Luigi Nono

1 .....sofferte onde serene... 13:54

2 .....sofferte onde serene...

(tape in the background) 13:54

3 .....sofferte onde serene...

(tape in the foreground) 13:52

Paulo de Assis | piano and tape

Juan Parra Cancino | recording engineer, editing, and mastering

João Rafael | reconstruction of the stereo tape

Total duration: 41:48

Recorded at Handelsbeurs, Ghent, Belgium, 24 September 2013.

Nono Booklet.indd 2 22/03/18 13:19

 .....sofferte onde serene... (1975–1977)
for piano and tape, ALN 42

This CD contains three different renderings of Luigi Nono’s .....sofferte

onde serene... (1975–77) that particularly focus on the sonic balance
between the piano part and the recorded tape, an aspect that seems
to have changed in the performance practice of this piece over
the last four decades. With their different balances, these three
renderings expose the degree of possible variability: in the first,
there is an “equal” balance between piano and tape; in the second,
the tape is in the background; and in the third, the tape is extremely
present, almost reversing the balance so it becomes a piece “for tape
and piano.”
Importantly, and as a result of twenty years of work of mine
on this piece, the CD uses a newly produced reconstruction of the
original stereo tape that coincides precisely with what we can hear
in the Deutsche Grammophon recording from 1979 (with Maurizio
Pollini), thus bringing back to life the carefully composed interplay
between monophonic and stereophonic sections.
Furthermore, this CD includes five charts containing what I
call “ontogenetical analysis” of the piece; that is to say, the charts
expose the basic constructive components of every single section
of the piece, as they can be traced back in the sketches preserved
at the Archivio Luigi Nono in Venice. In their clarity and focus on the
backbone structure of the piece, the charts make the components of
the piece more graspable for performers, scholars, and listeners.
I intend this CD for pianists and sound directors playing the
piece and for composers and musicologists studying it, as well as for
anyone interested in new music. In its triple fusion of the performative

Nono Booklet.indd 3 22/03/18 13:19

 component, the reconstruction of the original tape, and the graphic
visualisation of the work, this publication also intends to convey the
transdisciplinary and integrative role of artistic research.

Context

Como una ola de fuerza y luz (1971–72) for soprano, piano, orchestra,
and tape and .....sofferte onde serene... (1975–77) for piano and
tape are Luigi Nono’s only works that feature a central soloistic part
for piano. Both were composed for pianist Maurizio Pollini, who
provided the basic sonic materials for their tapes and who premiered
and recorded them and often played them in concert. Originally,
Como una ola de fuerza y luz was intended as a piece for piano and
orchestra, a kind of piano concerto for Maurizio Pollini. The text—and
a voice to sing it—was added only after the arrival of the news of
the death of Luciano Cruz Aguayo, one of the leaders of the Chilean
Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR, Movimiento de Izquierda
Revolucionaria), whom Nono had met in Santiago de Chile in the
early summer of 1971. Similarly, .....sofferte onde serene... was
first thought of as a piece exploring piano sonorities, especially
looking at Pollini’s particular modes of touch. Its intended title was
Notturni—Albe (Stenzl 1975, 443), which translates as “Nocturnes—
Sunrises.” According to Jürg Stenzl (Assis 2006, 158n125), who
was in close contact with Nono in those years preparing the first
publication of a selection of the composer’s writings (Stenzl 1975),
this original title was linked to a reflection on the relationship
between Vladimir Mayakovsky, Lilya Brik, and Osip Brik. On the
basis of my research on the sketches, I suggested a possible link to
the world of Cesare Pavese, especially to the unfinished Progetto su

Nono Booklet.indd 4 22/03/18 13:19

 poesie pavesiane (Project 17 in the catalogue of the Archivio Luigi
Nono), which contemplated a formal sequence of five sections with
the titles “Notturno,” “Alba,” “Climax,” “Alba,” “Notturno” (Assis 2006,
157n120, 199). Nevertheless, the change to the final title happened
after three successive deaths in Nono’s and Pollini’s families during
autumn and winter 1975–76, leading the project towards a serene
reflection on death.
Beyond these personal reasons and motivations, and despite
their many compositional and aesthetic differences, both Como una
ola de fuera y luz and .....sofferte onde serene... share some important
features: (1) Both include electronic tapes whose acoustic materials
are based on piano sounds recorded by Pollini in the electronic
studio of the Italian radio in Milan (and in Como una ola de fuerza y
luz also with sounds by soprano Slavka Taskova1). As Pollini was the
pianist playing the pieces in concert, this contributed to an auditory
(con)fusion between the recorded sounds and those played live
(the same applies for Taskova’s voice). (2) The titles of both pieces
allude to “waves”: waves of strength and light, or waves of sufferance
and serenity. (3) Both pieces are memorial works, reflecting on a
revolutionary friend (Luciano Cruz), musical and political friends
(Pollini, his wife Marilisa, and their lost son), a father (Mario Nono),
and a mother (Maria Manetti Nono). Thus, they are profoundly
expressive of death, grief, and sorrow, communicating a deep feeling
of suffering and despair, of struggle and defeat (in the case of Como
una ola de fuerza y luz), but also of hope, serenity, and light (in the
case of .....sofferte onde serene...). (4) Finally, from a pianistic point of
view (but only at first glance) they seem to share some characteristic
gestures and rhythmical figures, including layers of superimposed

1 For a detailed description of the recorded materials and their transformations in the
studio, see Assis (2006, 31–44, 190–207).

Nono Booklet.indd 5 22/03/18 13:19

 tuplets (mostly triplets and quintuplets), micro-canonic figures (where
one short rhythmic motif is played forwards and backwards within
one or two bars, or repeated in a different register or instrument),
and some common “full-hand” clusters (though very sparsely in
.....sofferte onde serene...).
Nevertheless, the similarities between these two pieces stop
there; in all other respects they are separated by an enormous musical,
aesthetical, and existential abyss. From the aural experience of both
works, one immediately hears in Como una ola de fuerza y luz the
explicit conflict between the individual (the piano) and the collective
(the orchestra and the tape), that takes the shape of violent gestures
and clusters culminating in the hopeless violence of the finale,
whereas in .....sofferte onde serene... piano and tape completely
merge in a (generally) more sparse and ethereal atmosphere, defined
by highly articulated musical writing, subtle dynamic fluctuations,
and extremely precise articulation markings. Como una ola de fuerza
y luz is the last instrumental work of Nono’s second creative phase,
a period that stretches from Omaggio a Vedova (1960) to the scenic
action Al gran sole carico d’amore (1972–74). Interestingly, the tape
of Como una ola de fuerza y luz was used in the premiere of Al gran
sole carico d’amore, being heard in the foyer and stairs of the Teatro
Lirico before the official start of the azione scenica, thus making the
aesthetic proximity and continuity between these two works even
more literal. That Al gran sole carico d’amore established a limit
and an end to Nono’s second creative phase was acknowledged by
the composer himself, who stated that “immediately after Al gran
sole carico d’amore silence arrived, an inexpressible silence” (Nono
2001, 2:245). .....sofferte onde serene... was the first piece to emerge
from this silence, a profound, delicate, and attentive exploration
of an instrument that had never been used alone (without other
accompanying instruments) by Nono before.

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 Much has been written about Luigi Nono’s personal crisis,2 and
the “bitter wind of death” (Nono 1979, 1) that in 1975 blew over
his own and Pollini’s families and led him to change the originally
intended title Notturni–Albe to .....sofferte onde serene.... In addition
to the possible personal, political, and philosophical reasons for this
crisis, and for Nono’s subsequent aesthetic reorientation, strictly
musical reasons for his search for a new idiom are equally evident.
Immediately after the premiere of Al gran sole carico d’amore, in
June 1975, Nono reflected on his work, initiating a profound self-
criticism of his musical language and compositional techniques that
would lead to a rethinking of his compositional practice. Nono’s so-
called late style starts not with the string quartet Fragmente–Stille,
an Diotima (1979), as is usually thought, but with .....sofferte onde
serene..., which marks the beginning of a new period in more than
one respect. Unlike most of Nono’s previous works, .....sofferte onde
serene... has no direct political message or contents. It focuses rather
on an examination of Maurizio Pollini’s piano sonority and mode
of playing. Additionally, it is also a study of diverse compositional
techniques and strategies, renewing Nono’s exploration of the
constructive principles he had learned in the late 1940s and early
1950s from his teachers Hermann Scherchen and Bruno Maderna.3
Thus, the piece explores variation and canonical procedures,
simple formations of vertical sound aggregates, and formal plans
of transparent simplicity, almost suggesting a structure in “sonata
form” with its five sections, whereby the fourth section is a varied
reprise of the first. A simple aural comparison of .....sofferte onde
serene... with the works that immediately preceded it, such as Como
una ola de fuerza y luz or Al gran sole carico d’amore, makes the shift

2 In this respect, see Assis (2006, 127–83, especially 131–55).

3 For a detailed account of these influences, see Assis (2006, 150–55).

Nono Booklet.indd 7 22/03/18 13:19

 from his “second style” (1960–75) to his “late style” all the more
obvious. Nono himself, in an interview with Renato Garavaglia from
1979 (Nono 2001, 245), stated: “I felt an urgent need to study—not
only regarding my musical language but also my mental categories,
and I restarted composing again with .....sofferte onde serene..., a
piece that demanded a lot of work.” These aesthetic and ideological
reorientations do not mean that Nono had grown apolitical or
somehow indifferent to political issues of the day. On the contrary, in
1975 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Italian
Communist Party. But what Nono more and more realised was that
his previous works, with their explicit political engagement, had been
easily misunderstood as mere “pamphlet art”; their political contents
so overshadowed their intrinsic musical features that the latter were
not properly perceived by the listener.
The first period of Nono’s late works—the period leading to
Prometeo (1984)—starts with .....sofferte onde serene... and includes
such pieces as Con Luigi Dallapiccola for percussion and electronics
(1978), Fragmente–Stille, an Diotima for string quartet (1980), Io,
Frammento dal Prometeo, a più cori, for three sopranos, small choir,
bass flute, bass clarinet, double bass, and live electronics (1981),
Das atmende Klarsein for small choir, bass flute, live electronics, and
tape (1980–83), and Quando stanno morendo: Diario polacco no.
2 for four female voices, bass flute, cello, and live electronics (1982).
Each brings inner musical structures and features to the foreground,
focusing on small instrumental forces (for solo instrument or
chamber music formations), on subtle harmonic fields with clearly
differentiable vertical sound-aggregates, on extremely soft dynamics
and fine articulation markings, and on fragmented successions of
sections. Even those pieces in Nono’s late style that require bigger
instrumental forces—such as A Carlo Scarpa architetto, ai suoi

Nono Booklet.indd 8 22/03/18 13:19

 infiniti possibili for orchestra in microintervals (1984), Caminantes . . .
Ayacucho for two choirs, organ, three instrumental groups, soloists,
and live electronics (1986–87), and No hay caminos, hay que caminar
. . . Andrej Tarkowskij for seven instrumental groups (1987) use those
huge instrumental set-ups in specific arrangements of small sets,
focusing aural attention on chamber-music-like combinations. The
act of listening to all these works is highly demanding, confronting
auditors with their capacities and limitations in listening to the
music, to oneself, to the Other. In this sense, they are highly political,
even if one would need a new definition of politics altogether—
one that would be closer to the thought of Jacques Rancière (with
its distinction between le politique and la politique) than to that of
Gramsci, Sartre, or Adorno.

Contents

The content of .....sofferte onde serene... was conceived experimentally,

especially the tape component, and its concert rendering involves
various degrees of uncertainty and unpredictability in the sonic
results and their combinations. Nono achieves this, in the first
instance, by using “shadow” sounds: similar sonorities that come
sometimes from the piano, sometimes from the tape, and that
thereby generate a perceptual (con)fusion for the listener. This (con)
fusion is enhanced by the relative freedom in the time-relations
between the tape and the live piano, allowing the two performers
(one on the piano, the other controlling the sound projection) to
create a great variety of sonic affinities, suggesting new modes of
organising multiple temporalities.

Nono Booklet.indd 9 22/03/18 13:19

 Piano Tape
œ œ œ œ
#œ #œ #œ b# œœ
& œ œ œœœ œ #bœœ.................... œ &
?
nb œœ ?
b œœ œœ
bb#b œœœœœ bbb# œœœœœ bbb# œœœœœ
0'00"
1–5
1-5 6–10
6-10 11–15
11-15 16–20
16-20 21–22
21-22 23–25
23-25

”
nb œœ bn“œœ ~
Tone-stations (selection)
# œœ œœœ
Tone-Stations (Selection)

œÛ œœœœœ # œ œ
& #œœœ œÛ # &
? œœ # œÛÛ bœœÛ
?
#œ œ
œ bb œœœ nb# œœœ
#œ #œ
26 27 30 32 33–35
33-35 36 39 40 41 43 48 49
2'45"

nœ nœ b œ nœ
“”b œ. ... . ..
nœ
#œ b œ œ #œœ nœœ bbœœ n#b œœœœ # œœœ ............... ...............
& #œœ nœ nœ œœœ bœœ nnœœ #bn œœœ b#œbœœœ b#œœœ #bœœ œœ œ............ ........
n# œœ n# œœ #œ
bn# œœ œ œ nb œœœ # œ
# œœÛ œ &
? #œ
bœ
œ nœ bbœœ
? ~
œ # œœ n œ œœ # œœ ~~~~
b œ ~~
bb œœ n œ œ œ . ....... ....
Sound aggregates (reservoir)
œ
‘
Sound aggregates (Reservoir)

œ b œœ –
f - fff fff ffff –
pp - ppp “
p £Pedal beats ff
50–59
50-59 60–73
60-73 74–85
74-85 86–88
86-88 89–101
89-101 5'00"

œ œ œ bœ œ
#œ n# œœ #œ #œ #œ #œ
e
& œ œœ œ œ œ #œ & œ
œ
ææ
? # œœ
ææ
? œ
œ bœ
œœœœ œ
9'18"
102–12
102-112 112–20
112-120 121–25
121-125 125–29
125-129 130–37
130-137

bœ œ
n# œœ # œœœ œ
#œ
& #œ n#œœœ ##œœœ &
– –
?
ppp - mf f - ff ppp ppp
?
œ œ
Figure 1 œœœœ bœ œ
#œ
Luigi Nono, 138–44
138-144 145–48
145-148 149–51
149-151 152–55
152-155 11'50"

.....sofferte onde serene...,

form and overall shape.
© Paulo de Assis

Nono Booklet.indd 10 22/03/18 13:19

 Piano Tape Luigi Nono, …so
œ serene…, form a
œ
œœœ #œ (© Paulo de Assis
& œ < œ# œ œ>
? œ Section 1
bbb# œœœœœ
bœ < œb œ>
œ £ Pedal beats
0'00" 1'55" 1'57" 2'35"
22 23-25

”
œœœœ
nb œœ bn“œœ ~~~~
~~~~~
~~~~~
& ~~~~~
~~~~~
~~~~~
?
2-
~~~~~ Section 2
~~~~~
~~~~~
~œ
48 49
“‘
2'45" 5'00"

“”p
54" 50"

œœ . ...... ...... .. . .ff œ . . . ..

... #.. œ. ............ .... ..... ... ........ œ . .. ..................... ... .. ... .. .. ... &
ff

. .. .
~~ .. œ
b e be be
~ ~
~~~~
ppp

œ & ~
nœ bbœœ ~~~~~~~ Section 3 ?
? ~~~~ .. . . . . . . bœ
# œœ ~~~~
b œ. ...~..~.. .... . . œœ #œœ . . ....... . . ...... . . .. .. . . .. nœ œ
œ
“‘
œ ffff

pp - ppp
£Pedal beats ff
89-101 5'00" 5'40" 5'56" 6'15" 6'25" 6'50" 7'40" 9'17"

bœ œ
#œ #œ
e be e # e
#œ & œ
? œ e be Section 4
bœ
œ
9'18" 11'49"
7

œ . . . . . . ..
œ
œœœ ##œœœ & œfi
j
be nn#b #n#ee ee
Section 5
ppp
?
œ . . .. . b3
#œ . . . . . . . # 5 Pedal beats

152-155 11'50" 13'15" 13'17" 13'40"

14

Nono Booklet.indd 11 22/03/18 13:19

 From a formal perspective (see Assis 2006, 208–37) the piece
comprises five sections,4 each of which uses its own specific sound
material and makes use of different compositional techniques. Table
1 shows how the five sections of .....sofferte onde serene... relate to
the durations of the tape and the bar numbers in the score.

Section Tape (minutes) Bar numbers

1 0’00”–2’32” 1–25
[2’32”–2’45”]
2 2’45”–4’50” 26–49
[4’50”–5’00”]
3 5’00”–9’17” 50–101

4 9’18”–11’49” 102–37

5 11’50”–13’40” 138–55

Table 1. Form synopsis.

These five sections and their basic musical shapes are schematically
represented in figure 1, which also serves as an auditory guide.
Additionally, the five charts containing my ontogenetical analysis
of the piece give an insight into the concrete compositional and
structural constructive principles of each section. To provide an
example, let us briefly consider the first section (see chart 1). The
section is made of five different presentations (which I call variations)
of the basic sonic material—a transparent constellation of twelve
pitches. If one carefully reads the sketches pertaining to this piece,

4 For a different understanding, not informed by research on the sketches, see Linden
(1989).

12

Nono Booklet.indd 12 22/03/18 13:19

 Figure 2. Sketch ALN 42.04/02; detail.

one finds several inscriptions that are intended as starting points for
compositional operations that are unfolded in subsequent sheets
of a sketching pad. One of them, ALN 42.04/02, is particularly
striking, as it contains the basic starting pitches of the piece and the
instructions of what to do with them. In that loose sheet (see figure
2), Nono indicates the playing instructions he planned to give to
Pollini in the recording studio: how those pitches should be used
concretely in diverse combinations, aggregates, and successions. This
sheet is crucial also because it solves the question of whether Pollini
had a “score” to play from during the recordings: although there was
no score in the conventional sense, Nono did provide Pollini with

13

Nono Booklet.indd 13 22/03/18 13:19

 instructions of this type. The results were recorded as a basic sample
of sounds, which were later mixed and assembled by Nono at the
mixing desk. These concrete recorded sounds slowly, progressively,
defined the precise sequence of sonic events. And if it is very clear
that the score and its writing were the complete responsibility of
Nono (who remains “the composer” in an orthodox sense), it is also
true that Pollini’s sonic input was of the utmost importance for the
definition of the music.

The balance between piano and tape

The three different, highly specialised recordings presented on this

CD are diverse and precise explorations of the challenging relation
between the live played piano and the pre-recorded tape, diffused
in the same space. This specific exercise is needed because there
has been much informal discussion among performers and sound
technicians about how far one might raise the acoustic level of the
tape. In recent years the tendency has been to overemphasise the tape,
to make it as important as the live piano. However, according to Jürg
Stenzl (pers. comm.), who attended the world premiere of .....sofferte
onde serene... in 1977, in the Verdi Hall of the Milan conservatory, the
tape seems to have functioned as a soft sonic landscape, very much
in the background. Miraculously, a recording of that performance,
with Maurizio Pollini at the piano and Luigi Nono at the tape, exists. It
was made under poor technical conditions (using a simple portable
tape recorder) by Jürg Stenzl himself, who was sitting in the middle
of the hall, not far from Nono’s mixing table (ibid.). This recording
is available for consultation at the Nono Archiv at the University of
Salzburg, and I made a digital copy of it back in 2006. With the use

14

Nono Booklet.indd 14 22/03/18 13:19

 of noise cancelling tools, and despite the poor quality of the recorded
sound, one can hear the piano and the tape, enabling an acceptable
sonic image of that performance. Surprisingly, the factual recording
seems to contradict Stenzl’s aural memory, as the tape can be heard
well throughout the performance. Thus, if the world premiere of a
piece has any sort of legitimating power for future performances,
this particular case indicates the aim was for a well-balanced,
equally distributed sonic presence of piano and tape. Nevertheless,
the problem remains, as the performance instructions in the score
do not prescribe any fixed degree of sonic balance between piano
and tape. If performances over the past thirty years have tended to
make the tape more present, one must acknowledge that nothing
in the composer’s performance instructions prevents performers
from doing so. The tape alone has many different potentials, and
every pianist should feel free to experiment with different acoustic
combinations in searching for that (con)fusion that was so central to
Nono’s aesthetic in those years.
In this sense, the three renderings given here simply aim at
presenting three diverse, possible performative solutions for this
piece. Track 1 contains what I would call my “standard” performance
choice, the one I would put on a CD if I had to choose one. The piano
and tape are evenly balanced, so that both can be heard as equals.
Track 2 places the tape in the background, trying to suggest the
kind of balance that Jürg Stenzl claims occurred at the 1977 world
premiere. And Track 3 presents the opposite: the tape is very much
in the foreground, as if the piece was not “for piano and tape” but
“for tape and piano,” making audible many sonorities from the tape
that normally are not heard at all. A striking example of the potential
inherent in different levels between tape and piano can be heard by
comparing the three tracks from 6’25’’ onwards. The third version

15

Nono Booklet.indd 15 22/03/18 13:19

 (track 3), with its massive presence of the tape, suggests a sense of
struggle and conflict on the part of the pianist that no other version
before this communicated.

The reconstructed stereo tape

A central aspect of this CD is the use of a newly produced reconstruction

of the original stereo tape—a crucial result of the research that
informs these recordings. In this respect, the importance of artistic
research as a new mode of conducting research becomes absolutely
evident, as neither “pure performers” nor “pure musicologists”
working on this piece understood the urgency of this reconstruction
of the tape. For many years now (at least since my dissertation on this
piece, back in 2004), it has been well known that the original tape
was stereophonic, as can be heard in the working tapes preserved at
the Archivio Luigi Nono (ALN tapes 71, 72, 73A, 73B, and 153), and in
several passages of the first recording of the piece, made by Deutsche
Grammophon in 1979. Unfortunately, and despite all my efforts, the
musicological community around the work and legacy of Luigi Nono
never took this information seriously, not making the slightest effort
to try to find and recuperate the original stereophonic tape (which
can be seen as “lost”). As a result, all performances and recordings of
this work made in the last forty years have used a monophonic tape,
thus depriving the piece of one of its composed parameters, namely
the interplay between stereophonic and monophonic sections and
passages.
In 2000, I coordinated the professional digitisation of the
complete working tapes related to this piece. With the explicit
consent and authorisation of the Archivio Luigi Nono (Venice), who

16

Nono Booklet.indd 16 22/03/18 13:19

 trusted me with the original working tapes, the digitisation was
technically accomplished at the Experimental Studio SWR Freiburg
with the support of André Richard and the technical assistance of
Michael Acker.
In 2013, at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium, I
reconstructed the original stereophonic tape with technical assistance
from composer and expert in diverse music-related software tools
João Rafael. We used as a basis the digitised working tapes (Archivio
Luigi Nono Tapes 71, 72, 73A, 73B, and 153), which contain the
complete original materials of the final tape, and compared them with
the tape used for the Deutsche Grammophon recording. As a result,
the reconstructed stereo tape reproduces precisely what we can hear
in the first recording, bringing back to life the carefully composed
interplay between monophonic and stereophonic sections. A striking
example of Nono’s work on the stereophonic dimension of the tape
can be heard in the passage at 9’46”–9’55”, where the pitch g#6
quickly moves back and forth, from left to right; this passage can be
heard, with the same effect, in the Deutsche Grammophon recording,
proving that the original tape was stereophonic.
The newly reconstructed tape is available for aural consultation
at the Orpheus Institute, in Ghent, Belgium. It was made from artistic
and academic necessity, and has no commercial pretensions. In
addition to this CD, it has also been used for the CD recording made
by my research colleague and collaborator, Belgian pianist Jan
Michiels (WDR Cologne; SACD Kairos 0015022KAI, 2018), where I
took the responsibility of being the sound director.

17

Nono Booklet.indd 17 22/03/18 13:19

 The recording

The recording of the piano was made by me (on piano) and Juan
Parra Cancino (recording master) on the morning of 24 September
2013, in the concert hall of the Handelsbeurs, Ghent (Belgium),
using a Steinway D. As in the case of Pollini’s recording for Deutsche
Grammophon, I listened to the tape through headphones, thus
enabling the piano sounds to be captured alone and then mixed
back with the tape during the editing process. In each rendering,
we recorded five chunks, strictly following the formal sections of
the piece, which were than assembled together in the studio, where
minor adjustments to the levels were also refined.

Paulo de Assis, 2018

References

Assis, Paulo de. 2006. Luigi Nonos Wende: Zwischen Como una ola
de fuerza y luz und .....sofferte onde serene.... Hofheim: Wolke
Verlag.
Linden, Werner. 1989. Luigi Nonos Weg zum Striechquartett:
Vergleichende Analysen zu seinen Kompositionen Liebeslied,
.....sofferte onde serene..., Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima. Kassel:
Bärenreiter.
Nono, Luigi. 1979. Untitled liner note for …..sofferte onde serene…,
performed by Maurizio Pollini, 1. Deutsche Grammophon LP
2531-004.
———. 2001. Luigi Nono: Scritti e colloqui. Edited by Angela Ida de
Benedictis and Veniero Rizzardi. 2 vols. Milan: Ricordi.
Stenzl, Jürg, ed. 1975. Luigi Nono: Texte, Studien zu seiner Musik.
Zürich: Atlantis.
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 2
.....sofferte onde serene... SECTION 1
Pitch
Pitchstructure―Synthesis
structure – Synthesis SECTION 2

Nono Booklet.indd 19
Tone stations (Selection):

[01] [10] [11] [15] [16] [19] [20] [21] [22]

SECTION
[25]1
2

[26] [30] [32] [36] [39] [41] [43] [48] [49]

w nb œœO w[27] b Oœ œœ SECTION 2 œ
#w #nb# Oœœ #w #b#œœO #b œœ n œœÛÛœ ## œœœ # œœœ # œ nb œœ #œ
Tone stations (Selection): bœ œœ bœ œœ ?
&
& w nO w #nœO
? ##OœOO
n n œ
œœœ
& nb#nœœ nb œœ
Pno
Piano Central pitches Added pitches [26] [27] Central
[30] pitches
[32] [43] [48] [49]
O œœ
nnb œO[36]
?
? œ œ œ[39] [41]
œ nb œœ ?
bww < nœœœ> bn OOOOœ bw n œ
w < œœ > ##Oœ œ # œœœ &
## œœœ
?
bœ bœœ œœ
& w #O œ
bbb# w
ww
w bbb OOOO #œ bbb# ww wb œœ ?nb##œœœ
wbw œ œ nbœœœ
& bnœœ bbb# œœœœœ
Pno œœ
2'35"
? 2'57" œœ œœœ &
?
œœ 3'00" 4'50"
# œœ
“”n# œœ # œœ b œœ bn œœ
nb œœ
n œœ œ bbb œœœ
nbbnœœœœ
#œ
nb œ0'00"
œ 1'55" 1'57" 2'35"
nb œœ # œ√
œ0'54" bœœ0'57"
2'35" 2'57"
& w & #œ #œœ
pp 3'00" 4'50"
w #nœœ #nœœ bœœ œœ nœœ #nœœ bnœœ bœœ nœ
bn œœ œœ #œ
Tape “”n# œœ # œœ # wb œœ nb œœ
n œœ #w
nb œœ nb œœ √
œ
?
& w ∑ #œ #œœ
bœœ bn œœ #nœœ w b œ nœœ ?
&
œ nbœœ nbœœ #bœœœ
& #nœœ œ œœ œ
pp
#nœœ # œ bnœœ bœœ nœ œ
#nœœ n# œœ
Tape
Tape Riferimento 3 0'55"
? ∑ ? œ nbœœ nbœœ #bœœœ 1'56" bœ
œ
œ
#nœœ
Riferimento 3
? w œ>œOœ w
bœ bbœœ
ff Pedal beats
bw bw œ #n Oœ
nb œœ
Riferimento 1 f
w w
Riferimento 2
ƒ

Figure 3. Interaction between piano and tape: graphic outline.

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Nono Booklet.indd 20
2

SECTION
SECTION22
Selected
Tone stations aggregates
sound (Selection):

[26] [27] [30] [32] [36] [39] [41] [43] [48] [49]
# œœœ nb œœ
## œœœ
?
œœ
? #bœ
œ
& & œ nbœœœ
bnœœ
Pno œœ
? œœœ ?
&
œœ
#œ
œ bbb œœœ œ
nb œœ
#œ #œ
2'35" 2'57"
b œœ bn œœ œœ n œœ 3'00" 4'50"
“”n# œœ # œœ nb œœ
nb œœ nb œœ √
œ bœœ bn œœ #nœœ
& &
#œ #œœ #nœœ
bœœ œœ nœœ
pp
#nœœ # œ bnœœ bœœ nœ
Tape
? ∑ ? œ nbœœ nbœœ #bœœœ
œ
#nœœ
Riferimento 3
bœ œ

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Nono Booklet.indd 21
3

SECTION
SECTION33
Sound-aggregates (reservoir) [74] [85]

[50] [59] [60] [73] [86] [88] [89] [101]

b œ ~~~~~~~~~~
œ œ œ œ ~~~~~~~~~~~
œ ~~~~~~~~~~
œ bœœn# œœœ# œœ
? #œœœ bbœœœ œœ #œœ œœœ #œœ b#œœœ œœ œ œ ? bœœ bœœ
#œœ œ bœ
#nœœ œ #nœœ #œœœ n œœœ œb œ &
nb# œœ œ œ b œœœ œ
fff
bœÛ &
b œ÷Û
Pno “‘ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
# œœÛÛ O
? #œ #œœ bœœ b#OOO
œ œ÷ # OO
bb œœ b œ œ
œ # œœ n œœ
œ œ O
œ œ “‘
“”
High register pp
“”œ œ ~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~
4'50" 5'11" 5'00" 5'40" ff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
b œ # œœ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
n#œœ œœ # œ ~~~~~~~ œ ~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
œœ nbbœœ
& œœœœ
fff
Tape 5'42" 6'15" 6'25" 6'49" 6'50" 7'40"
3 nb#5'57"
œœœ œœœ bœ bœ b œ
b œ 9'17"
ppppp
# œœÛÛ Mitdle register f
? ≈ œœ œœ ~~~~~~~~~
#œœ ~~~~~~~~~ œœ œ œ œ #œ œ
ffff ff
œ
œœ
œ f
Riferimento 5
O œœœ œ b œœ b œ œ # œ b œ #nb œœ
mf
Bass register ff
"Pedal-Solo"
“Pedal-Solo”
Riferimento 4

ƒ
Pedal beats
Pedal beats(2-3 sec. distance)
(2–3 sec. distance)

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 4

Nono Booklet.indd 22
SECTION 4
SECTION 4
[102] œœO [112] [120] [121] bn œœO [125] [129] [130] b√
˙ [139]
˙ O ˙
#œ nœ
#˙ ### Oœœ #O ### Oœœ #˙ #˙
& ˙ œO œ œ œ #œ
O œO ˙ #˙
nœ œ #œ
Pno
nœ
bœ œ bœ œ
? #œ
œ œ
œ
œœœ
9'18" 11'49"
œ œ O Copy
Copy ofof
thethe beginning
beginning
ÆJ
#O with added
with added midle
middle
voice voice

& O œ
œ œ #œ
Tape
b œ œ #œ
? O
b~ bO
Riferimento 6 O

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Nono Booklet.indd 23
5

SECTION 5
[140] [147] [150]
SECTION 5
[152]
bœ [155]
#œ nœ #œ # œœœ
& #œ n#www nbœœ n#œœ
#œ bnœœ
Pno
?
œœœœ œ œ °
œœœ b##b œœœœ nœ bœ
11'50"
œ
13'15"
µn œœ # œœ
13'16"
œ
fij
& œ bœ
bn#œœœœ
Tape ppp
? # # # # #
œ #œ œ bO
# œœœ œ #œ O
Riferimento 8
Riferimento 7

22/03/18 13:19
 Author | Paulo de Assis

Managing editor | Edward Crooks

Series editor | William Brooks

Cover lay-out | Studio Luc Derycke

Cover design, graphics, and typesetting | Lucia D’Errico

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European
Union Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/2007–2013][FP7/2007–2011])
under grant agreement n° 313419.

© 2018 by Orpheus Institute

Korte Meer 12
B-9000 Ghent (Belgium)

All rights reserved. Except in those cases expressly determined by law, no

part of this publication may be multiplied, saved in automated data files or
made public in any way whatsoever without the express prior written consent
of the publisher.

EAN-13.542503540004

This publication is part of the Orpheus Institute Series.

Nono Booklet.indd 24 22/03/18 13:19