Sequenza IXa, for Clarinet

Luciano Berio: Secuencia IXa, para clarinete.

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."