Like Luciano Berio's Sequenza VIII for violin (1976), Sequenza XI for guitar (1988) takes as one of its central concerns the history of the instrument at hand—in this case, an exploration of both flamenco and classical guitar traditions. Berio adapts playing techniques such as tamburo (striking the strings with the hand) at the sound hole and rapid strumming from the former tradition, contrapuntal techniques from the latter.

The work also combines the open-stringed harmonic base of the guitar with more chromatically ambiguous chords, producing two centers of harmonic "gravity" in the piece. As in the other Sequenzas, the physical nature of performance plays an important role; flamenco strumming contrasts dramatically with more delicate passagework, a choreography of wildness and control.

Sequenza XI} was written for Eliot Fisk, who premiered the work in Rovereto, Italy in 1988. Later, Berio also wrote Chemins VI for guitar and ensemble for Fisk.

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