Sequenza X for Trumpet and Piano Resonance
Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Luciano Berio was born in Oneglia in 1925. Studying initially with his father and grandfather who were both organists and composers, Berio developed a great interest in the piano, but his performing days were short lived when he suffered a hand injury during military service. After the war, he studied composition in Milan and then, in 1952, went on to study serialism at Tanglewood. It was whilst at Tanglewood that he became interested in electronic music and in 1953 he founded the Studio di Fonologia Musicale for Electronic Music. In addition to his composition work, from the late 1960s, Berio took an interest in conducting and in the following decades served as the Artistic Director of numerous orchestras. During this period Berio also taught at a number of acclaimed educational establishments including Tanglewood, Juilliard (where he formed the Juilliard Ensemble) and served as Director of the Electroacoustic Department at IRCAM with Pierre Boulez.

Sequenza X, composed in 1984, is part of a cycle of works for solo instrument that Berio started writing in 1958 (he wrote his fourteenth Sequenza in 2002). As with all the Sequenza’s, Sequenza X is a display of extreme virtuosity with the music asking the performer to use techniques such as flutter tonguing, pedal notes, extreme vibrato and plunger work.

The unifying element between the Sequenza’s however, must be the virtuosity provided by conflict. Conflict between the musical idea, based on a series of harmonic fields, and the melodic nature of the instrument. And it is in Sequenza X where this conflict is brought to the fore with the additional use of the piano. The pianist is called upon to press chords without actually striking the strings, thus allowing the strings to resonate sympathetically with the harmonic fields produced by the trumpet. This allows for great interplay between the brilliance of the trumpet and the haunting echo of the piano.

Sequenza X was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and dedicated to the orchestra’s Executive Director, Ernest Fleischmann. It was first performed by Thomas Stevens, Principal Trumpet of the LA Philharmonic, in November 1984.

© Adrian Horn