Traditional musicology might be alarmed by the fact that more and more publications from the field of cultural studies are crowding the market. Music as an occupying power. On the history of music and emotions in the age of world wars is not devoted to work structures or to individual composers in the tried and tested biographical manner. Instead, the book combines essays on music in concentration camps, on French denazification efforts after 1945 and on the terrible activities of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the period before that. Such heterogeneous topics certainly do not make for easy reading. The danger of becoming frayed is then exacerbated by the "emotional" effect of sounds, which is already hinted at in the subtitle and in which cultural studies is obviously particularly interested. According to philosopher Martha Nussbaum, it is undisputed that "music has a deep connection to our emotional lives". But at the same time, she admits: "But the nature of this relationship is difficult to describe."

The musical and emotional consequences are not calculable for philosophers, rulers or occupiers. Neither the National Socialists nor the French, who tried to stabilize Germany with the help of music even after 1918, had a specific music-aesthetic or music-political strategy. Stephanie Kleiner looks at the French occupation of the Rhineland following the First World War. On the one hand, performances of Richard Wagner's Rheingold articulated an offensive appropriation of the Rhine as the French border. On the other hand, it was clear to the French occupiers that a long-term stabilization of the area could only succeed through a cultural rapprochement between the occupiers and the occupied, in other words: only through a feeling for the sensitivities of the locals. An overly offensive appropriation (or even elimination) of German culture could ultimately have led to a partisan struggle.

All the essays, divided into the three chapters "Music as an instrument of occupation", "Threatened music - threat music" and "Musical responses to war and occupation", shed light on an important topic in the history of mentalities. Certainly, in some cases a stronger focus on the issues would have been useful. For example, the separation of the "popular" and "elitist" spheres was largely ignored. A laudable exception is Michael Walter's text Lili Marleen. Germanic hegemony or spoils of war? The song was broadcast on various German military radio stations. Lili Marleen was broadcast with great impact in Belgrade and above all in North Africa during the war. It met with a broad response, as it also filled the "erotic void" of German soldiers at the front. As the song also met with a great response from the Americans and British, Walter concludes that soldiering could obviously be more important than the national-political attitude. In any case Lili Marleen a musical multiple coding that is just as tricky for those in power and occupiers as it is for representatives of cultural studies.

Besatzungsmacht Musik. On the History of Music and Emotions in the Age of World Wars, edited by Sarah Zalfen and Sven Oliver Müller, 336 p., Euro 32.80, transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2012

Today, the Music Studio Frey GmbH as a competence center that is oriented towards the standards of international universities.

With the opening of the "Akkordeon-Jugend-Akademie Reinach", a new teaching module is being offered that takes account of the changed school conditions and aims to provide targeted support for ambitious accordion students. The director of this new institution is Lina Frey. Musikstudio Frey GmbH regularly offers further training courses that are open to professional musicians and interested amateurs. In addition, the focus is on instrument trading and a comprehensive range of sheet music, including in-house publishing.

New management

Peter Frey has now handed over the management of the institute to his daughter Sabine Bachmann-Frey at the 40th anniversary celebrations on August 25. He will continue to work as a music teacher and internal consultant.

Sabine Bachmann-Frey's first professional training was a diploma as an accordion teacher in her parents' music studio and, as a permanent employee for more than 20 years, she has in-depth knowledge of the business. Her initial training was followed by studies in piano with Patrizio Mazzola in Lucerne and Bern, which she completed with a teaching and concert diploma. Master classes abroad and several years of further training in jazz and improvisation complete her portfolio. Sabine Bachmann-Frey has made a name for herself as an accompanist (e.g. at the Sursee Municipal Theatre) and performs with various professional ensembles, e.g. the Salontrio founded by her and her husband Sven Bachmann (clarinet and saxophone) La Jalousie. Sabine Bachmann-Frey directs the Aargau operetta ensemble The bats. In addition to her work at Musikstudio Frey, she teaches a piano class in Seengen AG, is a member of the Peter Frey Regional Accordion Orchestra and leads its junior formation.

Sunao Goko is a student of Pavel Vernikov at the Vienna Conservatory. Vernikov is also a member of the competition jury. In addition to the competition's first prize, Sunao Goko also received the audience prize and a prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work - "Shèxi" by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing.

The second prize went to 23-year-old Bulgarian Liya Petrova and the third to 21-year-old Japanese Eimi Wakui. A total of 24 participants from 13 countries competed.

The Tibor Varga Violin Competition was held together with the International Violin Competition Sion Valais for the first time. The two events were previously held separately.

More info: www.varga-sion-concours.ch

In the series Organ plus Dr. J. Butz Musikverlag has published two volumes of romantic music for cello and organ edited by Kurt Lueders, both of which represent a very welcome enrichment of this genre.

Apart from the well-known Prière op. 158 by Camille Saint-Saëns, both volumes contain mainly rarities by 19th century composers such as Waldemar von Bausznern, Friedrich Lux, Gustav Adolf Merkel, Ernst Toller and others. Three first publications are by Alexandre Guilmant, Otto Dienel and Emile Bourdon. The first is an interesting arrangement of the middle movement from the 6th Organ Sonata op. 86.

These are exclusively slow, contemplative individual compositions, which are suitable for the musical arrangement of church events, but can also be used as a supplement to concert programs.

Romantic music for violoncello and organ, edited by Kurt Lueders; Volume 1: Easy Works, BU 2302 (2010); Volume 2: BU 2602 (2013); each € 20.00; Dr. J. Butz Musikverlag, Bonn

The term "leitmotif" is so closely associated with Wagner's music dramas among music lovers, and in an arguably oversimplified form, that it is always necessary to clear up the accumulated misunderstandings. They are not simple symbols for things like sword or castle, for characters like Tristan or Sieglinde or for abstract concepts like love or deceit. The title of the book by Melanie Wald and Wolfgang Fuhrmann Hunch and memory indicates it unmistakably: Leitmotifs refer to something coming (foreboding) or to something past (memory), they link the course of events forwards and backwards and are much more than just waymarks in the plot - Wagner himself speaks of "emotional signposts". Nor is he the inventor of the term; Meyerbeer, Marschner and Berlioz preceded him in this respect, and it was only Wagner's posterity that reserved the term "leitmotif" for him.

This account tirelessly points out how complex Wagner's use of motifs is and that he brings out the finest nuances by varying a sequence of notes many times - whether through instrumentation, modulation or rhythmic changes - whereby much can only be discovered by listening carefully and repeatedly. There are discoveries to be made on almost every page, which are underpinned by numerous musical examples summarized at the end of the book. Fascinating, for example, is the proof of how Wagner in the Twilight of the gods creates a "mechanism of overwhelming force" through extreme compression of the harmonies, with a "matted leitmotif" and the "massive use of instrumental groups to produce the typical mixed sound".

The text is very easy to read and the structure of the chapters is didactically exemplary. However, the explanations cannot be simplified to such an extent that "this book will also be understandable and accessible to readers with little or no musical training, even if they occasionally have to tolerate music-theoretical jargon". This is a respectable, but ultimately pious wish, because the examples with harmonic references alone do not enable any increase in knowledge without prior training. However, it would be desirable, also from a political point of view, for such circles to gain more insight, because the phalanx of the intolerant Wagner community of the ignorant or semi-educated still receives the largest influx today.

Melanie Wald and Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Intuition and Memory - The Dramaturgy of Leitmotifs in Richard Wagner, 269 S., € 24.95, Bärenreiter/Henschel, Kassel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7618-2260-9