Luciano Berio's process of "additive" composition—using one work as the basis for another, as in the Chemins series of works for soloist and ensemble—was reversed for a pair of works for solo clarinet, Chemins V for clarinet and digital system (1980, since withdrawn) and Sequenza IX for clarinet solo (1980). Berio's position as director of electro-acoustic research at IRCAM in Paris led to the development of a complex real-time synthesis and signal-processing unit, the 4X (developed primarily by the physicist Peppino di Giugno).

Berio's survey of the unit's potential resulted in Chemins V. From that piece he drew Sequenza IX, which in spite of its computer-influenced origins is perhaps the most traditionally melodic of all of the Sequenza works. Behind the motivic structures, though, lies a study of the acoustic properties of the clarinet, considered and translated into songlike melody.

Sequenza IX was written for Michel Arrignon and premiered by him in Paris in 1980. Berio's transcription of Sequenza IX for alto saxophone (Sequenza IXb), was written for Claude Delangle and first performed by John Harle in London in 1981.

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