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.

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.

The team led by Katelijne Schiltz, Professor of Musicology at the University of Regensburg, has set itself the goal of scientifically analyzing a collection of around 90 German-language sermon texts from the 17th and 18th centuries. The project, which will run for three years, deals with a group of sources that has been little researched to date.

The texts are geographically widely scattered, mostly unique prints, which are now to be recorded bibliographically for the first time and made publicly available as full texts in a digital research portal on the website of the Institute of Musicology at the University of Regensburg. Over the next three years, the musicologists will index the sources and compile profiles of the authors and instruments.

Katelijne Schiltz places the project in a larger research context: "The evaluation of the prints is of particular importance for a panorama of the Protestant organ landscape. Numerous texts address the history of the consecrated instrument, provide information on its disposition and reveal the cultural-sociological background of its construction in hitherto little-known local contexts."

Another academic focus of the project will be the analysis of the texts from the perspective of knowledge transfer. For the first time, the role of theologians in the dissemination of musical knowledge can be systematically examined on the basis of the material. Of interest are both the personal networks that were established between the sermon authors and the precise radius of music-theoretical scholarship that was binding in this genre. Exemplary results of the project will be presented for discussion at an interdisciplinary workshop in 2019.
 

In September of this year, the Lucerne cantonal government passed the "savings package". The term has long since lost its euphemistic ring. Even the official title of the 160-page dossier, "Consolidation Program 2017 (KP17)", cannot hide the fact that this package contains a hefty dose of explosives. The intention behind KP17 is to balance the financial budget of the canton of Lucerne in the medium term. A deficit of around CHF 520 million is forecast for the next three years. The proposed cost-cutting measures are aimed at many areas. They do not stop at education and culture either. Music schools, universities and major cultural institutions, including in particular the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (LSO), would be affected by them.
On the face of it, KP17 may appear to be an attempt to bundle a large number of requirements into a pragmatic, ideal-world compromise. However, the sword of Damocles hangs over it, true to the motto: Woe betide anyone who dares to unravel the package put together by the Government Council! When resistance grew among the population after the dossier was published on September 6, 2016, the non-party, FDP-affiliated cantonal finance director warned municipalities, teaching staff and cultural workers in particular not to represent their own interests without keeping an eye on the ailing overall budget. The warning understandably faded into the wind. Firstly, it is not primarily about their own interests, and secondly, the political system is virtually predestined for resistance. In mid-October, the civic-dominated municipalities threatened a referendum if the cantonal council were to impose the additional burdens envisaged in KP17 on the municipalities. In fact, at its meeting on November 7, the majority of parliament agreed with the municipalities and removed CHF 70 million from the savings package.

It was also the music schools' turn in the November session of the cantonal council. After an in-depth debate, the halving of the cantonal per capita contribution to communal music schools was decided. 84 parliamentarians were in favor and 29 against. The measure was unanimously rejected exclusively by the SP and the Greens. In addition, 8 out of 29 CVP MPs voted against the measure. It is intended to relieve the cantonal budget by CHF 3.6 million over the next three years. The left-wing parties had warned against the cost-cutting exercise, saying that higher tuition fees would make it more difficult for everyone to access music lessons. The leading argument from the ranks of the liberals was that music lessons could be afforded by those who really cared about them. Behind this is the familiar pattern: the conservatives welcome the austerity measures in principle, while the left-wingers do not want to reduce services, but denounce the low tax policy. The CVP itself even had to admit that the low-tax strategy was a losing proposition. The SVP, on the other hand, is fighting vehemently against higher taxes. Whoever is right in this party dispute, the LSO is definitely not to blame for the financial imbalance of the cantonal budget.

Compared to the rest of Switzerland, the LSO's degree of self-sufficiency is record-breaking, thanks to the ingenious cooperation between the public and private sectors (public-private partnership). In figures, this is expressed as follows: the LSO earns 3.5 million from ticket sales, with a further 3.5 million coming from the private sector. The LSO receives 4 million in compensation for its second identity as the opera orchestra of the Lucerne Theater. The share of public funding for the LSO as the symphony and resident orchestra of the KKL amounts to CHF 3 million. In business terms: With every franc of tax paid in directly, the LSO achieves a value added of over 330 percent, since with 3 million in basic funding a product of 10 million is offered (excluding services at the theater). This value is an indicator of extremely economical action. The government council has cut the 3 million in subsidies required for this, the foundation so to speak, albeit not directly: all major cultural institutions, including the Lucerne Festival, the Lucerne Theater, the Museum of Art and the Museum of Transport in addition to the LSO, receive public support via a special-purpose association. KP17 provides for cuts of 1.2 million to the cantonal contribution to the special-purpose association. Peanuts, you might think. However, the reduction of 1.2 million by the canton would also result in a reduction in the municipal contribution to the special-purpose association. Instead of the previous 3 million, the LSO would then only receive 2.5 million from the public purse. A huge strain. Numa Bischof Ullmann, Director of the LSO, points out that it would be impossible to compensate for the shortfall with even higher sponsorship income. "Even politicians agree that the amount of private money we mobilize cannot be increased any further." The sponsors are already a certain factor of uncertainty. In addition, a decline in subsidies would also call private contributions into question. Wolfgang Rihm, a close friend of the orchestra for many years, aptly described this domino effect: "So far, there has been a subtle interplay between public and private funding. However, private funding is only motivated when the publicly supported foundation is healthy. Private funding would come to nothing if the important forces of self-renewal were decimated by the withdrawal of public funds from the cultural institution to be supported. In concrete terms: a public cultural institution such as an orchestra withers from within if positions can no longer be optimally filled. When programs gradually have to be kept more and more conventional. When the very best soloists and guest conductors can no longer be invited. Slowly, insidiously, step by step, the appeal of such an ensemble disappears. It will still be able to produce 'home cooking', so to speak, but will no longer play a role in the national arena." Home cooking, as Bischof knows, excludes the promotion of excellence. "Our funding approach requires a high artistic profile."

The medium-term consequence would be a deficit of up to 4 million if there were no private funding. Based on the assumption that politicians and the public want to maintain the orchestra, the deficit would be passed on to the public purse. Politicians would therefore achieve the opposite of what they intended. And what if the LSO were to reduce its concert program in order to spend less? That would be counterproductive, says Bischof, as every project generates the vital contribution margins through ticket revenue and sponsorship acquisition. "For us, earning even less would simply mean not being able to cover fixed costs." The reverse option, more income through more offerings, would also be out of the question. "We have long since reached the limits of our capacity," says the artistic director. Even more services could not be imposed on the musicians. Beat Santschi, President of the SMV, also considers the cost-cutting scenario to be unacceptable: "A further reduction is unacceptable for responsible employers of 70 great professional musicians! In the interests of future generations, the healthy financing of the orchestra must be secured in the long term and not reduced, because an orchestra that has been cut to death will never come back!"

The dangers lurk elsewhere: neighbouring cantons could see themselves legitimized to reduce their equalization payments to the canton in which they are located. Only recently, the Aargau FDP called for the canton to withdraw from the intercantonal equalization of cultural burdens. The Aargau cantonal government gave the all-clear, but the danger has not yet been averted. A high-ranking CVP representative commented: "As a Zug resident, I enjoy attending concerts by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Lucerne Theater. I therefore support the equalization of cultural burdens out of conviction. But beware: if Lucerne cuts its own financial support, the other cantons will follow suit. I would like to avoid weakening Lucerne as a cultural location."

On December 12, the cantonal council will vote on the government council's savings proposal. The chances of it being averted are not bad. The orchestra is currently doing everything in its power to raise public awareness of the fact that it costs the taxpayer the least of all Swiss professional orchestras. (The fact that the LSO is by no means interested in undercutting the competition is explained by the context described here). At the same time, the competitive environment of the KKL's resident orchestra, where the world's most important orchestras play together, demands constant top performances. It should be in everyone's interest to protect the supporting pillars of the tension between economic discipline and the highest artistic standards from erosion.

Does Lucerne really want an orchestra? This question is not taboo for Bischof insofar as he wants to initiate an open and honest discussion about performance. His words are mixed with a slight aversion to debates that are only about maintaining what has grown historically for its own sake. In response to the (rhetorical?) question of whether Lucerne at all would like to have an orchestra, two more follow for him: What what kind of orchestra does the region want? And how much should it cost? In this way, the LSO does not counter linear cost-cutting with dull protest, but with an attitude that invites an exchange of ideas. The risk of the first question being answered in the negative is close to zero. This is more than suggested by the LSO's very well-attended thank-you concert on November 13 at the KKL, which the musicians not only performed without a fee, but also without their chief conductor. His schedule did not allow him to conduct the concert, which had been arranged at short notice, as much as he would have liked to. The LSO mastered the challenge with flying colors. May this wonderful concert evening be a harbinger of a good outcome to the vote!
 

The background to the legal dispute is the question of how income from rights of use for copyrights should be distributed. In its decision, the 24th Senate of the Court of Appeal applied and continued the case law of the Federal Court of Justice to the distribution for the use of copyrights. According to this, Gema may only distribute funds to those rightholders who have effectively transferred their rights.

If the authors had first transferred their rights to Gema on the basis of contractual agreements, the publishers could not derive any claims from the artists' copyrights. This is because publishers are not entitled to their own ancillary copyright. Accordingly, they could not claim a share of the revenue from usage rights.

Something different could apply if the authors had made specific payment instructions in favor of the publishers or had (at least partially) assigned their claims for remuneration against Gema to the publishers. However, such special agreements in favour of the publishers are neither typically recognizable nor identifiable in the present case of the plaintiff artists.

In today's decision, the Court of Appeal also ordered Gema to provide the plaintiffs with information on the corresponding publisher's shares and to render an account thereof. The question of whether the artists are also entitled to payment of further remuneration on the basis of the information to be provided has not yet been decided today. First, the information must be awaited, so that only a partial judgment was pronounced.

The written reasons for the judgment are not yet available. An appeal to the Federal Supreme Court has not been admitted; an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court against the non-admission of the appeal would probably not be admissible due to the lack of the required amount of appeal.
 

What began in 1997 with a single concert has developed into a real festival since 2000 and has become an integral part of the Swiss scene, according to the jury report. The Bluegrass Festival is a success story that is the result of 19 years of voluntary work by Bruno Steffens.

Year after year, Steffen, supported by his organizing committee of volunteers, manages to launch a festival on the grounds of the Burgrain Museum in Alberswil that has regional, national and even Europe-wide appeal.

The Guest Prize is awarded annually as part of the competition for work grants and honors individuals or groups who have made a special contribution to the cultural life of the Canton of Lucerne. Bruno Steffen received the prize from the Canton of Lucerne's Culture Commissioner Stefan Sägesser at the award ceremony on Friday, November 11, 2016.

In 2016, the canton announced selective production funding for the first time. There were 21 applications in the music category. Contributions were awarded to Studer Fredy ("Solowerk", CHF 30,000) and Blind Butcher, Aregger Christian and Bucher Roland ("ALAWALAWA", CHF 20,000).

In 2014, the three partners launched a pilot project in which three pop songs were re-produced and mixed for object-based playback. This summer, they met again - this time to find out the sonic differences between an object-based 3D studio environment and a 2D environment inside a vehicle and the resulting requirements for the mixing process.

Five pieces of music from different genres were newly produced for a 3D studio system and an Audi Q7 equipped with a wave field synthesis system using Fraunhofer SpatialSound Wave technology. At the Tonmeistertagung, visitors can listen to the results as a 2D mix in the AUDI Q7.

However, the SpatialSound Wave spatial sound technology can be used to transform more than just cars into rolling concert halls. With the help of Fraunhofer IDMT's acoustic room simulation, the acoustics of real concert halls can also be influenced. Using the Zurich Opera House as an example, another Fraunhofer IDMT lecture will explain how the sound technology is used there to control sound objects and to enrich and change the room reflections.

The lecture "Hybrid Object-Based Room Simulation" will take place on Sunday, November 20 at 11:30 a.m. in room R4. The speaker will be the responsible project manager Javier Frutos-Bonilla from Fraunhofer IDMT.
 

The Berlin pop and jazz musician Immanuel Brockhaus wrote his dissertation "Kultsounds: Untersuchung zur Entstehung, Praxis und Wirkung dominierender Einzelklänge in populärer Musik 1960-2014", the Zurich designer Julia Mia Stirnemann wrote her dissertation in art history "Über Projektionen: World Maps and Worldviews. From reconstruction to deconstruction, from convention to alternative".

Over 40 doctoral students from the fields of music, design, art, theater, dance, literature, photography and conservation are now enrolled in the Bern doctoral program, which combines artistic practice and academic research. Some of them come from Swiss art colleges and universities, while others come from the USA, Russia, Thailand, Germany or Italy.

Projects involving GSA doctoral students have already attracted several million francs in third-party funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF and the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI.

From the 2017/2018 academic year, the cantonal government has once again set admission restrictions for three academic years for the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and three departments of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). According to the canton's press release, the main reasons for the admission restrictions are space bottlenecks, a limited number of internships and study conditions with increased infrastructure and personnel requirements.

At the ZHdK, the admission capacities are determined per department as before. The number of study places in the Departments of Design (145), Cultural Analysis and Mediation (111) and Art & Media (106) remains unchanged. In the Department of Performing Arts and Film, admission numbers were previously determined every two years. For the 2017/18 academic year, 91 study places are planned. From the 2018/19 academic year, admission numbers will be set at a constant 106. In the Department of Music, the number of study places will be increased from 293 to 298.

At the ZHAW, there are still 210 places available for the Bachelor's degree program in Social Work in the Department of Social Work. In the Department of Health, the number of places in the Bachelor's degree programs in Health Promotion and Prevention and Midwifery (66 each) also remains unchanged. An increase of 6 places each is planned for the Bachelor's degree courses in Occupational Therapy (previously 72), Nursing (previously 120) and Physiotherapy (previously 120). In the Department of Applied Psychology, the number of study places in the Bachelor's degree course of the same name will be increased to 120 in order to compensate for the number of withdrawals and drop-outs.
 

The experimental Arthur Lourié (1891-1966) left behind a diverse oeuvre, two operas, ballet music, two symphonies, chamber music, numerous piano works, vocal-instrumental works and songs, including much that is still unknown. Parts of his estate, music and text manuscripts, drafts and fair copies, are kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. The Arthur Lourié Society is dedicated to rediscovering this fascinating composer.

Arthur Lourié died fifty years ago on October 12, 1966 in Princeton, New Jersey. His work is like a box of wonders, explains Stefan Hulliger, artistic director of the festival and president of the Arthur Lourié Society, who has been working intensively with it for ten years. Everything that is brought out is surprising and wonderful and simply begs to be played. The musicians themselves are often amazed by the effect of the compositions when they are brought to life on stage.

Melodicism combined with dissonance, unconventional instrumentation, the use of musical quotations, the combination of vocal and instrumental music with sounds and noises or speaking voices, the oscillation between experimental approaches and musical tradition offer a surprising and emotionally moving sound experience.

The composer was almost forgotten. He was caught between two stools, a border crosser at a time when the borders between East and West were insurmountable due to the Iron Curtain. Born in 1892 in the Russian Empire of Jewish origin, he grew up in Odessa and studied piano and composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He converted to the Catholic faith in 1913. He was a friend of Anna Akhmatova, part of a cohort of highly talented young people who created an atmosphere of uncompromising artistic search, sensitivity and openness in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg and turned it into a laboratory of modernism. The young composer was just as fascinated by the Italian Renaissance as he was by Russian archaic music and the ideas of Russian Futurism. A friend of Khlebnikov, Mayakovsky, Tatlin and the Burlyuk brothers, he transferred their radical approach to the word and their sound poetry to music. He strove for a synthesis of the arts and experimented with micro-intervals, brought everyday and natural sounds to life in performance-like performances with prepared instruments and created an extremely individualized graphic notation.

Like most radical young artists of his generation, he welcomed the October Revolution in 1917 and was appointed head of the music department at the Ministry of National Education. His euphoria quickly faded when he realized that he could not support the expectations of propaganda and agitation in music.

In 1922, he fled to Paris via Berlin, took on duties as secretary to Igor Stravinsky and composed two symphonies, the Concerto Spirituale for choir, piano and orchestra as well as numerous instrumental and vocal works with echoes of Latin-influenced spiritual culture. In 1940, he was forced to flee Paris before the German occupation and made his way to the USA, where he lived in New York and on the West Coast and became increasingly lonely. Persona non grata in the Soviet Union at the time, separated from his European past, he was moved by St. Petersburg as a cultural phenomenon. He worked for a long time on his opera The Moor of Peter the Greatin which the history of St. Petersburg comes to life. Like Vladimir Nabokov, who elevated his longing for St. Petersburg to the status of world literature, like Anna Akhmatova, who in the Poem without a hero returned to the year 1913 and created a work of art of world renown, Lourié also sought access to a world believed to be lost.

Three concert evenings as part of the 10th International Lourié Music Days in Basel offered the opportunity to discover the work of the St. Petersburg composer. On October 12, two different pianists, the Bulgarian Borislava Taneva and Moritz Ernst, this year's Festival Artist, who received his training in Basel and is one of the most versatile masters in his field, performed at the memorial concert on the 50th anniversary of his death. To mark the anniversary year, he presented the complete piano works of Arthur Lourié as a world premiere recording on three CDs.

"What to do with this melancholy!" This is how Stefan Hulliger led the November 1 Concerto da Camera for solo violin and strings. Three violins, three violas, three cellos, a double bass and the solo violin evoke memories in six movements and ever-increasing soundscapes. It is considered to be the composer's most frequently performed piece and was framed by smaller chamber music pieces such as Divertissement (1929), a work for violins and violas in four movements with a musical theme of the October Revolution, Ech, Yablochkobegins, ends with Byzantine-inspired sacred sounds and is reminiscent of Alexander Blok's revolutionary poem The Twelve can be thought of.

The sound of the Pastorale de la Volgacomposed in 1916 at the dacha of the symbolist poet Fyodor Sologub in Kostroma, the hometown of Dyagilev and the Romanov dynasty. Opulent soundscapes in an "incredible instrumentation" with oboe, bassoon, two violas and violoncello. In between, Moritz Ernst played piano intermezzi, including Royal v detskoj (Wings in the Children's Room), eight scenes from a Russian childhood, which Lourié dedicated to his daughter Anna in 1917, the year of the revolution, as if he wanted to evoke the timelessness of growing up. Fairytale-like images from the world of children in the field of tension between avant-garde and tradition, a series of captivating and sparkling little solitaires, realized in a multifaceted way by Moritz Ernst.

The third concert evening on November 2 in Basel's Gare du Nord also inspired with discoveries. It was entitled "The Birth of Beauty". Twelve singers, six sopranos and six mezzo-sopranos interpreted works inspired by the composer's relationship with the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova and her world of thought. Highlights included early settings of Akhmatova's poetry, such as the Lament of the beggar women for two voices with cor anglais accompaniment, and Golos Muzy (Voice of the Muse) for one speaking voice and female choir, as well as the madrigal Canzone de Dante from 1921, which had its world premiere in Basel. With twelve female voices and live electronics, the latest work is Masks (2016) by Swiss composer Regina Irman (*1957), which was written especially for this evening on behalf of the BS/BL Music Committee, is an exciting reference to the St. Petersburg avant-garde and the present day. Everyday noises, whispers, whispers and secret speech emerge from the polyphony, allowing traces of the totalitarianism to which Anna Akhmatova was exposed in her life in the Soviet Union to penetrate.

Lourié's fascination with the Italian Renaissance, refracted in Russian, was expressed in the eponymous play La Naissance de la beauté clearly. Six sopranos, clarinet, double bass, harpsichord and cymbals were used to create Botticelli's picture. The birth of Venus into sound. The Basel video artist Bettina Grossenbacher produced a video especially for this performance.

The Arthur Lourié Society is to be thanked not only for its commitment to bringing this hidden composer to the stage, but also for the knowledgeable introductions to his works. St. Petersburg culture, scattered to the four winds, is being rediscovered in Russia after the end of the Cold War. It has charged its protagonists with energy that is as powerful today as it was a hundred years ago. Arthur Lourié is an exciting and stimulating composer whose further discovery we can look forward to.

Lütteken works with an international advisory board of distinguished musicologists, the MGG editorial team and authors from around the world to continually update and add content. "MGG Online" was founded, financed and implemented by the publishers Bärenreiter (Kassel), J.B. Metzler (Stuttgart) and Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM, New York).

The print edition of the MGG (2nd edition) consists of more than 18,000 articles written by 3,500 authors from 55 countries. "MGG Online" contains all this content in a constantly updated and growing database with revised data, new information and revised articles. New entries will be added regularly from 2017. All article versions will remain permanently accessible and marked as such. Right from the start, users will find around 200 updated or newly written articles.

"MGG Online" uses a platform developed by RILM that makes the content accessible using state-of-the-art search and browser functions. The platform is continuously being expanded with new functions and search options.

"MGG Online" is initially intended for institutional users, especially libraries, who negotiate the price for use individually. However, private users have the option of using the database at the lowest institutional price, which is currently USD 450 per year plus VAT.

mgg-online.com
 

According to its press release, the canton of Aargau has been transferring around CHF 5.9 million to the cantons of Zurich and Lucerne since 2010 for the services of supra-regional cultural institutions that are also used by Aargau residents. In its statement on a motion by the Grand Council calling for the withdrawal from the cultural burden sharing agreement, the cantonal government recalls that the cultural burden sharing is part of the NFA, in which the canton of Aargau is one of the recipient cantons.

According to the Federal Act on the Equalization of Finances and Burdens (FiLaG), the cantons are obliged to regulate the equalization of cultural burdens through intercantonal agreements. Similar agreements exist in Eastern Switzerland and between the two cantons of Basel. The cantonal government is committed to the obligations of the canton of Aargau within the framework of the NFA and therefore rejects a withdrawal without replacement, as demanded by the motion.

However, the cantonal government criticizes the lack of a coherent system for equalization across all cantons and the fact that the contributing cantons have no institutionalized say in the factors that influence the chargeable costs.

The intercantonal agreement on cultural burdens stipulates that this can be terminated at the end of each compensation period subject to a notice period of two years. The current compensation period runs from 2016 to 2018, so if the Grand Council were to refer the motion, it would have to be terminated by December 31, 2016.
 

The program was promising: The Association of Music Schools in the Canton of Schwyz (VMSZ) dedicated its annual training day on 29 October to the topic of 4 years after the referendum: "Music initiative TOP or FLOP?". Music school directors, music teachers, politicians, members of the authorities and other interested parties, particularly from local music associations, were invited. The new VMSZ President Matthias Bachmann welcomed over 80 attendees and Vice President Willy Odermatt paid tribute to former President Georg Hess, who passed away in June and had worked tirelessly until then, leaving a huge gap in the Schwyz music scene.

The presentation of this highly topical subject was organized by the VMSZ of the HERZKA GmbHInstitute for Organizational Development. Hector Herzig, "the father of the music initiative", as he was introduced by Bachmann, gave an introductory presentation entitled Music school through the ages and supervised the workshop National, cantonal and communal music school policy - What has the initiative achieved from a music school perspective and what measures need to be redefined? Liliane Girsberger led the second workshop Youth and Music Program - What impact does the program have on music schools and what measures need to be addressed? Fortunately, the conference concept spared the participants the agony of choice, and after a good half an hour they changed.

As usual, Hector Herzig explained the difficult situation of music teachers and music schools in the music education market, in which there are more and more competitors. He outlined the general situation in great detail using the keywords society, creativity, market, politics and education, always bearing in mind that learning to play an instrument today takes just as much time as it used to. As the music initiative has not yet achieved its goal (high-quality music lessons for children and young people), a federal framework law that recognizes music schools as educational institutions should be sought. He made an urgent appeal to get involved, take risks and make decisions.

Due to the lack of time, the specific explanations on Youth and Music (Y+M) were unfortunately too brief. As a result, the audience's level of knowledge about the programme remained very heterogeneous, which sometimes led to emotional discussions in the workshop on Y+M, in which the accusation that the training at Y+M corresponds to subsidized "Bädele" was difficult to classify correctly. However, all the facts about Y+M have long been available in the Federal Office of Culture's comprehensive handbook, which is available online: www.bak.admin.ch/jm/index.html?lang=de. Nevertheless, music school management and employee associations should carefully advise their employees and members on how the Y+M program can be meaningfully integrated into everyday teaching.

In the policy workshop, Herzig emphasized how important it is to anchor music schools as a type of school in cantonal legislation in order to position themselves as centers of excellence for music education. The association should tackle this process with determination together with the music associations - and together with the music teachers, whose commitment is also essential in political work.
Unfortunately, there was also not enough time at the end to discuss and prioritize the results of the workshops in the plenary session and to formulate measures from them, as was actually planned. However, the organizers will make up for this and make the material available internally at www.vmsz.ch.

The land and buildings of the Kongresshaus are owned by the Kongresshaus-Stiftung. The City of Zurich is not directly involved in the operation of the Kongresshaus and Tonhalle. However, as a regular donor, it has ensured that the foundation has always been able to pay for necessary structural investments, writes the canton.

In June 2016, the voters of the city of Zurich approved a construction and debt relief loan of CHF 165 million in favor of the Kongresshaus Foundation. The planned fundamental renovation is scheduled to take place between 2017 and 2020.

The City of Zurich, the Kongresshaus Foundation and the Tonhalle Society are asking the Canton of Zurich for a contribution towards the renovation. According to its press release, the cantonal government considers the request to be justified. In its opinion, there are only a few institutions in the canton of Zurich such as the Kongresshaus and the Tonhalle that have such a far-reaching impact beyond the borders of Switzerland. It is therefore asking the Cantonal Council to support the project with CHF 20 million from the lottery fund.
 

What most singers don't know: A very well-known folk song, To whom God wants to show right favorTheodor Fröhlich (February 20, 1803 - October 16, 1836) wrote this poem, based on a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff. His father, who had worked his way up from tanner to primary school teacher, even to Grand Councillor, wanted to make a lawyer out of the highly talented young man who aspired to music, so he sent him to the best Latin school in Zurich, where he sang in a choir at Nägeli's music institute and was also taught a little by Hans Georg Nägeli. At the University of Basel, he hardly attended any lectures, but composed many works largely self-taught, most of which he later destroyed because they did not satisfy his self-criticism. Torn by inner conflict, he fell ill and returned home. Two years of study in Berlin completed his musical education. Back in the confines of his homeland, he became a music teacher at the cantonal school in Aarau and "music director" in Brugg. This was arranged by his brother, the writer, politician, pastor and teacher Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich. The arduous job became more and more of a burden for him, and marital difficulties and financial worries due to an illegitimate child led to his early suicide: he jumped into the River Aare.

On the day of commemoration, for which Walter Labhart had compiled a knowledgeable, detailed program, the morning was devoted to presentations and a panel discussion (Max Weyermann, Tom Hellat, Bernhard Billeter, Max Baumann and Anna Kardos, moderator) on the local history, life, musical environment and genealogy of the composer. A guided tour of the old town was followed by four top-class concerts: the Miserere a 12 voci and four motets, harmoniously and expertly sung by the Aargauer Vokalsolisten under Markus J. Frey, accompanied on a Broadwood fortepiano by Stefan Müller, spread a great deal of melodiousness. The "musical soirée" by Susanne Oldani and Rudolf Remund, accompanied by Anne-Marie Simmen, offered twenty songs as a secular addition, combined with appropriate text readings.

In my subjective opinion, the greatest surprises, both compositionally and interpretatively, were the secular and spiritual women's choirs conducted and accompanied by Barbara and Johannes Vigfusson and two string quartets performed by the Casal Quartet, still quite young and eager for discovery. This instrumentation, which was rightly regarded as the supreme discipline of chamber music, inspired Fröhlich to an early Romantic-influenced and technically and formally masterful construction. They are at least on a par with the eight string quartets by his colleague Mendelssohn, who was six years younger. The latter had condescended to Fröhlich in Berlin in 1826. The majority of Fröhlich's works are still awaiting publication; there is still much to be discovered.