JAVS Spring 2026

directly from TEA in its first three movements— ”Entrances,” “March,” and “ Berceuse .” The fourth movement, “Waltzes,” instead combines fragments of waltzes from TEA in a new and distinctive way. 3 As Adès explains, “What interests me about the waltz is the seductiveness of this music. I often feel that the waltzes by Johann Strauss are saying ‘why don’t you stay a little longer? Don’t worry about what’s going on outside.’” 4 With a deeper understanding of the plot of The Exterminating Angel , this waltz character takes on a more ominous tone. Four Berceuses from The Exterminating Angel for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano (2021) parallels the same scenes from The Exterminating Angel as the viola Berceuses , with the addition of a third berceuse reflecting an episode involving the slaughter of an innocent guest.⁶ Critic Christian Hertzog observes, The Four Berceuses from The Exterminating Angel for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano was the highlight of the evening. It’s gruesome stuff; the lack of program notes on Sunday did no justice to how perversely this sweet sounding music underscores the grotesquerie onstage. 5 In light of these related compositions— Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel for Solo Piano (2018), The Exterminating Angel Symphony (2020), and Four Berceuses from The Exterminating Angel —I hope to pursue future comparative research with Three Berceuses from The Exterminating Angel for Viola and Piano . 6 Adès’ opera, The Exterminating Angel, is derived from the 1962 film El ángel exterminador by Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900–1983). Relevant to the opera’s subject matter, Buñuel’s early left-leaning work was controversial within the context of rising fascism in 1930s Spain. After fleeing to the United States with his family, Buñuel lived in exile until 1960, vowing never to return to a fascist Spain. 7 Buñuel’s artistic philosophy emphasized creative freedom over profit or material possession. His attachment to surrealism and to expressing unconscious impulses resonates with Adès’ operatic setting of The Exterminating Angel . 8 Operatic Source of mm. 25–31: Act III, Scene 3 The opera’s plot centers on a group of wealthy guests who gather for dinner at a mansion, only to discover that they are inexplicably unable to leave. As the situation deteriorates, the guests descend into desperation.

Although the guests are finally able to leave at the opera’s conclusion, the story may be interpreted as a critique of Spain’s closed society at the time. At the beginning of the film, Buñuel asserts that “the best explanation of this film is that, from the standpoint of pure reason, there is no explanation.” 9 Film critic Roger Ebert reframes this idea, suggesting that the film implies “from the standpoint of an explanation, there is no pure reason.” 10 Taken together, these perspectives help explain Adès’s attraction to Buñuel’s film and his use of meters in mm. 25–31 of Berceuse no. 2 that deliberately resist conventional logic and metrical expectation. In examining The Exterminating Angel for material corresponding to mm. 25–31 of the Berceuse (Figure 2), I located the related passage in Act III, Scene 3, mm. 388–395 of the opera (Figure 1). In this scene, the two characters most relevant to the musical passage in question—Eduardo and Beatriz—ultimately take their own lives rather than continue enduring their confinement. Metric Design and Textual Meaning My focus lies in the unusual sequence of meters—1/6, 3/4, 1/6, 1/4, 1/6, 1/4, and 5/8—and whether these choices relate to the meaning of the text. The 1/6 meter creates a pronounced sense of breathlessness, as the text functions less as a point of arrival than as a connective gesture leading into subsequent phrases. Each 1/6 measure consists of a single beat that propels the line forward; although these measures serve a transitional lyrical function, they are nevertheless notated as discrete entities, complete with defining bar lines and distinct pitch content. This dual role complicates performance decisions: adding a breath after each 1/6 measure would clarify the rhythmic and pitch changes and underscore the specificity of the meter, yet doing so risks undermining the intended sense of urgency, as the musical pacing affords little practical space for inhalation. Figure 1 presents the corresponding libretto excerpt from the opera which includes the text, “bouquets of lust, I’ll make from your veins.” 11 These shifting meters help convey the tension of the scene, the disturbing imagery of the lyrics, and perhaps Buñuel’s and Adès’ shared interest in resisting rational explanation. Figure 1 shows the vocal lines from the original score, with both characters singing the same text. 12

22

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2026