Table Of ContentE R I N G
UTURE
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REMEMBERING
lHE FUlURE
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Luciano BeriowvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, MassachusertsPIOLoNndoMn, ELngKlandJIH2006GFEDCBA
-
Copyrighr © 2006 by the President and Fellows ofHarvard College
Ali righrs reserved
Primed in rhe Unired StatesofAmericamlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
LibraryofCongressCataloging-ia-PublicationData
Berio, Luciano, 1925-
Remembering the future / Luciano Berio.
p. cm.-(The Charles EliorPNOortNonMleLctuKreJs)IHGFEDCBA
Conrents: Forrnations-c- Translaring music-Forgening music-
O alter Dufc= Seeing rnusio=Poccics of analysis.
ISBN 0-674-02154-1 Ialk.paper)
1.Music-Hisrory and criricisrn.
2. Composers. I.Tide, 11.Series.
ML60.B46852006
780--d'22 2005056706
PREFACEwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
TALIA PECKER BERIO
Luciano Berio delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at
Harvard University during the academic year 1993-94. Each
lecture was introduced and conduded by the performance of
one of Berio'smSlekqjiuhegnfzeed-cabaZsYerXiesWoVfUfoTuSrtReeQnPOcNomMpLosKitJiIoHnsGFfEoDrCBA
solo instruments that cover the entire arc of his career. Berio
conceived of their presence not as"illustrations" of the lectures,
but rather as "musical quotation marks intended to protect the
audience fram the inevitable incompleteness and factiousness
of any discourse on music made by a musician."
Two dose friends and longtime collaborators preceded Be-
rio in this prestigious series of lectures. Umberto Eco read his
Six Walksin the Fictional Wóodsduring the spring semester of
1993; the title ofhis book and its opening pages pay homage to
Italo Calvino, who was about to depart for Cambridge to de-
liver his Six Memosfor the Next Millennium when he suddenly
passed away in September 1985. The affinity of spirit and the
experiences shared with both authors can be traced within and
between the lines in various passages of Berio's own lectures. It
is no coincidence, then, that he derived their title from Un re
in ascolto-onewvuotfsrhqipsotnhmrelekjirhngufseicd-cthbeaaZreYrXWwoVrkUsTSwRitQhPtOexNtsMbLyKJIHGFEDCBA
Calvino. "Remembering the future" is hardly a literal transla-
tion of the more ambiguous original "ricordo aIfuturo"-the
closing words pronounced by Prospero, the key figure of Un re
in ascolto, who takes his leave from life questioning voice and
silence, turning memory back and forth, from and toward the
future:
Ia memoria custodisce il silenzio
ricordo deIfitturo la promessa
quale promessa? questa che ora arrivi
a sfiorare col lembo della voce
e ti sfugge come il vento accarezza
il buio nella voce il ricordo
in penombra un ricordo aifuturo.
Memory srands guard over silence
recollection of the future rhe promise
which promise? rhis one that now you may
barely touch with the voice's extremity
and that slips from your mind as the wind caresses
rhe darkness in the voice the memory
in the shadows a memory for the future.
(TRANSLATlON BYDAVID OSMOND-SMITH)
VI / PREFACE
This interplay of past and present, of remembering and for-
getting, is ever present in the following pages, but it is always
underpinned by an unshakable faith in the future, and in the
power of music to cross distances, to give voice and shape to
that interplay and faith.
The content and structure of these lectures were defined
and sketched out over a long period following the appoint-
ment as Norton lecturer, which was formalized at rhe begin-
ning of 1992. By the time we settled in Cambridge in the fall
of 1993, the first two lectures were substantially written out,
but work on them, as on each of the other four lectures, pro-
ceeded until the very time of their delivery, and sometimes well
aíterward. AlI of thern were written in ltalian, translated into
English by Anthony Oldcorn, and then further elaborated by
Berio himself
ln the years following our residence at Harvard, Berio was
engaged in rhe composition of two major works of music the-
arer,mOlkujtiihsgf(e1d9c9b6a)ZYanXdWCVroUnTacSaRQdePlOLNuoMgoLK(1JI9H99G),FEaDndCBaAcon-
siderable number of instrumental works such as Ekphrasis for
orchestra; Alternatim for viola, clarinet, and orchestra; Solo for
trombone and orchestra; Kol od (Chemins VI for trumpet and
chamber orchestra); Récit (Chemins VII for alto saxophone and
orchestra); Sonata for piano; the last three Sequenze (XII for
PREFACE I VII
bassoon, XIII for accordion, XIV for cello), as well asmAllktrjaihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
voce (for alto Hute, mezzo-soprano, and live electronics), and
the new Finale for Puccini's Turandot. He completed his last
work, Stanze for baritone, three male choirs, and orchestra, a
few weeks before he left us on May 27, 2003.
Thus the final revision of the Norton Lectures was constant-
ly delayed, yet work on them was never entirely abandoned.
Periodically, between one composition and another, Berio
would go back to thern, introducing minor changes, pointing
out passages in need of major revision, taking notes for further
developments. This "work in progress" (an important concept
in Berio's poetics, which recurs frequently in the following pag-
es, especially in the fourth lecture, "O alter Duít") involved
both the ltalian and English texts. As a result there were often
multiple versions of each lecture, none of which, at the mo-
ment of the author's death, could be declared as "definire"; nor
was it always possible to establish the chronological order of
the variants.
Confronted with such a complex source situation, I decided
to follow the texts of the lectures as they were read at Harvard,
correcting and integrating thern only in those places where the
variant readings were either objectively clearer or undoubtedly
approved by the author, I felt that this approach conveyed more
VIII I PREFACE
.oherence to the text (in contrast to a more orthodox philo-
I gical editing method), andPIwOasNinspMiredLaKs wJelIlHby GRobFertEDCBA
hurnann's youthful and rornantic idea that "the first concep-
cionof a work isalwaysthe best and most natural."
Any attempt to acknowledge on behalf ofmy husband the peo-
piewho accompanied him in the process of writing and revis-
ing the lectures would necessarily be incomplete. OavidmOlksj-ihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
mond-Srnith, Luciana Galliano, and Anthony Oldcorn would
undoubtedly have been among thern. I can personally testily
to rhe constant and inspiring exchanges he had with Reinhold
Brinkmann, the late Oavid Lewin, and Christoph Wolff, who,
along with Dorothea, June, and Barbara, gave warmth to our
eason in Cambridge with their priceless friendship. Mark Ka-
gan and Nancy Shiffman helped in everypossible way to make
our !ifeand work, aswell asthe meetings and performances at
anders Theatre, srnoorh and enjoyable. PegFulton ofHarvard
University Presspatiently accompanied the long genesis of Re-
rnembering the Future frorn the day of Berio's appointment to
cheNorton Chair down to the last detail of this edition.
My personal thanks go to Reinhold Brinkmann, who pro-
vided me with the only intact printed copy rhat has survived of
the full set of six lectures: at the end of each lecture, Luciano
PREFACE / IX
would ritually hand him acopy of the text that he had just read
out. In a different time this would have been the "engraver's
copy", I have tried to conduct my editing accordingly, with the
economy and respect that was common before the computer
era, and was lucky to have Mary Ellen Geer as an exceptionally
sensitive editor. Marina Berio had read and commented upon
her father's lectures at the time of their delivery; she was at my
side last summer to give a loving and knowing hand in the re-
vision of the texto I would like-and feel that Luciano would
have approved-to dedicare this bcok to her, to Cristina, Ste-
fano, Daniel, and jonarhan Berio.
RADICONDOLl (SIENA), OCTOBER 2005
ONTENTS
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I I
I 2 Translating Music 31
~ 3 Forgetting Music 61
I 4 O Alter Duft 79
I 5 Seeing Music 99
I 6 Poetics of Analysis 122
Description:InRemembering the FutureLuciano Berio shares with us some musical experiences that "invite us to revise or suspend our relation with the past and to rediscover it as part of a future trajectory." His scintillating meditation on music and the ways of experiencing it reflects the composer's profound u
