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Works

Luciano Berio
Voci, folk songs II
(1984)
for Alto and Orchestra


Length: 30:00
Editor: Universal Edition - Wien

The act of transcription (like that of translation) may imply three different conditions: the identification of the composer with the original musical text, the turning of the text into a pretext for analytical experimentation and, finally, the overpowering of the text, its de-construction and its philological "abuse". I believe that an ideal situation occurs only when the three conditions come to blend and coexist. Only then transcription may become a truly creative, constructive act.
Voci
, written in 1984 for Aldo Bennici and dedicated to Laura and Paolo Martelli, deals precisely with the problem of converging those three dimensions. I am deeply indebted to Aldo Bennici for providing me with the original musical material for the work: songs of work and love, lullabies and "street cries" from different parts of Sicily. With Voci I hope to contribute to the enhancement of a more profound interest in the Sicilian folk-lore which, along with that of Sardinia, is certainly the richest, most complex and incandescent of our Mediterranean culture.
(Luciano Berio)

Voci has it's antecedents in the Folk Songs "arrangements" that Berio did for Cathy Berberian in the 60's (another of my favorite Berio pieces). But here, Berio completely subsumes the folk elements into his own style. While you can initially hear some of the motives from the folk songs, particularly in the viola part, the orchestra begins a running commentary that eventually transforms the material into something rich and strange. Comparisons are made in the liner notes to Bartok and they are apt comparisons, though the music sounds nothing like the Hungarian master. Rather, like Bartok, Berio completely internalizes his material...so much so that we can't speak of folk song quotations or influence in the music. It is all of a piece.