LUCIANO BERIO - Sequenza III For Female Voice

Circumstances of Performance (When, where and why)

• Graphic score
• Written in 1966
• Berio wrote for wife, who sings piece 
• Explores sounds of the human voice
• Extended vocal techniques
• Avant-garde, composer breaking new ground
• Not usually performed at festivals
• Based on a poem not by Marku Kutter
• Uses a graphic score
• Berio later re scored the work for 3 singers rather than one, too difficult for most 

Tonality (Key) 

• Atonal, no key

Performing Forces (Interesting and unusual features)

• Wide range of sound
• This piece needs TIMBRE, exploiting different timbres of her voice
  -Pauses (for breath or hesitation)
  -Pitched singing
  -Shortvaal body noises (tongue clicks, coughs, finger snaps)
  -Sound that involves changes in timbre (trills, tremolos, hand cooped over mouth)
  -Streams of fast articulated sounds (laughing and muttering)
• Very demanding
• Phonetic pronunciations
• Non-phonetic pronunciations 

Texture (Layers)

• Monophonic 
• Solo female voice

Melody (Tune)

• No real melody
• Some use of melisma's for example (t-r-uth)

Harmony (Chords)

• No chromatic notes because it is atonal
• Since this is a solo female vocalist piece there are no chords

Rhythm Metre (Time Signature)

• Irregular, left open to interpretation
• some parts faster than other for example(when singer mutters of laughs) 

Structure (Sections)

• 0:00 - Entrance of the woman
• 0:21 - Contrasts her contrasting moods
• 1:48 - Disturbed singing
• 4:29 - First anxiety attack
• 5:16 - Calming down
• 6:49 - Second anxiety attack
• 7:26 - Return to a still, uncertain state of mind
• Episodic
  -A = tense
  -B = anxious
  -C = hyperactive
  -D = dreamy
  -E = serene