A new sound and anticipation of unimaginable reality: Sequenza III by Luciano Berio

Abstract

This paper examines how composer Luciano Berio with his composition Sequenza III per voce femminile (1965/66) succeeded in exploring something that is reality behind reality through the unique treatment of artistic material, in this case musical and verbal, much like certain avant-garde artists. It is a search for something that listeners cannot see because of the complex psychological mechanism of the human organism and which is deeply covered by ideologies, spoken language, ideas and similar elements. It is what the painter Pit Mondrian refers to as "the sublime reality", for example. I employ naturalized components of psychoanalytic theory in this study, therefore the expressions "reality behind reality" or "sublime reality" are also related to the psychoanalytical term "Reality" according to Lacan. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate, using a specific musical example, how art, in this case musical art, can attain outcomes that have been attempted by researchers from other fields, artistic or scientific.