Revista Vó rtex | Vortex Music Journal | ISSN 2317–9937 | http://vortex.unespar.edu.br/
D.O.I.: https://doi.org/10.33871/23179937.2020.8.3.1.31
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza
XI for guitar
Diego Castro-Magas
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | Chile
Abstract: Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI stands as a major
work in the 20th-century guitar repertoire. Although it
has been extensively analysed in previous scholarship, its
performance practice has not been addressed. In this
paper, I set out to fill this gap by analysing fifteen
commercial recordings of the work, and furthermore seek
to demonstrate how different categories of musical timeexperience (after UTZ, 2017) can be used as a frame for
discussing performers’ interpretative decisions. I propose
a formal analysis of the work and provide time-based
measurements of the score, which I then compare to the
performed sound structures. The results allow me to map
the main trends in the performance practice of Sequenza
XI in commercial recordings produced between 1993 and
2016, as well as to relate these trends to the discourses of
the performers involved.
Keywords: Contemporary Guitar, Performance
Practice, Performance Analysis, Temporality, Luciano
Berio.
Received on: September 1st, 2020. Approved on: October 8th, 2020. Online available on: December 15th, 2020. Guest-Editor: Dr.
Humberto Amorim. Editor-in-chief: Dr. Felipe de Almeida Ribeiro.
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
S
ince the 1990s, coinciding with the performative turn in the humanities, various music
researchers have promoted a reconsideration of the ontology of musical works in the Western
tradition, reconceptualising the relationship between performer and composer. These
musicological discourses – especially within the fields of Philosophy of Music, Performance Studies
and Artistic/Practice-based Research – attempt to overcome the traditional view of the performer’s
subservience to a composer’s intentions, and thus to vindicate performers’ creative (or at least cocreative) agency. Whereas traditional ideologies put forward the score as an ideal, fixed and static
object, determined by the composer, reproduced by the performer and uncoverable through analysis
(LLORENS, 2017, p. 10), more recent thinking proposes that musical meaning and structure are not
encoded in notation but rather “constituted in the acts of performance and perception” (COOK,
2013, p. 91-97). Here, the score is regarded as a more dynamic object: one which functions as a script
rather than a text (COOK, 2001, paragraph 16), or, better still, as a “means for channelling
performers’ creative imagination” (PACE, 2017, p. 285). Central to this performance-oriented
thinking on musical ontology is a consideration of music’s temporal dimension.
Ana Llorens, in recent work focused on identifying a performer-specific notion of musical
structure, presents the contrasting notions of the synchronic and the diachronic (2017, p. 9-11). The
former relates to a vertical/paradigmatic view – as when looking for morphological correspondences
in musical material – whereas the latter refers to horizontal/syntagmatic aspects such as the temporal
succession of sound events. Thus, in modes of discourse such as that of Formenlehre,1 “musical
structure has traditionally been represented as a closed, static, architectural, and relational system in
whose creation performers have no part, and which can be grasped through synchronic analysis of
scores” (LLORENS, 2017, p. 10). However unavoidable the synchronic approach may be in analysis,
Llorens argues, it need not exclude diachronic insights: the idea that music is made of time, and that
the temporal succession of sounds is central to the creation of structures (ibid, p. 11). Indeed, time is
one of the main musical parameters upon which performers are likely to manipulate and exert an
impact in performance, through rubato and tempo modifications.
Nicholas Cook distinguishes two main performing styles in relation to musical time: the
Lit. “morphology”. Inherent to this tradition are the discourses on the hierarchy of the senses that were current in the
19th century, whereby “the sense of sight, linked to Kant’s ‘pure contemplation’ (reine Anschauung), was considered
superior to imprecise hearing” (UTZ, 2017, p. 224).
1
2
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
structuralist and the rhetorical (2013, p. 92-125). The former relates to an architectural/synchronic
view of musical form, and is associated in general with literalist/modernist performance and the
concept of reproduction. The rhetorical model is, in contrast, pre-modernist and it is characterised
by treating musical materials as if they were topics, so that performance becomes a kind of semiotics,
practised in real time (ibid, p. 125); indeed, this approach results in a more flexible treatment of
musical time itself. The structuralist approach regards music as an ideal object, not inherently
temporal but which is presented through time in performance – music in time. The rhetorical, by
contrast, regards music as time.
The musicological field of Performance Studies, to which the aforementioned works belong,
has to date focused mainly on the common-practice period, giving considerably less attention to the
most recent developments in Western Art Music. This could be thought to leave open the question
of whether these approaches to musical time are able to account satisfactorily for different
interpretative decisions in the performance of contemporary music. An exception is the work of the
Austrian composer and theorist Christian Utz, who has produced research outputs concerned with
contemporary music, proposing a model that seeks to relate the synchronic and the diachronic which
he terms as morphosyntactic analysis. According to Utz, this model
aims to capture the multivalence or layeredness of musical sound particularly by crossrelating spatial or morphological aspects of perception (gestalt formation and spatialisation
of events in memory) and temporal or syntactic aspects (transformation or change of
musical events or processes in time and their syntactic relationships). (UTZ, 2017, p. 217)
Based on the perception of music as time, Utz outlines three archetypes of musical temporality
(2017, p. 221-225), each entailing certain attributes of performance style:
1. The architectural model (or spatialised time) is mainly synchronic, thus sustained by literalist
performance traditions. As a performing style, it aims at the individualisation of
morphological events: in particular, a fast tempo and strong contrasts between sound events
are likely to enhance the perception of time in performance as spatial (ibid, p. 222).
2. The transformation model (or processual time) can be linked to the tradition of musical
energetics, most prominently represented by Ernst Kurth’s theory of music as motion. As a
performing style it relates to the idea that each sound event is part of a large transformative
3
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
chain over the duration of the entire work, pursuing the metaphor of organic growth. Its
main performance features are a minimisation of contrasts and a tendency to slow tempos
(ibid, p. 223).
3. The presentist mode (or moment time) draws upon Stockhausen’s idea of “moment form”,
elaborated as “moment time” in Jonathan Kramer’s book The Time of Music (1988, p. 5052). This model has temporal discontinuity at its core, and is informed by contemporary
artistic techniques such as montage and fragmentation. As a performing style, the presentist
mode seeks a sense of fragmentation by means of a high degree of contrast; contrary to the
architectural model, it tends to slow and irregular tempos, contributing to the impression
that the individual events are isolated from one another (ibid, p. 224).
Although both the architectural and presentist modes resemble in their aim for contrast, a key
difference is the aim for continuity in the former that manifests in the preference for faster tempos,
facilitating gestalt formation and recognition of events in memory.
In this paper, I take these theoretical models of musical time perception – and their associated
performing features – as a frame for approaching the different interpretative decisions in the
commercial recordings of Berio’s Sequenza XI, questioning their pertinence and applicability. In
order to do so, I propose a formal analysis of the score and a temporal quantification of its notated
materials, which may then be compared to the performed sound structures in the recordings under
examination.
1. Berio’s Sequenza XI
Luciano Berio completed Sequenza XI in 1988. Written to a commission from the
Philharmonic Society of Rovereto (Italy), it is the result of a long-term collaboration with the
American guitarist Eliot Fisk. According to Wuestemann, who interviewed both Berio and Fisk for
his DMA thesis (1998), this collaboration started in 1982 and developed through meetings at regular
intervals in which, besides working on the new work, Fisk played for Berio many pieces of his
repertoire (WUESTEMANN, 1998, p. 12). The composer referred to Sequenza XI as the “accursed
4
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
one”2 (BERIO apud WUESTEMANN, p. 18), noting that this, of all his Sequenzas, required an
unusual amount of work. Berio writes:
In Sequenza XI for guitar I was concerned to develop a dialogue between the heavily
idiomatic harmony that is bound up with the tuning of the instrument and a “different”
harmony, the passport between these two far-flung harmonic territories being the interval
of the augmented fourth. In Sequenza XI, two instrumental and gestural styles are also
present, one having its roots in the flamenco guitar traditions, and the other in that of the
classical guitar, the passage between these two “histories” being my more experimental
vision of the instrument. The dialogue between the two harmonic dimensions on the one
hand, and the two technical and gestural ones on the other, is pursued through a
continuous process of exchanges and “transcription” of clearly recognizable figures.
(BERIO, 1998, p. 20)
Previous analytical scholarship on Sequenza XI concurs in identifying the two main pitch
structures – or harmonies – underpinning the music as the open strings of the guitar and a twelvetone row strongly articulated by the tritone (see Figures 1 & 2).
FIGURE 1 – The open strings of the guitar (sounding pitch)
FIGURE 2 – The twelve-tone row
Moreover, the classical and flamenco guitar traditions as instrumental/gestural styles, as
referred to by the composer, are treated as both playing techniques (such as the Romantic tremolo,
the flamenco rasgueado3 or the electric guitar tapping technique) and textural construction: the
alternation of chords and linear demisemiquavers is inspired, according to the composer, by the
2
3
Maledetta, in Italian.
Lit. "strumming".
5
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
consonancias and redobles principle from the vihuela music of Luis Milán,4 as well as by the
alternations of rasgueado passages, scales and trills typical of flamenco composition/improvisation
(BERIO apud WUESTEMANN, 1998, p. 33).
Previous analyses identify gestural patterns based on playing techniques as articulators of
musical form. Although these analyses are dissimilar in their formal segmentation, all of them concur
in partitioning the music into sections and subsections defined by dominant patterns. At first glance,
Sequenza XI can indeed be heard as a collection of gestural fragments which blurs formal
concatenation: rather than being linear, the organisation of the material is layered – a sort of (veiled)
montage. The poet Edoardo Sanguineti, a friend and collaborator of the composer, wrote poems
corresponding to the individual Sequenzas between 1994-5,5 and that for the guitar piece may suggest
the centrality of temporal fragmentation: “I find you again, my unnatural puerile pseudo-dance / I
enclose you within a circle: and I interrupt you, I disrupt you” (SANGUINETI apud BERIO, 1998,
p. 20).6 This suggestion of a sort of circular form that is continuously interrupted can be perceived in
the work’s sudden transitions between materials, which leave to the listener the task of making sense
of how these materials interact. Berio writes:
Almost all the Sequenzas have in common the intention of defining and developing
through melody an essentially harmonic discourse and [...] of suggesting a polyphonic type
of listening, based in part on the rapid transition between different characteristics, and their
simultaneous iteration. Here polyphony should be understood in a metaphorical sense, as
the exposition and superposition of differing modes of action and instrumental
characteristics (BERIO, 1998, p. 8).
Schulmann (2016, p. 255-340) is the most recent of the analytical writings on Sequenza XI – a
revisionist approach that compares previous scholarship,7 pointing out that most analysts have
identified nine main gestural patterns, or “modes of action”, based on playing techniques. Besides
Luis Milán's so-called “gallant style, which consists of chords mixed with passage work that is commonly called playing
dedillo” (GRIFFITHS, 2005, p. 167).
5
Included in the liner notes of the Deutsche Grammophon CD (1998) devoted to the complete cycle of Sequenzas, and
included as recorded recitation in the similar publication by Mode Records (2007).
6
Ti ritrovo, mia puerile pseudodanza innaturale / Ti chiudo in un cerchio: e ti interrompo, ti rompo (Italian verses in
BERIO, 1998, p. 69).
7
Except for Rens (2015), which was presumably too recent to be taken into account by Schulmann. Rens’s analysis (2015,
p. 106-123) resembles the previous analyses, but focuses more on the compositional process – which Rens characterises
as a “synergy of freedom and constraint” – as well as on the theatrical/gestural potential of the composition.
4
6
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
receiving wider attention through having been published as both an MA thesis and a chapter in the
edited book on the Sequenza series (PORCARO, 2007, p. 255-274), Mark Porcaro's analysis is
distinguished by being the first to focus on Berio's particular notion of polyphony: “a polyphonic
type of listening”, a “polyphony of different modes of action”. Porcaro identifies in four layers –
functioning as paradigmatic columns based on the parameters of pitch and texture – the material for
the entire work, and tracks their development according to different levels of tension, which he terms
as focus and out-of-focus8 (out-of-focus being the maximum level of tension). Porcaro draws on these
concepts to discuss the gestural content of each layer and its development in time according to each
layer synchronically; that is, he does not approach the horizontal interaction between layers.
Porcaro defines each layer according to pitch and texture, but also implying a series of gestural
patterns and playing techniques. Layer 1 (from now on L1) is a six-voice chordal texture, which most
typically contains chord sequences played through flamenco-rasgueado patterns as well as tambora
and conventional plucking/strumming. Layer 2 (L2) is a mixture of (four- and five-voiced) chords
and linear textures, and alludes to the polyphony of vihuela music. Layer 3 (L3) is based on the twelvetone row mentioned above (Porcaro defines this layer in terms of two linear hexachords); it is
essentially a linear texture, predominantly realised in demisemiquavers or fast grace notes, and
contains several playing techniques such as tremolo or tapping as well as a series of gestural types
which have been referred to as “arabesques” (McKAY, 2009, p. 131). Finally, Layer 4 (L4) is the work’s
only passage of two-part counterpoint – located at page 9, systems 5-8; see Figure 3 – although both
Porcaro (2004, p. 32) and Rens (2015, p. 114-115) regard it as really a three-part polyphony, whose
pitch material has put in previous appearances from page 7 onwards.
8
Terms employed by Berio himself (BERIO apud PORCARO, 2004, p. 12).
7
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
FIGURE 3 – Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar, page 9, systems 5-8. Porcaro’s Layer 4 highlighted in yellow
Source: Luciano Berio (1988, p.9)
8
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
FIGURE 4 – Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar, page 1, systems 1-6. Layer 1 is highlighted in red, Layer 2 in blue
and Layer 3 in green
Source: Luciano Berio (1988, p.1)
9
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
In Figure 4, the first page of Sequenza XI is segmented according to Porcaro's suggestions.9 In
this passage can be seen very clearly the distinctiveness of the textures, justifying Porcaro's focus on
that parameter in defining his paradigmatic layers. The very first segment based on L1 (highlighted
in red in Fig. 4), featuring six-voiced chords played both as tambora and normal strumming through
different rhythmic figures, is indeed different to its abrupt reappearance in the second system
featuring an evident reference to flamenco by means of rasgueado patterns. Moreover, L2
(highlighted in blue in Fig. 4), presenting four- and five-voiced chords and some linear material,
resembles (especially in system 6) the consonancias and redobles principle of vihuela music mentioned
above. And the L3 fragments (highlighted in green in Fig. 4) – linear gestures based on the twelvetone row (with its characteristic tritones), grouped in demisemiquaver and grace-note groups – are
inserted in between the L1 and L2 passages. There are elements of similarity between these layers,
such as pitch (the two “harmonies”, based on both the guitar tuning and the tritone) and rhythmic
patterns: most obviously, the demisemiquavers grouped in fours, common to L1, L3 and L2 (in
system 6), and the groups of grace notes, indicated to be played “as fast as possible” (strummed chords
in L1 and linear groups in L3).
Among all the published analyses of Sequenza XI – besides the absence of comment/discussion
on performance practice10 – it is surprising to encounter no consideration of the potential aid to
analysis that may be found in Chemins V (BERIO, 1992a), a work for guitar and orchestra based on
the guitar sequenza. Here is Berio on the Chemins series in general:
The best way to analyse and comment on a musical work is to write another one using
materials from the original work: a creative exploration of a composition is at the same time
an analysis, a commentary and an extension of the original. The most profitable
commentary on a symphony or an opera has always been another symphony or another
opera. This is why my Chemins, where I quote, translate, expand and transcribe my
Sequenzas for solo instruments, are also the Sequenzas’ best analyses. They are a series of
specific commentaries which include, almost intact, the object and subject of the
commentary. The Chemins are not the displacement of an objet trouvé into a different
context or the orchestral “dressing up” of a solo piece (the original Sequenza), but rather a
commentary organically tied to it and generated by it. The instrumental ensemble brings
Nevertheless, my segmentation in Fig. 4 is not identical to that of Porcaro (2004, p. 37), who views L2 in system 1 as
beginning with the repeated chord (A2-C3-F♯3-G3-D4-E4) played as tambora, just before the quaver rest. Similarly,
Porcaro (ibid) regards L2 in system 6 as starting from the second group of demisemiquavers, not the first.
10
Except for Wuestemann (1998, p. 60-66), who offers some technical solutions along the lines of a performing guide –
a feature common in dissertations produced under DMA programs in the USA, but not amounting to an in-depth
consideration of interpretative decision-making.
9
10
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
to the surface and develops musical processes that are hidden and compressed in the solo
part, amplifying every aspect, including the temporal one: at times the roles are inverted so
that the solo part appears to be generated by its own commentary (BERIO, 1992b).
Chemins V exhibits two features which may provide assistance to an analyst of Sequenza XI: a
segmentation of the music (by means of orchestral interludes which interrupt the solo part and
comment on its gestural content), and valuable metrical insights (since, unlike in the Sequenza, many
passages are notated with barlines). In this paper, a segmentation of Sequenza XI based on the insights
afforded by Chemins V is proposed, while Porcaro’s four “layers” are applied to identify the musical
materials.
2. Formal analysis of the score
In presenting his analysis of Sequenza XI, Porcaro (2004, p. 13) identifies each of his four layers
as a section, using the term synchronically – an approach which yields much of interest, although it
does not account for process and interaction between layers. John McKay (2007, p. 131) similarly
identifies four main sections, but diachronically. In this study, I identify five main sections,
distinguished on the basis of their predominant gestural content, and further divide the piece into
sub-sections which I call segments.11 The five sections I propose coincide with those of McKay but
split the last section in two: I consider the tempo change to ♩=50 on page 11, system 6 (which remains
in force until the end of the work) as the beginning of a new section, given the degree of contrast
created by the predominance of different gestural materials. Additionally, following Chemins V, I
identify 53 segments,12 and identify each of these as containing gestural material from one or more
of Porcaro’s four layers. Most of the segments focus on one layer; however in many cases there is
material of two or more layers. In cases where there is a clear dominance of one layer over another,
the less dominant is indicated in round brackets – for example, L1(L3). If a segment contains layers
Following the tradition of formal analytical approaches such as Nattiez’s paradigmatic analysis (exemplified in his work
on Varèse’s Density 21.5; see NATTIEZ, 1982) – in which the smallest portion is the unit, then the sequence, then section
and finally part – in this analysis I only consider sequences (but calling them segments, to avoid a similarity with Berio’s
term Sequenza) and sections.
12
Chemins V indicates 50 subsections for rehearsal purposes, with orchestral cues indicated. Almost all of these cues
coincide with the 53 segments I have identified – I added a few more in order to account for some tempo changes, given
that my analysis is focused on temporality.
11
11
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
with equal preponderance, they are expressed using a slash, for example L1/L3.
Table 1 shows my formal analysis of Sequenza XI, in which the metronomic duration of
notated sound events has been calculated. Although there are no bars, the notation is clear concerning
durations: there are metronomic indications throughout, and even the groups of grace notes (to be
played "as fast as possible") display always within measured time spans. There are only two passages
that are freer in relation to time: the brief opening passage, from system 1 to 2 of the first page, which
is marked to be played "liberamente, come preludiando" (although a metronomic indication, of ♩=50,
is also present), and the passage on page 8, systems 2 to 6, where the notated material involves actions
for the guitarist to re-tune her/his instrument – these actions may entail a certain degree of temporal
freedom. Apart from these two passages, the notation provides clear indications in relation to time,
including tempo modifications (starting and ending points are provided for all rallentandos and
accelerandos) and fermatas; these have been included in the calculation. Thus, this process provides a
notion of the graphic duration of the score understood as an abstract entity, synchronically. This
method has been used previously in musicological work by Ulrich Mosch and Christian Utz focusing
on performance of contemporary music (MOSCH 2006 apud UTZ, 2007, p. 226).
Table 1 also indicates each segment’s gestural content, labelled according to Porcaro’s four
layers. As Sequenza XI has no bars, events are located by identifying page and system (e.g. 1.3 refers
to page 1, system 3). Thus, it can be observed that Section 1 (which has 10 segments from 1.1 to 3.3)
is dominated by the opposition of L1 and L2, with a minor presence of L3. Section 2 (10 segments,
3.3-5.5) shows a clear dominance of L3. Section 3 (12 segments, 5.6 to 8.9) portrays L1 and L3, while
section 4 (11 segments, 9.1-11.6) features L3 and L4. Finally, section 5 (10 segments, 11.6-12.7) has
a clear dominance of L2. This segmentation is employed in my subsequent analysis of the
performances.
12
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
TABLE 1 – Sectional and segmentational analysis of the score of Berio’s Sequenza XI
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
3. The commercial recordings: durations and measurements
To a greater extent than other pieces in the contemporary guitar repertoire – such as Elliott
Carter’s Changes, Franco Donatoni’s Algo or Brian Ferneyhough’s Kurze Schatten II, to name a few
influential composers who wrote major guitar works during the 20th century – Sequenza XI has been
extensively published in commercial recordings. This paper considers fifteen commercial recordings
available at the time of writing, ranging from Eduardo Fernández’s premiere recording in 1993 to
Andrea Monarda’s 2016 version.13 Table 2 shows the recordings’ basic information, including the
total duration of the track and a basic indication of the performer’s main repertoire – roughly
distinguishing mainstream and contemporary repertoires – according to a cursory survey of each
guitarist’s main artistic outputs.
In Performance Studies scholarship on early music, such as the work of Dorottya Fabian, a
basic distinction is made between a "mainstream" performance style (MSP) and Historically
Informed Performance (HIP) (FABIAN, 2015, p.13), the latter implying a significant degree of
specialisation in historical repertoire. (The concept of "mainstream" performance is developed in the
next section of this paper.) A key question which the present study seeks to address is whether a
specialisation in contemporary music performance has implications for performing style.
Accordingly, Table 2 shows this basic distinction in repertoires, which will be elaborated through the
categorisations of performing styles to be made in section 4 of this paper.
There are a few live performances available on online platforms such as Youtube, but the purpose of this study is not
approaching the recorded-live dichotomy but the mediations between notation and performance. I take the view that
studio recordings are a product that better reflects the performer’s creative intentions in the senses relevant to this study.
13
14
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
TABLE 2 – The commercial recordings of Berio’s Sequenza XI
Given the focus on temporality, the durations of the fifteen recordings were measured in terms
of duration by sections and segments, and compared with the timings previously calculated from the
score. While the score has a total duration of 14’56’’, the performances show extremes from
Andersson as the shortest version (13’45’’) to Monarda as the longest (19’18’’) – a noticeable
difference of 5’33’’ between them.
15
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
FIGURE 5 – Durations per section in 15 commercial recordings (1993-2016) of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar
Only the three shortest performances (Andersson, Falk and Nicolella) have a total duration
shorter than that of the score; most of the recordings are longer than the score, with Monarda, Josel
and Tampalini being the longest. Nicollela and Fisk are the closest to the score’s duration (under and
over, respectively). Looking at the performances’ durations by section, it is noticeable that in both
Section 1 and Section 5 all performances are longer than the score, with the sole exception of Nicolella
in section 5. Given that the main gestural material of Section 1 is L1/L2 and that of Section 5 is L2,
an obvious conclusion is that L2 prompts similar responses in the performers, with longer durations
in relation to notation. Let us recall that L2 refers, according to the composer, to vihuela music and
Milán’s “gallant style”.14 A historical source on vihuela performance practice indicates: “All that is in
chords should be played slowly and all that is in running notes fast, and pause on each fermata”
14
See footnote 5.
16
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
(MILÁN apud GRIFFITHS, 2005, p. 167).15 Given that almost all the performances are marked by
longer durations in the L2 sections, the obvious conclusion is that chords were consistently (by all
the guitarists) played slower than the notation in these sections – a conclusion resonant with vihuela
performance practice.
FIGURE 6 – Sectional ratios in 15 commercial recordings of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar
Moreover, the ratios of the sections – both from score and performances – have been calculated
in order to account for the consistency of the performances’ vis-a-vis the score’s sectional ratios. Thus,
again in contrast to the score, Sections 1 and 5 show similar results – that is, performances showed
longer ratios than the score. However, Section 2 (based on L3) indicates that all performances show
shorter ratios – that is, L3 (itself a vast collection of gestural patterns and playing techniques with a
similarity based on linear texture and pitch) prompt for faster responses than notation. In Section 3
“Todo lo que será consonancias tañerlas con el compás a espacio y todo lo que será redobles tañerlos con el compás
apriessa, y parar de tañer en cada coronado un poco” (MILÁN apud GRIFFITHS, 2005, p. 167).
15
17
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
(based on L1/L3), the performances’ tendency is for shorter ratios too (only Nicollela and García play
longer ratios) and Section 4 (based on L3/L4) shows a similar tendency (only Halasz, Tampalini,
Wagner and Monarda play longer ratios). Thus, on the large scale, Section 2 represents an energetic
contrast in relation to the section preceding it, which is always faster; Sections 3 and 4 show a similar
trend; and Section 5 is always slower than the notation.
The diachronic view of the performances – that is, based on sections – shows that deviations
of performances in relation to the score (calculated as the difference between ratios in Figure 6) rank
Nicollela, Tampalini and Fernández as more consistent with the score’s ratios, while Andersson,
Vindenes and Fisk deviate the most (see Table 3).
Moreover, a synchronic view of performed form – that is, based on the previously defined
Layers – show that Seelye, Fernández and Sainz were more consistent with the notated time
proportions, and Monarda, García and Andersson the most deviant from these (see Table 4). Given
the recurrence of the same names at the extremes in this comparison of ratios, it could be broadly
concluded that Fernández tends the most towards literalist performance while Andersson tends the
most towards rhetorical performance (using Cook’s distinction mentioned above); the question of
such categorisations is more directly addressed in section 4 of this paper.
18
TABLE 4 – Deviation of the performances, by layers
TABLE 3 – Deviation of the performances, by sections
Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
As for time at more local levels, the measurement of tempo fluctuations is likely to shed light
on a performance's tendencies to different degrees of pulse stability/flexibility. A comparison of the
segment that showcases L4, one of the very few passages where there is a regular sucession of 14
crotchet beats,16 is likely to illustrate different types of pulse in six selected performances.17
FIGURE 7 – Tempo fluctuation in six performances of Berio’s Sequenza XI, page 9, systems 5-8, Layer 4. Vertical
axis=beats per minute (BPM), horizontal axis=beats. Metronomic indication in the score is ♩=60
As seen in Fig.7, Sainz shows the most stable pulse followed by Fernández, as demonstrated by
the "flatness" of the line. Monarda tends to an accelerando towards the end (this passage, whose
metronomic indication is ♩=60, leads to a grace-note group – to be played as fast as possible – just
after the 14th beat), whereas Fisk shows an evident accelerando (from 55 to 82 BPM). Moreover, Josel
and especially Andersson show more irregular approaches to tempo. In terms of the three archetypes
described above, pulse stability is a feature of an architectural approach (sustained by literalist
performance); flexible pulse (in this case an accelerando) relates more to processual-time, and irregular
pulse relates more to presentist-time.
A comparison of a longer passage, the first page of the score which includes the alternation of
16
17
See the corresponding score fragment in Fig. 3, highlighted in yellow.
Three “mainstream” and three "contemporary" performers.
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
L1, L2 and L3 materials, is likely to illustrate the rather different approaches to time and structure in
extremely different versions such as those by Andersson and Monarda. Audio Example 1 presents
Andersson's version of the passage – the corresponding score fragment can be seen at Fig. 4 – whose
angular approach to tempo and concern with continuity can be clearly seen in Figure 8, a screenshot
from the audio analysis program Sonic Visualiser (CANNAM et al, 2010). Monarda's account of the
same passage – Audio Example 2, Figure 9 – displays, contrastingly, more spatialisation and
isolation/individuation of the sound events. The differences between these two performances are
particularly visible in the wave-forms and tempo curves: Andersson's wave-form and tempo curve are
more angular, in contrast to the "flatness" of Monarda's tempo curve. Also, Monarda's dynamic curve
shows a wider range of contrast, which is manifested in a longer time span: Monarda's rendition of
the first page lasts 1'45'', while Andersson's is 1'04''.
FIGURE 8 – Tempo and dynamic curves in Andersson’s (2001) recording of Sequenza XI: page 1, systems 1-6. The
green line shows tempo fluctuation, the blue line indicates dynamics.
[Vertical axis=volume in DB; horizontal axis=time]
FIGURE 9 – Tempo and dynamic curves in Monarda’s (2016) recording of Sequenza XI: page 1, systems 1-6. The
orange line shows tempo fluctuation, the purple line indicates dynamics.
[Vertical axis=volume in DB; horizontal axis=time]
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
4. Categorisations
After several sessions of close listening, I have subjectively evaluated the interpretative decisions
manifested in the recordings in order to relate them to the three time-experience archetypes
summarised in section 1 of this paper: the architectural (spatialised time), the transformational
(processual time) and the presentist (moment time). It could be argued that Utz’s theorisation of
processual time – the idea that each sound event is part of a large transformative chain over the
duration of the entire work – reflects key aspects of so-called "mainstream" performance: specifically,
the belief that the task of the performer, beyond exactitude, is "to make the work sound musical"
(PACE, 2014, p.8). Dorottya Fabian further distinguishes a sub-type of mainstream performance, the
Romantic-modernist approach, characterised by "phrasing that projects long melodic lines, aided by
the ebb and flow of dynamics, rhythm that tends to be literal, and ponderous tempos" (2017,
paragraph 2.3). In contrast, Utz’s architectural model (sustained by literalist performance) is indeed
based on exactitude – hence the preference for a regular pulse, marked contrasts, detailed articulation
and fast tempos. Moreover, the presentist model is not based on exactitude, but in a different way
neither is the transformational model: if the aim of moment time (with its concomitant preference
for irregular tempos, short phrasing and marked contrasts) is to isolate the events in order to achieve
a fragmentary time-experience, it is my claim that the presentist model, as performing style, is the only
one that could be exclusively related to the performance practices of contemporary music.
Nevertheless, as previous work in Performance Studies has recognised, a perfect fit between
particular performances and theoretical models is not to be expected. As Fabian, writing on Bach
performance practice, comments:
Perhaps not entirely surprisingly, the examination of recordings showed that hardly any of
them fits perfectly the theorized categories [...] Instead of representing distinct groups of
styles, the performances occupy various overlapping positions in an imaginary space where
the different dimensions of the composition are differentiated (FABIAN, 2017, paragraph
5.1).
The present study is no exception, and aims not at an absolute categorisation but to identify
the main tendencies of each performance. My subjective evaluation of the available recordings of
Sequenza XI leads me to the view that most of the performances fit best within the
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
transformation/processual-time model: meaning that continuity is prioritised over exactitude;
dynamic contrasts are minimised; a sense of long phrasing is matched by a flexible pulse; and both
rhythmic and fingering-based individuation of gestural material exhibits a primary concern with
idiomaticity. Fisk, Halasz, Vindenes, Andersson, Wagner, Tampalini, Seelye, Nicolella and Falk fit
within this category, although many of them show strong tendencies towards the architectural –
especially Fisk, Tampalini, Seelye and Nicolella, given their concern for big contrasts and tendency to
literalism. Andersson, on the other hand, shows tendencies toward presentist-time, given his
tendency to irregular pulse and detailed articulation. The architectural model is better represented, I
think, by Fernández, Sainz and García, given the concern for exactitude manifested in their tendency
towards regular pulse, short phrasing and bigger dynamic contrasts. Moreover, the presentist model
is better represented by Josel, Cicilia and Monarda, with their preference for slower tempos, irregular
pulse and gestural differentiation tending to isolate the morphological events. Furthermore, it is this
time-model that best represents the work of the guitarists whose profile attests to a degree of
specialisiation in contemporary music.
In general terms, it could be argued that Utz’s theoretical models work well in connection with
the performance of contemporary music, helping us to identify the main interpretative attitudes
toward time by providing more operative models than Cook’s distinction between structuralist and
rhetorical performance. In particular relation to contemporary music, it is of benefit to distinguish
Cook’s rhetorical category further into the two subtypes that Utz introduces: the processual and the
presentist approaches to time, concerned with continuity and fragmentarity, respectively, as two
different kinds of temporal flexibility. However, Utz’s assertions that the architectural model relates
to fast tempos and that processual-time relates to slower tempos contradict many of the performing
practices considered in this study, confirming how difficult it is to make a performance fit a
theoretical model.
5. Performers’ discourses
Despite the significant number of documented performances of the guitar Sequenza, there are
not many documented texts/discourses from the performers responsible for these recordings. In CD
booklets, performers writing liner notes is more the exception than the rule. One important exception
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
is Magnus Andersson, who in a note accompanying his recording describes Sequenza XI as:
a difficult piece to play, in particular to articulate clearly the various rasgu[e]ado and
strumming techniques asked for, which go far beyond what the classical guitarist is
normally trained to do. But even more difficult than any mechanical question are the
challenging interpretative problems that the Sequenza XI poses to the formal control of the
musician. One has to balance the static quality of an essentially repetitive form with the
innate directional energy of the figurative material which is, as it were, constantly reread as
the piece proceeds. This generates a constant flux between the active surface and an
undercurrent of melancholy. The mental energy needed to bridge this conflict is to me the
true drama of the Sequenza (ANDERSSON, 2001, p.7).
These statements confirm Andersson’s tendency to a processual-time approach: he is
concerned with “directional energy” within a frame of repetitive form. It is interesting to note the
way he distinguishes two levels, that interact in constant flux: an “active surface”, which he renders
with fast tempos and an impressive technical deployment (perhaps referring to L1, L3 and L4), and
an undercurrent, which he regards as melancholic (perhaps L2).
Andrea Monarda has also written on Sequenza XI – he published a paper in the Italian journal
devoted to the guitar, Il Fronimo. Here (2014, p. 19-24), Monarda mainly focuses on Berio’s concepts
of polyphony and gesture, comparing the guitar piece to other pieces of the Sequenza series under the
perspective of gestural polyphony. Monarda’s concerns with gestural clarity and layering are reflected,
in my view, in his performance’s long duration and in the isolation of morphological events through
discontinuity betweeen one event and the next, constituting a tendency towards presentist time.
Another view – one somewhat critical of the piece itself – is that of Seth Josel, who comments
in a documented interview:
The piece is organic much in the same way that Beethoven’s music is organic. I like to think
of it as a spiral-like process. In my opinion, sorry for sounding pompous here, the work’s
basic material simply does not justify a 15-minute composing-out of that material. That’s
a highly subjective comment of course, but one that has been supported by some close
friends of mine, composers of a high rank. My experience as both an audience member and
performer has led me to believe that it’s extremely difficult to capture and hold an
audience’s full attention during an airing of the work. This [is] in stark contrast to the
trombone or viola Sequenzas. Regardless, it is a milestone indeed: that is, one of the most
important composers of the 20th century composed a major work for the guitar. (JOSEL
apud AGUZZI, 2016, p. 130)
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
These remarks on how difficult it is to capture and hold the attention of listeners during a
performance of Sequenza XI make a central point. It could be presumed that Josel’s performance,
tending again towards presentist time, is a response to that very issue.18
6. Final considerations
If the conception of the work of music as an ideal object – and performance as its mere
reproduction – is to be overcome, performance practice needs to take its place as part of the analytical
discussion of notated works. I believe that existing analyses of Sequenza XI can be well complemented
by the insights gained in this study, in which performed musical structures have been measured and
discussed both synchronically (in terms of layers) and diachronically (through sectionalisation).
Porcaro’s layers have been evaluated in terms of the different interpretative responses they prompt as
notated tasks, with particular attention paid to the temporal implications of the interpretative models
identified. My conclusion is that rhetorical performance – considered as “a kind of semiotic practice
in real time” (COOK, 2013, p. 125), whose temporal flexibilities can be further distinguished as
either processual or presentist approaches to time – has dominated the performance practice of
Sequenza XI; this seems natural given the particular qualities of the piece, as a sort of circular/montage
form intending to make references to various guitar histories and styles. A further, albeit provisional,
conclusion of this study is that there is a particular theorised performing style which is distinctive of
contemporary music performance: the presentist approach to time. This latter claim would benefit
from further exploration in future studies involving more works and instruments.
As for methodological considerations, both the quantification and comparison of notated and
performed sound structures in terms of duration seem to illuminate some relations between notation
and performance. Although there is some degree of uncertainty in the metronomic measurement of
notation, this quantification enacts the notion of the score as an ideal object, which serves as an
important reference when discussing performance. These methods, used in tandem with subjective
judgement based on close listening, are capable of providing a wide range of insight in the discussion
both of specific performances and of theoretical models of performance.
Also his preference for a long duration, which he shares with Monarda, makes both performances the two longest
durations and the most representative cases of presentist time.
18
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Temporality and performing style in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI for guitar. Revista Vórtex, Curitiba, v.8, n.3, p. 1-29, 2020.
Despite the limitations of theoretical categorisations of performance styles – as observed, they
rarely fit a given performance perfectly – I hope to have shown the utility of this approach in opening
up new interpretative choices and in developing critical perspectives which may inform future
performance practice. Despite the fact that Sequenza XI has already been extensively (and very well)
performed, the most recent trends concerning long durations and presentist-time approaches – as
well as approaches that could jump more freely between different styles – offer significant potential
for yet further exploration.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their generous and
constructive comments and suggestions, as well as to the Editors for their professionalism and
courtesy. Also, I thank John Fallas for his insightful proofreading. I thank also Natalia Véliz, for her
support in preparing the graphs, and Cristián Alvear, for support in collecting information about the
performers.
This research project was possible thanks to the support of Dirección de Artes y Cultura,
Vicerrectoría de Investigación at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, to whom I am deeply
grateful.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Diego Castro-Magas is a guitarist and researcher specialising in contemporary music. Diego has given numerous
performances throughout America, Europe and Oceania, and has released various CDs focusing on the contemporary
guitar repertoire. He obtained his PhD at the University of Huddersfield in 2016, and has lectured on the performance
practice of contemporary music at important institutions in Europe and America, besides publishing articles in journals
such as TEMPO, Divergence Press and Resonancias. Currently he is Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica
de Chile, where he teaches courses related to Performance, Analysis and Artistic Research.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8697-5110. E-mail: dcastrom@uc.cl
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