Through the symphony orchestra via app

If you don't go to the opera house, Kunsthaus or Tonhalle as a child or teenager, it will be difficult to find your way there later. The worlds of sound and images remain distant and unapproachable for many. A new app from the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich now introduces children aged 6 and over to the world of heavenly violins and rumbling basses in High German. Let's go to The magical symphony orchestra: Select your avatar and walk through the colorful entrance into the next room, where Pip, Fidelia and Gustav are peeking out. The mouse, the spider and the ghost live in the Tonhalle because they love listening to music and because there are so many exciting things to discover there. One evening, when the visitors have gone, the three of them find a little book lying on the floor with all kinds of funny characters. A puzzle book?

First puzzle: The instruments are all mixed up and need to be sorted. To do this, drag the picture of the trumpet to the designated orchestra space, followed by the other musical instruments. You've done it! You learn that there are strings, woodwinds and other instrument families. But watch out, Carlos the cat is sneaking into the Tonhalle, high alert for Pip the mouse. Which instrument is best suited as a hiding place? Pip searches for the right hole in various instruments. Short melody fragments of individual instruments are played. In which order were they played? Click and continue.

This is followed by acoustic courses with an instrument-picture-sound-memory, with melodies and graphic note pictures as well as portraits of composers. (Mozart began composing at the age of five. Beethoven at seven. Bach played the harpsichord, violin, viola, organ and sang in the choir. He composed over 1000 vocal works).

Fidelia the spider winds five threads from her body, which form into staves - a small score is created on which you can follow the music being played. It's exciting how music can be written down in musical notation. Or is it the other way around? Seventh and final riddle: What does a conductor actually do? He conducts. And so do we. We use the cursor to draw 4/4 and triple bars on the screen and conduct the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

So, enough learning and practicing (the course lasts about 45 minutes), now the doors to the Tonhalle are open. And you are cordially invited and well prepared.

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich: The magical symphony orchestra, Agon Productions,
tonhalle-orchester.ch/game

The game can also be played in English from the 2025/26 season.