Jazz-inspired compositions have a special place in the repertoire of classical saxophone virtuosos and teachers at music schools in general, as they form a mediating bridge between two worlds that seem incompatible and definitely are for individual musicians in terms of their stylistic idiosyncrasies and aesthetic practice. It is up to each individual to venture into their neighbor's garden, where unfamiliar terrain will probably ultimately inspire them musically - many saxophonists have taken this step with ease and live the classical music profile in close alignment with the jazz profile and vice versa.

Perhaps Billy Barton, saxophonist with London's Savoy Orpheans Band, was one of the first to take this step thanks to the premiere of the Hot Sonata by Erwin Schulhoff in 1930. The preface to the Henle Verlag Urtext edition contains a great deal of revealing background information and speculations that inspire musicological research. In addition, this edition makes the original saxophone part of the premiere performance accessible in ossia systems. This is a particular benefit in the high register (b2) and an incentive for students and pupils at the advanced level to explore altissimo tones.

Billy Wilder's "some like it hot" probably also applies to Jeremy Norris. His Jazz Suite even ventures up to c3 in the register! His musical language is also characterized by syncopated rhythms and blues-inspired harmonies and melodies. The fact that the players have internalized the typical jazz characteristic of swing is an indispensable prerequisite in this composition, whereas in Schulhoff's work the structures of the classical sonata form are more of a learning field. Both works use notation to capture the jazz idioms. With Norris, the process of putting music on paper is relaxed, playful and, as far as possible, spontaneous. This approach is definitely a "bridging offer" that enables saxophonists with classical training to come into contact with the stylistics of jazz at a high level. The rather "some-like-it-cool-attitude" of this language is particularly evident in the YouTube video by Jeremy Norris and Fabio Calzavara: here, the impartiality for a moment meets the well-known cliché of the saxophone as a symbol carrier for erotic allusions. It is up to the performers to decide how much inspiration and fun they derive from this.

The two musicians and composers Klaus Dickbauer and Martin Gasselsberger have an equally refreshing approach to music. Their easy to moderately difficult songs for alto saxophone and piano are a successful enrichment for every lesson. In keeping with the diary idea in the album title My Song Diary all the pieces have a different everyday atmosphere and are given their varied shades through variations in time signatures, grooves, instrumentation, arrangement etc.. All this is documented by the subtly produced accompanying CD. A must-have for young people's musical tastes, although it should be noted that pupils at music schools primarily want to play their current "pop hits", and My Song Diary is not always easily accessible, not least because of its harmonic and compositional subtleties. These appealing resistances need to be accompanied by music education.

Erwin Schulhoff: Hot Sonata for alto saxophone and piano, edited by Frank Lunte, HN 1369, € 17.00, G. Henle, Munich

Jeremy Norris: Jazz Suite for alto saxophone (clarinet) and piano, ED 21923, € 24.50, Schott, Mainz

Klaus Dickbauer, Martin Gasselsberger: My Song Diary, 12 easy to moderately difficult pieces for alto saxophone, with CD: UE 38045, € 16.95; piano accompaniment: UE 38046, € 9.95; Universal Edition, Vienna

Indeed, one thinks of battles when listening to this powerful and often brutal music. The CD released by Neos offers two major works: the ensemble piece with the same title Combat actions/trauma actions op. 11 (1995/98) and a Chamber symphony "A végső Tavasz" op. 23 (2009/2011). Both can hardly be reduced to a common denominator. A ritually serious tone is always present, but Jorge E. López cultivates an incredibly flexible compositional style.

The Chamber Symphony underlines López's aesthetic attitude: "I have never identified with the term 'new music'. Rather, from the very beginning I was driven by the idea of making the ancient present. I'm not looking for the new, but rather for the repressed." There are ludicrous references to Gustav Mahler, Beethoven and Gustav Holst. With mannerist artistry, López achieves a bizarre, even fantastic feat.

The Collegium Novum Zürich under the direction of Jonathan Stockhammer plays very accurately, with great attention to detail and at the same time powerfully in the right places. Leslie Leon sings the lines by the Hungarian poet Endre Ady in the Chamber Symphony expressive, but is also able to switch to an ironically distanced tone. A furious recording quality by Swiss radio SRF and an informative, easy-to-read booklet text by Jens Schubbe round off the outstanding impression.

Duo Praxedis unites the harp with the piano. The two performers Praxedis Hug-Rütti (harp) and Praxedis Geneviève Hug (piano) dedicate their latest CD to the composer Carl Rütti, who is celebrating his 70th birthday. This is not just a "family" gesture for their brother and uncle, but an interesting and musically committed joint work.

Carl Rütti has made a name for himself internationally as a composer. Although he has extended his work to all musical areas except opera, his focus is on polyphonic, technically demanding and tonally refined works for top British choirs. Since studying in London, Rütti has been closely associated with the choral scene there, often writing on their behalf.

As a versatile pianist, Rütti was also a sought-after piano teacher at the Zurich Conservatory and works as an organist in Oberägeri. As a composer, he has so many requests that he can pick and choose. No wonder, because his music is tonal yet modern, rhythmically refined, has drive and poetry, and it sounds good. In 2005, Rütti received the Canton of Zug Recognition Award and in 2015 the Orlando di Lasso Medal for his extensive artistic output.

To mark his milestone birthday, oratorio concerts with various world premieres in Zug, Zurich, Basel, Germany, Sweden and the UK are planned. He will also be presenting his latest CD. The recorded pieces are mainly arrangements of his choral works. Rütti has always been interested in unusual instrumentations, such as the harp and piano in this case. With subtle intuition, he knows how to cleverly combine the plucked and strummed string sound. The booklet reveals another of Rütti's "spiritual" sources of inspiration: the poet and nun Silja Walter (1919-2011), many of whose works he set to music. Her poems are printed, although the pieces are not sung. Another "spiritual" poet of his taste is the pastor Ulrich Knellwolf.

What is surprising is that these arrangements hardly suggest the limitation to the small instrumentation of harp and piano. The harpist Praxedis Hug-Rütti knows how to use Rütti's broad spectrum of moods and tone colors, for example in the piece dedicated to her Harp booklet with a sure instinct. The inclusion of the piano, carefully and sparingly handled by Rütti, also reveals its poetic power through the pianist's sensitive playing. An appealing birthday present, also for harp fans.

Salome Zwicky - They stand for uncertainty, rejection, timeout, reorientation and existential fear. The question often arises not only as to whether the work was done incorrectly, but also as to whether self-blame and feelings of guilt can be the result. Young female singers in training or at the start of their career are usually affected. Men do not have nodules, longer vocal folds seem to be immune.

Nodules are caused by any unfavorable form of voice production - not just when singing. They are thickenings of the mucous membrane in the middle section of the vocal folds due to unfavorable phonation - hence the technical term phonation thickening.

The air flows through the closed vocal folds and creates a vibration at their edge. The air flow rubs and sucks on the mucous membrane, most noticeably in the middle of the vocal folds. To protect itself, the over-stressed mucous membrane thickens, similar to how the skin on the hands or feet develops calluses under pressure and friction. However, the thickening of the vocal folds worsens the vibration properties, so that even more unfavorable pressure is required for phonation - a vicious circle is created.

Not every nodular change is a phonation thickening. Genuine nodules are symmetrical, i.e. they are roughly the same on both vocal folds. Nodular findings on only one vocal fold are almost certainly another change, for example polyps or cysts. Unlike nodules, these do not disappear even if the voice is spared. Genuine nodules, on the other hand, can become smaller or disappear if the voice is rested for one to two weeks (only quiet, effortless speaking, no singing in full voice). However, this temporary caution does not solve the problem; the thickenings will reappear under increasing strain. It is important to tackle the actual cause.

If real nodules are found, the first question is therefore the cause, and the form of therapy is derived from this. The harmful "too much" on the vocal folds is made up of the mechanical force and a time factor. In other words, it depends on how you produce sounds (muscular balance, subglottic pressure), but also how often and for how long you sing in this way. If nodules are discovered by chance, it is important to know that they only need to be treated if there is a simultaneous voice disorder. Some singers sing without any problems with the beginnings of nodules.

The therapeutic approach is always similar. Put simply, you have to learn to make sounds - especially loud or high-pitched sounds - resonate instead of being forced. The power to sing must be drawn from good breathing and body technique and not generated by laryngeal muscles. The same principle applies to speaking in everyday life, in the classroom and on stage and is also followed in speech training, vocal pedagogy or voice therapy (speech therapy). Breathing control, support and marginal voice training relieve the larynx. Proven aids are LaxVox or - brand new - the Doctor Vox voice mask. For some singers, individual areas of the vocal technique need to be changed. This takes time, but is essential for continued professional success. Surgical removal of the nodules is only necessary in a few cases and only makes sense if the incorrect vocalization is corrected at the same time.

Phonation thickening is not a bad thing. They show that the type of vocal strain has led to a dead end and are a warning signal for those affected to rethink and optimize the way they handle their voice. It is worth the effort. The important interaction between therapy and pedagogy offers the opportunity to get to know one's own voice in greater depth and thereby acquire mindfulness and a healthy technical foundation. It will literally "untie the knot".

Salome Zwicky

... from the SingStimmZentrumZürich (www.sszz.ch) is a specialist in ORL with a specialty in phoniatrics.

Hunziker impressed the jury with his interpretation of blues rock classics such as "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Shame" as well as his own composition "Wasting Time", in which he also appeared as a singer. Andrea F.G. Raschèr, President of the MKZ Foundation, even thought he had heard "a young Jeff Beck". Dan Hunziker is studying at MKZ Pre-College with the aim of passing on his love of music and his knowledge as a guitar teacher in the not too distant future.

The MKZ sponsorship prizes are awarded annually for "outstanding artistic achievement" and are endowed with CHF 3000 prize money each. This prize money provided by the MKZ Sponsorship Foundation is tied to a musical purpose (master classes, CD productions or similar).
 

The author Regina Dürig and the musician Christian Müller have been working together as the duo Butterland in the field of Stories & Sound since 2010. Butterland's works are mostly sculptural in character and can be formally categorized between live performance, poetic noise, radio play and spatial installation. Their formats place a special focus on encounters and exchanges with the audience.

The duo takes up favorite themes of the French philosopher, linguist and feminist Luce Irigaray and wants to use artistic means to question the encounters with others inspired by her. Based on her texts and encounters, an epilogue is created by the three of them, in which Christian Müller works with musical strategies (composition, recordings) and Regina Dürig with poetic access.

With the grant, which is endowed with CHF 20,000, the French-speaking Commission for General Cultural Issues of the Canton of Bern supports artists in the development of a joint project between the French-speaking part of the Canton of Bern and another region. Of the 13 applications received, the jury chose Butterland's project.

The scholarship is being awarded for the third time this year. The first scholarship went to the design artist Mingjun Luo, the second to the musician and sculptor Laurent Güdel. The next competition will be announced in spring 2020.

Some famous composers - Brahms, Stravinsky, Wagner and Liszt come to mind - were inspired to write important works by longer or shorter stays in Switzerland. Not so the Paris-based American composer Swan Hennessy, who lived in Veytaux on Lake Geneva from 1915 to 1919 due to the war. For unknown reasons, he did not compose a single work during these five years.

Hennessy's work has only been increasingly recognized in recent years. Born in Illinois in the USA in 1866 as the son of an Irish emigrant, he studied in Stuttgart. It is no wonder that his early compositions were influenced by German music, especially Schumann. His move to Paris coincided with a turn towards musical impressionism and the music of Debussy and Ravel, and from 1900 onwards he also developed an interest in Irish and Celtic music.

Works "in the Irish style" make up an important part of Hennessy's oeuvre, which grew to over 80 works with opus numbers by the time of his death in 1929. His oeuvre is devoted exclusively to piano, vocal and chamber music. His compositions were very well received throughout Europe, but especially in Ireland. Unlike other composers, Hennessy did not work with quotations from Irish folk music, but rather appropriated its melodic and rhythmic characteristics.

The initiative to record a CD of Swan Hennessy's complete string quartets and string trio is highly commendable. Released under the label of the Irish radio station RTÉ and performed by the excellent RTÉ Contempo Quartet, this recording helps to arouse interest in a completely forgotten composer. The members of the string quartet, who are a joy to listen to, have known each other since their school days in Bucharest. The ensemble has been based in Galway, Ireland, for many years and has made a name for itself with performances of traditional repertoire as well as world premieres of contemporary Irish music.

Particularly moving is Hennessy's second quartet op. 49 from 1920, which is intended to commemorate Terence MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, who died in an English prison in the same year after a hunger strike and thus became a martyr of the Irish independence movement.

The fact that Hennessy was no friend of atonal music and the avant-garde in general can be heard in his compositions. His aim was to create pan-Celtic music that drew on the traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Brittany. His string quartets, which are imbued with a mild melancholy and lack extreme dynamic contrasts and exaggerated emotions, are good examples of this. The RTÉ Contempo Quartet captures their tone perfectly and convinces with nuanced and beautiful interpretations.

Swan Hennessy: Complete String Quartets 1-4, Sérénade & String Trio. RTÉ Contempo Quartet (Bogdan Sofei and Ingrid Nicola, violins ; Andreea Banciu, viola; Adrian Mantu, cello). RTÉ lyric fm CD 159

Jazz, pop and rock singer LeeZa Nail has compiled her experiences as a singer into a guide to help young talents take their own career in hand. While chapters 1 to 4 outline music theory, vocal technique and breathing exercises in such a quick and easy way that they are actually superfluous, the second part of the book presents interesting, well-founded and practical information, put together in a refreshing and sensible way: How do you invent yourself? The necessary equipment and the development of an "own brand" are just as important as self-management and time management. Marketing, advertising, image building and outfitting are just as important as overcoming stage fright, memorization, organization and communication, website, social media and flyers. And last but not least, the business plan has to be right: Insurance, pensions and side jobs need to be planned. Relaxation, exercise and nutrition tips complete the variety of areas addressed.

The information is peppered with anecdotes and interesting facts from the field, while interviews with professional musicians provide insights into their everyday working lives and make the book an original and varied read, especially for newcomers to the profession.

LeeZa Nail: The Singer's Coach. The career guide, 160 p., € 18.95, Alfred Music, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3947998081

Jokes are sometimes a serious matter. While a physicist, for example, can sometimes juggle with his subject in an entertaining way (the underlying laws are set in stone), humorous play is one of the most difficult exercises of all among humanities scholars - after all, it also requires a healthy distance and reflection on one's own actions. And so no distinction is usually made between cheeky correctness and entertaining nonsense of a higher order. Yet in the field of music history, such outstanding "composer personalities" as PDQ Bach, Otto Jägermeier and Giovanni Francesco Bicchini have long since shown that you don't have to go to the cellar to laugh. Max Steinitzer already published the beautiful title in 1910: Straussiana and Andres. A booklet of musical humor mostly with and rarely without, seriously for and jokingly against Dr. Richard Strauss (not a fake!).

And now there are fun contributions under the title Cue notes has been published. As the subtitle promises, you will find astonishing, delightful and shocking things - from a culinary workshop report from the (fictitious) special research area "Music and Nutrition", to stages from the life of musicologist Dr. Gundolf Stellmacher or an article on "New German Minne" to the Divine Tirade. An intellectual highlight here is undoubtedly the extension of the name to Dmitri Shostrakowitrullala later the Dortmund kitchen installation An American in Paris. However, you won't find overly cheap stories about a certain stringed instrument in the alto position here. And that's a good thing.

Cue notes. Amazing, delightful and terrifying things from the world of music, edited by Mechthild von Schoenebeck, 168 p., € 29.90, Lit Verlag, Münster 2019, ISBN 978-3-643-14227-6

The present edition is an adaptation of the most beautiful motifs from the Moldova for two flutes. The tone poem is part of the symphonic cycle My fatherland by Bedřich Smetana. In the original, too, the Moldova with two flutes symbolizing the bubbling springs from which the great stream then emerges. At first, the two instruments alternate with the melodic sections until the first voice plays the great cantilena. In the second part, "Wälder - Jagd", the flutes effectively imitate the striking, dotted horn motif, which is played in thirds and sixths. The "Bauernhochzeit" also approaches the original through the dense setting of the semiquavers. The beginning of "Mondschein - Nymphenreigen" is also based on the original movement, although the arranger Jennifer Seubel recommends leaving out one of the many semiquavers for breathing. In the fifth part, "The wide river of the Moldau - Vyšehrad motif", she suggests playing individual passages an octave lower as an alternative.

The thematic action largely takes place in the first part, so that it is a good idea to swap the parts between the movements, especially because the second part, which replaces the accompanying parts of the orchestra, presents a challenge. The author suggests interpreting the parts either as short, self-contained pieces or as a concert version. This beautiful arrangement enriches the duo repertoire and can also be played well with advanced pupils.

Bedřich Smetana: Moldau, arranged for two flutes by Jennifer Seubel, BA 10929, € 13.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 

What I like about these etudes is that they are short and to the point, but go deep. Deep, both musically and in terms of the technical tasks and the ability to read music. I am talking about the Moderní Klavírní Etudy by the Czech composer Jakub Metelka. The pieces move through all major and minor keys and each etude deals with a specific technical aspect. For example, musical embellishments, glissandi, intervals of thirds and sixths, polyrhythms, arpeggios and wide shifts in position. Despite these clear intentions on the part of the composer, he succeeds in writing very poetic and appealing music, far removed from the stereotypical working through of technical patterns.

In terms of difficulty, the miniatures are at an intermediate level, and depending on the tempo and quality requirements, they can be quite tricky. Used specifically as "etudes" in piano lessons, I can imagine that these pieces can also be fun for more advanced pupils. I also consider the use of keys with many accidentals and the associated reading of contexts as well as the training of the ear to be particularly valuable.

Jakub Metelka: Modern piano etudes, BA 11559, mp3 files online, € 13.50, Bärenreiter, Prague 2019

Many drummers were trained as professional drum teachers in the professional department (vocational school). And some up-and-coming greats such as Philipp Schmid (Art o Nice), Flavio Mezzodi (Krokus, Stefanie Heinzmann), Alain Ackermann (Eluveitie) or Giuseppe Urso (Florian Ast) have laid the foundations for their success on the drums at the Agostini Drum School in Olten.

On the open day on Saturday, December 7, 2019, 10.30 a.m. to around 3 p.m., the thirtieth anniversary of the drum school at Rötzmatt 10 will be celebrated and the new edition of the textbook The Drummer II was launched. The founder and director of the Agostini Drum School in Olten, drum teacher Noby Lehmann, has incorporated his many years of experience into this teaching aid for advanced students.

Interested parties, friends and fans are very welcome.
 

When we are able to play Mahler songs that we know so well from listening, thanks to the arrangement by Ronald Kornfeil and Lisa Batiashvili, the richness of the harmonic and expressive means of this compositional style really penetrates our consciousness and allows us to immerse ourselves deeply in the emotional world of the songs. The vocal parts are skillfully distributed between the two instruments, the orchestral parts are transparently reduced to the essentials, resulting in a well-rounded performance. It is a pity that the texts are not printed in the booklet. It would even be desirable if the words were in the score next to the corresponding notes. Those who laboriously put this together with the help of the original versions are able to make the songs more colorful.

Included are: Remembrance, Spring morning, Went across the field this morning, Earthly life, Primordial light.

Gustav Mahler: Ging heut morgen übers Feld, Five selected songs for violin and piano arranged by Lisa Batiashvili, UE 36432, € 21.95, Universal Edition, Vienna

According to Pro Helvetia, the oldest part of the listed building dates back to 1725 and the Swiss Arts Council has had its headquarters here for 80 years. Following the renovation, Pro Helvetia can now "concentrate all its workplaces in the same building complex. This will secure the foundation's location in the long term, which was a concern for both the foundation and the city."

The official inauguration and handover of the keys will take place on December 6 at 2 pm. Afterwards, the open house will offer an insight into the premises with various presentations and a children's program.

With her dissertation on Franz Liszt's Schubert transcriptions, Swiss pianist and musicologist Andrea Wiesli has made a long-overdue plea for virtuoso song arrangements. In eleven chapters ranging from "Liszt's paths to Schubert" to "The song transcription as a new genre" and "Schubert's song cycles newly composed" to "'More dreamed than emphasized' - Aesthetics and dramaturgy of the Schubert image in Liszt", the author mainly deals with the pianistic transformation of Schubert's songs into groundbreaking transcriptions in order to also include the problem of additionally composed additions.

The "highlights of Schubert's early reception", published in 1838 with deviations in Vienna and Paris, are at the center of the numerous work reviews. 12 songs by Franz Schubert. In addition to the melodies, they contain Singing on the water and Restless love even such popular ones as the Erlkönig or Gretchen at the spinning wheel. She explains the form, harmony and aesthetics of the Viennese model's formative influence on the co-founder of the New German School in detailed, linguistically brilliant analyses of these frequently published transcriptions. The excursus on the song arrangements by Stephen Heller, which were written at almost the same time, or the presentation of the orchestrated Wanderer fantasy as a piano concerto provide great reading pleasure over and above the scientific findings.

With comparative quotations of notes, Andrea Wiesli also deals with Liszt as an idiosyncratic editor of Schubert's piano music, with the orchestrated songs and the Hungarian tone of both composers. Her fundamental publication is the first comprehensive demonstration that Liszt's multifaceted engagement with Schubert runs like a common thread through his life and work. As the author writes, Liszt "succeeded in striking a balance between fidelity to the text and independence, placing the arrangement alongside the original as an equal work of art".

Carefully researched data on Liszt's Schubert reception during the Viennese concert tours from 1838 to 1846, a music index with printing plate numbers and an extensive bibliography round off the publication, which is subtly designed with many examples of sheet music.

Andrea Wiesli: "I was always drawn away to him in joy and sorrow". The Schubert transcriptions of Franz Liszt, 328 p., numerous sheet music, € 60.00, Franz-Steiner-Verlag, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-515-12137-8