With this agreement, Gema members will also be remunerated for the use of copyrighted works on the world's largest online video platform. According to its press release, Gema is fulfilling its fiduciary exploitation mandate towards its members by signing this agreement.

In addition to the conventional ad-financed service, the agreement also covers the new subscription service, which YouTube already offers in the USA and which is also set to launch in Europe. However, there are still differing legal opinions between YouTube and Gema as to whether YouTube or the uploaders are responsible for licensing the music works used.

There has been an agreement between Suisa and YouTube since 2013. License agreement. It regulates how Swiss composers and lyricists are compensated for the use of their work on the video platform in Switzerland and abroad.
 

Sabina Schwarzenbach, Head of Communications, will take over the management of Pro Helvetia ad interim from November 1, 2016, in collaboration with the other members of the Executive Board.

According to the Pro Helvetia Foundation's press release, Andrew Holland will be available until the end of April 2017 to ensure a smooth handover of his position. At the ordinary meeting on November 30, 2016, the Board of Trustees will determine how to proceed with the succession.

Andrew Holland began his career at Pro Helvetia in 2004 as Head of the Dance Department. From 2009 to 2012, he was Head of Promotion and Deputy Director. He succeeded Pius Knüsel as Director in November 2012.

In view of the SME's unstable financial situation at the beginning of the current year and the urgent tasks ahead, including the linking of the two websites musinfo.ch and musicedition.chSGNM is providing SME with an interest-free loan of CHF 5,000 to finance its ongoing work.

Following the unexpected death of its president Hans-Jürg Meier in December 2015, the SME expanded its board under Roman Brotbeck and Thomas Gartmann and elected the president of the SGNM Javier Hagen to its board, which benefited the cooperation between the two music organizations and service providers, as can be seen from this example.

The SGNM is the Swiss section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), founded in 1922, and the Swiss relay to the international network of the ISCM. The SME is the Swiss composers' publishing house and also operates the Swiss database on New Music musinfo.ch.
 

Singing and playing intervals requires a high degree of control, coupled with precise sensory perception and rapid adjustment if the interval sung is too high or too low. This precision is also required by great tit males (Parus major) during the breeding season. They tirelessly sing a two-syllable song. A single specimen has a repertoire of up to six different songs. The song is used to mark their territory against rivals and to attract potential mating partners.

In a study, the Bernese researcher Heinz Richner now hypothesizes that the precision of the intervals sung by different great tit males may be an indicator of their attractiveness or social status.

Great tits are among the most visually striking songbirds: The black and white head contrasts with the bright yellow of the front, in the middle of which a more or less wide "tie" of black feathers stands out. Previous studies have shown that the size of the tie is an indicator of attractiveness, social status, reproductive success and resistance to parasites.

In the study, males were encouraged to sing with a computer-generated tit song, their song was recorded, the vibration frequencies of the two tones of the two-syllable song were calculated using computer software, and the deviation from the closest interval was determined. The males were then measured and the ventral side photographed to determine the width and area of the black tie.

The results show that the singers of precise intervals and with a large vocal repertoire are also those with a large tie. This means that a rival or potential mate can judge the quality of a male not only by his tie, but also from a greater distance and in dense forest. This is the first study to establish a correlation between individual quality and the precision of the intervals sung for an animal species.

"It is astonishing that great tits use the same intervals on which the scales of Western music in pure tuning are based," says Heinz Richner. The new study is therefore not only highly relevant for understanding the evolution of acoustic communication in animals - but potentially also for the evolution of music.

Original article:
Heinz Richner: Interval singing links to phenotypic quality in a songbird. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS, 2016, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1610062113

Beat Anliker, alias Pädu MC Anliker, is one of the city's best-known personalities - and a unique figure, according to the authorities' citation for the Thun Prize. With his cultural venue Café Bar Mokka, he has turned a former youth center into a renowned club and put the city of Thun on the map of important concert venues in Switzerland. With over 100 concerts a year, the venue is popular with audiences and musicians alike and radiates far beyond Thun's borders.

Well-known Swiss and international music stars, slam poets and other artists regularly perform at the club. The music connoisseur Anliker also repeatedly gave young musical talents the opportunity to gain their first experience on stage and was therefore also an important promoter of the regional music scene. Beat Anliker, who called himself MC ("Master of Ceremony") Anliker, ran his club with great passion for 30 years.
 

The concert in the canton of St. Gallen, which was attended by around 5000 people, was organized by various movements whose existence and actions are rooted in racial hatred. Although the prevention of racism does not include pre-censorship, the FCR considers it essential that the Swiss authorities at all levels carry out the necessary checks that are linked to the granting of a permit as part of a licensing procedure.

It is also important that the authorities are able to check compliance with the criminal law on racism at public events or, if necessary, take the necessary measures to report any violation of the law to the judiciary. With regard to the concert in Unterwasser, the FCR sees a great need for clarification with regard to the means of preventing or - in the event of illegality - sanctioning such events.

We see gear trains hanging in rusty frames. The large wheels interlock and evoke crazy, oversized clockworks, fantasy machines and mysterious mechanical devices. Broken musical instruments and sound bodies are incorporated into the machine constructions. Symbols from the fund of art history alongside industrial and everyday objects in surprising functions, glass bowls, oil drums, cesspools and slag hammers complete the colossal sculptures. Despite the rust and numerous traces of transience, bright, cheerful colors predominate. At rest and at first glance, the four music machines resemble each other, but their sounds are completely different. A press of a button brings them to life, and then they reveal their full individuality for a few minutes.

Méta-Harmony I is the most melodic, violin and keyboard instruments are central elements. Hidden in the gears, a garden gnome with an accordion spins around its own axis as if possessed. Children's toys are very present, a wooden Pinocchio figure glides over the keys of a destroyed piano. Trying to assign the sequence of sounds to the mechanical movements and the resulting images takes some patience. But there is the sound of keyboard instruments, a scale forms the melody for muffled beats and rattles. Listening, recognizing and trying to understand the mechanisms, or allowing yourself to be amazed by the flow of associations - both approaches have their appeal.

The most opulent piece in the show is the Méta-Harmony 3 from the year 1984, also Pandemonium No. 1 called. Animal skulls that rattle their jaws. An old plastic rabbit and an eagle sculpture turn on their own axis, fifty-two motors move wheels whose imaginary axes criss-cross the room. New details become visible as your attention is drawn to the sounds. The whole machine is adorned with colorful tufts of feathers. Light effects make the machine flash and shine, and you can sense that Tinguely's confrontation with death is not tragic or frightening, but a baroque feast for the senses that does not deny its reference to the Basel Dance of Death. 

Tinguely's synthesis of the arts
Méta-harmony is a challenging word. Annja Müller-Alsbach, curator of the exhibition, explains it like this: "The sounds that Jean Tinguely produces with his machines, the shrillness and croaking, rattling and rumbling, are the opposite of harmony. His sculptures are not music machines in the true sense of the word, but sound mixing machines. From the very beginning, Jean Tinguely used sounds as artistic material. He often took up found everyday and industrial sounds, which he treated as found objects, just like his sculptural objects. The acoustic stimulus emanating from the sculptures is intended to complement the visual stimulus. Hearing and seeing are synonymous for the understanding of his works.

He saw his Méta-Harmonies as independent phenomena, even if references to minimalist New Music or the Fluxus movement, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg are recognizable. However, Jean Tinguely was not interested in making a contribution to the music of his time, but rather in a synthesis of the arts.

The solo performance of each individual Méta-Harmony is an experience that will amaze and amuse you. But don't miss the opportunity to see the four Méta-Harmonies and the mobile sculpture Klamaukwhich complements the series, in interaction. Then something unexpected happens: harmony actually emerges. The tones and noises of the five sculptures interlock, complement or cancel each other out, creating soundscapes that form melodies and rhythms. This is astonishing when you consider that the works were created over the course of eight years and were delivered to their clients immediately, so that Jean Tinguely himself never had the opportunity to experience them in dialog. The interplay of the music machines can be followed in the exhibition several times a day, every half hour.

In his opening speech, museum director Roland Wetzel emphasized the uniqueness of the event: "It is unlikely that the large sculptures will be reunited in the foreseeable future. Two are in the collection in Basel, one in Vienna, and Méta-Harmony 3 from Karuizawa, Japan, was on its way as sea freight for eight weeks before it could take its place in the showroom.

Christian Henking studied with Cristobal Halffter and Edison Denissov. He received important impulses from Wolfgang Rihm and György Kurtag. His opera "Figaro¿" premiered at the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn in 2014.

Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who has lived in Bern for many years, has performed as a soloist with numerous renowned European orchestras alongside conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Philippe Herreweghe and Thomas Hengelbrock.

Andreas Schaerer studied singing and composition in Bern. He performs with the group "Hildegard Lernt Fliegen", in a duo with Lucas Niggli, in a trio with the two Viennese musicians Martin Eberle and Peter Rom and, most recently, with Bobby Mc Ferrin. Schaerer has been teaching jazz singing, improvisation and ensemble playing at Bern University of the Arts since 2010.

The architect, performer and musician Christoph Hess is behind the solo project Strotter Inst. whose name deliberately includes the instrument as well as the installation. In his concerts, he uses prepared record players to generate increasingly complex, layered sound and rhythm structures.

After studying classical music for several years, pianist Marie Kruttli discovered jazz. She continued her studies in Lausanne with Emil Spanyi, then in Lucerne with Hans Feigenwinter. As a composer and pianist, she founded her own trio in 2010, and as a pianist she has already played with numerous well-known jazz musicians.
 

Once again: disturbing moments. The English philosopher Roger Scruton takes to the stage in Donaueschingen. Scruton was once an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and wrote a book about the music of the 20th century. Now he is lecturing in English on contemporary music or what he considers to be new music: works by Arnold Schönberg, Pierre Boulez or Karlheinz Stockhausen. Scruton's conclusions: New Music has got bogged down in systems, has taken as little account of the ear as it has of something as nebulous as "physiological conditions of perception". Ergo: contemporary music is now only a matter for the species that meets every year in Donaueschingen, for example. The audience applauded dutifully after the lecture and quickly left the room in the knowledge that it was hardly worth responding to the speaker. Listing Scruton's mistakes alone would go beyond the scope of the presentation. No: Theodor W. Adorno did not favor Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique. No: The ear is not a suprahistorical constant. No: even Beethoven was not a popular mass phenomenon who wrote beautiful melodies that everyone understood. And no again: New Music festivals are well attended, whether in Berlin, Stuttgart, Oslo, Warsaw or Donaueschingen, where, in contrast to the 1950s or 1960s, not only 50 composers and theorists met, but - according to the organizer's press release - 10,000 people who are open to and interested in what today's composers and sound artists are working on.

Mergers

Positions such as the extremely conservative one described have become obsolete, and not only in Donaueschingen. Music history has long been taking place in the plural - and festivals such as the Donaueschingen Music Days reflect this. Swiss composer Michael Wertmüller brings the fantastic jazz-hardcore trio Steamboat Switzerland with Marino Pliakas (bass), Lucas Niggli (drums) and Dominik Blum (Hammond organ) together with the new music ensemble Klangforum Wien. This world premiere is rhythmically gripping, dense and energetic discord. The presence of both formations, which play incredibly precisely "on point" under the direction of conductor Titus Engel, is impressive. Wertmüller has little interest in organic unity. Again and again there are breaks, caesuras, general pauses, then also paratactic elements in the form of virtuoso solo passages on the Hammond organ, the electric bass or the clarinets and xylophone. The former drummer Wertmüller is experienced in the encounter between jazz/rock and what is known as new music. In the end, however, the sound balance remains problematic. Even when the electric bass and Hammond organ play quietly, even when Lucas Niggli is restrained on the drum set - fusion has its limits where dynamics do not fuse.

"Megaheterophony"

Last year there was unanimous agreement: it was a bad year with too many concepts and ideas instead of well thought-out music. Now it sounded better. Admittedly, there was boring music again this year, and sometimes - which is better - experiments that went wrong. On the other hand, quite a few of the 17 world premieres remain in good memory. The new concerto for trombone and orchestra by Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas sounds serenely confident in the concluding orchestral concerto. Haas' personal style corresponds to the sustained, microtonal soundscapes, which soloist Mike Svoboda enriches with wonderfully radiant and penetrating trombone tones. The new work by Martin Jaggi, born in Basel in 1978, was eagerly awaited. With his impressive work from 2008 Juggernaut for large orchestra, he still indulged in rather dark colors. In the now premiered Caral for orchestra begins with four flutes, which - slightly out of tune microtonally - present a musical culture threatened with extinction. The flute quartet plays melodies from the Andes, more precisely from the Bolivian and Peruvian plateaus, to which the orchestra responds in what Jaggi himself calls a kind of "mega-heterophony". As in Juggernaut Jaggi achieves the feat of formal coherence, even subliminal logic. Nothing breaks apart here despite all the sonic unruliness, despite all the different elements that give the work a colorful, but also profound face. Jaggi says that he certainly does not want to repeat himself. But this Caral will hopefully sound again soon.

At first glance, the repertoire of chamber music works for piano and violoncello from the late Viennese Classical and early Romantic eras does not seem all that extensive. Ludwig van Beethoven's five great sonatas and the three variation cycles tower above and, with their disproportionate presence, eclipse perfectly valid compositions by Franz Xaver Mozart, Bernhard Romberg, Josef Woelfl and Franz Danzi.

The same fate is also shared by the Grande Sonate pour le Pianoforte et Violoncelle in A major op. 104 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). The work is dedicated to Maria Pavlovna, the wife of Duke Carl Friedrich of Weimar, in whose service the composer was Kapellmeister from 1819 until his death in 1837. Hummel himself played the work in Paris and Vienna.

The extensive three-movement work is thoroughly lyrical in character. The cantabile and harmonies of the 2nd movement (Romanza) are reminiscent of the early Romantic era.

The Urtext edition supervised by Mark Kroll sets the same standards as the new editions of Beethoven's cello works published by Bärenreiter. It is based on the autograph and prints published during the composer's lifetime. The extensive preface and critical report provide a competent insight into the problems of performance practice and the contradictions of the sources.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Sonata for Piano and Violoncello op. 104, Urtext edited by Mark Kroll, BA 10904, € 11.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2015

Even during Hugo Distler's lifetime (1908-1942), his Christmas story op. 10 is one of the most popular sacred works from his pen. He wrote it in 1933 at the age of just 25 during a very fruitful creative phase. It was printed in the same year, but only had a single edition of 2000 copies, which did not detract from its popularity. The premiere also took place in Cologne in 1933.

In terms of content, the main part of the work is based on the New Testament stories of the evangelists Luke and Matthew. Formally, Distler's Christmas story, as he himself emphasized in the preface, is based on the work of Heinrich Schütz. It thus fits in with the efforts of the time to renew church music through recollection. A motet-like introductory and final chorus frame the action. In addition, the story is told by seven variations on A rose has sprung pervaded. The overall mood is cheerful, restrained and delicate. The work is scored with recitatives and the polyphonic movements are very demanding.

Hugo Distler, The Christmas Story op. 10, edited by Klaus-Martin Bresgott, score, CV 10.011, € 18.00, Carus, Stuttgart 2015

The "lion violinist" Henry Vieuxtemps wrote the Elégie op. 30 as his first work for viola and performed it in St. Petersburg in 1848. As the dedicatee, Count Wielhorski, was also a talented cellist, Vieuxtemps also arranged it for cello. The sombre, passionate F minor mood brightens up in the A flat major middle section, and the recapitulation is followed by a brilliant coda, whose sextuplet pattern also appears beforehand in many surprising transitions and in the piano part. The composer beautifully combines all the viola's registers. The additional part, marked by Tabea Zimmermann, contains all the fingerings of the first edition, supplementing them sensibly but overloading them with too many figures in the same register.

The 28-year-old Alexandre Glazunov, who was already working on his 4th Symphony, created a new work in 1893 with his Elégie op. 44 is one of the most beautiful original Romantic works for viola and piano. The melody, flowing in 9/8 time, is accompanied by a differentiated piano part. As in the Elégie by Vieuxtemps, the piano part is fingered by Klaus Schilde and the viola part is marked by Tabea Zimmermann.

Henry Vieuxtemps, Elégie op. 30 for viola and piano, Urtext edited by Peter Jost, HN 1229, € 11.50, G. Henle, Munich 2014

Alexandre Glasunow, Elégie op. 44, for viola and piano, edited by Dominik Rahmer, HN 1241, € 9.00, G. Henle, Munich 2014

Mozart's Piano Concerto in C minor - admired not only by Beethoven and obviously a source of inspiration for his own in the same key - probably deserves a place of honor among the master's many great concertos. Unlike its sister work in D minor, the solo part is even more consistently interwoven with the orchestra, which leads to symphonic effects, especially in the first movement. In the middle Larghetto, the purest chamber music prevails in dialog with the solo winds. And the finale ends - quite unusually and not as in Beethoven, for example - uncompromisingly in a minor key.

Ernst Herttrich from Henle-Verlag has now reissued the masterpiece. The piano reduction, fingerings, cadenzas and entrances are by András Schiff. In the most literal sense of the word, the publisher has shown a good hand: The orchestral part in the piano reduction is ingeniously kept simple, almost sight-readable and yet sounds colorful. The fingerings are also highly recommendable for the average consumer. This is not always the case when great artists present their own personal playing recipes ...

And finally, Schiff's cadenzas and entrances are also convincing, revealing a great sense of style and practice. Particularly noteworthy: at the end of the large cadenza in the first movement, Schiff quotes the end of the development section verbatim, thus creating a compelling transition into the tutti. All these additions and also some variants from Mozart's pen are unobtrusively integrated into the clearly arranged music. An exemplary edition!

The Bärenreiter publishing house has chosen a completely different approach for the new Urtext edition of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, which tends to be even more symphonic in scale. And the result presented to us by editor Jonathan Del Mar is also lavish. Not only has he meticulously corrected errors in a large study score, he also provides a separate solo part, a piano reduction and a comprehensive and interestingly illustrated critical commentary.

The editor's care and effort cannot be praised highly enough. The problem, however, lies in the concept: what is the point of a separate part for the piano solo, in which the orchestral part can only be seen from time to time? With this concerto in particular, you always want to have a complete overview. And conversely, in the piano reduction, which Martin Schelhaas has set excellently, the solo part is only included in small print, which is visually unconvincing.

Unfortunately, this new edition is neither practical for someone who wants to learn the solo part nor for the accompanist and is therefore of little help in lessons. The score, on the other hand, teaches you a lot about a work that you thought you already knew too well ...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto in C minor K. 491, edited by Ernst Herttrich, piano reduction, fingering, cadenzas and entrances by András Schiff, HN 787/ EB 10787, € 18.50, G. Henle, Munich/Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2015

Ludwig van Beethoven, Concerto No. 5 in E flat major op. 73 for piano and orchestra, edited by Jonathan Del Mar; score, BA 9025, € 45.50; piano reduction by Martin Schelhaas, BA 9025-90, € 24.95; critical report, BA 9025-40, € 41.50; Bärenreiter, Kassel 2015

The booklet That's Gospel contains six new compositions and just as many traditional spirituals in new arrangements, including the gospel standard Oh Happy Day. The choral writing is predominantly in four parts, but is extended to five parts in some pieces by dividing the soprano. A written-out piano part is available as accompaniment. However, the added harmony symbols also make it possible to add an instrumental accompaniment (e.g. guitar or bass) or allow a simplified accompaniment as an alternative. The usual claps and snaps on the off-back beat in this music are added at the appropriate places in the score and can be changed if necessary. The soloists can make changes to the phrasing according to their individual preferences or possibilities and also add their own fills.

The choruses are catchy and easy to master. They are a refresher for the previous singing style.

That's Gospel. New Gospel Songs and Traditional Spirituals for mixed Choir (with solo Voice) and Piano, composed and arr. by Peter Przystaniak; EP 11399, with CD, € 24.95; piano part with solo voice, EP 11399a, Fr. 16.80; Edition Peters, Leipzig u.a. 2015

Ernst-Thilo Kalke, who also publishes works for string quartet and other formations, has arranged three well-known melodies here for violin or viola and piano in a technically easy and stylistically appropriate manner. The keys of two pieces have been chosen differently for the two editions in order to optimize the tonal possibilities of violin and viola. The rhythmic subtleties - syncopations, triplets, dotted notes - are very clearly presented. It is often up to the performers to decide whether they want to stick to the ternary scheme or switch back to the binary. The piano part delivers the original rich harmonies without difficulty and also takes part in the melodic action.

George Gershwin, Promenade (Short Story, Lullaby, Walking the Dog) for violin and piano, arr. by Ernst-Thilo Kalke, BU 8123, € 12.00, Musikverlag Bruno Uetz, Halberstadt 2014

id., for viola and piano, BU 8126, € 12,00