Three Folk Songs after Berio

Drawing inspiration from Luciano Berio’s charming Folk Songs, this composition joins and gives new life to three songs originating from different folklores: a vernacular, working-class song from Italy’s Abruzzo region, a traditional Andalusian dancing song, and a lullaby of Basque origin with English words set by reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.

Three Folk Songs after Berio aims to continue Berio’s work and its compositional format, while at the same time offer a different stylistic approach. Spagnolo’s work uses the same instrumentation as Berio’s piece, yet he enables the ensemble to generate a different palette of sounds and textures that make use of seemingly rhapsodic and improvisational gestures, as well as re-harmonisations that bring together traditional and quasi-jazz progressions. Also, Three Folk Songs after Berio is characterised by a seemingly folk tune played by the viola that travels through the piece and connects the three main songs; a sort of postmodern thread that unites the three songs in a cohesive whole.

As it unfolds, Three Folk Songs after Berio offers a wide array of folkloric and idiosyncratic moods, from the visceral and bittersweet to the inebriated, from the dancing and sensual to the celestially calm. The score is highly idiomatic for the instruments, and it allows all players to contribute with soloistic passages.

Three Folk Songs after Berio can excellently complement a concert programme featuring Berio’s work, as it can be performed in other chamber contexts to a great effect. 

Three Folk Songs after Berio

for mezzo-soprano and six players

> I. Nebbi'a a la Valle, Abruzzo folk song

> II. El Vito, Spanish folk song

> III. The Infant King, Lullaby for a King