# Luciano Berio's Sinfonia



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

On the thread 'Post 1950...' there is some buzz about the work entitled Sinfonia by Berio. It is a strange, fascinating work that is entirely new to me, but I think it is the type of work that would merit some discussion. What are your thoughts on this work? What role, if any, has it played in the evolution of contemporary music? Do you like it? Why or why not?

To start, here is an article on the internet that seems to be a good verbal introduction:

http://www.themodernword.com/%5C/%5C/beckett/beckett_berio_sinfonia.html


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

The third movement has many musical quotations:

Here is a partial list of them from Wikipedia, in order of appearance:


Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, fourth movement, "Peripetie" (violent scale from bars 2–3 played by the brass), in bars 1–6

Claude Debussy's La mer, second movement, "Jeux de vagues" (opening measures), in bars 4–5

A brief quotation of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 (Mahler) in bars 2–10, beginning just before.....

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, third movement (the only quotation that is ongoing) entering in bar 7, from where it continues to the end of the movement, though not always audibly (Hicks 1981–82, p. 212)

Paul Hindemith's Kammermusik Nr. 4

Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, flute solo from the Pantomime

Debussy's "Jeux de vagues" returns

Berlioz's idée fixe from the Symphonie Fantastique (played by the flutes and oboes), in bar 106

Ravel's La Valse (orchestra plays octave motif with piccolo playing a chromatic scale)

Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (the "Dance of the Earth" sequence at the end of the first tableau), bars 170–85

Stravinsky's Agon (upper oboe part from the "Double pas de quatre")

Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (one of the waltzes composed for the opera)

a chorale by Johann Sebastian Bach

the end of the second movement of Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto

Alban Berg's Wozzeck (the drowning scene late in the third act)

Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, second movement (melody stated with the clarinets)

Resumption of Hindemith's Kammermusik No. 4 in the solo violin, starting in bar 429

Another quotation from Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, ending in bar 448

Brief recapitulation of the opening of the movement: Schoenberg's "Peripetie", 

Debussy's La Mer (this time from the third movement "Dialogue du vent et de la mer"), starting at bar 488

Boulez's Pli Selon Pli, very first chord of the entire piece from the first movement ("Don")

Anton Webern's Cantata op. 31, fifth movement (opening), in bars 547–54

Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen for three orchestras (during the introductions of the vocalists near the end, bars 555–60)


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

The third movement in particular is wonderful - playful, postmodern, and yet avant-garde and fascinating.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have known the piece since the mid-'70s and, despite owning 2 or even 3 different versions on LP, it was mostly a novelty piece for me, much along the lines of Ligeti's Aventures/Nouvelles Aventures and Stockhausen's Momente, due to the fact that it was a vocal work. It was only when I recently got a recording on CD, together with 4 decades of growth and experience permitting more appreciation of vocal works, that I recognized what a marvellous work this really is. I have only recognized the fewest of the quotations and I am fascinated to begin to discover more of them.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

As a new listener to the piece, it strikes me how easily, as a listener my attention gets divided. The different voices each often have their own discourse and it then is up to the listener to choose which "path" to follow. It is, probably inadverdently, well designed for our mass-consumer culture of commercials, 5 second sound-bytes, etc.


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## almc (Jan 26, 2013)

I do think that Berio made a fascinating experiment, especially with the collage of the 3rd mov., however I believe that the whole 'surprise thing' vanishes after the first audition and never drawed me in to make a second one.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

The finale of the work does an amazing job of pulling together its disparate strands (the second movement was initially a stand-alone piece for small ensemble and voices eulogizing Martin Luther King, Jr.), and overall it remains a fascinating piece, I find, in its entirety.


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