Berio, Luciano, << BAIR ee oh, loo chee AHN oh >> (1925-2003), an Italian composer, became a leader of experimental music in Europe. Berio’s works and his experiments with electronic instruments and devices have influenced young composers in Europe and the United States. Berio was also a teacher and conductor.
Berio composed several works for voice and instruments. Some of his compositions call for unusual vocal techniques, such as whispering, moaning, laughing, humming, and howling. One way Berio focused on words was by using tape-recorded speech in his compositions. In Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958), Berio recorded fragments of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses in three languages. He then cut and electronically rearranged the readings to highlight the meaning and the sound of syllables, words, and sentences.
Berio used the collage technique, which employs individual elements at the same time or one after another. For example, in Sinfonia (1968), for voices and orchestra, he incorporated political slogans, poetry, quotations from philosophical writings, and passages from other composers’ music within his own music. Berio’s other works include Passaggio (1963), Laborintus II (1965), and Recital I (1972). These pieces involve theatrical speech, gestures, and lighting effects, or require performers to move around on the stage. Berio was born on Oct. 24, 1925, near Imperia. He died on May 27, 2003.
