Corale (author's note)

Corale
on Sequenza VIII
for violin, two horns and strings (1981)

In Corale a string orchestra and two horns develop and expand certain implicit and explicit aspects of my Sequenza VIII for violin, written in 1976. While the solo part of Corale is essentially based on Sequenza VIII, the orchestra reveals and brings forward a distinctly new image of the soloist himself, who appears to be looking into the mirror of his own harmonic life. Built around two ever-present notes (A and B), Corale is quasi una passacaglia. These two notes function as a compass during a very diverse but carefully planned journey, often characterized by regular, periodic articulations and extreme accelerations.
While all my other Sequenzas develop to the highest degree a limited range of instrumental characters, Sequenza VIII - and therefore Corale - presents a broader, more global and “historical” view of the instrument. Composing this work has been like paying a personal tribute to the violin, which I still regard as one of the most subtle and complex of instruments.
Corale (which in Italian means both “choral” and “chorale”) was written in 1981.

Luciano Berio

Note d'autore: informazioni generali | Author's note: general info