Last November, the media announced the (re-)premiere of two chaconnes as a «world sensation», which musicologist Peter Wollny now attributes to the young Johann Sebastian Bach after years of research and which have therefore also been given two BWV numbers.

Bach pupil Salomon Günther John

This edition, published by Breitkopf & Härtel as a supplement to the 4th volume of the latest complete edition of the organ works, is impeccable as usual. The preface describes the meticulous, almost «detective-like» search for traces of the two works. By means of complicated script comparisons, an anonymous manuscript kept in Brussels could be traced back to the cantor, teacher and organist Salomon Günther John, born in 1695, who indicated in a job application in 1727 that he had «initially attended lessons with the former organist in Arnstadt» (without giving his name). As it can be assumed from another copy of a work by John (BWV 951) that was certainly written by Bach that he was indeed Bach's pupil during his time in Arnstadt (1703-07), it is also possible to assume Bach's authorship of the two anonymous chaconnes in the Brussels manuscript. (NB: These had previously been attributed to another composer, J. C. Graff, under whose name they were even occasionally performed).

Style features

Wollny further underpins his theory with stylistic comparisons with other early works by Bach, the characteristics of which the Swiss organist Jean-Claude Zehnder described in his seminal work, published as part of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Scripta published by Schwabe in 2009. In addition, certain figurations are reminiscent of Bach's organ passacaglia BWV 582, which, like BWV 1178, is then continued in a fugue.

Fascinating evidence

As was to be expected, the «premiere» triggered further discussions about Bach's authorship. Without being able to go into the various arguments for and against here: The two works, which can also be easily realized on smaller organs, show a composer who has a solid craft, knows how to write with virtuosic joy of playing and occasionally (if not always) lets a personal signature and «genius» traits shine through. If this really is the (18 to 22-year-old) Bach, then a further stage in his development as a composer has been opened up here. In any case, the path to this attribution is fascinating!

Johann Sebastian Bach: Two chaconnes BWV 1178 and 1179, (Complete Organ Works, Supplement to Volume 4), edited by Peter Wollny, EB 9648, € 16.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden   

Under the title My piano - all the way - at the beginning the pianist, piano teacher and concert organist Ji-Youn Song presents 15 character pieces and exercises with new playing techniques for piano. Through her own intensive involvement with new music, the author has discovered through teaching children how beneficial it can be, especially at the beginning, to work with experimental music-making techniques. In the carefully written foreword, it is expressed that it is very important to her to make the awareness of arcs of tension and proportions, but also the development of graphic notation and the experience of basic musical phenomena such as high-low, long-short, loud-quiet tangible and understandable through gestures and physical movements.

With the spelling of the title, Ji-Youn Song indicates her intention to play with the pupils on and with the whole piano from the very beginning, to give free rein to the desire to experiment and thus to enable essential experiences in personal and musical terms. A video recording made by children can be accessed for all pieces via a QR code. The author also provides valuable tips on additional educational literature and suitable compositions by Cage, Cowell, Lachenmann, Dinescu and others.

The famous quote from Rumi comes to mind spontaneously: «Beyond right and wrong lies a place. That is where we meet.»

Ji-Youn Song: My piano - completely - at the beginning, character pieces and exercises with new playing techniques, BA 10879, € 16.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel

The first work in this issue, Canzona prima per canto solo by Girolamo Frescobaldi, comes from his collection Primo Libro delle Canzoni The arranger Frank Scheuerle takes the melody part in the 1st mandolin and realizes the continuo with the other parts. As he explains, he dispenses with chords in the guitar part and a double bass part in favor of transparency.

Lachrimae antiquae by John Dowland was probably composed in 1604. Scheuerle's arrangement is based on the version for viol consort, whereby the mandolin, mandola and double bass parts are each based on the viol parts. The guitar is divided into two groups here: The 1st guitar takes the quintus and parts of the lute part and the 2nd guitar takes the remaining lute part. Scheuerle rewrites the piece in 4/4 time, which is certainly an advantage for legibility. The «arco» marking of the double bass is reminiscent of the original instrumentation, whereby the «pizzicato» marking in the last bar takes over part of the lute part, which fits in well with the plucked sound.

The Chaconne Two in one upon a Ground from Henry Purcell's semi-opera Dioclesian was written for two flutes and continuo. Scheuerle places the two melody parts in canon in the two mandolin parts and the basso continuo with an ostinato in the mandola and guitar parts. The continuo is also varied during the piece.

The arranger's decisions in all the arrangements create lightness and show how well suited the plucked string orchestra, with its natural transparency, is to this music. Scheuerle ensures playability, but retains enough respect for the original text to leave room for interpretation by a plucked string orchestra.

Girolamo Frescobaldi, John Dowland, Henry Purcell: Canzona prima, Lachrimae antiquae, Chaconne, arranged for plucked string orchestra by Frank Scheuerle, score, ZO 1115, € 15.00, Pan, Kassel

The Zurich quintet Black Sea Dahu, led by sisters Janine and Vera Cathrein, have come a long way since their debut album was released in 2018 White Creatures and the wondrous catchy tune it contains In Case I Fall For You. Their success has meant that hardly any other band from our latitudes has performed live throughout Europe more often than they have in recent years. And this has naturally had an effect on our mutual musical understanding. Long story short: a subtlety so powerful and intimate, so complex and playful can only be achieved by a band whose members are able to respond to each other with telepathic sensitivity.

Her fourth album Everything (including the live album) doesn't immediately jump out at you like the cult hit from back then. The magic of these chansons is not based on «instant», rather it draws its power from delicately knitted vocal melodies that blow in the wind like the bows of a kite; from instrumental arrangements that are bursting with subtle surprises - enhanced, incidentally, by the warm sounds of the string quartet Amours Sur Mars, with whom they have also given concerts.

And then, of course, from the voice of Janine Cathrein and her songs, which, inspired and made necessary by the death of her father, revolve around the cyclical waves of life. «I didn't make an album,» she says, «I built a place to endure this grief.» A wonderful album that combines folk-pop conventions with chamber music moods and, like the most beautiful blues, brings uplifting music to deeply sad themes.

Black Sea Dahu: Everything. Mouthwatering Records

Writing a biography of Klaus Huber is not easy. The personality of the composer, who died in 2017, was just as, shall we say, problem-oriented as his work, which was riddled with productive contradictions and ruptures.

Corinne Holtz was the first to make the attempt and chose an unconventional form for her biography. Four of the eight chapters are written from the composer's first-person perspective, which places him in an almost intimate proximity to the reader. At first glance, this looks like literary fiction, but it is largely documented correctly with countless footnotes. The composite ego that emerges is a puzzle of written and oral statements by Huber, letters, diary entries and conversations with his descendants, much of it unpublished.

Corinne Holtz's meticulous research also brought many private details of Huber's life to light. His daughter Katharina Rikus willingly opened the family archives for this purpose. The part about his childhood and youth, which were dominated by a strict and by no means exemplary father, is revealing - a classic superego from which the late starter as a composer was never quite able to free himself.

Unfortunately, the works are somewhat neglected in the detailed biography. Only the opera Black earth whose production at the Theater Basel in 2001 the author accompanied as a journalist. In an entire chapter, apparently a by-catch of her research at the Sacher Foundation in Basel, she searches for traces of Sacher and the Nazis, which smells somewhat of the moral socialism so eagerly cultivated among the Swiss cultural left and seems like a foreign body here.

The extensive documentation with notes, sources and bibliography takes up over a hundred pages, a third of the book. A tremendous feat of diligence with a claim to completeness, but one that can probably never be fully realized in a case as complex as Huber's.

Corinne Holtz: World in the work. Klaus Huber (1924-2017), Biography, 309 p., Fr. 54.00, Schwabe, Basel 2024, ISBN 978-3-7965-5148-2

More detailed version of this review: beckmesser.info/klaus-huber-biographisch-seziert/

The Geneva musician Christophe Sturzenegger really is a versatile talent! His previous recordings as a horn player and pianist with works by Strauss, Glière and Schumann testify to his outstanding ability on both instruments. His latest CD with incidental music now presents him as a composer and conductor.

Le Colibri

The music to Le Colibri was created as a joint production with the successful writer Elisa Shua Dusapin from French-speaking Switzerland, winner of the 2019 Swiss Literature Prize. The story of two young people on their way to adulthood was commissioned by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) and Geneva's Théâtre Am Stram Gram, one of Europe's most important theaters for children and young people. Sturzenegger's music is neo-romantic, excellently orchestrated and a pleasure to listen to even if you don't know the plot. A graphic novel of Dusapin's work created in collaboration with the illustrator Hélène Becquelin, together with Sturzenegger's music as an audio book, received the Swiss Children's and Young People's Book Prize in 2023.

La Reine des Neiges

From the second work on the CD, La Reine des Neiges after the fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, written two years before the Disney blockbuster, can be heard in both a concert suite and a half-hour version with spoken text (convincingly interpreted by Joan Mompart). Andersen's fairy tale, labeled «unsuitable for children» at the time it was written but now often set to music, tells the story of the children Kay and Gerda, who are separated from each other by malicious magic, but find each other again in the castle of the Snow Queen on Spitsbergen and are redeemed.

The musical idea behind the piece was to create a work of music theater with the cast of Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat with the accompaniment of a small ensemble. The performance by the Théâtre Am Stram Gram was played countless times in Switzerland and France and received much praise. Although this recording does not replace the theater experience, it gives a vivid impression of it. The music is reminiscent of compositions by the «Groupe des Six» or Stravinsky and is once again very instrumentally appropriate and effectively written. It is played by members of the OSR under the direction of Christophe Sturzenegger with verve and beautiful sound. With an appropriate text version, the piece could also cause a sensation in German-speaking countries.

Musiques de scène : Le Colibri, La Reine des Neiges. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Musique et direction Christophe Sturzenegger. Klarthe Records

As President of the host Swiss Music Council and member of the National Council, Stefan Müller-Altermatt opened the exchange between politicians and representatives of various music associations by naming the dichotomy between «financial policy reality and cultural policy responsibility».

As federal expenditure is expected to rise faster than revenue in the coming years, the Federal Council, under the leadership of FDP Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter, has presented «Relief Package 27» (EP 27) with 59 cost-cutting measures. During the meeting, Raphael Capaul from the FDP's General Secretariat presented deficit bars that were threatening to plunge into the red and warned against tax increases as a last resort. Speakers from the industry explained what the cuts could mean for musicians' incomes, which are already under severe pressure.

Relief package burdens music professionals

Alex Meszmer from Suisseculture explained that the cultural sector was affected by at least 22 of the austerity measures, but that it was difficult to pinpoint their specific effects. For example, fewer international projects by Pro Helvetia also generate less copyright compensation, which means that the damage for music creators is far greater than is evident in the austerity package. Meszmer jokingly spoke of an «Easter egg hunt after KKS». He recalled that the Federal Council had emphasized at the presentation of the Cultural Dispatch 2025-28 that it wanted to guarantee appropriate compensation for cultural professionals and improve their working conditions. Parliament had also adopted improvements to social security as a legislative objective. However, nothing has actually happened so far. The income of cultural professionals has been declining since 2016 and further cuts or even just the freezing of funds will further reinforce this trend.

At Pro Helvetia, the EP 27 envisages savings of CHF 1.5 million. As Director Michael Kinzer and Head of the Music Department Dominique Rovini explained, it is hardly conceivable that the Arts Council will withdraw from major platforms such as the Centre culturel suisse. This would mean that around 150 fewer projects with 500 participants would be supported and the current approval rate of around 34% would fall further, with a direct impact on the income of music professionals. Albane Dunand from the Fondation romande pour la chanson et les musiques actuelles pointed out that cutbacks hit those already living in precarious circumstances the hardest. Similarly, in times of austerity, programs aimed at greater equality and diversity are the first to disappear.

Rico Gubler from the Swiss Conference of Music Universities emphasized that the cuts or freezing of funding would lead to smaller and less attractive professional fields. The research landscape would also be affected. The effects of the increase in tuition fees had not been thought through to the end and in some cases were hardly foreseeable. (A KMHS statement on the increase in tuition fees will be published in the issue of Swiss Music Newspaper which will be published on March 26).

Great haste, unclear consequences

During the discussion, Michael Kaufmann from Sonart pointed out that the austerity package would also send a negative signal to the cantons and municipalities, which would then have to follow suit with cuts, resulting in a loss of several times the amounts mentioned in EP 27. The whole thing is incredibly diffuse, Müller-Altermatt confirmed: «We have various federal levels that are responsible for promoting culture and music. We have very indirect financial flows via these levels, we have federal offices, funding bodies and we have very broad effects. If you cut funding for tourism, for example, this also affects creative artists.»

Meanwhile, discussions on EP 27 continued in the National Council immediately after the industry meeting. The differences between the two chambers will be resolved before the end of this session so that the deadline for a possible referendum - which the Greens have already announced - can be met. This means that a referendum can still take place this fall. The umbrella organization Suisseculture is still discussing whether it wants to support a possible referendum, because if EP 27 is rejected, EP 29 is already on the table with possibly even more drastic savings.

In the face of a referendum, all voters will have to ask themselves whether, as Müller-Altermatt so aptly put it, they simply want to describe cultural promotion as an expression of a noble state that does more for its population than what is absolutely necessary. Or whether they see culture as a strategic infrastructure that is vital.

The next PGM meeting will be held on June 3 on the topic of «Social security, minimum salaries and occupational risks».

No one would probably claim that music can avert the climate catastrophe. But what can it do about the problem that humanity is (increasingly) living beyond its means?

The most obvious thing to do: actively address the topic. This is what the Basel Chamber Orchestra did on February 5, 2026 at the Tinguely Museum with the music theater project «Unter Strom», created and performed by violinist Eva Miribung, violinist Mathias Weibel and director and actress Salomé Im Hof. They had come from «far away» and had heard that there were problems on earth. Their play is not a lament, but «wants to offend you, to poke you in the head». This was the announcement after the three astronauts marched onto the stage via Tinguely's Utopia machine to perform their self-made «energy song». There, Tinguely's oracle prophesied that humans would disappear at some point - «a bit of music first».

The next 60 minutes were a kind of speed run through music history, with pieces and songs that were cleverly dramaturgically linked and focused on nature, energy and the band's own horizons. For example, the Swedish «Water Canon», Lueget, from mountains and valley, I'll Follow the Sun of the Beatles, Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth the Sparks or Bob Dylan Blowin’ in the Wind. The program mainly consisted of popular songs, but also included classical pieces by Leclair, Liszt and Berio. The trio used an acoustic violin, an electric violin, a synthesizer, a mandolin and a loop station. The electric instruments were unplugged at the end of the performance.

Wit, confrontation and irritating clatter

Between the musical numbers, theatrical interludes led from one piece to the next, but at the same time had the function of involving the audience. Like a survey on what the good life actually means. The answers were recorded and looped to form the second voice in Vivaldi's Sonata in F major. Or in a quickfire session in which the audience had to answer either/or questions («organic or regional», «meat or tofu», «train or bike», etc.). The program had wit, the highlight in this respect being the rewritten Our Father to an oil tanker.

The confrontational nature of the performance ensured that the audience could never simply sit back and relax, but had to remain mentally involved and critical. An atmosphere of being lulled into complacency was prevented by the fact that the Tinguely machines were repeatedly switched on in the middle of the pieces. - Anyone who knows them (a fine example of re- or upcycling, by the way) can imagine that the rattling and crashing in a concert is mightily irritating.

Converted classroom play

The evening was definitely artistically convincing. And it's commendable that the chamber orchestra is dealing with the subject matter in depth. That is more than many other orchestras do. However, there was a lack of direction. One suggestion at least came at the very end, when it came to the frustration of not being able to do anything. Following the example of Georg Danzer, it was turned around into the freedom of not having to do the same as others, of simply doing nothing. A logic of abstinence that will not lead humanity as a whole out of its misery, but as an individual philosophy of life is certainly not a bad one.

The fact that orchestras such as the Basel Chamber Orchestra swallow up a lot of resources due to their size - and the concert tours - is of course a paradox. However, «Unter Strom», part of the Nachtklang series, short performances by members of the orchestra in museums, is a good example of redimensioning and synergies; the concert ticket was also an admission ticket to the museum. And as the trio also performs the piece in schools, the evening was recycled, so to speak. Turning the subject matter into a program is important in any case - perhaps this will lead to more answers than questions at some point.

It will be instructive to get to know the broad musical spectrum of the Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt by listening to his recording of Ingvar Lidholm's Poesis and also that of Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony and Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor. The now 98-year-old conductor, who has nothing of the stature of a podium star about him, but is loved by the great orchestras worldwide and is therefore repeatedly engaged, is able to lead them to top performances with his amiable correctness, his self-discipline and his responsibility towards the work.

Topics of conversation

Mission Music is the title of the book containing nine conversations between music critic Julia Spinola and Blomstedt. The last one, conducted in Leipzig last May, resulted in an extensive additional chapter for this third edition.

Very different areas and situations are examined, especially those of the two German orchestras he led as chief conductor, the Staatskapelle Dresden 1975-1985 and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig 1998-2005. Of course, the position of the conductor is discussed, as well as internal problems of the orchestras; Blomstedt also held chief conductor positions in Oslo, Copenhagen and San Francisco during his long life. His insistence on the old German orchestral set-up was extremely interesting, as was his approach to works of new music and his attention to the audience with brief explanations. No pretentiousness, but an intensive effort to pass on the expert's insights in an understandable way.

Repertoire focus

The interviewer repeatedly succeeds in obtaining penetrating answers about the motivation behind his worldwide activities, while the private side of his life is revealed completely without voyeurism. His commitment to Nordic music, especially to Carl Nielsen, Franz Berwald and Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, his close relationship to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his late approach to Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss are evidence of the specialties of his repertoire. He has performed Bruckner's nine symphonies twice with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, from 2005 to 2012 and in 2023. The extensive discography in the appendix reflects the fact that the ninety-year-old has also recorded his third complete recording of the Beethoven symphonies as well as several symphonies by Brahms, Stenhammar and Voříšek.

Herbert Blomstedt: Mission Musik - Gespräche mit Julia Spinola, 199 p., € 26.00, third, expanded edition, Henschel/Bärenreiter, Leipzig/Kassel 2025, ISBN 978-3-7618-2417-7 (Bärenreiter)

Sol Gabetta is Lise Cristiani - at least that's what the blurry cover of her latest album is supposed to suggest. It celebrates the 200th birthday of the French cellist with insights into her concert repertoire, works by Offenbach, Schubert, Rossini and others (Sony classical 12372444).

Parallel to the sound recording, a 53-minute documentary film was made in which the Argentinian cellist and her husband, the French violin maker and restorer Balthazar Soulier, follow in the footsteps of this mysterious musician. With the cello to the end of the world alludes to Cristiani's concert tour to Siberia in 1847. In 1852, at the age of 27, she died of a cholera infection, which she had contracted on a trip to the Caucasus, where she played for soldiers.

The atmospherically dense film chronologically recounts the life of the first female cellist to perform in public. The cello was considered immoral, even scandalous, for women because it had to be held with legs apart. The journalist Waldemar Kamer, who found the birth record in an estate, reports on Cristiani's origins and how she grew up as an illegitimate child with her grandparents.

Visits to original locations, combined with historical images, provide an insight into the Paris of her childhood. Sol Gabetta not only discovers Cristiani's concert programs together with Balthazar Soulier, but also plays her cello for a few minutes in the Stradivari Museum in Cremona. Here, however, the film remains on the surface. We would have liked to know more from Sol Gabetta about the exact sound of the instrument, which cost 7,000 francs at the time and is now worth around 20 million euros. Was it particularly robust so that it survived these extreme climatic conditions on its travels without damage? Balthazar Soulier could certainly have told us something about this. And what can we say about Cristiani's playing based on the repertoire? After all, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed his only Song without words op. 109 for cello and piano is dedicated to her. Unfortunately, apart from quoting a few contemporary reviews, this also remains in the dark.

With the cello to the end of the world - Sol Gabetta in the footsteps of Lise Cristiani. Film by Simone Jung. Hessischer Rundfunk/Arte. Available in the ARD media library until December 2026.

Link to the movie

Theodor Kirchner, educated in Leipzig and Dresden, accepted a position as organist in Winterthur at the age of 20 on the recommendation of Felix Mendelssohn. He worked in Switzerland for 30 years as a music teacher and conductor and started a family. A Swiss obituary states that he «stood at the center of musical endeavors in Zurich and Winterthur for a quarter of a century». In the difficult years after his return to Germany, he was supported by his friend Brahms.

In addition to 1000 piano pieces, he composed a great deal of chamber music, including some with pedagogical intentions such as the seven short string quartets Only drops. The moderately difficult pieces of varying character comprise only 16 to 60 (fast) bars. The rhythmically interwoven Romantic style requires all instruments to pay attention to the whole event. The notes for teaching by Anna Erdmann-Schiegnitz in the appendix to the edition contain important interpretative and technical aids.

Theodor Kirchner: Only drops. Very small pieces for string quartet, edited by Wolfgang Birtel, SE 1059, € 14.00, Schott, Mainz

Prokofiev began writing vocalises for voice and piano for his beloved singer Nina Koshetz in New York in 1920. He finished these five Songs without words during a tour in California. In Paris in 1925, Joseph Szigeti, Paweł Kochański and Cecilia Hansen asked him to arrange the melodies for violin. Kochański helped to rearrange the violin part; the piano part remained unchanged. They were published by Edition russe de Musique in Berlin in 1925. They have been part of the important violin repertoire ever since. A Barcarolle marks the beginning, followed by a Lullaby, a Mysterious Musing, a Scherzando (Seguidilla) and a Nocturne.

The new edition contains many small corrections, which are explained in the notes, and appears with a generous set of notes.

Sergei Prokofiev: Five Melodies for violin and piano op. 35a, edited by Fabian Czolbe, with an additional violin part marked by T. A. Irnberger, HN1539, € 13.00, G. Henle, Munich

In contrast to related areas such as basso continuo, there is hardly any literature on the subject of score playing. This is certainly due to the complexity of the subject matter, which also includes specialist areas such as sight-reading, instrumentation, harmony and stylistics. The didactics are correspondingly difficult to present clearly.

The now out-of-print two volumes are a successful attempt in this respect School of score playing by Günter Fork (published in 1980), which, however, could not prove their worth in the classroom due to their size. The four booklets are still relevant Score playing by Heinrich Creuzburg (published in 1956), in which, however, piano arrangements are proposed that are completely impractical. As far as this aspect is concerned, Alfred Stenger's Score playing, made easy from 2004 is an interesting approach, although the «made easy» is deceptive, because playing scores is not easy!

Comprehensive access, concrete assistance

Now Paul Suits presents a new, cleverly structured book in English and faces up to this fact: «There are artistic fields in which inspiration outweighs perspiration. In score reading the reverse is true [...]» The instructions are concise and the author's many years of teaching experience are evident throughout.

Suits teaches how to read the transposing instruments by learning the so-called «old clefs»: if you replace a marked clef with another one, the reference tone shifts, resulting in a transposition. If you also correct certain transposition signs, a transposing part can be read directly. This is preceded by a useful reading exercise to help learners familiarize themselves with the reference system of each new clef. Excellently selected literature examples are then used to guide you through all clefs and transpositions occurring in the orchestra.

Suits recommends figured bass and absolute chord symbols for grasping harmonic relationships. The chapters «Arranging the Score at the Piano» and «Dealing with unplayable Pieces» are particularly valuable. The methods and examples suggested are practical: reducing an orchestral movement to its harmonic framework and subsequently adding playable parts on the one hand, and regular reading and inner listening without an instrument on the other. Suits understands «score playing» comprehensively and uses the title Score Reading with intention: «In working with my students, techniques of playing, singing, imagining, and analyzing the score are all employed, often alternating in rapid succession.»

This book, full of helpful suggestions, is highly recommended to anyone who wants to tackle the difficult discipline of score reading!

Paul Suits: Score Reading: Time-honored Principles and New Approaches, 124 p., € 37.00, Tredition, Hamburg 2025, ISBN 978-3-384-57748-1

There are movies that you see. And there are movies that you hear. Anka Schmid's latest work Melody clearly belongs to the second category. «A soundtrack with a picture», you could also call it. First screened in the Sounds category at the Zurich Film Festival on September 28, 2025, and in regular cinemas from March 2026, it is much more than a music documentary: it is a poetic mosaic about how singing can become a lifeline, ritual, resistance, consolation and a sense of belonging.

The protagonists are as diverse as their voices. There is the Black woman Joanna Kora, who transforms her experiences from the Black Lives Matter movement into song and, as a music teacher and lead singer in the Go and Sing choir, inspires hope and enthusiasm with every note. The Appenzell dairymaid who protects not only her cows, but also herself, night after night with the Alpine blessing. The hip-hopper from Ticino, torn between anger at the lack of support for alternative youth culture and her deep roots in her homeland. The Kurd, whose voice was not taken away by seven years in prison and who now sings songs to his young daughter in Switzerland so that she, as a Kurd without a country, does not remain without culture. And the last death singer on a Greek island who, after the loss of her husband, finds support and purpose in life through song alone - and asks the anxious question: Who will sing her lament when she herself is no more?

Singing is more than sound

Schmid tells these stories without pathos, carried by the music and the faces of the singers. The camera captures the radiance, the tiredness, the passion. But the real centerpiece is the soundtrack. Sound engineer Reto Stamm largely dispenses with electronic distortion, conveying the voices pure, undistorted, in all their physicality. You can hear pauses in breathing, friction, imperfections - and that is precisely what makes the film so real.

At the end, when young women from the women's strike fill the square singing and drumming, the circle closes: singing is more than just sound. It overcomes boundaries, brings strangers closer together than any argument. Schmid's film shows that we can meet in the joy of singing, regardless of origin, language or skin color. A documentary that not only stays in the ear, but also in the heart.

Melody. Anka Schmid, Written and directed by. Frenetic-Films. In cinemas from March 5, 2026.

Trailer