Composer Notes

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History, analysis and commentary about western classical music

Berio - Sinfonia - Third movement - Page 5

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Berio bar 308-320 / Mahler bar 309-321
  • Bassoon plays fragment whose source is yet to be identified
Berio bar 309-312 / Mahler bar 310-313
  • Distorted version of Ravel La Valse in trumpet 1
Berio bar 311-314 / Mahler bar 312-315
  • Mahler in violins
Berio bar 312 / Mahler bar 313
  • Mahler in flutes and bass voices
Berio bar 313 / Mahler bar 314
  • Mahler in clarinets
Berio bar 314-321
  • Oboe and clarinet play fragments whose sources are yet to be identified
Berio bar 315-320
  • Strauss Der Rosenkavalier in strings
Berio bar 317
  • Tenor 1: waiting
  • Bass 1: the brightest star
Berio bar 318
  • Tenor 1: waiting alone
Berio bar 320
Tenor 1: that is the show
Berio bar 322
  • Tenors and Basses: that is the show
Berio bar 323-365
  • Tenor 1: waiting alone, in the restless air, for it to begin, while every now and then a familiar passacaglia filters through the other noises, waiting, for something to begin, for there to be something else but you ...
Berio bar 323-365
  • Tenor 1 (with Tenor 2 a little later and quieter than Tenor 1): ... for the power to rise, the courage to leave, picking your way through the crossed colors, seeking the cause, losing it again, seeking no longer. We shall overcome the incessant noise, for as Henri says, if this noise would stop there'd be nothing more to say. You try and be reasonable, perhaps you are blind, probably deaf, the show is over, all is over, but where then is the hand, the helping hand, or merely charitable, or the hired hand, it's a long time coming, to take yours and draw you away, that is the show, free, gratis and for nothing, waiting alone, blind, deaf, you don't know where, you don't know for what, for a hand to come and draw you away, somewhere else, where perhaps it's worse.
Berio bar 323-324
  • Flutes, oboe and violins play fragment from Brahms Symphony No 4 mvt IV
Berio bar 325 / Mahler bar 320
  • Mahler in harp
  • Brahms Symphony No 4 in voices in solfege
  • Mahler continuity disrupted again
Berio bar 325-339 / Mahler bar 320-334
  • Mahler in trumpets
Berio bar 325 / Mahler bar (321)
  • Tenor 2: etwas zuruckhaltend [somewhat held back] (instruction from Mahler score)
Berio bar 327-328
  • Brahms Symphony No 4 in flutes and strings
  • Tenor 1 references Brahms Symphony No 4 with mention of passacaglia
Berio bar 329-330
  • Brahms Symphony No 4 in voices in solfege
Berio bar 329-343
  • Keyboards extend motive from Brahms Symphony No 4
Berio bar 334 / Mahler bar 328
  • Mahler enters in fragments but no longer in its original form or location
  • Inverted version of Mahler in piccolo
  • Distorted version of Mahler in cello and double bass
Berio bar 335-338 / Mahler bar 332-335
  • Mahler in oboe (2 bars early and transposed higher)
Berio bar 339-344
  • Alternating chords in trumpets (see bars 325-339 above) which stopped in Mahler are here continued in oboes
Berio bar 356-362
  • Soprano 2: It's a real pleasure upon my word it is to be unable to drown under such conditions in a lake full of colors far from my walls
Berio bar 357-374
  • Schoenberg Five Pieces for Orchestra No 3 Farben [Colours] in woodwinds
Berio bar 358-374 / Mahler bar 331-347
  • Mahler in strings, fragmentary at first then gradually restored to the source text and building to a climax at Berio bar 374 / Mahler bar 347
Berio bar 367 / Mahler bar 340
  • Tenor 1: where now?
Berio bar 368 / Mahler bar 341
  • Alto 1: who now?
  • Bass 1: keep going
Berio bar 369 / Mahler bar 342
  • Tenor 1: when now?
  • Bass 1: now
Berio bar 373 / Mahler bar 346
  • 8 voices enter with unpitched vocalisations
Berio bar 373 / Mahler bar 347
  • Descending chromatic figure at Mahler climax joined by 8 voices laughing
Berio bar 375-394
  • Berg Wozzeck Act III (drowning scene) commencing in cellos and basses and gradually throughout the orchestra leading to climax at Berio bar 395
Berio bar 376 / Mahler bar 349 and 351
  • Mahler in violins
  • Mahler in clarinets, saxophone and bassoons
  • Violas join Berg Wozzeck
Berio bar 377 / Mahler bar 352
  • Soprano 1 sings Mahler
  • Alto 1: just a small murder (A comment on Berg Wozzeck)
  • Bass 1: blood (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
Berio bar 378 / Mahler bar 353
  • Distorted version of Mahler in woodwinds
  • Tenor 1: keep going
  • Bass 2: hardly worth it ...
Berio bar 379-380
  • Pitch clusters in flutes thicken and distort the texture of Berg Wozzeck
  • Distorted version of Mahler in bassoons
  • Violins join Berg Wozzeck
  • Sopranos and Altos sing Mahler in solfege
  • Bass 2: yet what can you expect
Berio bar 381
  • Alto 1: stop! (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
  • Tenor 1: they don't know who they are
Berio bar 382 / Mahler bar 361
  • Bass 1: did you hear? (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
Berio bar 382-384 / Mahler bar 361-363
  • Mahler in woodwinds
Berio bar 384 / Mahler bar 363
  • Tenor 2: keep going
Berio bar 385
  • Clarinets, saxophone and bassoons join Berg Wozzeck
  • Soprano 2: Did you hear? (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
Berio bar 387 / Mahler bar 369
  • Mahler in violas
  • Tenor 2: stop! (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
Berio bar 388 / Mahler bar 370
  • Oboes join Berg Wozzeck
  • Violin B join Mahler
  • Bass 2: stop! (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
Berio bar 389 / Mahler bar 371
  • Violin A join Mahler
  • Alto 2: do you hear? (A quote from Berg Wozzeck in English)
  • Tenor 1: keep going
Berio bar 390 / Mahler bar 372
  • Alto 2: Horen Sie? (A quote from Berg Wozzeck)
  • Orchestral basses play Mahler piccolo part
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