Luciano Berio
Continuo
Short instrumentation: 4 3 5 3 - 6 4 4 2 - mar, vib, hp(2), cel, pno, e.org, t.sax, alto sax, str(at least 12 12 12 10 8)
Duration: 20'
Dedication: Written for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Instrumentation details:
group A1: flute
alto flute
tenor saxophone in Bb
1st bassoon
2nd bassoon
group A2: piccolo
flute
1st oboe
2nd oboe
cor anglais
clarinet in Eb
alto saxophone in Eb
group B1: 1st trumpet in C(+picc.tpt)
2nd trumpet in C
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
3rd horn in F
1st trombone
2nd trombone
bass tuba
group B2: 1st trumpet in C
2nd trumpet in C
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
3rd horn in F
1st trombone
2nd trombone
bass tuba
1st clarinet in Bb
2nd clarinet in Bb
3rd clarinet in Bb
bass clarinet in Bb
contrabassoon
vibraphone
marimba
1st harp
2nd harp
celesta
piano
electric organ
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
contrabass
Berio - Continuo for orchestra
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Luciano Berio
Berio: ContinuoOrchestration: für Orchester
Type: Studienpartitur (Sonderanfertigung)
Sample pages
Audio preview
Work introduction
Continuo is an Adagio, “distant and descriptive”. Its texture is rather light and airy and its structure is based upon a grid of recurrent modules. A continuous sound space - like a homogeneous surface - unfolds and is sporadically interrupted by large or small “windows” overlooking an ever-changing landscape.
While at work on Continuo, I was not consciously planning to create an architectural metaphor nor to pay musical homage to Chicago’s great masters: L. Sullivan, F. L. Wright and Mies van der Rohe. Nor was I aware of a direct reference to the airy yet solid constructions of Renzo Piano, to whose work I feel particularly close. Yet, as the work progressed, I realized this was actually happening. The internal musical processes of Continuo are indeed architectural, but the shape - the “form” some would say - is not. The modular criteria implicit in this work make Continuo a hardly habitable, a non-permanent, contradictory building: one that is virtually open to a continuous addition of new wings, rooms, and windows…
Luciano Berio