Sequenza IV for solo piano (composed in 1965) is the fourth in a series of solo works by Luciano Berio that started with the publication of Sequenza I for solo flute (1958; rev. 1992).
All the Sequenzas are characterised by a requirement for great virtuosity on the part of the player; some perhaps less so than others.
Sequenza IV, (pub. Universal Edition) certainly requires considerable virtuosity. The piece is written in metered notation (i.e. with a well-defined idea of time based on bar lines) but presents great demands on the understanding of timing. Also, there is a proliferation of complex chords which appear in no previously stated key signature; the choice of sharps and flats within the same tonal structures (chords and melodic lines) giving an idea of a frequently bitonal sound world.
The first page begins with a set of chords which introduce an idea centred on a dominant to tonic progression—though complicated by the fact that this is concurrently on two tonal centres, B flat and D. The rhythmic structure of this progression (involving a complicated division of a 2/4 time signature) is developed, introducing some slightly increased metric complexity but more importantly, a well defined musical idea that suddenly breaks from short, quiet dense chords to somewhat louder rapid, rhapsodic passages in which the main ideas are extended into the main body of the piece.
The "centre" of the piece is a lively section in which tone clusters are used rapidly and the piano seems to be used as a real percussion instrument.
It is interesting to note that very little material other than the rapid passage of notes (often in 5-tuples or 7-tuples) and the primary material of short, dense chords is ever presented to the listener, until the end. When this happens, and the sounds are sustained and held for a while, in a sense, the resulting effect may appear to be to allow time to hold the sounds in a longer space of time; and to "explain" the previous material, presenting the appearance of a musical conclusion, or explanation for the material beforehand.
The piece finally concludes in the manner it began; brief sounds of a very polyphonic and certainly at least bitonal character giving way to sustained chords, and a final cadence.
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