I intend to write an essay concerning the third movement of Luciano Berio’s Symphony. The Symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in commemoration of its 125th anniversary and was premiered in the following year. The fifth movement was added to the work after the first performance, and was premiered in 1970. Inspired by Gustav Mahler and Charles Yves, Berio creates the third movement as a great collage, quoting fragments of diverse musical works. These fragments erupt from the third movement of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, which is used as a carrier wave. Eight amplified voices are used in a very non-traditional way. The singers alternate between singing and reciting and the main text is an excerpt of Samuel Beckett’s novel “The Unnamable”.
