As early as 1912-1915, the Engadin Peider Lansel recorded Ladin folk songs with a phonograph that he had specially ordered in America. From 1896-1919 Caspar Decurtins published under the title Rhaeto-Romanic Romansh Romany 13 volumes with numerous song texts from Graubünden. In 1930, the Swiss Folklore Society commissioned various researchers, including the soldier singer and folk song collector Hanns in der Gand and the teacher and later ethnomusicologist Alfons Maissen, to conduct a song survey throughout the Romansh-speaking Grisons. In 1945, in collaboration with Werner Wehrli, Alfons Maissen published the Consolaziun dell' olma devoziusa (Consolation of the Devout Soul), sacred songs, were published, but hundreds of secular songs, sound and photo recordings and music manuscripts lay largely unused for more than 70 years.

One welcome exception is a booklet with 60 songs from Bergün, Müstair and Tschlin, which Gian Gianett Cloetta published in 1958 under the title Chanzunettas populeras rumauntschas in the original idiom and in German, while the multifaceted booklet Rhaeto-Romanic folk songs from oral tradition from 2011 loses value because the excellent commentaries by Iso Albin and Cristian Collenberger do not match the tracks on the accompanying CD.

From 2006-2009, Chur cantonal school teacher and musician Iso Albin prepared 1500 documents from the Maissen Collection for digital use. They have been accessible via the online platform of the Swiss National Sound Archives since 2011: a unique collection of ear notations, recordings on pilaphone records (sound foils) and magnetic tapes, notes, correspondence, photos and biographies of the singers from the early 1930s (see links below); material that is of great value for the historical understanding of everyday life in the Alpine region.

Anyone who still prefers to listen to folk songs in printed form in a book and acoustically from a sound recording can pick up this successful, richly illustrated volume from Somedia-Verlag, which also includes a CD. The 40 previously unpublished song transcriptions, carefully selected and annotated from the 1500 sound recordings and notations, allow even those who are not familiar with Romansh idioms to distinguish historical songs and ballads from love songs and traditional songs. Among these are the "Mintinadas", which are sung to the bride on the evening before the wedding, such as E pitigot al mitger bab (No. 27, Track 15) as a specialty of folk culture in Graubünden.

The catalog by Iso Albin is introduced by accompanying essays by Karoline Oehme-Jüngling (Zur Idee des Volkslieds), Dieter Ringli (Zur alltäglichen Praxis des Singens) and, particularly revealing, the article by Cristian Collenberg (Zur Sammlung von rätoromanischen Volksliedern in Zeiten der kulturellen Selbstfindung).

This lovingly designed new publication, which is particularly expressive in its full-page photographs, sheet music and texts, is valuable for the cultural memory of Rumantschia and thus for Switzerland as a whole, and makes a contribution to the intangible cultural heritage for which the singers, field researchers and publishers can only be grateful.

The Maisen Collection. A cross-section of Rhaeto-Romanic folk songs, 272 pages with illustrations, sheet music examples and CD, Fr. 56.00, Edition Terra Grischuna, Somedia-Verlag, Chur 2014, ISBN 978-3-7298-1190-4

Maissen catalog of the Swiss National Sound Archives

The songs of the Consolaziuns dell' olma devoziusa
(with singer biographies)

Wherever you look in the 54 short chapters of Music and farewellyou will make discoveries at every turn that will amaze you, enlighten you, confirm your own knowledge or even provoke contradiction. This is not a comfortable topic, because in music, farewell means above all death - and this is present in the most diverse works of music history. Peter Gülke, who as a conductor, musicologist and teacher has commented on works as a whole in numerous publications, also surveys the development from the Middle Ages to the present day from this particular perspective, brings the examples together with such aplomb and interprets them so clearly, often with cross-references to literary works, that one is immediately eager to listen to the passages. In many cases, however, the scores or piano reductions (including choral scores) are indispensable.

This makes it clear that the texts are aimed more at "insiders", as it is often harmonic developments or motivic connections that are not obvious that provide the key to understanding. The chapter "Transcended C major" in Gluck, Haydn or Beethoven can help to shed light on the subject. Works from Du Fay to Kurtág are examined from the same perspective in "Commemorating the dead among musicians" or, even more unsparingly, Gesualdo, Froberger and Shostakovich in the chapter "Music for one's own death".

In just a few sentences, Gülke succeeds in linking Shostakovich's eighth string quartet with his first and fifth symphonies, for example, and also with the d-flat-c-b motif, or in ironically anticipating expectation with an apt choice of titles: "Land, das ferne leuchtet - Fahrkarten nach Orplid" or "Tod mit und ohne Verklärung". The parallel setting of Ferdinand Hodler and Leoš Janáček in chapter 47, entitled "Death Protocols", is completely surprising when he describes Hodler's cycle of paintings of his dying partner Valentine and Janáček's speech melody notations of articulations by his dying daughter Olga - disrespectfully, but after surviving the shock, accepted on examination as exactly correct - as the results of "creative voraciousness". On the other hand, he describes Mahler's last Adagio and sketches for the tenth symphony with the most discreet indulgence under the aspect of "parallelism of music and life"; the description with the "eerily grandiose border crossing of this music" makes it impossible to pass over it without hearing bars 184 to 212 of the Adagio in the sound sample.

Gülke's formulations are sophisticated, his explanations are rich in German, Latin and French quotations, his comparisons demand a great deal of general knowledge, and it is not always possible to follow his train of thought straight away. But only in a few cases can one get the impression that the language is unnecessarily complex in relation to the topic - Adorno's writing still shines through from time to time: "Incidentally, the carefully maintained incoherence forms the structural antithesis to the almost chorale-like complexity of 'Transfiguration', into which the not exactly moribund impetus of the play saves itself."

The detailed reflections on death (also set off from the text), which are inserted between groups of chapters as "Selbstgespräche I-V", are movingly direct and very personal - completely unusual in a specialist book on musical conclusions: thought-heavy sections on the illness and death of his wife, with whom he was associated for almost 60 years; but not only this, but also wider-ranging reflections on letting go and being alone, which often intertwine with the music again, so that the technically discussed music moves closer to the author's own understanding of death as he continues reading and can have a subcutaneous effect.

Peter Gülke, Musik und Abschied, 362 p., with sheet music and index of persons and works, € 29.95, Bärenreiter/Metzler, Kassel/Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-7618-2377-4, also available as an e-book

"Noah, just imagine, my double bass is gone," Pauline calls out to her boyfriend at the beginning of the story. There's only one thing to do: the two of them have to go and find Pauline's instrument. The two friends experience all kinds of musical adventures, they play and solve tasks, always accompanied by a snail, a frog and a cat. The three animals are hidden in each picture and each tell their own funny story.

Noah & Pauline in Search of the Double Bass is a music picture book for the very youngest double bass players and their teachers. It is carefully illustrated in a contemporary style. There are many lovely details in the pictures that are strongly linked to the children's world of experience. The picture book can be told simply, but it can also be used - taught by the teacher - in early or slightly later double bass lessons. A lot of theory is embedded in the story and yet is conveyed quite quickly. Note values and rhythms are explained over the course of several episodes. Later, the staff comes into play, and on page 25 there is a first piece that can be plucked on the empty G string. Towards the end, the children meet a double bass player, and now the bow is also introduced. The last piece in the booklet is also relatively complex. It is provided with bow strokes and contains rests. To make all this possible on just 39 pages, the story sometimes has to take detours.

This didn't bother my nine-year-old test subject at all. She enthusiastically searched for snails and frogs, drew double basses and clapped rhythms. She also found it very practical that she already knew some of the signs from her double bass lessons and felt positively confirmed.

The story ends with a charming punchline: the double bass was at Noah's house the whole time. Pauline had forgotten it there and Noah didn't dare tell her. He had accidentally pulled the sting out all the way and thought the double bass was broken.

Song Choi and Eva Lotta Stein, Noah & Pauline. In search of the double bass, from 4 years, Fr. 24.00, Gilgenreiner, Winterthur 2015, ISMN 979-0-700268-19-0

When I started studying musicology at the beginning of the nineties, we students were faced with the DTV Atlas of Music as well as the introductions of the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt. (I can still remember Feders Music philology and Reidemeisters Historical performance practice remember) We did not (yet) know of a comprehensive vade mecum as an introduction to the subject. In 1992, however, Nicole Schwindt-Gross published such an introduction for Bärenreiter with the title Musicological workwhich became a bestseller after several new editions with more than 20,000 copies sold. Since then, further books have been published with the aim of providing a practical study guide and reference work for budding musicologists, such as the anthology edited by Kordula Knaus and Andrea Zeder Study musicology (Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2012). Bärenreiter is now publishing a successor to Schwindt-Gross's book.

It was only towards the end of my student days that I heard somewhat sceptically from my older brother that he used a news program called "Email" almost every day. It is primarily the profound changes that the Internet has brought to research and study since 1992 that make a follow-up work necessary. Almost every chapter in the table of contents contains sections that do justice to the digital age: "Wikipedia - suitable for an initial overview?", "The Internet as an information medium", "Basics of online research". The limits and advantages of Wikipedia, Google Books & Co. are presented soberly and without prejudice. The examples given from the digital world are taken from current research, such as the Edirom software (www.edirom.de) and the Opera project (www.opera.adwmainz.de) in the chapter "Digital and digitized sheet music editions".

In addition to the comprehensive and contemporary presentation of the digital possibilities of academic work, other chapters are also worth mentioning that refrain from an old-fashioned fixation on the written word: Sections on sound carriers and audiovisual media, pictures, musical instruments, even buildings and rooms as objects of musicological observation. The chapter on oral lecturing and performance is also welcome. However, the discussion of the career prospects of studying musicology is somewhat neglected; for this, reference is made to relevant literature.

The content is presented clearly. Boxes with a gray background set off tips and summaries from the continuous text. Each section is followed by helpful self-check questions and brief bibliographical references. A detailed list of references and an index can be found at the end of the book. The two authors, Matthew Gardner and Sara Springfeld, thus live up to their claim of providing students with a practical teaching and reference book. However, the book will also be useful for lecturers: it helps them to visualize the starting position of young people who have already learned to surf the www in the cradle.

Matthew Gardner and Sara Springfeld, Musikwissenschaftliches Arbeiten. An introduction,292 p., € 24.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2014, ISBN 978-3-7618-2249-4

In the search for the bourgeois excesses of the term "canon", which came into fashion a few years ago, one quickly comes across the Canon of literature by Marcel Reich-Ranicki. The fact that so far (fortunately?) neither a critic nor a scholar has been found to present anything comparable in the field of music is not necessarily due to the subject matter or a general scruple. Rather, there is a lack of a delightfully offensive, knowledgeable and strong personality with a similar, publishable media presence.

Of course, with the publication of this handbook, there will be little need to worry about the theory and history of a "canon of music" (not to be confused with the canon in music). 34 texts by 35 authors cover a very broad spectrum here: from a definition of the subject matter to specific repertoire formations through the centuries to media and systematic aspects. In addition, there is a previously unpublished text by Ernst Ludwig Gerber from 1805: On the means of preserving the memory of deserving recording artists for posterity - an article that is still informative today, even (or especially) when a publisher quoted in it complains that "the musicians didn't buy historical works". Presumably little has changed. And this is precisely why it is necessary to place this handbook on the various private and public reading lists at universities and colleges - even if, for one reason or another, not all possible aspects could be taken into account and one can imagine a new edition expanded to include current contributions at some point in the future. In this case, however, the "handbook" really should become one: With its proud 950 pages, a total weight of 1,716 kg and the smooth surface of the photographic paper used, it is neither a handy read nor easy to work with.

The canon of music. Theory and history. A handbook, edited by Klaus Pietschmann and Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, 950 p., € 79.00, edition text+kritk, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86916-106-8

The famous Belgian violinist was also a composer and violist. In 1860 he created the
5th Violin Concerto and the Viola Sonata op. 36 and decided to premiere the latter on his tour of England before it was published, which earned him much praise. It was not published until November 1862 under the title Sonata for piano and viola or cello. This first edition by Julius Schuberth, Leipzig, is the only source for the first Henle Urtext edition presented here, which is very informative in the preface; no manuscript of the sonata has yet come to light.

Vieuxtemps has an excellent understanding of how to showcase the viola. The first movement begins and ends with a melody consisting of majestic whole notes. The intervening Allegro is an interplay of runs by the two instruments, repeatedly interrupted by broad rhetorical ideas and leading to the opening melody with a bold, gentle modulation. The Barcarolle is famous for its changeable scenes - glittering and swaying on the waves. The scherzando finale develops from the light-footed leaping motif at the end of a catchy melodic phrase.

Tabea Zimmermann's fingerings are well placed, although she often disregards the second position and the fourth finger, and many finger numbers are unnecessary because they do not indicate a change of position.

Henry Vieuxtemps, Viola Sonata in B flat major op. 36, edited by Peter Jost, fingering of the piano part by Klaus Schilde, with an unmarked viola part and a viola part marked by Tabea Zimmermann, HN 577, € 19.00, G. Henle, Munich 2014

The Variation suite of the composer and flautist Wolfram Wagner, born in Vienna in 1962, contains a great stylistic diversity that characterizes his works in general. Already during his time as a student in London, a clear structure and reference to clear formal patterns developed as characteristics of his compositions, which range from solo pieces to choral and stage works. The first movement, Prelude, is reminiscent of Bach's suite movements, in particular the Allemande from the Partita A minor BWC 1013 for solo flute. It begins with a g, which recurs regularly at the beginning of the bars and from which the harmonic developments then emanate. The composer points out in the preface that the challenge for every player is to "make audible the immanent polyphony that permeates all the movements and also to dissolve the strictness of the form into the emotionality and virtuosity of the performance".

Polyphonic structures are also evident in the following Viennese Waltz, which only incorporates a free, preluding cadenza-like passage in the final section. The Tango also refers to the opening prelude, as does the Calypso, which is similar to it and becomes very virtuosic through chromatic triplet movements. In the Slow Waltz, contemporary playing techniques such as harmonics are used for the first time. By far the longest piece is the variation five, Blues, Rock and Roll (Passacaglia), which is a successful mixture of modern rhythmic drive and neoclassical echoes with polyphony and ornamentation with bouncing trills.

The composer gives specific instructions for the performance: either all movements or the first four in the original order or only the Passacaglia. This allows the performers greater flexibility in their choice. The Variation suite by Wolfram Wagner is a successful addition to the solo repertoire and can already be played by advanced students.

Wolfram Wagner, Variation Suite for flute solo, D 35 023, € 20.95, Doblinger Vienna 2014

The two string quartets No. 2 (1869?) and No. 5 (1873) are exemplary of the dilemma faced by later generations in the question of which works by a great composer - especially one who was already respected during his lifetime - should be considered typical and recognized on the basis of his judgement, and which should not.

The destructive self-criticism of Johannes Brahms and others and the resulting - often supposed - great losses have been the subject of much speculation and discussion. The idea that a composer who has achieved fame through numerous masterpieces must simply always have been brilliant and great can only be rejected with the help of common sense. Even Mozart and Beethoven, guarantors of seemingly eternally valid fruits of the spirit with a direct line to divine inspiration, have produced banal, non-binding, dispensable musical material that may well fall victim to general oblivion without producing any serious feelings of loss. Should we not assume that those who were the best connoisseurs of their own work were also the best judges of its absolute value? A clarinet quintet by Dvořák, an octet with piano - lost!!! We tend to mourn the loss of dubious works (of transition or important phases of development) rather than understand their destruction by their creators as a necessary purification process of their oeuvre as a whole, which makes the value of the remaining works all the more clear. Curiosity tempts us to search for that which should no longer be explored.

Dvořák's intensive engagement with Wagner and Liszt from 1863 onwards was so momentous that he placed his own work at the service of other great composers without being able to move convincingly in these overly large shoes. Three quartets (D major, E minor, B flat major) were composed during this phase of idolatry, the scores of which Dvořák later consequently destroyed, as he had identified the path he had taken as the wrong one. Unfortunately - one almost has to say - sets of parts survived in private ownership, which have now led to the transfer of the pieces that had fallen out of favor with the highest authority, the author himself. The 50-minute B flat major quartet in particular, with its endless thematic interweavings and semi-improvised incomprehensibility, is an acoustic monster and a first-rate waste of time for any performer. As a study of a compositional dead end, it may be acceptable, but it is simply no good for anything more.

The 5th quartet by the composer, who has awoken from a deep sleep and become clear-sighted, is completely different. Here Dvořák finds an individual style, back to tangible formal guidelines, an emotional statement, verve, verve, sensuality. Of course, none of the later masterpieces should be placed alongside it, but the unknown of the score should be joyfully brought to life in concert, allowing oneself to be carried away without preconceptions and to hear where the origins of the later indisputable mastery really lie. Dvořák was no early achiever, no child prodigy, but a hard-working musician whose struggle for his own sound also produced negligible goods. The B flat major quartet can safely remain hidden from the eyes of the world, but the F minor quartet should be performed more often!

Antonín Dvořák, String Quartet No. 2 in B flat major B 17, edited by Antonín Pokorný and Karel Šolc, parts, BA 9540, € 24.95; study score, TP 540, € 18.95, Bärenreiter, Prague 2014

Antonín Dvořák, String Quartet No. 5 in F minor op. 9, edited by Jarmil Burghausen and Anton Cubr Parts, BA 9545, € 17.95; study score, TP 535, € 16.50, Bärenreiter, Prague 2014

The French pianist and organist Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) is primarily known for his organ works, although his oeuvre also includes a great deal of chamber music. However, only the Suite op. 34 for flute and piano was as successful as the compositions for organ because it possibly closes a gap in the late Romantic works in the flute repertoire.

One of the best-known pieces from it is the third movement, the "Romance", which is somewhat reminiscent of the Three romances for flute and piano by Robert Schumann op. 94. This movement is also included in the Orchestral Suite op. 64 and was arranged there by Widor himself for solo flute and orchestra. The well-known flautist Georges Barrère had asked the composer to orchestrate the entire suite, but he refused, whereupon Barrère then orchestrated the Scherzo himself and often performed both movements with orchestral accompaniment.

The composition was probably published by Hamelle in Paris in 1885 or 1886 and was then included in the Heugel publishing house's program in 1897. The work was subsequently revised by the composer himself and extended in the finale. As the manuscript source is missing, the revised version forms the source for the Henle Urtext edition. It also enriches the range of previous editions through its design, for example, the printed music is clear and easy to read, and is also extended with fold-out pages to "enable easy leafing through", as the publisher writes. At the end of the edition, the editor points out inconsistencies in phrasing, articulation and dynamics within the various versions. The piano part was provided with fingerings by Klaus Schilde.

Charles-Marie Widor, Suite op. 34 for flute and piano, Urtext edited by Ernst-Günter Heinemann, HN 1218, € 16.00, G. Henle, Munich 2014

A figurative and highly virtuosic world opens up in the solo piece by Gerald Resch, born in Linz in 1975. "One of my pieces has the movement headings accuracy, lightness, vividness, complexity and speed. These terms define the space in which my music moves," is how the composer describes his work in his own words. In Figures for alto saxophone, an arrangement of the original version for clarinet by Lars Mlekusch and Gerald Resch himself, the spaces are drawn with signals, lines, grids and layers.

The palpable artistic intuition here also suggests a didactic realization of this composition, but only in lessons with very advanced pupils: multiphonics, quarter tones, slap-tongue and altissimo registers demand a level that aspires to the high school of saxophone playing.

Gerald Resch, Figuren, for alto saxophone, D 05 485, € 12.50, Doblinger, Vienna 2013

In the collection Adrian's Song Album Series Adrian Connell has arranged five to six songs each by Hugo Wolf, Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy for clarinet for the German edition Dohr. The arranger has left the piano part original in each case and the vocal part has also been taken over almost one-to-one for the clarinet. The keys have only been adapted very occasionally in order to avoid unnecessary accidentals. The editor has added metronome markings as well as some dynamics and articulation in the vocal and clarinet parts.

Adrian Connell states that the aim of these editions is "also to give instrumentalists the opportunity to enjoy these songs". The majority of the collected songs are also freely accessible on the Internet, but the Dohr editions are very carefully set and already conveniently transposed for clarinettists. As a collection, they also offer the opportunity to get to grips with the songs of these great composers instrumentally without great effort and also to perform them on one occasion or another.

Hugo Wolf, Wolf Song Album I, arranged for Clarinet (Bb) and Piano by Adrian Connell, score and part, E.D. 88554, € 10.80, Verlag Dohr, Cologne 2014

Robert Schumann, E.D. 88544, € 9.80

Franz Schubert, E.D. 88534, € 11.80

Gabriel Faure, E.D. 88514, € 10.80

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, E.D. 88504, € 9.80

Sonata agréable is rightly called one of Vanhal's more than 70 violin sonatas because, despite its easy playability, it has many precious surprises in store for both instruments, allows violin and piano to converse on an equal footing and convinces with its mature forms. No comparison to Haydn's violin sonatas, which are boring for the violin; they are closer to Schubert's vocal style. The booklet is entitled: "Three Sonatas", but it contains three normal movements of a sonata.

The Bohemian Vanhal was a pupil of Carl Ditters von Dittesdorf in Vienna, where he lived independently from his compositions and from teaching. The title pages of his printed works bear the names of many European aristocratic families and are proof of his fame at the time. The comprehensive catalog of his works, compiled by Paul Bryan in 1987, promoted a renaissance of the numerous chamber music works and 77 symphonies, the latter on a par with those of Haydn. It is to be hoped that more such treasures will be unearthed by publishers.

Johann Baptist Vanhal, Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano "Sonate agréable" op. 43/2, edited by John F. and Virginia F. Strauss, DM 1472, € 19.95, Doblinger, Vienna 2013

Klaus Huber, who was honored by the Gema for his life's work in 2013 with the German Music Authors' Prize, influenced important contemporary composers such as Younghi Pagh-Paan, Brian Ferneyhough and Wolfgang Rihm, who were among his students. There were also some outstanding flutists in his circle who strengthened his relationship with the flute and expanded his knowledge of the instrument's experimental possibilities and tonal refinements, such as Aurèle Nicolet, Pierre-Yves Artaud and Suzanne Huber.

The double CD that has now been released contains recordings of flute compositions that were recorded within a large period of almost forty years, between 1961 and 1999, and therefore also have historical value.

As early as the sixties, Huber embarked on his solo piece To ask the flutist, which is interpreted by Suzanne Huber in an imaginative, lively and lyrical manner, explores new instrumental territory with multiphonics. The trio composed for Heinz and Ursula Holliger Sabeth for alto flute, cor anglais and harp uses aleatoric sections to remove the tangibility from the listener and leads, as Heinz Holliger puts it, to the "weightless sound world of Sabeth, leading into the mysterious open". The CD also includes a live recording of what is probably Klaus Huber's most famous flute piece: A touch of untimeliness. This begins poetically with the passacaglia motif in the flute, which wanders from time into untimeliness, into which soft multiphonics and fragile thirds soon flow. The multiple version A touch of untimeliness III realizes, as Huber describes it, "a state of suspension between sound and aleatoric", whereby the flute sound in "fluctuating simultaneity" with oboe, accordion, soprano and strings ignites a more pulsating effect. The live recordings with Aurèle Nicolet are also charming rarities, such as the strictly canonically composed Duo Il pleut des fleurs for two flutes and the colorfully played trio Oiseaux d`argentin which the three flutes chirp and imitate each other. The CD also includes the socio-critical piece composed on the occasion of the moon landing in 1967. Ascensus for flute, violoncello and piano as well as other chamber music works.

The careful selection of musical pieces gives an insight into the stylistically rich flute compositions of a composer in search of new sounds, which were interpreted by Suzanne Huber and her chamber music partners in a richly colorful way.

As a continuation of the series, the two string quartets by Klaus Huber, played by the Q3G Drei-Generationen-Quartett with Egidius Streiff, Daphné Schneider, Mariana Doughty and Walter Grimmer, will be released on CD for the first time in 2015 (SC 1501).

The young Solothurn countertenor Jan Börner has recorded truly rarely heard early cantatas and sacred concertos of the 17th century from the German-speaking cultural area with the Basel ensemble Il Profondo. Last May, they retreated to the former Capuchin monastery in Solothurn to record their carefully selected baroque works. And not from modern edited sheet music versions: They play directly from the original manuscripts. And that's not all: the ten cantatas recorded include three new discoveries by Johann Theile, Martin Koler (Colerus) and David Pohle, which are now available as world premiere recordings.

As is so often the case in early Baroque manuscripts, and even more so in older manuscripts, there are hardly any indications of tempo, dynamics or instrumentation. This suits the musicians of Il Profondo, all graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, with their in-depth knowledge of historical performance practice and their skilled handling of compositional structures. Depending on the work, Jan Börner's flawless voice is accompanied by violin consort, dulcian, lute instruments or an original Italian processional organ from the 17th century, which was borrowed especially for the recordings. The result is an album on which the music is performed in large arcs, very linear yet rich in detail and in an extremely authentic baroque gesture.

On absorta est ... - of bliss and confidence (roughly: "overcome is ..."), the title of the album, are audibly first-class specialists at work. They make great music. The chosen repertoire must also be called great, characterized by the urge to discover new things. Musical pearl follows musical pearl. The artfully designed, richly illustrated black-and-white booklet is fittingly informative. The result is a true work of art that has something to say. Nota bene from a Swiss countertenor who we will hear a lot more of, indeed must hear a lot more of ...

The total of 605 new students are spread across the areas of Design (110), Music (202), Art & Media (95), Art Education and Transdisciplinarity (89), Theater and Film (62), Dance (17) and part-time Master of Advanced Studies programs (30).

The Zurich University of the Arts has a total of 2163 students, 1236 of whom are studying for a Bachelor's degree and 927 for a Master's degree. 483 people attend one of the numerous continuing education courses (MAS, CAS, DAS). A numerus clausus applies at the ZHdK, which means that prospective students must first undergo an admission procedure.