soloist and the
orchestral groups. This has been replaced by an entirely new dimen¬
sion: an Italian folk singer whom Berio himself recorded in Palermo. The
singer is heard on pre-recorded tape and functions in the manner of a
cantastorie (singing storyteller). He thus comes into conflict with the
instrumental "singer", the violist, now discreetly highlighted contrapun-
tally and rhythmically by the percussion. Narrative speech-song and
instrumental singing collide in a staged or concertante game. This jux¬
taposition of "raw" nature and "cooked" art alludes to a book that has
long played an important role in Berio's thoughts: Le cru et ie cuit (The
Raw and the Cooked) by the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.
When danced, the Chemins-Wke role of the music passes to the visual
dimension, commenting on and reflectively combining the "raw"and the
"cooked". When performed as a concert piece (Berio considers both ver¬
sions equally valid), the role of exploring a "unity between folk music
and our music" is transferred to the creative imagination of the listener.
The expressive intensity of the "vibrant" folk musicians of Sicily left
Berio enthralled and inspired him to produce these creative responses.
It also fascinated the violist Kim Kashkashian, the percussionist Robyn
Schulkowsky, the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, and the musicians
of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is bound to cast its spell on
each and every listener.

Translation: Bradford J. Robinson

On Sicilian folk music
by Walter Brunetto
In Sicilian folk music there are repertoires and performing styles that
can be traced back to various musical systems that have been added to
over time - pre-modal and modal structures that existed in classical
Greece, medieval times or that are based on major and minor keys of
European origin.
One of these archaic styles is the abbanniatine", the cries of the street
vendors. Generally descending in pitch, these were meant to win the
attention of passers-by. Melodic and ornamental elements made up the
"logo" (distinctive cry) of each "imbonitore" (barker). On piece no. 1, Gri-
do del vend/tore di pesce (Cry of the fish seller), the basic tetrachord
is made ambiguous by the alternation of major and minor seconds be¬
tween the fundamental note and the second degree.
A verbal scheme fairly common to Sicilian vocal music is made up of
four couplets of eleven syllables with alternate rhyme, often alliterated.
This scheme is known as Canzuna, which you can hear on piece no. 2
where two phrases are repeated, alternating the cadences on the fifth
and first degree. This corresponds to the note produced by the mar-
ranzanu ("scacciapensieri" or Jew's harp).
In the Christian calendar, superimposed over the agricultural calendar,
the Easter cycle takes centre stage. During the Holy Week processions
the practice of narrating, in song, the events of Christ's Passion is wide¬
spread. On piece no. 3,Lamento per // Venerd/ Santo (Lament for Good
Friday), two soloists take turns supported by the choir, which underline
the cadence points during both the first half of the verse and the long
final coda.
Another common form of popular devotion is the "novena". This reciting
of prayers or songs for nine consecutive days is a preparation for cer¬
tain religious feasts. These performances are sometimes associated
with "la questua" (the collection), an act involving taking the song from
house to house in exchange for donations. On piece no. 4, Novena di
Natale (Christmas Novena), in which the voice joins halfway through,
unusual chromatic structures and conflicts can be heard between the
notes played on the two melodic reeds of the "zampogna" (reed-pipe).
This is a common instrument in Sicily in the "a paro" type. It has this
name because of the two melodic reeds of equal length, in addition to
the two or three reeds producing a single fixed sound, the drone. The
leather bag is made from a goatskin turned inside out.
In agro-pastoral society the idea of what is sacred is not just restricted
to the observance of obligations in the religious calendar. An example
of this is the close link between lullabies and funeral lamentations, two
types of song related to extreme moments in the cycle of life, and to the
world of magic, addressed to the Saints or to the Virgin Mary. Piece no.
5, Ninna nanna (Lullaby), where every verse leads up to a cadence on
the same note, has archaic characteristics. Notice the predominance of
the minor third interval and the glottal stop at the end of some stanzas.
The 'ninna nanna' is linked to the piece Specch/u di Tocchi mei (Mirror
of my eyes), a carter's song with a verbal structure similar to the Can-
zuna. Hidden in the carters' repertoire, under the complex grace notes
and rhythmical elasticity, are well-defined structural mechanisms. In the
melodic model, repeated at each couplet, the line of the song follows a
descending course and is kept in the high register right up to the final
hemistich, where it drops to the fundamental note, the lowest one. The
structure consists of overlaying two Doric-style tetrachords that are un¬
connected. The carters used to compete against each other in singing
contests during which individual creativity was mainly displayed by the
choice of notes of ornamentation and by the rhythmic interpretation.
The lacerated vocal expression gives these songs incredible intensity.
The series of aural documents on display here from the Ethnomusico-
logy Archives of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, has
no anthological pretensions. On the contrary, by making reference to
certain features of vocal performances or to instrumental fragments of
the compositions Voci and Natura/e, it tends to follow a purely evoca¬
tive thread, stretching the picture to suggestions that create a bridge
between aural styles buried in time and Luciano Berio's desire to make
them his own and re-introduce them in a different light.

Translation: Jack Woods

La langue maternelle de Luciano Berio
par Jurg Stenzl

Quand la musique folklorique s'associe a la musique savante, ne pense-

t-on pas aussitot a Bela Bartok? De fait, le credo artistique de Bartok
consistait a reprendre les traditions de la musique artistique europeen-
ne dont il se sentait redevable: le contrepoint et la polyphonie de Jo¬
hann Sebastian Bach, le travail sur le theme et le motif de Ludwig van
Beethoven, I'art des harmonies et des sonorites de Claude Debussy.
Mais la synthese de ces traditions devait ensuite s'effectuer dans sa
« propre langue maternelle » laquelle etait pour lui la « musique pay-
sanne»-« nouvel esprit de la musique ne des forces musicales jaillies
de la terre ». Cette «langue maternelle », Bartok, avec Zoltan Kodaly d'ail-
leurs, I'avait veritablement decouverte. Pas seulement decouverte: les
deux compositeurs trouverent dans sa «force de la nature » des ele¬
ments tonaux et rythmiques qui n'existaient pas dans la musique artis¬
tique occidentale. Auparavant deja, Claude Debussy avait trouve dans
les musiques asiatiques, qu'il avait entendues lors de I'Exposition Uni-
verselle, des idees anticipant ce qu'il cherchait. Apres la Premiere Guer¬
re mondiale, plusieurs compositeurs d'Europe centrale trouverent dans
le jazz americain (ou ce qu'ils consideraient comme tel) une «modernite
sans artifice » un peu comparable. Dans la premiere moitie du XXe
siecle, les aspects originaires de la musique, celle que transmettaient
verbalement les «gens simplest n'etaient plus qu'une simple couleur
locale, servant souvent des exigences nationales, voire nationalistes;
au contraire, elle avait reellement valeur de «langue maternelle». Pour
Bela Bartok, les grandes nations europeennes, telles que la France ou
I'Autriche avec la monarchie des Habsbourg, n'avaient pas de «langue
maternelle » de ce type, si ce n'est celle de la musique artistique.
Chez aucun compositeur italien du XXe siecle, on ne trouve de pro¬
gramme esthetique rappelant, meme de loin, cette notion de synthese,
propre a Bartok, entre musique folklorique et musique artistique. Certes
des compositeurs comme Alfredo Casella, Gian Francesco Malipiero,
Goffredo Petrassi ou Luigi Dallapiccola se sont referes a des specifici-
tes italiennes, mais il ne s'agissait pas de musique populaire italienne,
ni non plus des traditions musicales manifestement archaiques de Sid¬
le ou de Sardaigne. C'est dans I'histoire de la culture musicale italienne
qu'ils puiserent: Palestrina et Scarlatti, Monteverdi et meme Rossini -
non pas «folklorisme », mais « neo-classique». Paradoxalement, ce neo-
classique italien trouva son modele chez un Russe: Igor Stravinsky avait
arrange en 1920 de la musique de Pergolese (ou en majeure partie faus-
sement attribute a celui-ci) dans sa suite Pulcinella, donnant ainsi la
preuve que I'ancienne musique artistique d'ltalie renfermait le materiau
d'une expression italienne moderne. L'un des plus grands compositeurs
italiens de la premiere moitie du siecle, Gian Francesco Malipiero, diri-
geait depuis 1926 I'edition integrale de Claudio Monteverdi. C'est par
Malipiero que Bruno Maderna (1920-1972), le vrai pere de la nouvelle
musique italienne apres la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale, decouvrit la
musique ancienne de la renaissance et du debut du baroque. Elle a lais-
se dans ses oeuvres une empreinte unique, de meme dans celles de
son eleve Luigi Nono.
Luciano Berio est ne en 1925 dans une famille de musiciens, lesquels
occupaient depuis le XVI11e siecle les fonctions d'organiste a Oneglia
(pres d'lmperia) - comme les Puccini, maTtres de chapelle a Lucques,
sans interruption, depuis le XVIIIe siecle egalement. Berio prit ses pre¬
miers cours de musique avec son pere et son grand-pere. Sa jeunesse
ne fut pas tant marquee par la musique artistique que par la musique
de tous les jours: la musique etait une evidence, elle faisait partie inte¬
grate de la vie quotidienne. Les titres de ses oeuvres de jeunesse en
sont un peu la preuve : Preludio per una festa marina pour cordes
(1944), Due cori popo/ari (1946), Tre canzoni popolari pour voix chan-
tee et piano (1948) ou la musique « utilitaire » comme O bone Jesu pour
choeur (1946). Aussitot apres la guerre, Berio decouvrit chez son pro-
fesseur de composition Giorgio Federico Ghedini quantite de musique
ancienne, notamment baroque. La musique du compositeur se carac-
terise par une approche immediate, plutot pratique, qui vaut jusqu'a
aujourd'hui, sous des formes sans cesse renouvelees, meme si elles ne
sont pas fondamentalement differentes. Luciano Berio n'est pas du
genre a speculer, a developper de vastes theories esthetiques avant de
se mettre a composer. Meme ses partitions les plus complexes frap-
pent par leur caractere immediat, sensuel, concret, qui fait du reste une
partie de son succes. La longue suite d'oeuvres pour instruments seuls
intitulee Sequenza permet, mieux que toute autre, d'etudier cet aspect.
Chacune de ces oeuvres associe la virtuosite instrumentale de I'inter-
prete et I'elargissement des possibilites sonores de chacun des instru¬
ments a une idee formelle, immediatement obtenue a partir de ce mate¬
riau sonore. En un sens, chaque Sequenza est un portrait multiple: por-
trait de I'instrument et de ses possibilites sonores; en quelque sorte
aussi, generalement, portrait de I'interprete pour lequel la Sequenza
en question a ete ecrite; et, enfin, portrait de la creativite tout a la fois
riche et rigoureusement controlee du compositeur.
II est interessant de constater que la creativite de Luciano Berio ne ces-
se pourtant d'aller au-dela d'une oeuvre donnee:dans une serie d'oeu-
vres intitulee Chemins, il poursuivit la composition de certaines des Se¬
quenza. A partir de la forme concentree d'une Sequenza se degagent
les Chemins pour un soliste et un ensemble encadrant celui-ci tout en
evoluant librement. A ce propos, le compositeur declara: «Mes Chemins
sont la meilleure analyse de mes Sequenza »- expansions et commen-
taires dans lesquels se deploient surtout les harmonies latentes de la
sequence. Le rapport Sequenza-Chemins, Berio I'a decrit de facon plas-
tique: «C'est comme les pelures d'un oignon: autonomes, distinctes les
unes des autres, mais etroitement collees; chaque pelure forme une
nouvelle surface, tout en etant liee a la precedente, et chaque ancienne
pelure a une nouvelle fonction, des lors qu'elle est recouverte.» Quant a
son habitude de reprendre ses propres oeuvres:«On m'a souvent repro-
che de revenir sur mes oeuvres, de les reecrire. En fait j'aime jouer le
<cannibale>: je mange mes pieces,on dirait,je les devore...»
Le «cannibale» qu'est Luciano Berio ne devore toutefois pas que ses
propres oeuvres. Parmi I'ensemble de ses oeuvres, les arrangements de
musique ecrite par d'autres compositeurs occupent une place etonnam-
ment importante. Dans quelques cas seulement, il ne s'agit que d'orches-
trations, comme celle de la partie piano des Siete canciones popo/ares
de Manuel de Falla, ou de I'elaboration d'une « version utilitaire », par
exemple a partir de Combatt/mento di Tancredi e C/orinda de Mon¬
teverdi. Les arrangements de Berio ont tendance a analyser les parti¬
tions originates,a les commenter, les eclairer-que ce soit des romances
de Giuseppe Verdi, des sonates pour clarinette de Brahms, des frag¬
ments symphoniques de Franz Schubert, des chansons des Beatles ou
autres chants populaires.«Mon rapport a la musique populaire est sou¬
vent d'ordre emotionnel. Quand je travaille sur cette musique, je suis tout
empli de la joie de I'explorateur.» Ses debuts dans ce domaine remon¬
tent aux Tre canzoni siciiiani, pour lesquelles il crea des 1946/47 de
simples accompagnements au piano. Plusieurs annees plus tard, aux
Etats-Unis, il reprit deux de ces chansons, ecrivit un accompagnement
pour sept instruments et les completa pour en faire, sous le titre pro-
grammatique de Folk Songs. I'un de ses plus grands succes. Que I'oeu-
vre ait vu le jour sur fond de mouvement hippie en Californie n'est pas
un hasard. Berio y voyait la une partie de son utopie, quand bien meme
peu realisable: « Je reviens sans cesse sur la musique populaire, car je
cherche a etablir un contact entre elle et mes propres idees musicales.
Je reve d'une utopie dont je sais qu'elle ne pourra s'accomplir: Je vou-
drais creer une unite entre la musique populaire et notre musique, une
continuity reelle, perceptible, comprehensible avec la pratique musicale
ancienne et populaire, aussi proche de notre labeur quotidien que de
notre musique.» Ce n'est pas un hasard non plus que ces Folk Songs.
ecrits par le compositeur pour son epouse d'alors, Cathy Berberian (ori-
ginaire d'Armenie), soient le lieu de rencontre de chants populaires des
quatre coins du monde. II va quasiment de soi que, tout comme les
arrangements de ses propres Sequenza. les chants a une voix revien-
nent a des analyses et commentaires du compositeur:« Mes transcrip¬
tions sont toujours des analyses de chants populates, et degagent a la
fois le parfum de cette musique tel que je le percois », confia le compo¬
siteur. Thomas Gartmann note dans son remarquable livre sur Berio:
« Autour du <materiau brut traditionneb, Berio tisse un reseau etincelant
de sons instrumentaux et le reassortit a notre epoque. II emprunte a la
fois plusieurs procedes que Ton connait d'autres cultures ou du Moyen
Age europeen. A la maniere d'une improvisation, il fait jouer des prelu¬
des, interludes et postludes [...], des bourdons, des accords tenus, des
imitations, ornements, paraphrases et mouvements contraires, des mo¬
tifs chromatiques et baroques de basse continue, des textures sonores
heterophones finement tissees [...]. Avec une finesse remarquable, Be¬
rio developpe toutes les pratiques d'accompagnement polyphoniques
possibles.» La joie qui a suscite chez Berio I'envie de composer ces
chants devient pareillement une joie qui donne envie a I'auditeur de les
ecouter. L'elan createur et la richesse inventive qui s'expriment ici pui-
sent dans I'approche que la famille du compositeur a toujours eue de la
musique quotidienne: on a I'impression de voir ici le jeune garcon a la
guitare, tel qu'il figure sur une photo de 1941. Pour Luciano Berio, I'art
populaire et I'art savant, de meme ces deux formes d'expression musi-
cale, ne constituent pas des univers distincts - n'en deplaise aux melo-
manes. Dans sa musique, ce rapport n'a jamais ete un probleme.
Nous voila ainsi au cceur meme de I'univers des oeuvres compilees par
ce CD, meme si elles ont vu le jour une bonne vingtaine d'annees apres
les Folk Songs. Les Voci pour alto et deux groupes d'instruments ont
ete ecrits en 1984; leur sous-titre (Folk Songs II) les associe imme-
diatement aux Folk Songs de 1963/64. Par le biais du musicologue
Aldo Bennici, Berio avait decouvert toute une serie d'enregistrements
originaux de musique populaire sicilienne: chants de travailleurs, ber¬
ceuses, chansons d'amour des differentes regions de I'Tle. De nouveau,
la joie de la decouverte fut grande. Et le compositeur esperait bien que
ses arrangements pourraient contribuer«a eveiller un interet plus pro-
fond pour le folklore sicilien, qui, avec celui de Sardaigne, est assure-
ment I'un des plus riches, des plus vastes et des plus passionnes de
notre culture mediterraneenne ».
Les chants siciliens, dont on entendra ici les enregistrements originaux,
constituent aussi bien le depart que le noyau de la partition (d'une du-
ree de 30 minutes): la musique evolue vers et a partir de six « morceaux
centraux ». «Je ne suis pas ethnomusicologue, declara Berio, juste un
egoiste pragmatique : j'ai tendance a ne m'interesser qu'aux techni¬
ques et modes d'expression de la musique populaire que je peux as-
similer d'une maniere ou d'une autre sans rupture stylistique, et qui
me permettent de faire quelques pas dans la recherche de I'unite qui
sous-tend des univers musicaux apparemment tres differents les uns
les autres.»
Le compositeur procede par transcription, son ideal etant d'en emplo¬
yer trois modes differents, afin qu'ils s'alignent les uns sur les autres et
se justifient mutuellement. Le premier reside dans I'identification avec
I'original, le deuxieme consiste a reprendre celui-ci pour experimenter;
le troisieme enfin vise a depasser, voire veritablement abuser des ori¬
ginaux en question. Si ces trois procedes sont utilises simultanement.
 la transcription devient une activite individuelle, creative et constructive,
soucieuse de trouver une expression musicale immediate. Or, comme le
texte initial n'est plus, que I'alto seul devient alors I'interprete de ces
melodies, le compositeur doit prendre d'habiles mesures pouren rempla-
cer les «espaces vitaux» d'origine, ainsi en realisant une sorte de mise
en scene dans I'espace acoustique. A I'alto seul s'ajoute, au premier
plan,un premier groupe d'orchestre,a I'arriere-plan, un second: entre les
deux sont disposes, eloignes les uns des autres, les trois batteurs. C'est
dans cet espace de sonorite et de resonance que penetre le jeu de la
soliste. Les melodies se dissipent, ou bien sont reprises, rechantees,
transformees, avant de revenir de I'ensemble collectif a I'interprete in¬
dividuelle. Mais la substance melodique et I'humeur caracteristique de
ces airs restent constamment au centre. Comme I'auditeur les retient
aussitot, il peut d'autant mieux en suivre les multiples transformations.
Les Folk Songs et Voci de Berio ne sont pas des « arrangements de
chants populaires», des chants populaires avec «accompagnement»-
non, ils sont des exemples d'adaptation artistique par le compositeur et
les interpretes, comme s'ils tentaient de realiser malgre tout l'«utopie
impossible» que serait I'unite composition moderne et popularite».
Comme bien souvent dans I'art de Berio, les Voci ne sont pas non plus
un point final. Une bonne annee apres leur creation a Bale, le composi¬
teur a repris les melodies siciliennes dans Naturale pour alto, marimba-
phone, tam-tam et bande sonore, en les mettant en scene d'une ma¬
nure nouvelle et differente. A I'origine, l'«Ater Balletto» a Reggio Emilia
avait passe une commande pour un ballet, pour une «action dansee».
selon les propres termes de Berio. II a extrait des Voci les chants popu¬
laires, ce qui, avant tout, fit perdre aux Voci en question leur aspect
«Chemins», ce va-et-vient entre soliste et groupes orchestraux. Ils ont
pris a la place une dimension tout a fait nouvelle, sous la forme d'un
chanteur populaire italien, que Berio avait lui-meme enregistre a Pa-
lerme. Narrateur chantant sur une bande sonore, un peu comme un
« cantastorie », il rencontre maintenant la chanteuse d'alto instrumen-
tale dont le jeu acquiere par les percussions, discretement, rythme et
contrepoint. Le chant parle narratif et le chant instrumental se retrou-
vent dans un jeu scenique et concertant. Ce face-a-face entre nature
«crue» et talent «cuit» renvoie a un texte qui a toujours beaucoup
compte pour Berio, Le cru et ie cuit de I'anthropologue Claude Levi-
Strauss. Lors de ^interpretation dansee, c'est a la dimension visuelle
que revient la fonction (dans le style des Chemins) de relier le «cru » et
le «cuit», par le biais de commentaires et de reflexions. Dans le cas
d'une execution concertante, a laquelle Berio attache la meme valeur,
c'est la creativite de I'ecoute qui est appelee a explorer l'«unite entre la
musique populaire et notre musique».
La force d'expression de ce musicien sicilien «passionne» a fascine
Luciano Berio et lui a inspire une replique artistique: elle a egalement
saisi I'altiste Kim Kashkashian, la percussionniste Robyn Schulkowsky,
le chef d'orchestre Dennis Russell Davies et les musiciens de I'Or-
chestre radiophonique de Vienne - au tour des auditeurs, maintenant,
d'etre seduits.
Traduction: Martine Passelaigue
De la musique populaire sicilienne
par Walter Brunetto
La musique populaire sicilienne est constitute de repertoires et de styles
d'execution pouvant etre ramenes aux divers systemes musicaux qui
se sont superposes dans le temps: des structures pre-modales, moda-
les codifiees formellement dans la Grece classique, au Moyen Age ou
fondees sur les modes majeur et mineur derivant de la culture euro-
peenne.
L'un de ces styles archaiques est celui des abbanniatine, les cris des ven-
deurs ambulants. Generalement a developpement descendant, ces cris
servaient a attirer I'attention des passants. Les formules melodiques et
ornementales constituaient le «logo» de chaque camelot. Dans le mor-
ceau n°1 Grido del venditore di pesce (Cri du vendeur de poisson), le
tetracorde de base est rendu ambigu par I'alternance de secondes
majeures et mineures entre la note fondamentale et le second degre.
Un schema verbal tres frequent dans la musique vocale sicilienne est
constitue par quatre distiques d'hendecasyllabes a rimes croisees, sou-
vent en alliteration. Ce schema prend le nom de Canzuna (Chanson),
comme dans le morceau n°2, ou deux phrases musicales se repetent
en alternant des cadences sur le cinquieme et le premier degre, qui
correspond a la note produite par le marranzanu (la guimbarde).
Dans le calendrier liturgique chretien, qui s'est superpose au calendrier
agricole, le cycle pascal a une importance fondamentale. Durant les pro¬
cessions de la Semaine Sainte, il est d'usage de conter, en chantant,
les evenements de la Passion du Christ. Dans le morceau n°3 Lamento
per it Venerdi Santo (Lamento pour le Vendredi Saint), deux solistes
s'alternent, soutenus par I'intervention du choeur a I'unisson, qui vient
souligner les moments cadences tant dans la premiere moitie du vers
que dans la longue coda finale.
Une forme de devotion populaire tres repandue est la «neuvaine», re¬
citation de prieres ou de chants pendant neuf jours consecutifs, pour
preparer certaines fetes liturgiques. Parfois, a ces performances s'as-
sociait la quete, acte qui consistait a porter le chant de maison en mai-
son en echange de dons. Dans le morceau n°4 Novena di Nata/e
(Neuvaine de Noel), ou la voix intervient a la moitie, apparaissent avec
evidence les chromatismes inhabituels et les heurts produits entre les
notes jouees par les deux tuyaux melodiques de la cornemuse. Cet
instrument est repandu en Sicile sous le type « a paro » (a egalite), ainsi
appele parce qu'il dispose de deux tuyaux melodiques de longueur
egale, en plus des deux ou trois tuyaux produisant un seul son fixe,
ayant une fonction de bourdon; I'outre est formee d'une peau de che-
vre retournee.
Dans les civilisations agropastorales, le sens du sacre ne se restreint au
respect des obligations dictees par le calendrier liturgique; des liens
etroits unissent par exemple les berceuses a la lamentation funebre,
chants relatifs aux moments extremes du cycle de la vie, ainsi qu'au
monde magique a travers des expressions propitiatoires adressees aux
Saints et a la Madone. Le morceau n°5 Ninna nanna (Berceuse), dont
chaque vers est scande sur la meme note, a des caracteristiques archai-
ques. On y constate la preponderance de I'intervalle de tierce mineure
et le coup de glotte a la fin de quelques strophes.
Le morceau Specchiu di I'occhi me/ (Miroir de mes yeux), chant de
charretiers dont la structure verbale correspond a celle de la Canzuna,
rejoint la berceuse. Le repertoire des charretiers recele, derriere les me-
lismes complexes et la souplesse rythmique, des mecanismes structu¬
red bien definis. Dans le modele melodique, repete a chaque distique,
la ligne de chant est a developpement descendant et se maintient au
registre haut jusqu'au dernier hemistiche, ou elle plonge vers la note
fondamentale, la plus basse. Le mode d'etablissement est determine
par la superposition de deux tetracordes disjoints de type dorien. Les
charretiers se defiaient lors de joutes de chant ou la creativite individu-
elle se manifestait surtout dans le choix des notes d'ornementation et
dans ('interpretation rythmique. L'emission vocale laceree confere a ces
chants une grande intensity expressive.
La sequence de documents sonores illustree ici puises dans les Ar¬
chives d'Ethnomusicologie de I'Academie Nationale de Sainte Cecile,
Rome, n'a aucune pretention anthologique ; mais en etablissant des
liens avec certaines caracteristiques des executions vocales ou des
fragments instrumentaux des compositions Voci et Naturale, elle en-
tend suivre un fil purement evocateur, elargissant le cadre a des sug¬
gestions jetant un pont entre des comportements sonores sedimentes
dans le temps et le desir de Luciano Berio de se les approprier et de les
proposer sous une perspective differente.

Traduction: Myriem Bouzaher

Voci Coproduction ECM Records/RSO Wien

Publisher: Universal Edition Vienna

Thanks to Walter Brunetto and the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome

Voci recorded November 1999,ORF Studio, Vienna

Engineer: Josef Schutz
Recording supervision: Malgorzata Kragora
Naturale recorded May 2000,Teldec Studio, Berlin
Engineer: Peter Laenger
Cover: Still from "Histoire(s) du cinema"
by Jean-Luc Godard
Design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Manfred Eicher

An ECM Production

® 2001 ECM Records GmbH

© 2001 ECM Records GmbH

Photographs by Giuseppe Leone (© 1999),

from the book"Storie e paesaggi dell'arte casearia,
il Ragusano", Federico Motta Editore S.p.A., Milano
ECM NEW SERIES
ECM NEW SERIES 1735 461808-2

LUCIANO BERIO
V O C

Luciano Berio
Voci

VOCI
Kim Kashkashian, viola ECM 1735
Radio Symphonieorchester Wien
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor*
Coproduction
ECM Records/ORF Wien
Sicilian Folk Music
An ECM Production

Luciano Berio <E> 2001 ECM Records GmbH

Naturale © 2001 ECM Records GmbH

Kim Kashkashian,viola ECM Records

Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion Postfach 600 331,81203 Munchen

ECM NEW SERIES 1735 461808-2

[69:42]
VOCI

Produced by Manfred Eicher

LUCIANO BERIO

ECM NEW SERIES

ECM New Series 1735
461 808-2
V O C I

Luciano Berio (*1925)

Kim Kashkashian, viola

Radio Symphonieorchester Wien
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Kim Kashkashian,viola
Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion

NATURALE
 Luciano Berio Luciano Berio

1 Voci (Folk Songs II) 32:09 7 Naturale (Su melodie siciliane) 22:14
per viola sola e percussione
Kim Kashkashian, viola
Radio Symphonieorchester Wien Kim Kashkashian,viola
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion

Sicilian Folk Music

recordings from the Ethnomusicological Archives
of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome

2 Grido del venditore di pesce 1:22

Angelo Vitello: voice. Palma di Montechiaro (Agrigento) 1955

3 Canzuna 1:35
Unknown. Favara (Agrigento) 1969

4 Lamento per il Venerdi Santo 5:45

Concetto Campisi, Antonio Bulgaretta: voices
Terrauzza (Siracusa) 1961

5 Novena di Natale 3:28

Vincenzo Ferrara: bagpipe, Pietro Vallone: cerchietto,
Vito D'Angelo: voice. Alcamo (Trapani) 1961

6 Ninna nanna i :46

Maria Bonferraro: voice. Barrafranca (Enna) 1960

Specchiu di I'occhi mei 1:20

Giuseppe Cangemi: voice. Alcamo (Trapani) 1961
A conversation with Kim Kashkashian
Were you in contact with Luciano Berio while preparing the music for this
recording?
One would always try- if the composer is still living and working and perhaps
even changing things - to get in close contact. If you look at the written text
you don't always get all the information that you need, or that they intend to
convey and so it's always wise, as well as fun and challenging, to work dir¬
ectly with the composer. Also, what in the case of Berio is very enjoyable is
that he likes to sing, so we do some singing together, and he is also quite ex¬
pressive with his voice, so one gets a better idea of exactly what is intended
by those little notes on the page.
Did you talk at all to Aldo Bennici, the viola player of the premiere record¬
ing?
I recently had the chance to sit down and talk to him and it was also a won¬
derful experience. The man is quite a theatrical person and in fact firmly be¬
lieves that new music and theatre must become one. So he has an interesting
perspective on all of this. He is Sicilian himself and did most of the searching
and finding on the old melodies and he was able to tell me quite a lot about,
first of all, the initial impulse behind the piece and, secondly, what some of
the songs actually are conveying. So, some very interesting and heartbreak¬
ing words and texts for these old songs. And one of the things he said to me,
kept trying to say over and over again in different ways, is that the Sicilian per¬
sonality is highly touched by the degree of intense sunlight in the land, and
that that produces actually a shadow side to the personality so that there is
a constant preoccupation with death. It is like the two flip sides of a coin. And
he says that the Sicilian personality shows both sides all the time, this paral¬
lel is always apparent in the personality. That is an interesting perspective on
all of these songs, as well as, of course, on the constructed pieces that Berio
made out of the songs. For example: one of these very simple and beautiful
songs has a heartrending text, which is, the mother is saying to God,"Please,
give my child a home, take my child". The implication being that" I cannot care
for this child here, I don't have food, I don't have the ability to take care of
this child, my baby, please give my baby a home in heaven." She is basically
saying this child should die because it will be happier. So the melodies sound
relatively harmless compared to the depth and the dichotomy that is apparent
in most of the text.
"Natura/e"and “Voci" seem to be very different pieces, would you agree on
this?
Well, they are quite different in the montage, they are quite different in the
affect therefore, but the-1 can only think it in German,"Ausgangspunkt"- point
of origin is, in a sense, the same. But what carries the piece "Naturale", be¬
cause it's got the precision of color with only the viola, percussion, and the
vocal reproductions - it's in a sense a much more compact and intense ex¬
perience. The piece was originally intended as a theatre piece, as a piece for
dance, and Aldo Bennici says that when the piece is to be performed it is
best when you're actually - on the viola - gesturing and doing some of the
theatre yourself to provide some of the missing element there.
The other work by Berio, "Voci", is perhaps more constructed, there is more
Berio there, because of course his great strength is orchestration and the or¬
chestration is phenomenal in this piece. It gives not only the reflection of the
songs but a kind of amplification of the songs, to have so much constructed
around them with such fantastic orchestration.
In a number of interviews and articles your way of playing the viola is com¬
pared to singing. Is that the feeling you have, too, and if so, how did that
influence your way of interpreting these pieces?
The fact that the actual sung reproduction is not heard in "Voci" is not im¬
portant because the melodies are completely played by the viola, in both pie¬
ces, actually, so that's a color factor more than anything else in the "Naturale"
piece. To try to answer the question about where the impulse comes from
when one sings on an instrument, I will again loosely quote Aldo Bennici, who
recently sat in a room, looked at me and said,"When I started to play the viola
what I wanted was a sonority, and the reason I wanted a sonority was because
I thought I could speak to God." He wasn't being pathetic, he was saying that
as a child he was religious, as all Sicilians were, and he thought that was his
best way to converse with God was through the sonority of the instrument,
through the voice. And he - and I would agree - makes a complete parallel
between the vocalization on the instrument, what kind of sonority comes out
of the instrument and what would come out of the chest and vocal chords,
should we have the good luck to have that kind of equipment, which a lot of
us don't. However the impulse is identical and in the best case remains so.
You recently recorded Bartok's viola concerto for ECM. Bartok is surely the
composer one would Immediately think of when talking about the influence
of folk music in 20th century music. And now you have recorded these Berio
works: Is the folk music influence an element in composition that attracts
you in general?
I am going to answer this in two parts, because Bartok and Kodaly were two
people who were well-known because well-documented in their research of
old folk music or "country music", as Bartok describes the difference between
"country music" and "city music" or "art music". But again, the origin for a lot of
composers, the point of origin, must be the folk music of that nation, the folk
music of that culture and sometimes in a very conscious way, as with Bartok,
and sometimes in a not so conscious way. But true for many composers, cer¬
tainly true for Brahms, certainly true for Schubert, so I wouldn't like to isolate
Bartok except in the sense that he made a very big and well-documented
study of folk music and it was for him a very important, perhaps even more
important, aspect of his work.
Now, the other thing you asked me is a little bit harder to get around. The mu¬
sic as we look at it, the music of the 20th century gets, on the surface, further
and further away from what we would recognize as folk melody, or what we
would recognize as organic human rhythm or harmony,and becomes perhaps
more and more identified with the objective, what is outside of the human
being. However, the point of comparison, the point of reference for the musi¬
cian, for the interpreter and for the listener, remains that subjective element
of "What can I sing?".
Can you say something about your partnership with Dennis Russell Davies,
with whom you have worked on a number of occasions?
As you can see, if you look at the catalogue of our repertoire, I enjoy working
with Dennis, and particularly because he does understand this singing ele¬
ment or the need to breathe, and is an incredibly good supporter of that qual¬
ity. Also, he studied with Berio, and therefore there is a very strong connec¬
tion and a good understanding, again, of what the text actually implies and
how one can best bring it to fruition. That was for me also a very important
factor, that the two of them have such trust in each other.
And Robyn Schu/kowsky, you also worked with her quite a lot?
We've had a long and fruitful relationship and hopefully one that will continue,
and I think that the "Naturale" score, as it stands on paper, is not quite the
same as what Robyn made out of it because, again, the percussion role in the
theatre piece was perhaps more of a supportive role, and as we made the
recording, it took on a much more lively and elemental role. She was a very
important part of the picture, part of building up our picture of that piece.
Questions by Tina Kohn
Voci Coproduction ECM Records/RSO Wien

Publisher: Universal Edition

Thanks to Walter Brunetto and the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome

Voci recorded November 1999,ORF Studio,Vienna

Engineer: Josef Schutz
Recording supervision: Malgorzata Kragora
Natura/e recorded May 2000, Teldec Studio, Berlin
Engineer: Peter Laenger
Cover: Still from "Histoire(s) du cinema"
by Jean-Luc Godard
Liner Photos: Roberto Masotti,
Ruth Walz (R. Schulkowsky)
Design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Manfred Eicher

An ECM Production
® 2001 ECM Records GmbH
© 2001 ECM Records GmbH
www.ecmrecords.com
 Alle Urheber-

ECM NEW SERIES

Luciano Berio
Vo c i
■J' ®u!Jm 'uoijonpojdaJ ‘Bva'A^

^®Ur>6|,|ei|8,AJ9A
GEMA
DDD ECM 1735
461 808-2

Kim Kashkashian
Radio Symphonieorchester Wien
Dennis Russell Davies
Robyn Schulkowsky

® 2001 ECM Records GmbH

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