Sequenza II is a composition for unaccompanied harp by the Italian composer Luciano Berio. Written for and premiered by the French harpist Francis Pierre in 1963 (who also recorded it twice), it has since been performed and recorded by Emily Laurance, Frédérique Cambreling, Susan Jolles, and Claudia Antonelli, among others.
As with most of the Sequenze, Berio sought to explore the timbral and expressive capabilities of the harp in the hands of a virtuoso musician. Because of this, Sequenza II defies many of the stereotypes associated with the harp. In the liner notes of the 1999 Ensemble InterContemporain recording, Berio wrote of Sequenza II, "French impressionism has left us with a rather limited version of the harp, as if its most obvious characteristic were that of lending itself to the attention of loosely robed girls with long blond tresses, capable of drawing from it nothing more than seductive glissandi." Sequenza II has its share of glissandi, but also calls for harmonic tones and extended techniques such as percussive effects (on the wooden body of the harp), as well as a virtuoso amount of pedal-shifting and an extreme sensitivity to rapid dynamic changes.
The scent of danger
takes me to the edge of panic
now I¡¯m caught
in the plot
that was thought up
satanic like Mayo
-Dayo,
daylight comes and I wanna get home before I¡¯m burnt by the sun.
I wanna be free in peace love and harmony,
but my veranda be vanishing like carbon see
check the scripture
a picture emerges now its shined
with the twelfth sign of the seventh sturgeons.
And the first is a sleeper
steeped in the force of the dark side
is striked but hold up hell horse.
And the source be above the law like Sir Gal.
The thought of their stare raised my hair like the dog.
Now he stalks where I walks
setting soldiers at the border
and hopes to catch Gueverra actin outta order.
And the fact is I was kidnapped
thrown in the back of the
unmarked van destination unknown
in league with the entry got an Oliver Stone.
We¡¯re starting revolutions
33 and 1/3,
you¡¯re mine now,
was all I heard.
In the jurisdiction marked of the prediction,
cuz the truth stranger than fiction
from the get go
the watcher said so
beware
Sgt. Stiletto.
J Gueverra takes the fifth to those who would drag me under
like coyote to roadrunner,
now the population faces incarceration
while select serpents reach
certain circles of illumination.
Looking over my shoulder,
I¡¯m seeing shadows on the walls.
I¡¯m turning pallid at the thoughts of the gallows.
Seven gables zooming for me cant neglect the connection,
Seven are the sides on the cross on the pendulum,
Stiletta, the name of the nemesis Gueverra,
I¡¯m trapped in the labyrinth.
Assassins be passing me and I amongst their midst,
before my name is known I slip into the mist,
I exist
the Specialist
who persists
to vent the secret entrance I decipher the hieroglyphs
TADA the creek before reveals a door VOILA
and I emerge into the crypt.
In the jurisdiction marked of the prediction,
cuz the truth stranger than fiction
from the get go
the watcher said so
beware
Sgt. Stiletto.
Now I¡¯m strapped to the rack and the terrors on,
God damn
I feel like the man from the marathon,
I gotta bust out or I¡¯m Dustin like Hoffman
and I feel like the mino shit I¡¯m lost.
The little keys unlock the mysteries unknown,
I roam these catacombs like Jones.
I float like a butterfly
see revenge like superfly
and I got high
be on like sky.
I¡¯m making a date with the undertaker
as Stiletta sends me
out to meet my maker.
I charge that cigar that comes like Kool-Aid
and I bust through the wall like a Big Jim Slim.
You trip the switch and you fall through the trap,
your friends are falling in and you can¡¯t get em back,
there¡¯s a dragon underground you heard the bellow,
beware
Sgt. Stiletto.
In the jurisdiction marked of the prediction,
cuz the truth stranger than fiction
from the get go
the watcher said so
beware.