Composer Notes

Luciano Berio's Sinfonia is a five-movement work for 8 amplified singers and orchestra, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its 125th anniversary. The first four movements were premiered by The Swingle Singers and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Berio on 10 October 1968. The New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, first performed the completed five-movement version on 8 October 1970.

The work is a musical collage building large structures of sound layered with references to musical and literary works of influence. The title Sinfonia is intended to convey the meaning of sounding together.

The eight amplified singers are used as if they are instruments. They are required to sing instrumental lines as well as speaking, shouting, whispering and a range of vocal effects.

The third and central movement caused great impact through its use of the third movement of Mahler Symphony No 2 as a thread that runs throughout, overlaid with diverse texts and quotes from other sources.

The movement is headed In ruhig fliessender Bewegung [In quiet flowing movement], the instruction at the start of Mahler Symphony No 2, movement III.

The texts include excerpts from The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett (including quotes and misquotes), instructions from Mahler scores, graffiti and references to the other musical works quoted.

The table below and on the following pages outlines many but certainly not all the references. It lists the bar numbers in Sinfonia and the location of the source material from Mahler Symphony No 2 together with information about other references throughout the movement. Bar numbers are given for the first whole bar. Upbeats are not included. Bar numbers in parenthesis indicate the location in the Mahler score when no Mahler excerpt is playing.

The first occurrence of a musical work is in bold. Literary references and spoken text are in italics. Spoken text may span several bars. They are listed at their starting location.