Sofa or upholstered chair?

Listening to music privately is very convenient nowadays, but a real musical experience only takes place in concert. These two forms of music consumption do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Friederike Schmiedl (translation: AI) - Nov 30, 2016

Listening to music privately is very convenient nowadays, but a real musical experience only takes place in concert. These two forms of music consumption do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Who isn't familiar with that weaker self that tempts you to slip into comfy clothes on a Friday evening after a hard week at work and make yourself comfortable on the sofa with a glass of wine or a cold beer? There's nothing wrong with ringing in the end of the working day in this way. But once you've settled in comfortably, hardly anyone gives a second thought to how such an attitude affects music consumption.

Live concert in an upholstered chair vs. enjoying music on the sofa at home? While some people like to get dressed up and experience the artists up close, others prefer to listen to music from the bathtub, while cooking or on the aforementioned sofa. But do the two forms of music consumption have to be played off against each other?

First of all, it's quite simple. You choose a concert and buy a concert ticket, which is now possible with just a few clicks on the Internet. Now it's just a matter of getting dressed up and arriving at the right place on time - everything else is taken care of. There is staff for every conceivable task - you don't even have to clap yourself, because even that is taken care of by the listeners in case of doubt. So you can sit back and let the music wash over you. Nevertheless, the trend is increasingly moving towards private music consumption within your own four walls. Why is the attendance at many concerts falling, even though it is so easy?

Access to music changed significantly in the 19th century. Concert halls were expanded and the music scene flourished. Focused listening was at the forefront of the musical experience at this time. Since the 20th century, music has undergone, or rather had to undergo, enormous change. The unstoppable development of technology has also left its mark on the cultural and music scene. We have matured into a veritable consumer society that has to deal with the luxury problem of oversupply, a society in which many subcultures exist side by side, in which people increasingly isolate themselves from the environment and view music more as a private and less as a public experience. Thanks to today's numerous technical possibilities, from iTunes and Spotify to private CD collections and high-tech systems, we no longer have to go out in public to enjoy music. We can also bring it into our own homes. We are just as isolated even within society, sealed off by small earplugs that allow music to reach our ears. Is this the consumer of today? We can speak here of a veritable deconcentration of music. At this point, however, it is necessary to once again clarify the two types of music listening: On the one hand, "consciously turning to music" (in the sense of actively attending concerts), and on the other, "divided attention, in which music is merely experienced in the background and other activities are usually in the foreground", to quote Klaus-Ernst Behne, the former president of the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.

Nevertheless, technical progress naturally also brings numerous advantages. The practical and convenient aspect alone. We can listen to music anytime and anywhere. Without restriction. It surrounds us in numerous everyday situations and rains down on our end devices incessantly. Played back using the latest technology, the music may sound clear, but it is not authentic, unique or original. Consuming music as a live experience becomes an unrepeatable moment in our lives. You experience something that cannot be exactly repeated in this form. You experience the artists and the sounds up close, you can observe their dexterity or breathing skills and technique. You are there when they communicate wordlessly with each other, get involved with each other, see the beads of sweat that form on their foreheads through exertion and the hot spotlight and glisten in the light. Simply being carried away by the pull of live music and allowing the atmosphere that builds up in the audience to flow over you - that is what makes music in concert a tangible and original moment.

Studies show that music consumption has risen considerably in recent years due to the numerous ways in which it can be accessed. But does this answer the question of why people prefer listening to music in isolation to attending concerts together? According to the Forsa survey conducted by the Hamburg-based Körber Foundation, 88% of Germans consider classical music to be an important cultural heritage, but only one in five has attended a classical concert in the past year. Of those under 30, only one in ten did. That's just the way it is: If you don't have to be active, you are generally enthusiastic about many things, but as soon as you have to do something yourself, your enthusiasm wanes. This fact is even more of a problem for contemporary music, which is also tainted by the cliché that it generally only appeals to the few. However, attending a concert is particularly important for the consumption of contemporary music, as it often works not only with sounds and melodies, but often also incorporates elements such as images or objects that cannot be captured on a CD. Even musical elements such as sounds or new playing techniques do not have the same effect on a CD as they can have in a concert. Only in concert does the audience experience the original essence of this music. So is it perhaps worth considering sharing your weekend with the upholstered chair in the concert hall?

Both forms of consumption are important approaches to music. They do not have to be played off against each other, nor are they mutually dependent. They can simply enrich and complement each other. It will be interesting to see how they develop in the future and what this means for the music scene. Perhaps one day it will be commonplace to broadcast a live concert virtually on a screen in our own four walls? This would actually make it possible to combine both: the concert experience on the sofa at home - and for the feeling of community with the other concert-goers, you could sit on the upholstered chair from time to time.

Friederike Schmiedl

... is a fan of the live concert.

Sheep on stage and in the media

On the marketing of new music in America using the example of Louis Andriessen's stage work "De Materie".

Elaine Fitz Gibbon (translation: AI) - Nov 30, 2016

On the marketing of new music in America using the example of Louis Andriessen's stage work "De Materie".

At the end of March, in New York, sheep were bleating on the opera stage. Their almost omnipresent presence in the newspapers, on social networks, even in everyday conversations of all kinds, made it almost impossible to avoid them. As they only played a small role in the production of Louis Andriessen's De Matter their dominance in the New York media seemed surprising. However, this example is indicative of the American approach to new music.

The fact that sheep wandered across the stage should not have been so remarkable. However, the occasion was the reopening of the recently renovated Armory. The acting animals appeared in Heiner Goebbels' production of the anti-opera, which was created for the Ruhrtriennale in 2014. De Matter is a piece by the composer Andriessen, often performed in the USA, which had its American premiere ten years earlier. At that time, however, the New York Philharmonic performed it in concert, which made the new production of the piece, written between 1985 and 1988, an exciting happening. The New York Park Avenue Armory acquired the production - the second staged performance of the play since Robert Wilson premiered it at Amsterdam's Muziektheater in 1989. Goebbels had conceived his production for the Kraftzentrale Duisburg with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and the ChorWerk Ruhr under the direction of Peter Rundel. Now it was time to consider how the production from the Ruhr could be staged in the Armory and adapted to New York and the New York audience.

Proven marketability

ChorWerk Ruhr and the conductor also performed in New York. However, the young International Contemporary Ensemble, which was also heard in Darmstadt this year, replaced the Ensemble Modern Orchestra. Goebbels' static, visually rich production and Andriessen's equally static four-part work lent themselves to a spectacular advertising campaign, a perfect union of the powerful symbolism of Goebbels' work with the magnificent grandeur of the Armory built in the 19th century. The Gilded Age is expressed in 2016 in the form of highly educated New York hipsters, for whose need for bourgeois showmanship the east side of New York is better suited than the Met, located on the other side of the park. In this regard, a review of the performance in the Wall Street Journal explicitly: "The Park Avenue Armory has also become a home of the hot ticket, offering buzz-worthy productions that are often imported from generously funded European arts festivals."1 A basic building block of the American opera world is new European works that are in demand and whose marketability has already been successfully tested. However, another crucial element plays a role in such performances: artistic creations have very often already received financial support in Europe.

Spectacular marketing

Shortly before the performance of De Matter various New York newspapers published a series of announcements about the future event. What was remarkable was their almost exclusive focus on the 100 sheep that could be admired on stage in the last act of the play. What kind of sheep were they? Where exactly did they come from? (The program booklet simply stated: "100 sheep from the Pennyslvanian countryside.") How was it logistically possible to bring the sheep to New York? How do you rehearse with sheep? Are sheep the latest prima donnas of the opera world? Supposed answers to all these questions could be found in abundance in the many portraits of these new "stars" - sometimes even in the New York Times and the New Yorker. With such urgent questions, the music must of course be left to one side for the first time.

The other image that dominated the advertising campaign was a tableau from the second part of the play, in which Andriessen set a vision of the beguine Hadewijch to music. Hadewijch, dressed in a black and white costume resembling a nun's habit, stands in front of the foremost bench, while a group of beguines dressed entirely in black lie collapsed on the other benches scattered around the room. The hall has been transformed into a cathedral, and Hadewijch stands in the center, facing the audience, her arms wide open in a sign of revelation and union. The audience has become the altar, the god of her mystical-erotic vision. Above this sparse image is the name of the anti-opera in capital letters: "DE MATERIE": a transcendental union of the strong visual material of the production with the marketing department of the Armory.

The power of such an association should by no means be underestimated, as it is unimaginable in the USA to receive state support for artistic projects. This is especially true for opera projects, of course. The constant search for money is an everyday affliction of a musician's life that is imperceptible to the consumer, but no less serious for that. Hence the ease with which it is made fun of. Basically, however, respect and appreciation would be appropriate: without the tasteless, bold and seemingly bottomless marketing of a production, it might not exist - a bitter truth that one learns to swallow quickly.
In the case of the Andriessen-Goebbels production, the spectacle of the marketing was adapted to the spectacle of the production. If that is the price to be paid for the performance of a late 20th century work of musical theater that is particularly important in the USA, there is almost nothing wrong with it. However, when every performance of a 20th century opera (not to mention the 21st) at an established institution is habitually described with a self-congratulatory tone as a gamble, one quickly tires of this description and the accompanying publicity spectacle. This is especially the case when the author of this work is a permanent guest at Ivy League universities - Andriessen was a visiting professor at Princeton in the winter semester of 2015/16 - and has a long list of composition students in the USA. Andriessen's music is, after all, an already consumed, established product among us Americans.

Critical debate

Then you have to think like the previously quoted author of the Wall Street Journals ask why it takes the import of a European production to see the first staged performance of a nearly 30-year-old opera on this side of the Atlantic. Not that there are no world premieres of new music in the USA, but they are rarely seen in established institutions. In the coming season, one could argue, Kaija Saariaho's 2000 Salzburg premiere of L'amour de loin at the Met in a new production by Robert Lepage. However, in the wake of the announcement in the New York Times did not lead to any serious discussion of Saariaho's music. Instead, there was merely talk of the fact that now, in 2016, it was the first performance of the opera by a female composer since 1903. "Met to Stage Its First Opera by a Woman Since 1903" was the title. 2 This is undoubtedly cause for celebration! However, the self-congratulatory tone that proclaims that two birds have been killed with one stone: a female composer and a 21st century opera, is anything but contemporary. With this soft-core contemporary music, whose constantly recurring, exotic-sounding vocal riffs float in waves above a buzzing, coloristic orchestral sound carpet, this "glimpse into the future" - according to Met director Peter Gelb - can still be described as tame and restrained.
This ultimately leads to the well-known question of money. Even if the power of the Republicans were to diminish at some point, state funding for the arts would still not be a point of discussion in the Senate. What could be demanded, however, despite the eternally precarious state of the opera institutions and the media that announce and discuss their offerings, would be a serious and critical or self-critical examination of their content. This would first and foremost require the abandonment of such sheep portraits, which only serve to fill the concert halls. Instead, the sheep could be exposed and described as a failed attempt to find a stopgap. However, this was also Goebbels' attempt to entertain the audience with his staging in the 15-minute first half of the fourth part, during which two chords in the tunable percussion instruments (glockenspiel, vibraphone), piano and harp are played in slow alternation. One could ask whether the static imagery of the staging supports or questions the fetishization of the erotic-mystical writing of the Beguine Hadewijch in Andriessen's score. Finally, one could even ask whether and how Goebbels' examination of Andriessen's opera teaches the audience something new about the piece. In any case, the one hundred sheep on the stage of the Armory were not the only impressive event to marvel at.

Notes

1 Heidi Waleson, Opera's Changing Face: "Orphic Moments" and "De Materie" offer a chance to examine the changing nature of the institutions that perform opera in The Wallstreet Journal, April 4, 2016.
www.wsj.com/articles/operas-changing-face-1459806371
2 Michael Cooper, Met to Stage Its First Opera by a Woman since 1903 in New York TimesFebruary 17, 2016.
www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/arts/music/met-to-stage-its-first-operaby-a-womansince-1903.html

Elaine Fitz Gibbon
... is a doctoral candidate in the German Department at Princeton University. She writes about new music, especially operas and music theater, written between the last half of the 20th century and today; she is also interested in the reception of these works in the United States.

Image and representation in hybrid space

In his work "Mirror Box Extensions", the Belgian composer creates a musical interpretation of the everyday fusion of our real and virtual worlds.

Christopher Jakobi (translation: AI) - Nov 30, 2016

In his work "Mirror Box Extensions", the Belgian composer creates a musical interpretation of the everyday fusion of our real and virtual worlds.

Photography or filming by the audience is generally prohibited at concerts. However, in the age of smartphones and the like, it can't really be stopped. It's all too easy to whip out a small device and capture a memory on a digital memory card. And it is not uncommon to see individual members of the audience filming entire passages or recording the sound with a cell phone recorder. Nobody seems to care that personal rights and copyrights could be violated here. All-encompassing digitalization has become far too prevalent in our everyday lives and technological progress is facilitating this process by making more and more storage space available. Photography and filming have become the norm. The once fleeting moment is captured and can be relived at any time. The more precious it once was, the more it is worn out through repeated consumption. The uniqueness of the "live" has become a permanent "re-live". The concert situation in particular suffers from this. After all, the digital image is not identical to the flesh-and-blood performers who deliver top performances on stage. However, the extent to which the boundaries between the two are already blurred is explored by Belgian composer Stefan Prins in his work Mirror Box Extensions on.

Principle of mirror therapy

The piece was performed by the Nadar Ensemble at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in 2015. Seven instrumentalists are complemented by electronics and video projections. It is based on the composition Mirror Box In it, Prins musically explores the principle of mirror therapy as used by doctors. Patients who suffer from phantom limb pain after an amputation place their remaining healthy limb in a box equipped with mirrors. Every movement they make is now duplicated by the mirror image, creating the optical impression of two functioning arms or legs. This illusion can be used therapeutically.

At Prins Mirror Box the third part of a series of works entitled Flesh+Prosthesis, in which hybrids of human and technology are created. The instrumentally generated sounds are recorded and transformed live-electronically, whereby the musicians can be understood as "flesh" and the electronics as "prosthesis". For Mirror Box Extensions this principle was extended to include videos that were pre-produced and projected onto transparent screens during the concert. They show the musicians playing life-size, making it difficult to distinguish them from the original. Image and likeness move, freeze, disappear and appear. The composer's aim is to show the extent to which the real and virtual worlds have already merged in our everyday lives. He calls the digital copies of the musicians performing on stage "avatars" and they also play an important role in other of his works. For example, in the piano cycle Piano Herothe third part of which was premiered at the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music in 2016. However, a contrary trend is emerging here. In Piano Hero I (2011), the pianist uses a digital piano keyboard to control short video sequences that are projected onto a screen and show him performing various actions in the interior of a concert grand piano. Removed keys of the piano fall onto the strings, the piano is scratched and scraped. All the sounds come from the loudspeakers; only rarely does the muffled clacking of the digital keyboard penetrate. Videos are also used in the second part, but the pianist also plays an acoustic piano and enters into a dialog with his image. The avatar finally disappears in the third part of the cycle, in which only a live electronic processing of the sounds takes place inside the grand piano on stage. There is no more video here. The musician thus steps out of the virtual space into the analog world, he recaptures reality and it remains to be seen whether Prins will continue this development in further works of the Piano Hero-series continues. In Mirror Box Extensions On the other hand, the projections are an extension on the digital level. Stefan Prins creates a hybrid concert situation consisting of musicians and their avatars that reflects our increasingly technologized reality. The real and virtual worlds are becoming increasingly blurred; he calls this state "augmented reality".

Influence of the audience

In addition to the confusion surrounding the image and likeness of the musicians, a further moment of irritation occurs when, around halfway through the 30-minute composition, individual audience members begin to photograph the stage with tablets. From their seats, they hold the devices up in the air, which causes outrage among some concertgoers. But it soon becomes clear that they are part of the composition. The hybrid state extends into the auditorium, creating a new dimension of reflection. The musician is reflected by the video on the screen and both are reflected by the audience's tablet. Stefan Prins takes up the ubiquitous smartphones and tablets, which can also be seen at new music concerts, by integrating them into his work. Ever since John Cage's "silent" piece 4'33'' there is an awareness that sounds not intended by the composer, which arise in some way during a performance, are an integral part of the musical experience. Phones being searched for in pockets, taking photos and, in the worst case, starting to ring are not uncommon. But not only do they produce noises that other audience members might find disturbing, every image of the musicians playing destroys the uniqueness of the performance. Stefan Prins shows just how much this changes the concert situation in Mirror Box Extensions. In his composition, the audience's tablets display both the photos taken of the stage and pre-produced video sequences of the instrumentalists. The piece ends with the musicians disappearing from the stage and remaining on their devices. Although the performance with its uniqueness is over, an image of the experience remains in the digital space, where it can be retrieved and consumed at any time. What Prins shows in the concert also applies outside of it. In the course of digitalization, we have become increasingly intertwined with computers, smartphones and tablets. A considerable part of our lives takes place in virtual space. With the abundance of screens that surround us every day and provide insight into other worlds, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction. In Stefan Prins' ensemble piece Mirror Box Extensions the viewer is constantly confronted with illusions. Just as patients are deceived about the functionality of their limbs during mirror therapy, Prins makes it difficult to differentiate between image and likeness. The hybrid space he creates artistically reflects the reality of our lives, in which we interact with digital media to such an extent that they have become our prostheses.

Christopher Jakobi

... studies musicology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Currently writing her master's thesis on sound saturation in the music of Raphaël Cendo.

Philippe Bischof takes over the chairmanship of the KBK

Philippe Bischof, Head of the Basel-Stadt Department of Culture, will take over the presidency of the Conference of Cantonal Cultural Representatives (KBK) from January 1, 2017.

Music newspaper editorial office (translation: AI) - Nov 29, 2016

Philippe Bischof. Photo: Juri Weiss © State Chancellery of Basel-Stadt

Philippe Bischof is the successor to Roland E. Hofer, Commissioner for Culture of the Canton of Schaffhausen, who was in office for eight years. Philippe Bischof has been a member of the KBK in his role as Head of the Basel-Stadt Culture Department since 2011.

The Conference of Cantonal Culture Officers (KBK) is a specialist conference of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK). The KBK ensures cultural policy exchange between the cantons and actively participates in the national cultural dialog at a professional and political level.

The KBK is divided into four regional conferences and meets twice a year for plenary sessions. It advises the political bodies of the EDK on matters of cultural promotion and cultural policy. Together with the Conference of Cities and Towns, the Federal Office of Culture and Pro Helvetia, it contributes to the development and coordination of cultural policy throughout Switzerland.

It examines issues and requests of national importance and makes recommendations to the cantons. The Presidium represents the Conference externally and manages the business of the KBK.

The election took place in May of this year, and the office was handed over at the plenary meeting on November 24/25.

Come, dear little zither

A comprehensive volume not only documents the Mühlemann Collection, but also outlines the history of the zither in Switzerland.

Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser (translation: AI) - Nov 29, 2016

Family zither lessons in 1917. Postcard from Austria. Pelle the Poet/flickr.com

In the 1970s, secondary school student Lorenz Mühlemann came across the then largely forgotten accordion zither and was enchanted by its sound. This love at first sight turned into a passion. In 2003, he opened his systematically built-up collection of around 250 mountain and salon zithers in the former Amtsschaffnerei in Trachselwald. The Swiss Zither Cultural Center can be visited like a museum by appointment or on the first Sunday of the month in the afternoon, but on Sunday mornings the proactive director demonstrates the neck and board zithers with short explanations and suitable pieces that he plays himself. These commented concert hours are entertaining and informative and are reminiscent of a musical genre between folk and art music, which made life easier for many people in modest circumstances in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lorenz Mühlemann has brought his string playing to the public in several traveling exhibitions and in many courses and has also built up a small publishing house with zither sheet music and underlay sheets.

Now this specialist has measured and described his zither instruments and had them photographed by Thomas Reck. This catalog work has resulted in a 400-page volume that can be enjoyed as a pretty picture book, but also serves as a short history of the local Emmental, Entlebuch, Toggenburg and Kriens neck zither, the Glarus and Schwyz zither and all the concert, chord and string zithers.

In his comments, the author draws on previous work, but can also contribute to instrument research with his own studies. For example, he has located a previously unknown neck zither maker, Sebastian Peter in Gontenschwil, Canton Aargau, whose instrument from 1862 is illustrated (pp. 21/33). There is also mention of Johann Wegmüller, who built a Hanottere in 1890, apparently a descendant of the zither makers Niklaus and Samuel Wegmüller in Ursenbach. The clarification of a previous misunderstanding is also a valuable clue: in Dürrenroth near Huttwil, not only the clog and zither maker Abraham Kauer (1794-1870) was at work, who as a six-year-old child could hardly have made the oldest Emmental neck zither (Basel Music Museum) made in 1800, but also his father Abraham Kauer senior (1762-1844).

The so-called salon zithers, inlaid board zithers decorated with stencil painting or decals and produced in series, were generally sourced from Germany, but were apparently also made in Brienz (A. Aplanalp), Bern (Jakob Klöti, Albin Hostettler) and Zurich (Otto Schärer). In addition to illustrations of all the zithers in the Mühlemann collection, photos of players, music and loving details such as floral decorations, chased nickel silver fittings, cases, embroidered cases, tuning keys and zither rings are reminiscent of the good old days.

Lorenz Mühlemann, Die Zither - ein Instrument der Volks-, Kunst- und Hausmusik, 376 p., Fr. 65.00, Federal Office of Culture, Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-9523397-3-2
Swiss Zither Cultural Center: www.zither.ch

For the little Paganini

Prelude pieces for violin and viola with piano accompaniment that encourage a joyful performance.

Walter Amadeus Ammann (translation: AI) - Nov 29, 2016

Edition Peters has published the following under the title Piccolo Paganini 30 rare original pieces for violin in the 1st position and piano for children from the second year of learning have been published, a colorful palette of sensitive, funny, dramatic, one-and-a-half to four-minute performance pieces by composers from Arcangelo Corelli to Andrea Holzer-Romberg, to be performed with a wide variety of rhythms and techniques. The violin part is carefully marked with bowings and alternative fingerings for 2nd and 3rd position. The motivating piano part is easy to play. The accompanying CD contains all the duos and encourages the children to play emotionally; all the presti are kept at a moderate tempo so that they soon dare to play along.

Two extremely instructive but fun-to-play concert fantasies for girls and boys aged three to four are finally available in Europe after having been in successful use in America for over a century. Edward Mollenhauer, who was born in Erfurt, emigrated to the USA in 1853, founded several conservatories there and had a lasting influence on music education in America. The Infant Paganini requires 1st to 3rd position, harmonics in the middle of the string, pizzicato on the empty E-string with the left hand, spiccato and arpeggio over three strings. The Boy Paganini moves up to the 5th position, uses double stops, chromatic passages, the harmonics in the middle, lower third and quarter of the string, left-hand pizzicato, delicate and racy bow effects and four-string arpeggio - all ingeniously elementary and melodiously designed for rapid success.

These two booklets are also available in versions for cello.

Kurt Sassmannshaus, the famous pedagogue in the USA and son of Egon, the creator of the highly acclaimed string school work Early beginningpresents 14 moderately difficult short performance pieces for viola. Of the original works, an Andante by Viotti, an emotional Rêverie by Wieniawski and three of the colored Notturni from op. 186 by Kalliwoda (the latter is recommended, all six are available in their entirety from Peters). Also the hearty La Vergilletta by Ferdinando Bertone, the exciting violinBerceuse op. 16 and the refreshing celloSicilienne op.78 by Fauré among the arrangements make the book worthwhile. The comfortable fingerings and bowings can be adapted to higher demands with the help of the teacher.

Piccolo Paganini, 30 concert pieces in the first position, Vol. 1, edited by Christiane Schmidt and Gudrun Jeggle, EP 11381a, with CD, Fr. 25.90, Edition Peters, Leipzig et al. 2015

Edward Mollenhauer, The Infant Paganini for violin and piano, edited by Kurt Sassmannshaus, Bärenreiter's Concert Pieces, BA 10691, € 8.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2015

id., The Boy Paganini, BA 10692, € 8.95

Concert pieces for viola and piano, edited by Kurt Sassmannshaus, Bärenreiter's Viola Collection, BA 9697, € 19.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2015

Germany increasingly promotes pop, rock and jazz

From 2017, the German Bundestag will provide an additional 8.2 million euros in funding for rock, pop and jazz music in Germany. The aim of the package of measures is to expand, consolidate and supplement the content of existing relevant structural projects.

Music newspaper editorial office (translation: AI) - Nov 25, 2016

Dome over the Bundestag. Photo: Michael Sunke/pixelio.de

During the grand coalition's deliberations on the 2017 federal budget two weeks ago, it was decided to make an additional 660 million euros available for cultural funding. In addition to the Initiative Musik and the jazzahead! trade fair, the new package of measures for music will also strengthen the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, c/o pop in Cologne, Musicboard Berlin and the German Rock Music Foundation.

According to its Secretary General Christian Höppner, the German Music Council welcomes the decision, which promises a sustainable strengthening of funding structures. The additional funding strengthens the diversity of rock, pop and jazz music in Germany and provides a good basis for advocating better conditions for freelance musicians in the future, Höppner continued.

Neuchâtel has a heart for vinyl fans

The popular CD and record store "Vinyl" in the center of Neuchâtel closed its doors at the end of September after thirty years of existence. Now, with the help of the city, an alternative is being created in the form of "Espace 032".

Music newspaper editorial office (translation: AI) - Nov 25, 2016

Espace 032" comprises a store and collective workspaces for creative professionals in the building at 32 Rue du Seyon. The name is based on both the region's telephone area code and the house number. The store sells vinyl records, while the office space is open to cultural professionals and independent creative entrepreneurs looking for a workplace in the city.

In addition, the premises make it possible to set up so-called "pop-ups" - stores that are only active for a short time - and to hold vernissages, acoustic concerts or workshops.

End of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana?

As reported by the Bernese daily newspaper "Der Bund", the employees of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) are to be informed at the end of November that they will be given precautionary notice at the end of 2017.

Music newspaper editorial office (translation: AI) - Nov 23, 2016

The OSI at a school concert in the LAC. Photo: zvg

According to "Der Bund", SRG will terminate its continuous funding agreement with the orchestra at the end of 2017. In future, it will only purchase individual services from the orchestra. From 2018, it also intends to charge rent for the rehearsal hall used by the OSI in the Lugano Besso radio studio.

According to "Der Bund", OSI Foundation Board President Pietro Antonini describes the precautionary terminations as a mere "precautionary measure" due to uncertainties about the future modalities. Without new financial backers, however, the OSI is likely to be on the brink of collapse. This would be embarrassing for cultural life in Ticino, not least because the LAC in Lugano, which opened in 2015, is a top-class concert hall that has only just been created.

Original article:
www.derbund.ch/kultur/klassik/kein-orchester-mehr-im-tessin/story/26729565

Open the east window

"From the Alps to the Caucasus" is the name of an extensive exchange and promotion project that has been forging and deepening musical ties between Switzerland and Georgia for years. It is organized by the pianist Tamara Kordzadze and the Vivace association.

Verena Naegele (translation: AI) - Nov 23, 2016

T. Kordzadze, F. Di Càsola and T. Grossenbacher at the benefit concert on 20. 11. Photo: Ralf Kostgeld

In November 2016, this project continued with a master class and a benefit concert at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Previous events include the concerts in Bern and Zurich in November 2012, when highly talented children from Georgia aged between nine and sixteen delighted the audience. The most recent concert featured a selection of lecturers and students from the universities in Tbilisi and Zurich.

The event took place as part of the cultural exchange between the two countries. The ZHdK has been accepting students from Georgia on various courses for 15 years now - ranging from preliminary studies to Bachelor's and Master's degrees and soloist diplomas. The exchange, which also makes it possible to compare the promotion of talented students in both countries, is under the patronage of the Vivace association, which was founded in 2009 by Georgian pianist Tamara Kordzadze, who works in Switzerland.

Thanks to a scholarship from the Lyra Foundation, the pianist came to Zurich to study with Konstantin Scherbakov, where she completed her training with a soloist diploma. Master classes led her to Rudolf Buchbinder, among others, who now forms the illustrious patronage committee of the Vivace Association alongside Daniel Fueter, Peter Stamm and Manana Doijashwili from Georgia.

Thanks to Kordzadze's efforts, Vivace has been able to support a total of 25 projects and 70 students from Georgia with the help of foundations, benefit concerts and donations since it was founded. "Due to the unstable political development and the decline in financial support in Georgia, it is difficult or impossible for many young talents to count on support in their education and musical careers," she explains.

New answers to artistic questions

Among the lecturers involved in the project in Zurich was the first solo cellist of the Tonhalle Orchestra and lecturer at the university, Thomas Grossenbacher, who, when asked about the reasons for his involvement, said: "I think it's important to open the eastern window in our western ivory tower. We can see that although a lot of inspiration comes from there, there are also material concerns that we can at least alleviate a little with this event."

In fact, it is not only the financial aspect that is important in From the Alps to the Caucasus artistic inspiration and mutual exchange are also important. In June 2015, two international benefit concerts were held in Tbilisi on the initiative of Vivace, in which four young Swiss musicians also took part and were able to gain experience on the concert platform. In the fall, master classes and workshops were then held with ZHdK lecturers at the Georgian capital's State Conservatory.

The high standard of playing was evident from the program of the Zurich concert: Works by Prokofiev, Ysaÿe, Dvořák, Widor, Milstein, Beethoven, Martinů and Scriabin were performed. In addition to students, professional musicians Liana Isakadze (violin), Thomas Grossenbacher (cello), Tamara Kordzadze (piano) and Fabio Di Càsola (clarinet) also took part. The latter explains how he came to be involved in this project for Georgia: "Perhaps my very vocal, not so aggressive way of playing was the decisive factor in Tamara Kordzadze asking me if I wanted to take part." He spontaneously agreed. "I realize that I'm getting older and am more receptive to projects like this charity concert. Especially when I compare the situation in the West with that in Georgia, I am grateful that I was able to complete my education here and I would therefore like to pass something on to the young people of Georgia."

As in Tbilisi, musicians from both countries were also involved in Zurich and the question naturally arises as to what this exchange with a different cultural and musical circle means in educational terms: "The students learn," says Thomas Grossenbacher, "to answer artistic questions in a new, perhaps previously unknown way. This exchange is invigorating and inspiring for them."

The organizer Tamara Kordzadze's conclusion is almost enthusiastic: "Our masterclass was very well received by the students. The exchange was and is enormously appreciated by the musicians and greatly promotes their artistic development. The 70-year-old Liana Isakadze inspired the students with her extremely spirited manner and her precise explanations and feedback. The benefit concert attracted many people interested in music. The great performances of the musicians in the acoustically excellent concert hall were rewarded by the audience with a standing ovation at the end."

Website of the Vivace association

www.vivacegeorgia.com

Chair of Transcultural Musicology

The world's first Unesco Chair in Transcultural Musicology is established in Weimar. The chair is held by Tiago de Oliveira Pinto.

Music newspaper editorial office (translation: AI) - Nov 21, 2016

Tiago de Oliveira Pinto (Photo: Alexander Burzik/zvg),SMPV

Unesco has awarded the Chair of Transcultural Music Studies at the Joint Institute for Musicology of the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena the title of Unesco Chair on Transcultural Music Studies. It is the twelfth Unesco Chair in Germany, working in a worldwide network with over 700 chairs in 124 countries to implement the Unesco goals and the Global Sustainability Agenda.

The Unesco Chair, based in Weimar, researches musical performances in their socio-cultural, historical and global contexts. The focus is on musicians as bearers of the performing arts in accordance with the Unesco Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The opportunities and challenges of recognizing music traditions as intangible cultural heritage for the transmission and valorization of these forms of expression will be examined.

From hackathon to blockchain

Digitalization is still one of the biggest challenges facing the music business. At the Berlin conference "Most Wanted: Music", specialists from very different fields discussed problems, opportunities and visions.

Friederike Kenneweg (translation: AI) - Nov 21, 2016

Panel discussion on the topic of "Blockchain". Photo: Most Wanted: Music

How can artists use Instagram for promotional purposes? What role do playlists play in marketing new songs today? How do you present an event online without getting lost in the digital noise? What new technologies are available to the industry - from apps and new digital devices to new cashless payment methods? And what about the future of music journalism?

These and many other questions were addressed at the conference on November 10 Most Wanted: Music at Haus Ungarn near Alexanderplatz. At first glance, the program posed a few puzzles for the non-specialist visitor. What does the abbreviation VR mean? What is a hackathon? And this blockchain that everyone is talking about, what is it actually good for?

The first answers were found right in the hallway, where this year's "Startup village" was set up, where young companies presented their latest technological inventions and apps. Visitors could play drums in the air with special drumsticks, without a real analog drum kit, or remix music by shaking and turning a smartphone. At another point, visitors could try out 3D glasses that allowed them to immerse themselves in virtual reality (oh, that's what VR stands for!) to experience a musician's "live performance" - virtually up close and personal.

The musician as "user" or "artist"?

Such apps and technological developments are often created as part of hackathons, as Eric Eitel from Music Pool Berlin explained in an entertaining short presentation. Hackathon is a neologism made up of hack and marathon and refers to events in which teams of programmers, designers and other creative people develop software or hardware in a short, intensive collaboration. Hack formats for the music industry such as the Music Hack Day or the Music Tech Fest lead to very different, exciting results, from the promotional app to the sensor glove to the drum costume.

In a panel with the illustrious title The Technology Integration Spaceship some developers presented their products and created scenarios of new forms of performance in which the boundaries between stage and auditorium are finally removed, with visitors actively shaping the sound of the concert with the help of their smartphones.

Mark Moebius from the startup Nagual Sounds, which develops interactive cell phone music apps, called on artists to be more open to new technologies, because only then would art be up to date. Someone from the audience asked whether making music with the help of programs, loops and apps had not already become far too easy. Are you then actually still an "artist" or "musician" - or a "user"? For Moebius, this is an unnecessary distinction. For him, anyone who wants to can be a musician. All the better if the technology helps.

Fighting bureaucracy with blockchain?

In a panel discussion on the topic of blockchain, the experts agreed that the technology alone is not the solution. Blockchain is a decentralized protocol for transactions between different parties that transparently records every change in the data set - similar to a digital bank statement that can be viewed by all parties involved. Blockchain was originally developed for the digital currency Bitcoin, but it could also be used to simplify rights management for music downloads and streaming. However, as long as the big players in the music industry are not interested in such a solution, which would enable more diversity in the music offering, and as long as the technology is not applied on a broad, decentralized and transparent basis, blockchain will not solve the bureaucratic problems of the music industry, although it would provide the means to do so.

Lifestyle reportage instead of reflection?

The panel on music journalism was quite pessimistic. According to freelance author Stefan Szillus, click rates and statistics prove it: Nobody is interested in what is written about music. Musical analyses or reviews are no longer in vogue. Szillus sees the future in reportage that gets close to the artist, observes them closely and pays attention to details such as shoe brands (Szillus writes about hip-hop, among other things). The question is, however, to what extent the music journalist still differs from the lifestyle reporter.
Radio producers were far more relaxed about the future. The live moment, the word, the human being - these are the qualities with which radio will certainly always be able to hold its own against competitors such as algorithms and ready-made playlists.

Despite all the enthusiasm for new technologies, it would certainly do the entire music industry good to refocus on people and the live experience.

Conference website

A career start

In addition to school, practice and music lessons, highly talented young people also take part in competitions and public performances. How good is the support system in Switzerland and is it even possible to plan a career?

Sibylle Ehrismann (translation: AI) - Nov 18, 2016

A current example is 17-year-old violinist Elea Nick from Meilen. We meet for a chat at Au Premier at Zurich main station; she is a simple, likeable, natural-looking young woman and is accompanied by her mother and manager Cornelia Nick. For her Tonhalle debut on November 1, she has chosen Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, which she will play with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mario Beretta. A bold choice of piece, as it is one of the most difficult violin concertos of all.

The young violinist learned Russian from her teacher, the Russian violinist Zakhar Bron, with whom she has been studying for six years. She was the youngest student ever to attend Bron's lessons at the Zurich University of the Arts, where her father Andreas Nick teaches theory. Since his retirement in 2015, Bron has been setting up a music academy for gifted students in Interlaken, where Elea Nick regularly visits him. His reputation as a violin teacher is legendary; stars such as Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Daniel Hope, Laura Marzadori and David Garret were once under his wing. "I like the Russian violin school and the way Bron teaches," says Elea Nick confidently. "He is extremely precise, every note has its meaning and he doesn't let up until you have found it." Tchaikovsky's violin concerto suits her, and she will play it in public for the first time at the Tonhalle.

Focus on your career

If you look at the stages of Elea Nick's still young career, she has attracted attention on the usual platforms in Switzerland: she has won the Swiss Youth Music Competition several times, as a violinist and chamber musician, and also won a Migros Study Prize in 2015. She has already been successful at two international competitions: In Novosibirsk in 2013, she achieved first place with distinction, and in Lublin at the international Lipinski Wieniawski Competition in 2015 with a first prize.

So far so good. "But you can't plan a solo career any more than you can plan happiness, even if you do everything right to achieve it," says the internationally sought-after Swiss pianist Oliver Schnyder, who chairs the jury for the Migros Prizes. The competition among young, highly talented musicians is huge, and personal contacts in the music world are crucial for progress, as is developing one's own artistic profile.

Competitions are still important for attracting attention. "Preparing for a competition is also very intensive," says Elea Nick, "you have to deal with a huge program, and you have to do it by heart. This is extremely good preparation for concert life."

As far as communication is concerned, Elea Nick is present on Facebook and posts all messages herself. According to Oliver Schnyder, PR does play an important role today, "but only when the young artists feel and know exactly what makes them distinctive. Accordingly, they must pursue artistic projects that define and consolidate an image in such a way that a PR agency can pick it up and exploit it. It has to be authentic, unmistakable and charismatic."

According to Schnyder, the funding structures in Switzerland today no longer need to shy away from international comparison. "In the past, young people had to fight like lions to avoid being held back by the system's egalitarian tendencies." Elea Nick was lucky enough to be able to attend normal school in Meilen up to the third secondary level and was allowed a reduced school workload. She is now studying for her Matura in the art and sport course at Akad College. Switzerland also seems to have become more flexible in terms of schooling for the gifted.

Graubünden revises cultural funding

The Cultural Promotion Act of the Canton of Graubünden is being completely revised in accordance with the mandate of the canton's Grand Council. Among other things, according to the draft, the regions are to be obliged to provide a comprehensive range of singing and music schools.

Music newspaper editorial office (translation: AI) - Nov 17, 2016

Chur city theater. Photo: Roland Zumbühl/picswiss

The current cultural promotion of the canton of Graubünden is based on the law on the promotion of culture of September 28, 1997 and the ordinance to the law on the promotion of culture of January 12, 1998. The canton writes that the law on the promotion of culture and the ordinance based on it have proven their worth in many areas as the basis for cantonal cultural promotion to this day. For this reason, some regulations have been adopted in the new draft. According to the government's proposal, the totally revised Cultural Promotion Act should also be streamlined.

The total revision of the Cultural Promotion Act is based on a request from Grand Councillor Bruno Claus and co-signatories. In the course of the total revision of the Economic Development Act, a distinction was made between economic development and the promotion of culture. The possible focal points of cultural promotion (professional culture, amateur culture), the interfaces with economic promotion and the responsibilities and selection of the cantonal cultural promotion commission also had to be clarified.

It is now planned to explicitly include support for professional cultural activities in the objectives of the law. The draft also stipulates that the regions are obliged to provide a comprehensive range of singing and music schools.

The results of the Caduff mandate regarding an interim stop in the total revision of the Economic Development Act and the Montalta mandate regarding the development of a cantonal concept for the promotion and financing of regional museums and regional cultural centers were also taken into account in the preparation of the current draft. Many of the concerns of the 160 consultation participants were also taken on board. For example, the government should be obliged to issue a comprehensive concept for the promotion of culture in the canton of Graubünden.

In the paradise of composers

The Percussion Art Ensemble Bern is on its birthday tour with four world premieres.

Thomas Meyer (translation: AI) - Nov 17, 2016

Concert at the Gare du Nord. Photo: pae-bern.ch

When Yvonne Loriod once played the first of his bird pieces on the piano for Olivier Messiaen, he said to her disappointment: she had done everything right, but something was missing; the next morning he took her out into nature, where she could listen to the birds herself and understand their songs. This perhaps only small, but decisive difference remained noticeable when the Percussion Art Ensemble Bern performed the piece in Basel's Gare du Nord. Nri/mimicri by Charles Uzor.

In it, the St. Gallen composer transposed bird songs down eight octaves, making them playable on instruments. Now the four percussionists and the ondes martenot player Caroline Ehret were to imitate these songs. This peculiar jungle of sound, a juxtaposition, a jumble of voices, connected by nothing but the whole, a wild ritual space, sounded very colorful in places, but the piece could blossom even more wonderfully if this sonic imagination were really brought to bear by the musicians. Here it seemed more played than lived through.

That was characteristic of the evening: one last bit of care was missing. Perhaps the musicians should perform barefoot like Evelyn Glennie after all, because even shoe heels can easily become percussion instruments, even if unfortunately mostly unintentionally. And in small noises when putting down mallets, picking up the bow or switching from one instrument to another, it was also audible that there is simply a lack of sensitivity and imagination at times. This was particularly distracting in the more difficult, fragile pieces of the program, in Uzor, whose music is strong enough in itself and yet remains comprehensible, and in Floraison by the Belgian Jacqueline Fontyn, which thus frayed even more into arbitrariness.

The Bernese percussion ensemble with Simon Forster, Ferdinand Heiniger, Oliver Schär and founder Daniel Scheidegger celebrates its twentieth birthday in November with a tour of Switzerland (Uettligen, Basel, Biel, Burgdorf, Bern, St. Gallen). Four world premieres were performed under the title "Dialogues", with the piece by Uzor being the richest and longest. The quartet has rendered many services to new music in the federal capital, presenting the sound repertoire in a wide variety of facets and performing valuable mediation work. It was therefore awarded the Canton of Bern's prize for innovative music education in 2012 for its "Alltagsmusik" project.

Perhaps the Percussion Art Ensemble simply needs somewhat more robust compositions that are primarily rhythmic and straightforward. The other two pieces of the evening were birthday presents (those by Uzor and Fontyn were commissioned by the quartet) and suited the qualities of the musicians far better. Urs Peter Schneider's new piece Heard for five percussionists playing in two voices (with Karin Jampen on electric piano) "translates" an Aramaic text into sound processes. The two vibraphones, two marimbas and two pianos move along constantly in pulse and volume, effortlessly, but interrupted by pauses in the gradually changing chords. Above this, however, the spectral range begins to vibrate "audibly" - each time differently, explorable with the ear. And this showed that even today, percussion music is a magic bag from which countless shades of color can be conjured up. This is why the Bernese composer Jean-Luc Darbellay calls it a "composer's paradise", and he for his part roamed through it in a suggestive way with his Dialogues. The music glided through the minutes, shimmering, buzzing, with a few surprises and effects that were clearly set, just right for this ensemble. The pithy stirring drum will remain in my memory.

More concerts
Sunday, 20.11.2016, 17.00, Museum Franz Gertsch Burgdorf
Thursday, 24.11.2016, 20.00 h, Dampfzentrale Bern
Friday, 25.11.2016, 20.00 hrs, Lokremise St. Gallen