Nones is a composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 by Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

 scored for orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

. The piece is named for the poem, "Nones

Nones (Auden)

Nones is a book of poems by W. H. Auden published in 1951 by Faber & Faber. The book contains Auden's shorter poems written between 1946 and 1950, including "In Praise of Limestone", "Prime", "Nones," "Memorial for the City", "Precious Five", and "A Walk After Dark"."Nones" is a contemporary...

", by W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...

, and was originally intended to be an oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

, inspired by the poem, representing not only the Passion of Christ, but also the agony of modern man. The purely instrumental piece is predominantly punctual

Punctualism

Punctualism is a style of musical composition prevalent in Europe between 1949 and 1955 "whose structures are predominantly effected from tone to tone, without superordinate formal conceptions coming to bear"...

 in texture and formally consists of an approximate arch

Arch form

In music, arch form is a sectional structure for a piece of music based on repetition, in reverse order, of all or most musical sections such that the overall form is symmetric, most often around a central movement...

 created by "theme" and variations

Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...

. The tone row

Tone row

In music, a tone row or note row , also series and set, refers to a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets are sometimes found.-History and usage:Tone rows are the basis of...

 used was nontraditional in construction in several respects including number of pitches and consistent emphasis on intervals of major

Major third

In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the largest of the two: the major third spans four semitones, the minor third three...

 and minor third

Minor third

In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...

s. A note in Berio's sketches confirm that he consciously derived it from the trichordal cell of Webern's Concerto, op. 24, which it strongly resembles. Its combination of major and minor thirds is also prevalent in
Stravinsky, who had been a strong influence on Berio up to this time.

Berio's row is symmetrical around the central A, and each trichord

Trichord

In music theory, a trichord is a group of three different pitch classes found within a larger group . For example a continguous three note set from a musical scale or twelve-tone row. The term is derived by analogy from the 20th-century use of the word "tetrachord"...

al segment of the hexachord

Hexachord

In music, a hexachord is a collection of six pitch classes including six-note segments of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt's serial theory.-Middle Ages:...

s flanking that central note contains both the minor and major third. The row in fact includes four of the six possible permutations of this core trichord, guaranteeing a permanent atonal equilibrium.

Further reading

• Maderna, Bruno
  Bruno Maderna
  Bruno Maderna was an Italian conductor and composer. For the last ten years of his life he lived in Germany and eventually became a citizen of that country.-Biography:...
  
  . 1978. "Un inedito di Bruno Maderna". Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana 12, no. 4:517–20.
• Probasco, Robert C. 1968. "A Study of Some Performance Problems in Contemporary Music: An Oboist's View of Berio, Carter, and Stockhausen". M.A. Thesis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.