The opening of the ten-year-old classical music fair was celebrated in a festive and exuberant atmosphere at the Hanover State Opera. Hanover, which has been awarded the title of Unesco City of Music, is the new location of the specialist meeting for event organizers, music associations, the music industry and music creatives after Rotterdam. Hundreds of delegates were clearly determined to actively tackle the consequences of the past two years and the challenges posed by the climate catastrophe and the threat of war in Eastern Europe. The show created especially for the opening NEXT:matters! inspired with the world premiere of Dubwise and Dread Volume 1 by Jason Yarde and works by Maximilian Guth, performed to ravishing effect by Asambura (Hanover) and Colorfull UK.

Even more so than at previous editions of the international specialist meeting, the Congress Center on the outskirts of the city was the venue for four days of discussion and debate on whether access to the diverse worlds of the sector is finally fair. Have the questions surrounding exclusivity - often invoked in the past - and diversity not been asked often enough? How can the gatekeepers described as problematic be stopped and diversity realized?

The tendering process for composition commissions, for example, already contains a number of stumbling blocks on the way to fair commissioning practices. In the UK, for example, it has been recorded that female composers receive around 1500 euros less in fees than their male colleagues, due to the fact that they are always commissioned for small ensembles and do not get the big ensembles. It was reported from Norway that only around ten percent of the income generated by commissions goes to women. In the Netherlands, it is even common practice to leave the securing of funding to the composers. Anne La Berge (Dutch professional association of composers Nieuw Geneco, NL) presented "Fair Practice". Among other things, it is proposed to award commissions as cooperative communities and to use partner models to achieve more than just one premiere. She emphasized that female composers should definitely sell themselves better and, if necessary, also organize themselves.

Who are we leaving behind? The music industry and its echo chambers have still not managed to create fair access conditions to education, scholarships and the labor market. Even in the case of an "open call", it cannot be assumed that equal conditions already guarantee fair access. As this also applies to the area of talent development, all players in music education are invited to examine their own behavior and institutional practices for bias.

Roger Wilson (Black Lives in Music, UK) called on the enthusiastically discussing audience to be more honest: Has anything changed since the death of George Floyd in 2020? Is (racist) inequality being confronted more strongly? Is the classical music industry "enslaved" in its traditions? Wilson identified four areas in which change needs to happen: Governance, programming, recruitment and communication. As soon as a more diverse (program) offering succeeds in reaching a younger audience, the chances of continuing to operate successfully in the future will increase. Drawing up a time and action plan, underpinning it with goals and, above all, collecting data should be possible in every institution that sets out to give people outside its own bubble the opportunity to participate. Time is of the essence, the conditions have become worse (see report Being Black In The UK Music Industry).

In the past two years, the classical music sector has changed more in the digital realm than in the 15 years before. Benjamin Woodroffe (Global Foundation for the Performing Arts, New York/Geneva) discussed a survey of British musicians from 2020/21 with musicologist Julia Haferkorn (Middlesex University, UK). The opportunities of digital distribution at lower costs, the acquisition of new audiences who are willing to make an emotional and monetary commitment, were described as promising; nevertheless, the concern of earning much less in the digital concert space than with live performances remains.

These questions were also discussed in depth at the Swiss Music stand, organized by Fondation Suisa and Pro Helvetia. These days, when many houses and ensembles are publishing their 22/23 season brochures, offer a good opportunity to study programs and casts for diversity.

More than 900 professionals from the wider classical music sector from 50 countries took part in the successful four-day event for the further development of the music scene and industry. Innovation awards went to the music promoter Death of Classical (USA) and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín (Colombia), among others.

Incidentally, the event will take a break in 2023 to further develop the concept together with ideas from the community.

Max Jendly, born in Freiburg in 1945, studied economics and classical piano in Freiburg. He initially worked in various professions, but then dedicated himself to music for good from 1978.

As a driving force in the Fribourg cultural scene, he opened the jazz department of the Fribourg Conservatory in 1979 at the request of the State of Fribourg, the first of its kind in Switzerland. Here he taught jazz piano and arranging and led the ensemble classes and the big band of the Fribourg Conservatory.

In 2017, he founded the "Max Jendly Jazz Big Band", a permanent, professional orchestra for modern music. He will hand over its leadership to the Mexican conductor Gerry Lopez.

 

Guests enter the festival mile through a large, signposted gate right next to the train station; this event is billed as a "festival of short distances". It feels as if you are entering the grounds of a folk festival, a wrestling or yodeling festival for example. There are sausage and drinks stalls, ice cream and other down-to-earth fare.

Older gentlemen sit together with white wine or beer and sing a folk song. A large marquee awaits music enthusiasts, and a veritable circus tent rises up in the middle of the festival meadow. Other concert venues are grouped around the grounds. On the afternoon of the first day, there isn't much going on yet. The May sun is hotter than usual at this time of year and beads of sweat glisten on the foreheads of the choir masters.

The Ascension weekend is traditionally a festival-intensive date. After the biennial European Youth Choir Festival was able to take place last year - albeit in a smaller form - this period was free this year for the Festival of Choirs and the Swiss Children's and Youth Choir Festival (Skjf). Both events therefore took place at the same time, the Skjf under the motto "Save the singing planet" from May 26 to 29 in Winterthur. The Swiss Singing Festival made a virtue out of necessity. It literally created a link between the festival locations and invented a new format with intergenerational singing: on Friday, May 27, a singing train brought various children's and youth choirs from Winterthur to Gossau; these performed so-called puzzle concerts together with adult choirs.

A wide range of events covering many aspects of singing is now common at major choir festivals. The weekend from Friday, May 20 to Sunday, May 22, as well as the Ascension weekend in Gossau belonged to around 340 choirs, 9000 singers and choral associations from all cantons. There were 125 concerts to enjoy at 9 venues, including festive concerts and church services. On the singing islands, ensembles were able to perform and be heard spontaneously in the open air. There were also the very popular concerts from half past nine in front of experts. Here, the choirs were assessed objectively by experts and received advice on how to improve their singing. At the same time, there were daily "Encounter Concerts", which focused on the interaction between choirs - encounter is one of the basic principles of the festival. Singing together with the audience was cultivated in the afternoon concerts.

The educational side was not neglected either. In taster workshops, participants could learn the secrets of overtone singing from Marcello Wick or be taught the yodeling technique by Nadja Räss. Under the guidance of Bliss, the successful Swiss a cappella band, ensembles were able to work on the musical realization of a song, performance, expression and stage presence.
Monday to Wednesday were "Gossau School Days". The local schools organized their own festival with rehearsals and concerts.

The festival kicked off with plenty of top-class shows. The bar for singing culture was set high on the very first day. The two formations Singfrauen Winterthur (directed by Franziska Welti) and Cantaurora (directed by Peter Appenzeller) gave a rendezvous at the festival concert in St. Andrew's Church. Under Welti's suggestive direction, the women's choir impressed with catchy arrangements and impeccable intonation. With a block of songs from the Ukraine, they set a sign of solidarity. Peter Appenzeller and his top choir focused on songs from Graubünden. The subtleties, pianos and dynamics on offer here were astonishing. The two choirs performed one song together and the audience was humorously encouraged to sing along.

The evening recording for the SRF music channel in the circus tent featured four top choirs. After the jointly sung festival song (composed by Guido Helbling), the enchanting children's and youth choir Coro Calicantus from Locarno, the Chœur des Armaillis de la Gruyère with touching folk song arrangements, the ambitious Consonus Vocalensemble and the highly musical Bündner Jugendchor took turns to perform (listen on: https://www.srf.ch/audio/so-toents).
The opening ceremony on Saturday was well attended. In the presence of Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter and many local celebrities, Beni Thurnheer presented a varied show in the marquee.

What makes this Swiss singing festival so special, however, are the countless singing associations, men's and women's choirs that do a great job year in, year out. At eight in the evening, the members of the Sängerbund Meiringen men's choir were waiting at the station for the train home. Tired but happy, they reported on their singing in front of the experts: "It went very well, almost too well. Everything went just as we had planned," said one of the singers proudly.

200 years ago, on May 27, 1822, Joachim Raff was born in Lachen on the upper part of Lake Zurich. For 50 years, the Joachim Raff Society (JRG) systematically to the composer. Raff pursued a successful musical career in Germany. He was acquainted with the great artists of his time and his works were often performed internationally. After his death, he quickly fell into oblivion.

The JRG, under the leadership of its president Res Marty, has taken a major step towards its goal of reacquainting people with Raff's work both locally and internationally. The material that has been collected over the years has been incorporated into the Joachim Raff Archive which has also been available digitally since 2018. Music publishers, Breitkopf & Härtel for example, reissue his works and labels record them on sound carriers.

The Joachim Raff Society has declared 2022 the "Raff Year". Since January and until December, countless events have been taking place in Lachen, throughout Switzerland and internationally. One highlight was yesterday's performance of the oratorio End of the world - judgment - new worldwhich was composed shortly before Raff's death. It was performed in the parish church in Lachn, where Raff himself had played music in his youth. The GewandhausChoir LeipzigMarie Henriette Reinhold, alto, Andreas Wolf, baritone, and the camerata lipsiensis sang and played under the direction of Gregor Meyer.

Around 3,000 music professionals from various genres took part in the nationwide study conducted by the Music In Africa Foundation. The aim is to provide music professionals with information so that they can make informed professional decisions and improve their income.

One focus is therefore on South Africa's informal music industry, for which hardly any representative figures are available. Among other things, the study looks at income trends before and after the coronavirus pandemic, revenue opportunities and their profitability.

The project is supported by UNESCO's International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) under the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the Siemens Cents4Sense program, the Siemens Stiftung, the Goethe-Institut, the National Arts Council of South Africa and Kaya FM.

Link to the report:
https://www.siemens-stiftung.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/projekt-kultur-musikinafrica-report.pdf

The five decades between Johann Sebastian Bach's death in 1750 and Beethoven's pioneering six string quartets op.18 are regarded as the primary phase of development and the peak of quantitative production for the new genre of four string instruments. The four-string quartet and the corresponding works were so popular that there were hardly any composers who did not try their hand at them. This grandiose phase of searching for the expansion of the four-part texture, parallel to the symphony, which was also searching at full speed for new forms of expression, led to a quantity of works that is difficult to keep track of, only a few of which can be heard regularly on the concert stage. Among the rarely performed ones are also those whose creators have illustrious names, such as Luigi Boccherini.

The selection process of the time left not a single composer from this half-century in the repertoire on an equal footing with Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. There are many reasons for this, even in the case of qualitatively above-average works: a composer's lack of range in terms of the different genres; a numerically small production of string quartets or the preoccupation with them over a short period of time without further development; the retention of an established style; few or no publications in print; little attention for a composer during his lifetime or an unexpectedly early death. And of course, first and foremost, the absence of an individual style. Fortunately, the numerous new releases on recordings since the advent of the CD have closed many gaps, as have new editions.

The five quartets by Johann Matthias Sperger, commendably published by Edition Massonneau in Schwerin in exemplary quality, are further proof of how successfully the string quartet established itself in the German-speaking world. Sperger wrote a total of nine of them - six are dedicated to King Frederick William II himself - who, despite his lowly origins as the son of a "cow-keeper", reached the antechambers of the powerful thanks to his exceptional double bass playing and even became their direct servant. It was not until Sperger's time that it became possible for a double bass player to step out of the shadow of the eternal bass servant and attract attention with more virtuoso compositions. As a composer, his focus was particularly on his own instrument, which he brought into focus with numerous solo concertos and at the same time expanded his playing technique.

The string quartets, which do without the double bass, prove that composing as a means to an end was not enough for him. Composed in 1788 and published in 1791, they are very close in time to Mozart's Prussian Quartets and Haydn's Opera 50 to 64, at a time when the string quartet produced masterpieces of the first rank in Viennese Classicism, which were only eclipsed by Haydn's Opus 76/77 and later Beethoven's first works.

Can Sperger compete on an equal footing with these contemporaries? Are his audible attempts to catch up with the well-known role models successful? Yes and no. First of all, Sperger achieves a striking closeness by using the established stylistic devices, by diversifying the themes and by following the clearly defined formal laws of late classical music. One always has the feeling of having heard something similar before, without recognizing any direct plagiarism. One perceives an internalization and use of the currently fashionable colour palette, which incidentally is wonderfully entertaining. Where Sperger fails is in establishing an independent musical language, but also in being at the height of his time. This can be seen from the three-movement structure of the string quartets, which Haydn already stopped using in his first complete quartets op. 9 (1769), Mozart from the six quartets onwards. Viennese quartets KV 168 to KV 173 (1773). Much more significant, however, is how sparingly Sperger works with the themes, how he never achieves a comparably penetrating movement, particularly noticeable in the brief developments and codas. The accompanying figures in the middle voices, whether for first violin or cello, are at times stencil-like and harmonically very predictable. The first violin part, which requires truly acrobatic skill in Haydn, rarely leaves the tonal range up to the third position.

Despite this rather backward-looking musical language, his quartets are very pleasant, cheerful, eloquent and perfectly crafted. They are very playable for an amateur ensemble, for professionals a rewarding joy of music-making prima vista, especially in the folk-like, stirring final rondi. Finally, Sperger goes deepest in the slow middle movements, making the most of his vocal resources. If you want to play works of a more independent character, the quartets by Franz Xaver Richter, Antonio Rosetti and the late works by Joseph Martin Kraus are a good choice.

Johann Matthias Sperger: String Quartets Volume I, 3 Quartets op. 1, edited by Reinhard Wulfhorst, score and parts, EM 0421, € 35.20, Edition Massonneau, Schwerin

id.: Volume II, Quartets in B flat major and G minor, EM 0521, € 32.00

Due to the stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the Music Council writes, mental and psychosomatic disorders have increased significantly, as numerous recent studies have shown. Music can have a positive effect on body, mind and soul and therefore create a connection between people without words - especially in professional music therapy dealing with the emotional suffering of refugees.

However, although the German Rectors' Conference has now recognized music therapy as a "minor subject", thus underlining its relevance, training capacity for music therapy is very limited: Currently, only seven universities in Germany offer a music therapy course with a Bachelor's or Master's degree.

Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) was an early talent. The Air varié No. 3 he wrote at the age of 13: "I make an air varié every day like a loaf of bread!" The introduction to the piece for violin and string quartet or string orchestra has dramatic dotted ascents and double-stroke sighs. The simple theme is developed five times in different rhythms and in double stops and is interrupted by powerful four-bar tutti. A coda brings the piece to a brilliant close.

This version for violin and piano is nice study material for young violinists with mostly acceptable fingerings; the piano only has a supporting function. The preface deals with biography and work and is stimulating, the critical report leaves the interpreter free to make his own decisions. In recent months, the Swiss publisher Kunzelmann has commendably published a number of other pieces for violin and orchestra by Henri Vieuxtemps as piano reductions.

In his later life, Vieuxtemps gave concerts in America, Europe and Russia, he was a talented teacher (Ysaïe, Hubay) and (still) a diligent composer. In addition to his violin concertos and string quartets, he also wrote for violin and piano.

The selection booklet Henri Vieuxtemps repertoire pieces that stand out for me are the 3 Romances sans paroles: Chant d'amour, Désespoir and Souvenirwhich last between three and four minutes. Their title character is clearly expressed and is reinforced by rich pianistic rhythms and surprising harmonic twists. The other longer pieces are peppered with virtuosity, in which the piano is also involved. The third Morceau de salon is amusing: La Chassein which the G string has to be tuned up to b and the notated notes sound a third higher. The preface describes Vieuxtemps' life and achievements and characterizes the works contained in the booklet. Friedemann Eichhorn has provided the violin part with fingerings and bowings. In the piano part, the solo part has been left as it was in the first and early editions.

Henri Vieuxtemps: Air varié No. 3, edition for violin and piano, first edition, edited by Olaf Adler, GM-1954a, Fr. 14.00, Edition Kunzelmann, Adliswil

Henri Vieuxtemps Repertoire. The most beautiful pieces for violin and piano, edited by Wolfgang Birtel and Friedemann Eichhorn, ED 22603, € 28.00, Schott, Mainz et al.

Antoine Gilliéron - So how can we train today very high-level young musicians who are also artists capable of positively impacting society beyond their musical practice? This article intends to highlight good practices in our Hautes Écoles of Music on this subject.

Musician as a maker in society

The ideas listed above in relation to social and civic responsibility are explored in this seminal article in their interactions with historically central concepts for music education, namely artistic excellence, imagination and creativity as well as musical heritage.

Based on the particular ethnomusicological notion of musicking (see insert), the latter provides dynamic responses to the needs of society. The role of musician being therefore defined as a creator in society, this vision is supported on the one hand by an immersion in the artistic milieu and on the other hand by a sustained practical experience within the city with the intention of guaranteeing a transition to professional life capable of responding to the problems encountered by the communities.

Thus, a change of paradigm is recognized by all the parties involved as necessary to restore the conceptual foundation of the musical space of higher education. The aim is to support and strengthen professional musical practices in this sense by paying attention to this change of paradigm and to the interdependent relationships that it reveals between the vision, artisanship and art of a musician and their commitment to and for society. Maintaining this flow of energy between artistry and imagination on the one hand, and pertinence and social commitment on the other, is a central and growing challenge for the HEMs of our country.

Quelques exemples dans les HEM helvétiques

" L'HEMU prend ses quartiers " is a project of mediation aimed at ensuring that the students in the Master of Education carry out a work of democratization of music in the popular neighbourhoods of Lausanne.

"Les concerts du cœur" supported by HEM Genève - Neuchâtel aims to bring music into the EMS, hospitals and prisons by offering free concerts to the local population.

À Lugano, an initiative of the school of music aims to offer free courses to Ukrainian refugee students and especially students of Russian and Ukrainian nationality.

On the Bâle side, the presence of the Haute École in society is manifested in various projects such as musical mediation in museums, health and educational institutions and even fundraising to help Ukraine in humanitarian aid.

" Music in context " à Berne allows structurer les curriculums via l'organization des majors et minors autour de la question centrale de la médiation culturelle et des formats de concerts innovants.

Lucerne, Zurich and Kalaidos also propose such initiatives which, without a shadow of a doubt, contribute enormously to social cohesion, to the revival of the role of musicians in society and to the broadening of professional perspectives for music students.

The essence of music does not lie in the musical works, but in the participation in the presentation of these works and in social action. Music is therefore not just a name but a verb: to make music. Faire de la musique, c'est prendre part, sous toutes ses formes, à une performance musicale, et le sens du musicking réside ainsi dans les relations qui s'établissent entre les participant.es (y compris le public) par la performance. Music is part of this iconic and gestural process, which consists of giving and receiving information about the relationships that unite the living world. It is in fact a ritual through which the participants not only learn, but also directly experience the way in which they position themselves or should position themselves in relation to human beings and the rest of the world. These ideal relationships are often extremely complex, too complex to be expressed in words, but they are expressed effortlessly through musical performance, allowing the participants to explore, affirm and celebrate them. Music is therefore just as important for our humanity as participation in acts of speech, and all human beings are capable of taking part in it, not only by understanding the existing gestures, but also by creating their own.

The Inselschulhaus is located in one of Basel's most socially deprived neighborhoods. The proportion of foreigners and the number of welfare recipients are among the highest in the canton. An exciting class music project began here eight years ago. In the second and third year of primary school, learning to play a string instrument is on the curriculum three times a week. Six years ago, Dorothee Mariani, cellist and head of class music-making, founded the Orchesterschule Insel association to offer the children the opportunity to gain musical experience in an orchestra with professionals. The association has expanded beyond its traditional school premises and now has around 50 children making music. They receive instrument-specific group lessons on Friday afternoons under the guidance of professional musicians. They rehearse together on Saturday mornings: "The lessons are free and the children receive an instrument free of charge, which they can take home with them to practise. In return, regular rehearsal attendance and appropriate preparation are required," writes the musician on the website. There are four performance levels. An important principle of the lessons is that the advanced students help the beginners to learn. In addition to classical string repertoire, the orchestra school plays folk music from the children's various countries of origin.

The performance of the children's opera The three puzzles proves that instrumental learning in heterogeneous groups at elementary school can be a valid alternative to conventional instrumental lessons at music schools. The instrumental lessons integrated into the timetable reach children who would never go to a music school, for social reasons, but above all for financial reasons. Working in an orchestra with professional guidance, as offered at the orchestra school, seems to motivate the children enormously. Around 100 children and young people from the Insel Orchestra School, the Basel Girls' and Boys' Choir, the Insel Primary School, music schools and some members of the Basel Symphony Orchestra took part in this successful performance. The 20 most advanced string players from the orchestra school were joined by groups of instruments from various music schools in Basel, including flutes, guitars, wind instruments and percussion. It was a wonderful experience to see the many younger and older children sitting at the podium for an hour and a half, concentrating and attentively following the conductor's signals. The remaining children from the orchestra school played, sang and danced on stage together with the young, outstanding singing professionals, or they helped out backstage. At the performance on May 13, 11-year-old Yannick Köllner played the leading role of Lasso. He attends the Liestal music school and his teacher was also on stage as a soloist. With a beautiful, intonation-sure voice, he moved confidently and mastered the rhythmic pitfalls of his extensive role without any problems. - Chapeau!

Under the clear direction of Stefano Mariani, Detlev Glanert's varied, colorfully orchestrated and rhythmically demanding score was interpreted convincingly. Despite adverse spatial and acoustic conditions - the Stadt-Casino is not suitable as a theater space - an entertaining evening of opera was achieved. Maria Riccarda Wesseling's direction focuses on movement, humor and symbolism. The characters are brought out theatrically and vividly. Little Lasso's loveless parental home is personified in his hysterical mother (Christina Campsall), who aggressively wields her vacuum cleaner, while the adult world hides behind uniform and threatening masks. Lasso escapes from his staid world and dreams of being a princess at the royal court. However, his dreams are not that easy to realize. On the run, he is almost killed by his mother's poisoned cake and at court he meets a dotty king (Robert Koller) and all sorts of bizarre characters. The princess (Sophia Schwendimann) is brittle and protects herself with an oversized crinoline. He can only win her over if he asks her three riddles that she cannot solve. This plan works. The king thinks the riddles are all just silly and no one at court knows the answers. He is allowed to spend a night with the princess without touching her. During this innocent pyjama party together, she blossoms, the royal court goes under and the young couple go out into life together with the gallows bird (Akinobu Ono), a good friend.

With the lockdown in spring 2020, Anicia Kohler's structures also collapsed. Which is why the Bernese pianist set herself some homework, as she explains in the foreword to the volume accompanying her new album Songs from the roof writes: "In normal times, my life is characterized by encounters with a wide variety of people." She sorely missed this exchange, which inspired the artist to have 27 conversations - for example with a farmer, a mayor and an opera singer. She subsequently documented these conversations both in writing and musically.

The 150-page booklet with the title Up the walls to the roof and the record are two releases that complement each other wonderfully, but also work on their own. At this point, we will focus on the record, released on the new Basel label "Clap Your Hands", which saxophonist Sarah Chaksad and producer Patrik Zosso recently founded. The nine pieces for grand piano, sampled pianos and household noises are based on solitary jazz. While the opener Maybe different comes across as a study in contemplation and melancholy, the subsequent Concession as a sparkling and at the same time sustained search for openness. According to Anicia Kohler, the songs are all about the golden rules of living together. She doesn't reveal what these are in detail, but she does hint that the record is about listening, courage and respect.

Consequently, the music on Songs from the roof not only emphatically harmonious, but also open-minded, curious and always looking for a viable path. Although tracks like More, More are able to extend their claws, the majority of the music exudes an atmosphere of commitment and reconciliation. That the Songs from the roof sound both mature and relaxed, fits perfectly into the sound puzzle created by Anicia Kohler.

Anicia Kohler: Songs from the roof. 9 pieces for grand piano, sampled pianos and household noises. Clap Your Hands CYH 0003B

id.: Die Wände hoch aufs Dach. 27 conversations about nature, art and being at home (book), 150 p., CYH, ISBN 978-3-033-08988-4

This book has two titles, and that is programmatic. Thanks to its bilingualism, different perspectives on cultural issues and realities come together - entirely in the spirit and tradition of the SMZ. Co-authors Sabine Chatelain and Gabriele Noppeney even write their contribution to the book in two languages. They present two different teaching sequences (language acquisition through song lyrics and bilingual music lessons) which, although based on a common reference model (Integrated Music Education), were each carried out at a French-speaking and a German-speaking teacher training institution.

Each of the ten articles is preceded by a trilingual résumé / summary / abstract, which is particularly helpful when reading foreign-language texts.

In "Le role de la recherche dans le développement de l'éducation musicale scolaire", Madeleine Zulauf looks back on the forty-year history of music education in French-speaking Switzerland and notes that the interest of researchers is increasingly being reoriented and aimed at innovations in practice: "La posture des chercheurs passant de rétroactive à proactive." In contrast to French-speaking Switzerland, German-speaking Switzerland lacks a scientific tradition in music education. Here, school music is primarily seen as a practical discipline that is led by practitioners. But what conceptual ideas underlie this? Olivier Blanchard explores this question in his article "Swiss school music. School or music?". Here performance orientation, there music-making, which gives greater weight to emotional and community-building aspects than measurable performance.

Jürg Huber asks fundamental questions: What actually is the meaning, purpose, content and didactics of school music, and how is it discussed? While in the 1970s the focus was on "singing" and "critical listening education", today there is a more comprehensive understanding of music lessons, as a look at Curriculum 21 or current teaching materials shows. But what is our subject actually called, "singing" or "music"? The school subject was renamed throughout German-speaking Switzerland in 2000. But the question of how to prioritize singing still seems to be virulent, says Christoph Marty: Should singing continue to play the central role in music lessons or should it simply be one of various equally important lesson contents? Three of the ten articles in this book also deal with the position of singing or song in music lessons: "Singing or music. Reasons for changing a subject name" (Marty), "Teaching children's songs at school as a cultural component and core task of music didactics" (Stadler Elmer) and "Choral work as a contribution to artistic education at upper secondary level" (Beat Hofstetter).

A study by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts confirms the popularity of singing at grammar schools. Music theory and music history, on the other hand, fared very poorly in the pupils' ranking. However, "listening to music" is even more popular than "singing / making music". What do these results mean for teaching? One obvious consequence would be: making music instead of studying music! Dieter Ringli proposes a different approach based on the primacy of action and student orientation: "Use the joy of singing and combine it with music theory!" How does that work? The pupils (SuS) work on a pop song: creating their own arrangement, making rhythms (body)percussively groove, finding vocal lines, harmonizing accompaniments, writing lyrics - the attempts to solve practical, technical problems lead intrinsically, as it were, to music theory, which is now practically useful. The study also shows that self-directed work in small groups is very motivating for the pupils.

What consequences do these research findings have for the role and tasks of music teachers? And what do they mean for their training? Jürg Zurmühle outlines a "framework model for teaching concepts for music lessons in kindergarten and elementary school", which opens up productive areas of tension between openness and structure, process and product orientation as well as constructivist and receptive learning. By balancing antinomic needs, the model offers guidance for the planning and implementation of music lessons and allows the setting of very different priorities in the school triangle of music, teaching and learning.

The book concludes with a look beyond our bilingual horizons, because: Music is global, but music cultures are local. And music education? In her contribution, Alexandra Kertz-Welzel says that it is precisely in the "context of the internationalization and globalization of music education teaching and academic cultures" that culturally sensitive music education that takes into account the different traditions is needed. Music education concepts such as the Orff-Schulwerk or the methods of Suzuki and Dalcroze are known around the world. However, more recent approaches come mainly from the Anglo-American world. Kertz-Welzel, who herself spent many years researching in the USA, asks whether we have to accept this dominance in music education research. No, because although music education is a global subject area and English is the lingua franca, the basic principle of "transnational exchange" is diversity. At this point, it is helpful to refer to https://www.isme.orgthe International Society for Music Education. The following should also be added https://eas-music.orgthe European Association of Music in Schools, which organizes exciting annual meetings and invites people to exchange ideas.

Cultures of school music in Switzerland features ten committed and profoundly researched contributions - and encourages reflection in many directions. Belongs in every school music room.

Kulturen der Schulmusik in der Schweiz - Les cultures de l'enseignement musical à l'école en Suisse, ed. Jürg Huber, Marc-Antoine Camp, Olivier Blanchard, Sabine Chatelain, François Joliat, Regula Steiner, Jürg Zurmühle, 200 p., Fr. 38.00, Chronos, Zurich 2021, ISBN 978-3-0340-1627-8

Four years ago, the Basel Music Academy commemorated its former teacher Jacques Wildberger (1922-2006) with the exhibition The left ear (SMZ 1_2/2018). Now, to mark the centenary of the composer's birth, she is publishing a thick and comprehensive volume of documentation under the same title. The editor Michael Kunkel, head of research at the Hochschule für Musik and already responsible for the exhibition at the time, can draw on a rich source of texts, sketches, scores and pictures, but was also able to make the material available to a renowned group of authors. The authors take a loving but also critical look at individual aspects of his life and work.

First and foremost, there is certainly the political composer - which also gives the book its name. Wildberger was a communist, albeit only briefly in the party, and he was passionately interested in current issues, which he placed at the center of his music. Although he later made fewer concrete political statements, his existentialist approach was clearly influenced by current events - similar to Bernd Alois Zimmermann, with whom he had a friendship. However, he also took a musical stance early on, for example by studying composition with Wladimir Vogel, more precisely twelve-tone composition, and thus moving away from the Swiss mainstream. He was therefore regarded by many as a "Nestbeschmutzer": "In most of the reviews of my first works, the bucket of wrath poured over my poor head." In Darmstadt and Donaueschingen, on the other hand, he was well received, but even there he did not simply follow the trends. Individual works are portrayed here as examples, such as his mathematical-political Action documentée Epitaphe pour Evariste Galois (1962) or his six-tone chamber concerto (1995/96).

Wildberger was also a committed university lecturer and always an open discussion partner - which is documented in several letters to fellow composers such as Luigi Dallapiccola and Helmut Lachenmann. It is wonderful, for example, how he replies to the latter when he suspects that he is a "deeply religious humanist": he cannot believe "that this God [of Christianity] exists, which is why I have become an atheist - an uncomfortable situation, by the way". Wildberger was an avowed opponent. The beautiful volume, weighing almost 1.7 kilos, also contains numerous testimonies from Wildberger himself, not only a late interview with the editor, but also some texts that are not found in the previously authoritative Wildberger book by Anton Haefeli (Jacques Wildberger or the Doctrine of the OtherHug 1996). All in all: an ideal reason to immerse yourself in Wildberger's music once again.

The left ear. The composer Jacques Wildberger, edited by Michael Kunkel, 555 p., € 50.00, Pfau, Friedberg 2021, ISBN 978-3-89727-556-0

An arrangement of Mozart's Horn Quintet K. 407 as a trio for violin, horn and piano is only justified as a program addition to the famous Horn Trio op. 40 by Johannes Brahms, although original alternatives to the combination are available: Lennox Berkeley, Don Banks, Charles Koechlin and others. Apart from the fact that a transcription of the Mozart quintet for trio by Carl Ernst Nauman (1832-1910) is already available from the Breitkopf publishing house.

The special, dark sound mixture of the original, horn, violin, 2 violas, violoncello, clearly speaks for the original version.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Trio in E flat after the Horn Quintet KV 407, for violin, horn and piano arranged by Michael Töpel, EM 2157, € 24.00, Edition Merseburger, Kassel

"I never felt rushed when I began to compose, because if I was captivated by a reproach, I was completely under the spell of the ideas and wrote my music without letting anything else stop me."

Egon Wellesz (1885-1974) was an independent spirit throughout his life. His catalog of works, comprising more than one hundred opus numbers, bears witness to this. In addition to a great deal of chamber music and numerous symphonies, it contains no fewer than eleven stage works. Wellesz never allowed himself to be pinned down stylistically. His early Three sketches for piano op. 6, for example, are more radical than anything his teacher Arnold Schönberg had composed up to that point. On the other hand, his Piano Concerto op. 46 from 1931 moves in a field between neo-baroque and post-romanticism. His nine symphonies, written in England, represented for him "a spiritual return to his great ancestors", which earned him fierce criticism from the avant-garde.

The Six piano pieces op. 26 have now been published by Universal Edition for the first time more than a hundred years after they were written. They also show how independently Wellesz handles the harmony and how he is able to immediately create an unmistakable atmosphere with just a few notes. This is particularly true of the two meditative No. 1 (Tranquillo) and No. 3 (Lento). In No. 2 and No. 4, on the other hand, the joyful, dance-like element dominates.

The short pieces are also pianistically varied, but generally quite undemanding. No. 4, however, requires a nimble right hand if the prescribed tempo is to be realized. And in No. 6, large hands are an advantage if you don't want to soften the dramatic effect of the wide-ranging chords by arpeggiating. This piece in particular points beyond the piano; and Wellesz later used the thematic material for his opera Alkestis used.

The appendix to this first edition contains another piano piece for Opus 26, whose fate was exactly the opposite. Wellesz discarded it for not entirely incomprehensible reasons. The musical ideas here are indeed too short-winded, the spark doesn't really want to jump.

Overall, the Six piano pieces op. 26, however, "definitely enriches the piano literature of the Viennese School", as editor Hannes Heher rightly states in the preface.

Egon Wellesz: Six Piano Pieces op. 26, first edition by Hannes Heher, UE 38225, € 19.95, Universal Edition, Vienna