| In this preliminary search for a coherent and continuous cohesion of western art and folk music-cultures, Berio utilizes folk songs from seven distinct as the basis for composition. The technique for combining western classical and folk music is one that Berio modified throughout his career, although it is with Folk Songs that the appropriation of vernacular musical idioms is most transparent. In the arrangement of the songs for this cycle, Berio circumvents his earlier handling of the vocal line as evident in Circles (1960) and Epifianie (1961/65). The unencumbered lyricism demonstrates a desire, on some level, to preserve the identifying characteristics of the songs he has appropriated and the workings out of a methodology for incorporating folk materials in his compositional language. Through a critical analysis of his arrangements and the folk materials from which he draws inspirations, the significance of the symbiotic interrelationship between music and culture will be exposed. |
