PREFACE
Luciano Berio (1925-2003) was among the most prolific composers of the 20th century. Not only did Berio contribute to traditional “classical” instruments and ensemble, he is also regarded as one of the key participants in the development of electronic and digital electroacoustic music. Berio’s contributions to the aesthetic artifacts and technologies in this area span the course of over four decades and represent a long-term commitment to the field. Berio’s contributions can be divided into three phases: (1) early: fixed media, (2) middle: transitional experiments, and (3) late: live digital music. Exploring these phases will illuminate the composer’s specific contributions as well as his journey from fixed analog media to modern live digital techniques.
EARLY: FIXED MEDIA
The early first phase, tape music, roughly coincides with Berio’s co-founding of the Studio di Fonologia Musical di Radio Milano in 1955. This studio, co-founded in collaboration with fellow composer and conductor Bruno Maderna, was intended to provide a third voice for European experimental electronic music (in competition with the Parisian musique concrète and Cologne-based elektronische musik movements). Due to the technologies available at the time, the Fonologia’s output primarily consisted of compositions for magnetic tape. These analog compositions, inherently fixed in quality, were not reactive and predated digital systems. Nonetheless, Berio established a fascination with pursuing sounds and performance opportunities that were note possible through traditional acoustic and concert-music practice means.
Photo of Luciano Berio, Marino Zaccheri, Bruno Maderna, Alfredo Lietti, Nino Castelnuovo at Studio Fonologia, Milan.
Among Berio’s early compositional experiments in electronic music were Mimusique (1953) and Mutazioni (1956). These works were unique in the fact that they incorporated both synthetic electronically-generated tones (in the vein of the German elektronische musik) as well as manipulated pre-recorded samples (a la the French musique concrète).
Due to their early prototypical nature, these works are very short by Berio’s usual standard (approximately 2 and 3.5 minutes long respectively) however, provide evidence for future directions to be taken by the composer. Berio would later realize greater aesthetic richness in the medium in two landmark compositions, Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) and Visage (1961). These works were much longer in duration (6.5 and 21 minutes long respectively) and featured more sophisticated technique and intricate construction. In addition to improved electronic elements, the works also prominently featured the voice of soprano (and then-wife) Cathy Berberian, once again blurring the lines between the otherwise dogmatic divide of the French and German schools. In so doing, Berio codifies his intent to integrate electronic and live performant voices, which is obliquely realized in later developments.
With the exception of his 1975 Chants Paralellès, Berio composed the bulk of his magnetic tape works between 1953 and 1961, thereby demonstrating his desire to grow beyond this fixed medium. Fortunately, these works were not Berio’s final contributions to the electroacoustic realm; instead, they served as the basis for his 1974 appointment as director of the electroacoustic music division of the newly formed Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). This position would lead to new phase of experimentation in emergent technologies, such as live signal processing and integration of computers in the performance of live electroacoustic performance.
MIDDLE: TRANSITIONAL EXPERIMENTS
Berio’s middle second phase, transitional experiments, began with the composer being appointed as director of the electroacoustic music division at IRCAM in 1974 by fellow Darmstadt-devotee and IRCAM brainchild, Pierre Boulez. This appointment occurred as IRCAM entered its first period of full post-planning operations. IRCAM’s initial objectives coincided with many of the objectives Berio sought through his landmark tapes works. As stated by Andrew Gerzo, “IRCAM gambled, not on the independence of acoustic composition compared to electroacoustic composition, but rather on the fusion or interaction of the two. In other words, IRCAM embraced the challenge of real time, not for the technological feat it represents, but as a hypothesis of a relationship between electronic writing and the instrumental musical gesture.”
As director, Berio coordinated aesthetic efforts with concurrent scientific developments being made at the institute and navigated IRCAM’s unique dynamic of autonomous divisions combined with scientific research independence. While in this position, Berio’s compositional output was significantly reduced in favor of research efforts. The most significant effort involved inviting Giuseppe di Giugno to the facility to develop live sound processors, which (through a series of revisions) would ultimately culminate into the famous IRCAM/Sogitec 4X computer. However, Berio’s non-published works and research are severely under-documented due to his insistence on administering his division as a secretive and “strictly oral” culture. Georgina Born writes, “The Pedagogy director recalled it thus: ‘Berio made the famous statement, which became law, that we would have no documentation in his studio, because ‘music is an oral culture.’ This was crazy, but it became the standard here…’” Nonetheless, stray documentation and surviving evidence suggest that these years provided critical developments for the composer. Andrea Cremaschi summarizes, “These years were devoted to research and intense experimentation that, even if they left almost no mark in his official catalog as a composer, coincided with a broadening and deepening of his theoretical writing. […] Yet, it was in these years that Berio concentrate his interests on live electronics.”
This interest in live electronics would result a new electroacoustic work that represented IRCAM’s and Berio’s strive to real time musical processing. This work, entitled Chemins (ex) V (1977) for clarinet and live electronics, started development shortly after Berio’s initial appointment and occurred in tandem with development of the 4X computer.Chemins (ex) V was intended to explore the use of “digital filters” that manipulated spectral content of the clarinetist in real-time. These manipulations were meant to imitate timbral effects of vowels and human vocalization.
Chemins (ex) V vowel chart
Giuseppe di Giugno and his 4X computer at IRCAM.
Programmed on the 4C computer (a 4X precursor), this work can be seen as an early precursor to modern digital signal processing techniques employed in runtimes such as Max/MSP. However, unlike today’s GUI-based runtimes, the 4C was very to program for at the time and proved unreliable in performance settings. This issue was further compounded by Berio’s aforementioned resistance to proper documentation, which ultimately resulted in the system being practically unworkable any computer programmer other than Giuseppe di Giugno. At least four versions of the program were developed and became increasingly complex and further unreliable over time. Due to the above factors, as well as a lack of musical fulfilment compared to practical effort, the work was ultimately scrapped, and the title withdrawn by the composer; the clarinet melodic material for would eventually be repurposed in both Sequenza IX (1981) and La Vera Storia (1982). No recording of this work was made, and remaining artifacts can be found in the Paul Sacher Stiftüng in Basel, Switzerland.
Manuscript excerpt of Chemins (ex) V.
While Chemins (ex) V resulted in an impractical failure of a composition, the work nonetheless represented Berio’s first foray into digital media and live electronics processing. The failures of Chemins (ex) V may have discouraged the composer to return to this technology for some time, however, this compositional direction would return in later developments. Berio ultimately departed IRCAM in 1980 following a broader restructuring of the organization by Pierre Boulez. Born conjectures, “…relations between Boulez and the departing codirectors had deteriorated… Boulez described the move as rational streamlining, making IRCAM into… a computer music studio.” This new streamlining, which conflicted with Berio’s intended fusion of electroacoustic and acoustic compositional practices and lead to his departure, eventually resulted in the composer founding a new venture of his own.
LATE: LIVE DIGITAL MUSIC
Following some years departure from composing electroacoustic works, Berio initiated a return to the medium in 1987 by establishing the Tempo Reale in Florence, Italy. Tempo Reale would serve as a hotspot for electronic music research and music technology; much like Studio Fonologia, the center aimed to provide a third Italian voice to this field. As expressed by Francesco Giomi, Berio’s primary objective at Tempo Reale was, “…the creation of a homogenous path between acoustic sources on the one hand (voices and instruments) and electroacoustic sources on the other (live electronics).” Clearly, the flame of Berio’s initial goal to blur the lines between the acoustic performer and electronic element continued to burn. As such, the founding of Tempo Reale signifies the commencement of Berio’s final electroacoustic compositional phase, which would culminate with fully digital live works that continue to be viable by modern technological standards.
Diagram of the Tempo Reale's in-house audio technology setup
Two particular works can represent Berio’s developments during this period: Ofanìm (1988-1997), and Altra Voce (1999). Ofanìm, written for female voice, two children’s choirs, two instrumental groups, and live electronics, sought to minimalize specialization possibilities as well as, in Berio’s words, “adaptability of the musical thought to different spaces and listening situations.” This was achieved through use of a unique wheel-like speaker configuration that surrounded the audience. Additionally, sounds were processed with varying algorithms, which incorporated multiple delays and harmonization, made possible by use of a digital sampler. All processing choices were initially made with the intention of reinforcing the physical “wheel” paradigm; later revisions would involve more haphazard spatialization, leaving the wheel concept to be primary visual rather than aural.
Diagram of Ofanìm's loudspeaker setup.
Diagram of Ofanìm's live delay chain process.
Altra Voce, for mezzo-soprano, flute, and live electronics, is a further evolution and sophistication of the techniques employed in Ofanìm. Berio reflects “Two voices and several instruments “fall in love” and follow one another in a constantly renewing relationship… In Altra Voce, I have liberated one voice (mezzo-soprano) and one instrument (alto flute)… and developed their respective autonomies and harmonic premises by, among other means, using electronics.”
This work was a major step forward in digital sampling, where Berio employed what he called a “sound freeze” technique; this technique is analogous to the modern employment of granular sampling and synthesis. This work also explored spatialization but relied upon a more traditional loudspeaker setup, as opposed to Ofanìm’s unconventional wheel design. Altra Voce can be regarded as Berio’s ultimate realization of the ideal fusion of live and electronic elements. As succinctly written by Francesco Giomi, “…the simple metaphor of ‘falling in love’ leads to a complex polyphony and to a surprising interaction among the three dimensions of sound: vocal, instrumental, and electronic music, which ,while retaining their individual autonomy, seem almost to abandon themselves to each other, creating hybrid situations of striking intensity.”
Diagram of Altra Voce's loudspeaker configuration.
Diagram of Altra Voce's live audio processing procedure.
In 1999, both Ofanìm and Altra Voce received modifications to their electronics runtimes as well as some of the aforementioned musical changes to Ofanìm. As of these revisions, these works are now realized in Max/MSP and can be generally qualified as technologically updated and composed in the vein of today’s modern digital electroacoustic works.
WORKS CITED
Bennett, Gerald. “Research at IRCAM in 1977.” Rapports IRCAM 1978 (1978). http://www.gdbennett.net/texts/Research_at_IRCAM_1977.pdf.Bennett, Gerald. “Research at IRCAM in 1978.” Rapports IRCAM 1979 (1979). http://www.gdbennett.net/texts/Research_at_IRCAM_1978.pdf.Berio, Daniel, ed. “Centro Studi Luciano Berio.” Centro Studi Luciano Berio - Luciano Berio's Official Website, Last modified December 2019. http://www.lucianoberio.org/en.Born, Georgina. Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.Cremaschi, Andrea, and Francesco Giomi. “Parrrole: Berios Words on Music Technology.” Computer Music Journal 28, no. 1 (2004): 26–36. doi:10.1162/014892604322970625.Gerzso, Andrew. “The Longevity of Musical Works for Instruments and Electronic Music in the Digital Era.” Cahier Louis-Lumière 9, no. 1 (2015): 29–34. doi:10.3406/cllum.2015.962.Halfyard, Janet K, ed. Berios Sequenzas: "Essays on Performance, Composition and Analysis ". Blurlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007.Klein, Julieanne. “Voice and Live Electronics: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.” CEC EConnect! Last modified October 2008. https://econtact.ca/10_4/klein_livevoice.html.“Luciano Berio at Pytheas ~ Contemporary, Modern, New, Non-Pop Art Music Composers, Ensembles & Resources.” Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music. Accessed May 1, 2020. http://www.pytheasmusic.org/berio.html.“Luciano Berio.” Ressources.ircam. Last modified June 9, 2012. http://brahms.ircam.fr/luciano-berio#works_by_genre.