The tenth oscillator: the work of Cathy Berberian 1958-1966

In future, those who look to anniversaries as a bulwark against the solvent flow of time will find their thoughts directed at once to Cathy Berberian who died 20 years ago in 1983, and to Luciano Berio, who died in 2003. This is apt enough. Their marriage lasted only fourteen years, from 1950 to 1964. But their creative trajectories were inextricably entwined. One does not get far in discussing the work of one without invoking the other.