Sequenza 9a - Clarinet Unaccompanied

The piece begins rather hesitantly, as if the music were preparing again and again to play a melody, only to remain stuck on a single pitch, held for 10, then 8, then 6 seconds. But the music does slowly gain momentum, the sustained pitches dispelled until they reoccur at the end.

Berio says that this "Sequenza" is a long melody which, "like almost every melody, includes redundancy, symmetries, transformations and recurrence."

Premiered in Paris November 30, 1979, by Michel Arrignon