Commissioning and Shared Creativity: The Sequenza xii for Bassoon by Luciano Berio
By determining the place, date, and framework for the premiere, the commission of a new work can give a concrete reality to the longstanding artistic work and intellectual collaboration between a composer and a performer. Such was the case for the Sequenza xii for bassoon by Luciano Berio (1925-2003), dedicated to the French bassoonist Pascal Gallois. Premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 15 June 1995, this work is the fruit of a long process of technical and musical maturation which began in 1990, wherein the composer and the performer were caught up in a dynamic of shared creativity. Using archival documents and a series of interviews with Pascal Gallois, the aim of this article is to track the creation of this Sequenza in order to show how the official commission from the Ensemble intercontemporain materialized the artistic commitment between a virtuoso and a composer at the peak of his artistic career.