6. Teaching Strategies Employed to Approach a Postmodern Opus. Recital I (For Cathy) by Luciano Berio

The difficulties encountered by any history of music teacher when tackling postmodern repertoire is a well-known fact. Doubts are only natural. For instance, of the innumerable creators belonging to different cultures, which would be the relevant composers? Furthermore, when finally choosing one representative, on which of his/her works should one focus? And after one particular piece of selected, what is the best way to teach the scientific arguments required for its perception? When the chosen opus fails to distinguish itself through the direct expressiveness of its language, what should one do? What are the works of music considered to be exquisite in terms of technique and expression, with an actual impact on the teaching field? This approach is all the more tedious as the specialized teacher is faced with the lack of any immediate feedback about the importance of some music, as the biggest impediment is the music score itself, which becomes gradually accessible, after numerous auditions and explanatory comments. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to achieve the teaching approach of an opus with direct expressiveness composed during the last decades of the last century: Recital I for Cathy by Luciano Berio. An innovative mezzo soprano and 17 instruments score, which promotes the subtleties existing either in the relationship between themes, dramaturgy and language, or in the correspondence between text and sonority. These are some of the aspects that we intend to tackle in order to help our students understand the postmodern phenomenon by means of Berio’s inclusive and synthetic vision. In order to ground our scientific approach, we rely on the well-known quotation technique used by the creator, which, by recalling apparently disparate music, facilitates the process of didactic demonstration. The actual quotation or allusion to different sonorities constitutes a challenge in discovering the general and particular meanings of sound dramaturgy, but especially the deep meanings of the emotional reception of the opus.