Folk Songs
Flute, Piccolo, Oboe, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, 2 Percussionists, Harp, and Strings
21 Minutes
About the Composer
Born in 1925 on the Ligurian coast of Italy, Luciano Berio earned a reputation as a champion of avant-garde music throughout his career, particularly in the fields of chance and electronic music. He began his studies at the piano with his father and grandfather, and continued to train at the Milan Conservatory. Due to a hand injury sustained during World War II, Berio was forced to cease studying the piano and instead concentrated on composition. While he was a student at the conservatory he met Massachusetts born mezzo-soprano, and composer, Cathy Berberian. The two married shortly after meeting and Berberian was a source of inspiration for many of Berio’s works, including Folk Songs, which you will hear tonight.
Berio wrote his Folk Songs in 1964 while he was in residency at Mills College in Oakland, California. Originally the work was conceived for chamber ensemble, and later in 1973 the composer expanded it for symphony orchestra (the version that you will hear tonight). The piece is dedicated to Berberian, who at the time was still his wife. She was a pioneer in the devising and employment of extended vocal techniques, and Berio created this work to suit her extreme vocal versatility. Although the marriage did not last, the two remained professional colleagues until Berberian’s death in 1983.
Throughout his career Berio experimented with integrating folk music into his works. In several interviews he commented on his relationship with folk music saying, “my links with folk music are often of an emotional character. When I work with that music I am always caught by the thrill of discovery . . . I return again and again to folk music because I try to establish contact between that and my own ideas about music . . . I would like to create a unity between folk music and our music— a real, perceptible, understandable conduit between ancient, popular music-making which is so close to everyday work and music.”
About the Music
Folk Songs is an anthology of eleven songs from eight countries and regions including: America, Armenia, Auvergne, Azerbaijan, France, Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily. The composer chose them from old records, printed anthologies, or songs sung by folk musicians and friends. In his program note for the work Berio writes, “I have given the songs a new rhythmic and harmonic interpretation: in a way, I have recomposed them. The instrumental part has an important function: it is meant to underline and comment on the expressive and cultural roots of each song.” The first two songs “Black is the colour” and “I wonder as I wander” were written by American folklorist John Jacob Niles. The third song “Loosin yelav,” pays homage to Berberian’s Armenian heritage and describes the rising moon over the top of a hill. No. 4, “Rossignolet du bois” has its origins in France and asks “Little nightingale of the woods, teach me your secret language, show me how to love.” Songs 5-8 have Italian roots. No. 5, “A la femminisca,” is from Sicily and is sung by a woman bidding Jesus and Mary to grant fair weather to her fisherman sweetheart. No. 6, “La donna ideale,” lists the attributes that a man should seek in his wife. No. 7, “Ballo,” portrays the lover as a fool and no. 8, “Motettu de tristura,” is a sorrowful Sardinian nightingale song. Nos. 9 and 10, “Malurous qu’o uno fenno” and “La fiolaire,” were taken from Joseph Canteloube’s famous collection Songs of the Auvergne. The first says “wretched is he who has a wife, wretched is he who has not . . . happy is the woman who has the man she wants, happier is the one who has no man at all,” and the second tells of a flirtatious girl at a spinning wheel. The final selection, “Azerbaijan Love Song,” was phonetically transcribed from an old record by Cathy Berberian, who did not speak the language. As a result it has remained a string of nonsensical syllables that to this day has resisted translation.
Tonight’s performance features Mezzo-Soprano, Britt Brown