The terms Improvisation and Authenticity are often used to classify and evaluate musical performances. However, a more precise philosophical reflection brings problems to light. The concept of Improvisation the idea of boundless spontaneity and freedom. However, this remains unattainable because in practice, recourse to existing patterns and rules is unavoidable. What the Authenticity a distinction can be made between a subjective and an objective form of performance. The former aims to ensure that the performers express themselves authentically. Objective authenticity, on the other hand, strives to return to the true origin or supposed intention of a musical work in order to visualize the "original version" and/or the experience behind it. In both cases, however, the question is to what extent full authenticity is realizable or even conceivable.

The aim of the conference is to understand more precisely what improvisation and authenticity could be and how their interrelationship can be described. In particular, both terms will be used to shed light on the concept of the musical work. The conference is interdisciplinary and brings philosophy and musicology into conversation.

In this regard, the conference papers will address the following questions, among others:
- How can improvisation be distinguished from other musical practices?
- What do we mean when we talk about a more or less authentic improvisation talk?
- To what extent can sound recordings also be authentic?
- What can the concept of the work achieve in the context of improvisation?
- What concepts of improvisation can we gain from concrete musical practices and various music theories?
- What does freedom of improvisation mean?

These questions will be examined using both theoretical arguments and concrete examples. The interdisciplinary dialogue will not only bring together knowledge from different disciplines, but also allow different perspectives to stimulate each other. Invited keynote speeches will be given by Julian Dodd (Manchester University), Roger Pouivet (Université de Lorraine) and Bastien Gallet (HEAR, Strasbourg/Mulhouse). These questions will be put to the test in a workshop with the HKB improvisation trio Inniger-daSilva-Spitzenstaetter.
 

Fabian Römer was born in Zurich in 1973 and grew up in Freienbach. After graduating from the cantonal school in Schwyz, he studied music (SMPV) and founded the GYSKO Soundlab recording studio in Pfäffikon in 1995 together with Matthias Hillebrand and his brother Manuel. In 1998 he moved to Munich, where he still lives today. He is a guest lecturer for film music at the music academy there. Römer is one of the best-known film composers in Europe.

"Kulturschock" was born in 2014 from the idea of performing classical and contemporary music in unusual places in order to make it accessible to an audience that normally rarely or never attends classical concerts. The four professionally trained musicians from Schwyz, Cyrill Greter, Raphaela Reichlin, Lydia Opilik and Severin Suter, had young people in mind. Hip bars in the Schwyz nightlife scene were chosen as the backdrop.

Mathias Meyer was and is active as a drummer in various formations known throughout Switzerland, such as Dabu Fantastic and currently Breitbild, with whom he has played countless concerts in Swiss clubs, open airs and festivals. In addition to his work in the Swiss pop/hip-hop scene, he is also active in the field of new folk music with his formation, the Artra Trio. He can regularly be heard on the radio or seen on TV with the Echo vom Leutschenbach (band on the live shows of SRF bi de Lüt with Nik Hartmann).

More than 300,000 editions of sheet music from German publishers are available in German music shops, with around 7,000 new publications being added every year. At a time when professional musicians, teachers and the large number of amateur musicians, mainly children and young people, often have to make do with makeshift solutions due to economic constraints, it seems appropriate to award a special prize to sheet music, music books and digital editions of outstanding quality.

The aim is to highlight the achievements of those involved in production, but above all to raise the public's awareness of quality. Winfried Jacobs, Vice President of the DMV, affirms: "The association and its approximately 400 member publishers are thus recognizing special editorial achievements in times of the levelling of cultural achievements and the proliferation of cheap reproductions."

In the 26th year of the renowned competition, 17 publishers took part and submitted their best publications. The winners were

Francois Couperin: Pièces de clavecin, Premier livre, edited by Denis Herlin
Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel

Choir book for the Protestant hymnal. With movements for 63 hymns from the Protestant Hymnal, (choirmaster package, performance material) edited by Kay Johannsen and Richard Mailänder
Carus-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen

Love songs with pictures by Gustav Klimt, (piano book, choir book, CD recordings), edited by Mirjam James
Carus-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdinge

Purely women's business. 60 highlights for women's choir from the 16th century to the present day, edited by Jürgen Faßbender, Uwe Henkhaus, Ernie Rhein, Jochen Stankewitz
Edition Peters Group, Leipzig

Christov Rolla, musician, is a musician of the younger generation with a considerable body of work as a composer, arranger, choirmaster and actor. He has already expressed his diverse musical expressiveness in countless theater productions. According to the city's press release, his work is characterized by "an extraordinary musical breadth that is unparalleled in Central Switzerland".

As a trained school and church musician and choirmaster, he knows his trade. With his musical breadth, he is able to create the right sound for every play. His dramaturgical flair, his great affinity for the written word and his concise and idiosyncratic compositions would elevate every play to a new, higher artistic level, the city adds. Christov Rolla lives in Lucerne.

Addizio! is a very comprehensive teaching and instructional work for working with mixed wind ensembles, wind classes or children's wind orchestras. Saxophonist Jörg Sommerfeld has incorporated his many years of experience into this impressive, tried-and-tested work, which consists of a teacher's manual and student booklets for flute, clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone, horn, trumpet, trombone, euphonium and tuba. Additional parts for percussion, keyboard, guitar, violin and piano are available on an enclosed CD-ROM.

The teacher's handbook contains a 60-page introduction and over 100 pages of scores with around 50 pieces of increasing difficulty. The introduction offers a detailed explanation of the teaching concept and possible instrumentations, tips on working with groups and information on the instruments; it also provides an introduction to an internally differentiated and activity-oriented methodology as well as to a competence-oriented (instrumental) pedagogy (as provided for in Curriculum 21, for example). The author places great emphasis on the possibility of internal differentiation. The teaching material starts at the beginning of instrumental playing with four notes and is designed as a progressive course. At the same time, however, additional parts with increased and decreased levels of difficulty are offered for the individual pieces. The teaching material can therefore be used in wind classes, in uniform or mixed wind ensembles from the beginning or in wind ensembles with different levels of players.

The sets include pieces from different genres. There are many children's songs alongside chorales, folk, pop or rock songs, jazz pieces, classical themes, Latin and jazz. In contrast to the teacher's booklet, which is full of explanations, the student booklets are kept very simple. They have an attractive, large sheet music image and contain hardly any text. For newly introduced notes, the fingering is explained directly in the piece. All the pieces are printed as polyphonic scores so that the parts can be distributed ad hoc.

Extensive additional material added Addizio!All pieces can be listened to on Youtube, including the illustrated music text. Fingering charts, additional parts and further scores are available as PDF files on the enclosed CD-ROM. The author also provides the fingering patterns for the woodwind instruments as text fonts for notation programs and the simplified parts of all pieces directly as Sibelius or XML files. It is a pity that the fingerings for clarinet are only available for the German system, both in the booklet and in the text fonts.

Jörg Sommerfeld: Addizio! Teaching wind instruments in classes, groups and ensembles; teacher's manual BV 449, € 49.90; student editions EB 8858-8865, € 14.90 each; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2016

www.addizio.de

The SP and the Greens had requested that any lessons decided upon must take place at a music school recognized by the responsible department. The applicants argued that all music schools in the canton had to demonstrate a minimum set of quality criteria. These included criteria such as the recognized qualifications of the teaching staff, a demand-oriented range of instruments and professional organizational and management structures.

In connection with the implementation of a language concept and extended block times in 2008, a stronger focus was placed on music when drawing up the timetable for pre-primary schools in St. Gallen. To this end, the number of lessons was slightly increased and the previously voluntary primary music school was now included in the timetable on a compulsory basis (with one lesson of 50 minutes each in the second year of kindergarten and the first year of primary school).

In the new St. Gallen elementary school curriculum, which will be applied from the 2017/18 school year, music is also included as a compulsory subject in the lesson plans from elementary school onwards, with the exception of the 3rd year of upper school. Music will be offered as an optional subject in the 3rd year of upper school if there are sufficient applications. In addition, a new teaching aid "MusAik" has been developed for the subject of music in grades 1 to 6 and will be introduced as a compulsory teaching aid.

The digital strategy from last fall did at least mention culture, but did not focus on the role of the artist and the development of their creative content, but rather on the mediation aspect, writes Suisseculture. However, the cultural market also plays a major role in various art forms, especially when it comes to mediation.

In the cultural sector, artists are primarily affected by the distribution opportunities that digitization has brought with it. Not only the music and film industries are affected, but also the book industry, in short: all cultural sectors where the compensation of authors is made up of many small returns from the sale of many copies of their works.

According to Suissculture, the music industry is a prime example of how a technical development can completely uproot a proven business model. With broadband access, file sizes are no longer an obstacle, even for the exchange of films. These industries are faced with the big question of how artistic works should be brought to market in the future: In the meantime, even the newly created legal models are hardly worthwhile.

The paper can be downloaded at:
http://www.suisseculture.ch/fileadmin/_migrated/SC_Kommentar_Digitalbericht_d.pdf

An edition edited and arranged for strings by Reinhard Goebel already has a special value! The violinist, founder of the ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln (since 1973), conductor and lecturer at the Mozarteum Salzburg is regarded as one of the most competent and well-read specialists in historically informed performance practice, but also as a controversial and trenchant musical personality.

With the Follia Variations by the Italian, presumably Neapolitan composer Domenico Gallo (18th century, dates of life are not known), presented here as a first edition, Reinhard Goebel has unearthed a delightful treasure of the "gallant style" from the holdings of the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello - Fondo Giustiniano in Venice. It is the twelfth work in a collection of Suonate a Quattro. The "Standard" Les Folies d'Espagne dates back to the 16th century and served as a popular model for instrumental variations in Baroque music. The most popular folies or follies are by Lully, Marais, Corelli, Scarlatti and Geminiani, for example, but Bach (Peasant Cantata, No. 8 Aria) and Handel (Sarabande in D minor from the Suite HWV 437) also used this pattern.

Domenico Gallo varies the standard very imaginatively in his string section. According to Reinhard Goebel, this can be played with a chamber orchestra, but also with a quartet plus harpsichord or another continuo instrument. The individual parts are shown to their best advantage; this is not a "concerto for first violin"! However, the work makes some technical demands on all performers. The character of the individual variations is varied. In his preface, Reinhard Goebel also gives useful tips on how to deal with the tempo indications and the traditional ornamentation markings. His string writing gives the articulations a clear character, but is not obtrusively notated. A figure is only provided with bowings and articulations when it first appears. Those who reject this arrangement therefore do not have to overwrite everything. Max Volbers' harpsichord part is also written in four parts, without any "artistic pretensions". If you want to make additions, you can use the numbers given as a guide. The edition contains a double string section for the orchestral performance.

Domenico Gallo: Follia from "Suonate a Quattro" for two violins, viola and basso continuo, first edition by Reinhard Goebel, Collegium Musicum - Kölner Reihe Alter Musik, EW 929, € 19.80, Edition Walhall, Magdeburg 2016

Experimental folk music, as it has been observed in German-speaking Switzerland for over twenty years and documented by Musiques Suisses, Zytglogge and other CD publishers, is not really a topic among Ticino musicians. Nevertheless, there is something new to observe in contemporary folk music in southern Switzerland.

It is a stroke of luck that ethnomusicologist Silvia Delorenzi has spent years inventorying the folk music holdings of the Fonoteca Nazionale in Lugano and has become very familiar with the documented Ticino music. With a trained ear, the Ticino native has discovered original instrumentations and arrangements of traditional songs and dances, which are now available as an album in an excellent selection.

The editor has selected 19 tracks from eleven CDs - seven of them from the last three years - and added a new interpretation of the traditional Mailieds (Il maggio) by the ensembles Vox Blenii, Vent Negru and Duo di Morcote.

In traditional Ticino music, singing comes first. Often the ballads are even sung along by the accompanying instrumentalists in local dialects. Accordion, organetto (small diatonic hand harmonica), guitar, mandolin, violin, double bass and, more recently, saxophone and drums, grouped together in different ways, can still be heard as a typical feature in longer introductions and interludes. The vocal culture includes solo songs such as those of the wonderful amateur singer Luisa Poggi (Vox Blenii), polyphonic songs such as those of the vocal quartet La Cantora with the touching lullaby Oh Ninign and the choirs Cantori di Pregassona and Val Genzona, which together with the Ensemble Giangol onomatopoeically translate the northern foehn into music. The bandella, which is typical of the canton of Ticino and used to be a small ensemble made up of the leaders of a banda (brass band) in every village, has lost its function as dance music and has become rare. The five musicians of the formation Il Bagiöö (The Grapes) revived the tradition in 2008 and recorded a CD in 2015. Thanks to the virtuoso Duo di Morcote, the interplay between guitar and mandolin continues. The wind duo Verbanus uses an old, forgotten instrumentation, bagpipe and shawm. Thanks to Ilario Garbani, the piva is taught in a bagpipe school. The hand harmonica duo Aria Fina with Mauro Garbani as one of the bridge builders between old and new surprises with an arrangement of four montferrinas (montferrina: dance in six-eighths time from northern Italy). The singer-songwriter Marco Zappa is known throughout German-speaking Switzerland and can be heard here with Renata Stavrakakis, Ginger Poggi and friends.

The new release from Musiques suisses is accompanied by an introduction in four languages by Silvia Delorenzi. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the individual ensembles could only appear in Italian in the booklet, but with photos that show the instrumentation. However, it would be desirable to be able to read the texts of the 15 songs as well. The CD Vüna bèla! is a sonorous catalog of today's Ticino music and an informative listening pleasure. The new publication documents what has been forgotten in recent times: namely that the colorful sounds of the Ticino people are also part of Swiss folk music.

Vüna bèla ! Panorama popolare ticinese. Concept and commentary by Silvia Delorenzi. Musiques suisses MGB NV 36

Born in Zurich in 1984, Lucia Cadotsch studied jazz singing at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Rytmisk Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. She has toured with various formations in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Colombia and India, among others, and won the main prize at the 1st National Singing Competition New Voices in 2009.

In 2016, she released "Speak Low" (enja records), her first album under her own name. In a trio with Petter Eldh on double bass and Otis Sandsjö on tenor saxophone, she sings a collection of traditional songs such as Strange Fruit, Gloomy Sunday and Moon River. Cadotsch achieved international attention and played on big stages and festivals such as Jazzfest Berlin, Schaffhauser Jazzfestival, Copenhagen Jazzfest, WeJazz Festival Helsinki, Landstheater Linz, Vortex London, Moods Zurich.

Several editors and around 60 authors are responsible for the articles in this diverse, exciting and wide-ranging reference work, which is preceded by a foreword by none other than Thomas Hampson.

We find a wealth of information about the oldest instrument in the world: whether anatomy and physiology, music medicine and musicology, acoustics, vocal pedagogy and different techniques of voice production, artistic personalities from pop, jazz, opera and concert singing. The reader is presented with a multicolored kaleidoscope of everything connected with the phenomenon of the "voice", from the Adam's apple to the intercostal muscles.

This work is aimed at a wide range of readers: singers and speakers, other musicians, singing teachers, voice therapists, lay people interested in cultural history and vocal phenomena.

We find details about Udo Lindenberg next to biographical information about Jenny Lind, the existential obsession and uncompromising nature of a Maria Callas is juxtaposed with the solidity and reliability of a Joan Sutherland, Tom Waits stands next to Wagnerian singing, dramatic soprano next to double valve function. Vocal schools, facial muscles and ossicles all have their place, while twang, trills and carrying power illuminate different aspects of modern and traditional vocal technique ... If you delve into the biography of the blind Stevie Wonder, you will be amazed at the vivid pictures and details of the vocal tract just a few pages further on.

All of this is supplemented by drawings, paintings, graphics and photographic documents and the enormous wealth of information is interlinked with numerous cross-references and presented in a reader-friendly way on 800 pages. There are links to informative websites, an index of names, authors and articles. If you are looking for something, you will find it quickly, if you are not looking for anything in particular, you will find - a lot!

In my eyes, this encyclopedia is much more than just a reference book. It invites you to browse, read and be amazed. Or did you know that a diseuse is a woman who says something - and takes pleasure in doing so? Or are you familiar with Ingeborg Bachmann's obituary of Maria Callas?

Encyclopedia of the singing voice. Geschichte - Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen - Gesangstechniken - Interpreten, ed. by Ann-Christine Mecke, Martin Pfleiderer, Bernhard Richter, Thomas Seedorf, foreword by Thomas Hampson, 800 p., € 98.00 (subscription price until 30.6.2017; Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2016,
ISBN 978-3-89007-546-4

Gwendolyn Masin begins her CD with a furious start Origin. Manuel de Fallas Danse Espagnole from his opera La Vida Breve the violinist, who teaches in Geneva, plays in an extroverted, lively and extremely musical manner. The piece sounds very direct, supported by a wonderfully natural recording, which the sound engineers in Diósd, Hungary, managed to achieve. Masin has her musical roots in the Middle East. Her mother is Hungarian and her father is of Czech-Dutch descent. In the booklet, Masin describes Origin as a very personal compilation. Works by Béla Bartók or the Hungarian Miklós Lukács, who plays in their ensemble, encircle their musical origins. In addition to de Falla, there are other names that are characterized by special musical styles: Pablo de Sarasate, for example, the Spanish composer and violin virtuoso, Maurice Ravel and Fritz Kreisler.

Each work on the CD demands its own approach. Masin shows particular strengths in her dancing. Her stroke is feathery and light; when necessary in the harsh Bartókian diction, it can also be rousingly brutal with sound elements. The fact that the soloist can unfold so musically is also thanks to the ensemble, which blends in delicately without being too much in the background. This CD is fun at every point. Only some of the ritardandi and accelerandi are debatable. These are dangerously close to the kitsch border, especially in Sarasate's Gypsy ways op. 20, but they are easily excusable. After all, sobriety would be inappropriate in the face of such full-blown joy of playing.

Gwendolyn Masin: Origin. Works by Manuel de Falla, Ernest Bloch, Miklós Lukács, Béla Bartók, Maurice Ravel, Pablo de Sarasate, Fritz Kreisler, Gricoraş Dinicu / Jascha Haifetz. Fountainhead Productions 2016, TZ 1169

Gwendolyn Mason plays Manuel de Falla's "Danses espagnoles" on YouTube

On April 30, the International Day of Jazz will take place for the sixth time. People in over 190 countries around the world will celebrate the universal importance of jazz through thousands of concerts, educational activities and film screenings. The central event will feature an all-star concert in Havana, Cuba.

The all-star concert at the Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso in Havana will feature over 35 artists, including Till Brönner from Germany, Ambrose Akinmusire (USA), Carl Allen (USA), Marc Antoine (France), Richard Bona (USA), A Bu (China), Igor Butman (Russia), Bobby Carcassés (Cuba), Regina Carter (USA), Kurt Elling (USA), Kenny Garrett (USA), Herbie Hancock (USA), Antonio Hart (USA), Takuya Kuroda (Japan), Ivan Lins (Brazil), Sixto Llorente (Cuba), Marcus Miller (USA), Youn Sun Nah (South Korea), Julio Padrón (Cuba), Gianluca Petrella (Italy), Gonzalo Rubalcaba (Cuba), Antonio Sánchez (Mexico), Christian Sands (USA), Esperanza Spalding (USA), Chucho Valdés (Cuba), Ben Williams (USA), Tarek Yamani (Lebanon), Dhafer Youssef (Tunisia), Pancho Amat (Cuba) and César López (Cuba). The concert will take place on the UNESCO website broadcast live.

Until 2014, Jazz Day in Switzerland featured a Jazz Day Festival will be held. This year's events include the ZKB Jazz Prize Festival at Moods in Zurich from April 30 and a Roaring Twenties Show in Uster. More national events at jazzday.com