Today, posting and sharing online is done in no time at all. It is a different matter to populate the Internet with meaningful content and make it usable with today's technological possibilities. This is exactly what the Joachim Raff Archive in Lachen does. On December 10, the archive premises on the upper shores of Lake Zurich opened the portal.raff-archiv.ch presented. Since autumn 2018, Joachim Raff's (1822-1882) birthplace has been home to the most comprehensive center of expertise on the life and work of the composer, who also grew up in Lachen. The existing holdings are constantly being added to and have been systematized and recorded from the outset in such a way that the resulting data sets are suitable for online presentation. Around 350 works, 2300 postal items, 1350 people and 150 institutions related to Raff are now available in the beta version.

Today, there are publicly accessible standards according to which continuous texts are categorized in such a way that they become machine-readable and can be automatically linked to other texts. The more material is networked in this way, the more diverse and surprising the insights that result. The portal thus becomes a kind of super-brain that always has all content available and links everything with everything else. In the humanities, work with coding systems is referred to as "digital humanities", to put it simply. It offers almost inexhaustible potential in terms of exploring the connections between figures, works and institutions. The project team felt that Raff was an ideal starting point for the creation of such a database, as he had a huge network at his disposal, which is very well documented in thousands of letters and other documents that have been systematically collected by the Raff Society for many years.

At the press conference, Res Marty, President of the Joachim Raff Society, called it a historic day. He expressed his sincere thanks to the academic team who had brought this project so far in such a short time with a great deal of passion and hard work and in the best of German-Swiss cooperation: In addition to Severin Kolb, head of the Joachim Raff Archive in Lachen, the team includes Stefan König and Dennis Ried, both from the Max Reger Institute in Karlsruhe and the latter responsible for research data management at the Raff Portal. Nick Pfefferkorn, head of the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel, with whom the Raff Archive works closely and who joined us towards the end of the press conference, summed it up in a nutshell: the project is a pioneering achievement.

The Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) has long been offering preliminary artistic training programs that prepare students for studies in the fields of design, music and dance. In October 2018, the Canton of Zurich enshrined these courses in the University of Applied Sciences Act. Now the ordinance on tuition fees at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences is also to be amended.

The range of tuition fees for the preparatory courses is set out in the Universities of Applied Sciences Act. The government of the Canton of Zurich has now set the semester fees on this basis. The fees are based on the previous rates of the ZHdK. An additional semester fee is charged for students from outside the canton.

The semester fee for courses in preliminary artistic training is:
Propaedeutic design course full-time 4500 francs
Part-time creative propaedeutic course 2700 francs
PreCollege music with vocal or instrumental lessons 1950 francs
PreCollege Music without vocal or instrumental lessons 1150 francs
Basic studies in dance 1000 francs

Complete list:
https://www.zh.ch/bin/ktzh/rrb/beschluss.pdf?rrbNr=1145&name=V_Studiengebuehren_Aend._4.12.19&year=2019&_charset_=UTF-8
 

Is alphorn playing to be understood as "blown" yodeling? Has it influenced yodeling with its characteristic natural tone series and sound? Do the two musical practices have historical points of contact? Researchers from the Department of Music at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts investigated these questions in the project "Musical relationship between alphorn and yodel - fact or ideology?". The project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF.

Although the research team came to the conclusion that there was a certain amount of influence depending on the region and era, "there was no consistent influence," says project leader Raymond Ammann. The researchers were also only able to prove points of contact in the development of the alphorn and yodelling in places: "The earliest sources proved to be too imprecise in terms of content to be able to identify clear adoption processes between these two musical practices."

Original article:
https://www.hslu.ch/de-ch/hochschule-luzern/ueber-uns/medien/medienmitteilungen/2019/12/11/alphorn-und-jodel-eine-greifbare-aber-unstete-wechselbeziehung/

According to the organizers, the concerts will be curated for the second time by Stephen Johns, Artistic Director of London's Royal College of Music (RCM). This year's guest conductors are Mark Biggins from the English National Opera and Felix Bagge from Lund University. The three young soloists, Julieth Lozano (soprano), Theodor Uggla (tenor) and Emily Sun (violin), have close links with the RCM. Jonathan Radford, an internationally renowned saxophonist, the RCM Chamber Ensemble, the Lund Switzerland Singers and the Klosters Festival Singers will also be performing.

Interview with Stephen Johns

In an in-depth interview with Veronika Studer-Kovacs, the artistic director of the Klosters Music Festival talks about developments in the classical music business, interpretation, the role of music festivals and his personal taste in music.

Link to the interview

Using artificial intelligence methods, a possible version of the symphony was created from Beethoven's existing musical sketches. To do this, the available data from Beethoven - symphonies, music sketches and scores - first had to be analyzed and prepared in a machine-readable format. The appropriate machine learning method was then selected and its algorithms adapted to the task. Language processing algorithms were used.

Under the direction of Matthias Röder from the Karajan Institute and The Mindshift agency, the team consisted of musicologist and Beethoven expert Robert Levin, Ahmed Elgammal (AI expert at Rutgers University), Mark Gotham (composition theorist at Cornell University), Walter Werzowa (composer) and Christine Siegert (Head of Research at the Beethoven-Haus). The work is to be performed by the Bonn Beethoven Orchestra in April 2020.

Original article:
https://www.telekom.com/de/konzern/themenspecials/special-beethoven-jubilaeumsjahr/details/kuenstliche-intelligenz-soll-beethovens-zehnte-sinfonie-vollenden-587346

In June 2018, the government of the canton of St. Gallen issued an ordinance setting the school fees to be paid by the school authority if a schoolchild attends the recognized talent school of another school authority. The city of St.Gallen lodged an appeal against this with the Federal Supreme Court, citing municipal autonomy. The court has now dismissed the appeal and found that the government was right to regulate the school fees by ordinance and to assess the amount correctly. Talent school providers may neither demand higher school fees from the school provider nor a contribution towards tuition from the parents.

The City of St.Gallen had caused uncertainty with regard to the school fees owed by issuing invoices to the school authorities that deviated from the cantonal requirements. It had also demanded a contribution towards tuition from the parents of the talented pupils. The Federal Supreme Court has now clarified that neither is permissible. In view of the constitutional guarantee that primary school lessons are free of charge, parents cannot be asked to contribute to the cost of lessons. They can only be charged for expenses incurred for the promotion of specific talents, such as instrumental lessons.

Thomas Pauli-Gabi's tenure as Head of the Culture Department included various major projects. One of Thomas Pauli-Gabi's main concerns was to give cantonal cultural policy a broad-based, strategic direction with the development and implementation of a cantonal cultural concept.

With various projects, Thomas Pauli-Gabi and his team helped to strengthen the canton of Aargau's self-image as a cultural canton. In 2015, for example, the canton celebrated the cantonal commemoration of 600 years of Aargau in the Swiss Confederation with the participation of the regions, a "Double Door" mediation concept was developed for the Jewish-Christian cultural heritage in Surbtal, a cantonal theme year "IndustrieWelt Aargau" was initiated in 2019/2020 and several cultural construction projects, such as the new Stapferhaus in Lenzburg and the Alte Reithalle in Aarau, were actively promoted.
 

The project deals with cableways in the canton of Uri and consists of two parts. The first part examines from a historical perspective how the development of the Alpine region by cable cars has changed the lives of the population, the use of mountain goods and the landscape itself over the past hundred years or so. In the second part of the project, a composition will be created from typical cable car noises, which will ultimately be presented to the public as a sound installation.

Romed Aschwanden, Managing Director of the Uri Institute Cultures of the Alps at the University of Lucerne, is responsible for the historical research. The researcher not only wants to use historical sources, but also conduct interviews with contemporary witnesses.

The musical part will be performed by Michel Roth. The composer, who grew up in the canton of Uri, is Professor of Composition and Music Theory, Analysis and Composition at the FHNW School of Music. Boris Previšić from the University of Lucerne is also involved in the project. The Swiss National Science Foundation is supporting the interdisciplinary cable car project with a grant. The project will be launched at the beginning of February and will be completed within a year.
 

The new platform is intended to bring the Norient community of over 700 artists from 50 countries closer together, generate commissions, pay fair fees and present their ideas for the future to a broad public.

However, this is all dependent on a successful crowdfunding campaign, which Norient will launch on the Startnext platform, write those responsible. If Norient survives, the 10th edition of the Norient Film Festival (NFF) will take place in Bern and Lausanne in January and February 2021.

As an oboe virtuoso with a worldwide reputation, Holliger experimented with advanced playing techniques, writes the University of Basel. He also rediscovered some forgotten musicians of the 18th century and inspired important contemporary composers to write new works.

As a composer, the 80-year-old explores the boundaries of sound and language, and as a conductor and organizer, he is committed to Basel's musical culture through significant institutional and artistic impulses.

Other honorary doctorates from Basel went to the pastor Martin Stingelin, the entrepreneur Klaus Endress and three researchers from the USA: the lawyer Bryan A. Stevenson, the cell biologist Randy W. Schekman and the psychologist Jerome R. Busemeyer.

According to Samuel Mehr from Harvard University, dance music is fast and rhythmic, while lullabies are soft and slow - this applies worldwide. In addition, keys have been found in all cultures: the structure of small sequences of notes from a base note as in the Western diatonic scale. Compared to love songs, songs that are supposed to contribute to healing usually consist of a few closely spaced notes. These findings suggest that there are indeed universal characteristics to music that may have basic commonalities - a fundamental human musicality.

In a Science Perspective article in the same issue, Tecumseh Fitch and Tudor Popescu from the University of Vienna comment on the conclusions. Human musicality is fundamentally based on a small number of fixed pillars: hard-coded predispositions given to humans by the ancient physiological infrastructure of our shared biology. These musical pillars are then flavored with the idiosyncrasies of each individual culture, resulting in the kaleidoscopic assortment we find in world music.

Original article:
W. Tecumseh Fitch, Tudor Popescu; Science, 2019
Published in the magazine's 'Perspectives' article series.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay2214
 

For some time now, the Viennese Universal-Edition has been publishing the more or less demanding teaching literature of the British guitarist and composer Paul Coles with a certain regularity, most recently the volume 10 More Melodic Studies for Guitar. The "More" in the title refers to the 26 Melodic Studies; but the booklet also fits the three volumes Classical Guitar Album The latter are progressively structured, from simple monophonic melodies to moderately difficult pieces for more advanced players. They are suitable as teaching material for - even young - adults. The quiet, romantic miniatures in the second half of the third booklet are particularly appealing (Volume 1: UE 21675, first pieces; Volume 2: UE 21 676, easy pieces; Volume 3: UE 21 677, medium-difficulty pieces; € 12.50 each).

And this is precisely what the 10 More Melodic Studies a refreshing contrast. Faster tempi, longer musical texts, hearty melodies in the upper and lower voices and arpeggios that lie well in the hand, with the last piece as the climax: a furious, Spanish-influenced Vivace. Coles' tonal language is romantically colored, with modern echoes, the rhythm is attractive with syncopations and changes between numerous different time signatures, sometimes also somewhat unwieldy. Perhaps here and there a musical idea is packed into a piece more than necessary, so that a stringent musical arrangement is not always easy.

10 More Melodic Studies for Guitar like all Paul Coles' editions, is attractively presented and contains not only the English accompanying texts but also their German and French translations.

Paul Coles: 10 More Melodic Studies, for guitar, UE 21678, € 13.50, Universal Edition, Vienna

The right background music in a store, hairdressing salon or restaurant makes an important contribution to making customers and guests feel comfortable, just like the lighting or decoration. And in a pub, the live broadcast of a football or cricket match is just as much a part of the interior as the dark furniture, the wooden signs and the dart board.

Just as the manufacturers of furniture, decorations or lighting must be paid, composers, lyricists, performers, screenwriters or producers are entitled by law to receive remuneration for the use of their works and performances outside the private sphere. The five Swiss collecting societies Pro Litteris, SSA, SUISA, Suissimage and Swissperform are responsible for this. On their behalf, SUISA collects the remuneration for the use of music, films and TV broadcasts in accordance with the Common Tariff 3a (GT 3a).

What does SUISA do with the income from background entertainment?

In a first step, the money collected is distributed among the five Swiss collecting societies according to a fixed distribution formula. SUISA's share for the remuneration of music content amounts to slightly more than half of the income. In a second step, each society is responsible for paying out this income to the authors, artists, publishers and producers.

In the case of SUISA, 88% of the aforementioned fifty percent is distributed to the rights holders in this second step. This means that for every CHF 100 collected, CHF 88 can be distributed to the artists and their publishers.

How and to whom is the income distributed? In principle, SUISA has three different distribution options: direct distribution, lump-sum distribution with program documentation and lump-sum distribution without program documentation. Program documents are lists of works that have been performed or broadcast.

With GT 3a, the money is distributed almost exclusively as a lump sum without program documents. For both the clients and SUISA, the submission or processing of work lists would entail an enormous effort that would be disproportionate to the benefit. Instead, SUISA uses existing program documents from various sources to distribute the income from GT 3a. In doing so, SUISA ensures that lists or uses are used for this distribution which allow for the fairest possible distribution.

Fairest possible distribution even without a list of listed works

Based on experience, for example, it is assumed that a large proportion of companies, stores, restaurants, etc. use works that are also broadcast on radio or television. It is assumed that a large proportion of companies, shops, restaurants etc. use works that are also broadcast on radio or television. Accordingly, a large part of the income from GT 3a is distributed on the basis of the program documents for the use of music, TV programmes and films from radio and TV broadcasts. However, SUISA also takes into account the fact that not only pop, rock or urban music is played, but also other genres such as folk music or even church music. Therefore, part of the income is also distributed on the basis of program lists for church performances, brass bands or yodel clubs.

In order to distribute the money to the artists, it is thus allocated to other, similar distribution classes of the performing and broadcasting rights (see distribution regulations item 5.5.2). Therefore, if a member receives a settlement in one of these distribution classes, he/she shall also receive a share of the income for background entertainment from GT 3a.

In some exceptional cases, direct distribution is used for the distribution of income from background entertainment. These are, for example, music that is used in a museum for an exhibition or music that is used for a longer period of time by a company in the telephone queue. In these cases, it is usually commissioned music.

SUISA distributes the royalties four times a year. In 2018, a total of over CHF 132 million was distributed to composers, lyricists and publishers of music.

Further information:

> www.suisablog.ch

Indeed, one thinks of battles when listening to this powerful and often brutal music. The CD released by Neos offers two major works: the ensemble piece with the same title Combat actions/trauma actions op. 11 (1995/98) and a Chamber symphony "A végső Tavasz" op. 23 (2009/2011). Both can hardly be reduced to a common denominator. A ritually serious tone is always present, but Jorge E. López cultivates an incredibly flexible compositional style.

The Chamber Symphony underlines López's aesthetic attitude: "I have never identified with the term 'new music'. Rather, from the very beginning I was driven by the idea of making the ancient present. I'm not looking for the new, but rather for the repressed." There are ludicrous references to Gustav Mahler, Beethoven and Gustav Holst. With mannerist artistry, López achieves a bizarre, even fantastic feat.

The Collegium Novum Zürich under the direction of Jonathan Stockhammer plays very accurately, with great attention to detail and at the same time powerfully in the right places. Leslie Leon sings the lines by the Hungarian poet Endre Ady in the Chamber Symphony expressive, but is also able to switch to an ironically distanced tone. A furious recording quality by Swiss radio SRF and an informative, easy-to-read booklet text by Jens Schubbe round off the outstanding impression.

Duo Praxedis unites the harp with the piano. The two performers Praxedis Hug-Rütti (harp) and Praxedis Geneviève Hug (piano) dedicate their latest CD to the composer Carl Rütti, who is celebrating his 70th birthday. This is not just a "family" gesture for their brother and uncle, but an interesting and musically committed joint work.

Carl Rütti has made a name for himself internationally as a composer. Although he has extended his work to all musical areas except opera, his focus is on polyphonic, technically demanding and tonally refined works for top British choirs. Since studying in London, Rütti has been closely associated with the choral scene there, often writing on their behalf.

As a versatile pianist, Rütti was also a sought-after piano teacher at the Zurich Conservatory and works as an organist in Oberägeri. As a composer, he has so many requests that he can pick and choose. No wonder, because his music is tonal yet modern, rhythmically refined, has drive and poetry, and it sounds good. In 2005, Rütti received the Canton of Zug Recognition Award and in 2015 the Orlando di Lasso Medal for his extensive artistic output.

To mark his milestone birthday, oratorio concerts with various world premieres in Zug, Zurich, Basel, Germany, Sweden and the UK are planned. He will also be presenting his latest CD. The recorded pieces are mainly arrangements of his choral works. Rütti has always been interested in unusual instrumentations, such as the harp and piano in this case. With subtle intuition, he knows how to cleverly combine the plucked and strummed string sound. The booklet reveals another of Rütti's "spiritual" sources of inspiration: the poet and nun Silja Walter (1919-2011), many of whose works he set to music. Her poems are printed, although the pieces are not sung. Another "spiritual" poet of his taste is the pastor Ulrich Knellwolf.

What is surprising is that these arrangements hardly suggest the limitation to the small instrumentation of harp and piano. The harpist Praxedis Hug-Rütti knows how to use Rütti's broad spectrum of moods and tone colors, for example in the piece dedicated to her Harp booklet with a sure instinct. The inclusion of the piano, carefully and sparingly handled by Rütti, also reveals its poetic power through the pianist's sensitive playing. An appealing birthday present, also for harp fans.