A chamber orchestra is playing a melody: or rather, describes a melody, though only as a shadow might describe an object, or an echo a sound. The melody constantly but brokenly develops throughout repeats and digressions and around a central point, at once mobile and distant, possibly indecipherable to the listening ear. Requies, written in 1984 for the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, is dedicated to the memory of Cathy Berberian.

Luciano Berio, translated from the Italian by John Underwood