Short pieces are practical. Be it to supplement or structure a concert program, be it for instructive work in the university sector or be it to look over the shoulders of the composers a little more closely as they work. Two collections with numerous, predominantly short pieces by György Kurtág and Heinz Holliger, which were written over a fairly long period of time, should therefore attract a great deal of attention.

Under the title Signs, Games and Messages (Signs, Games and Messages), collections for violin, violoncello and clarinet, for example, have already been published. Now György Kurtág's solo and chamber music works for oboe and cor anglais are available, which deserve a closer look. His writing moves in an interesting field of tension between very precisely notated and very freely intended. Detailed articulation indications, such as various slurs (hierarchically or alternatively conceived), contrast with an extensive renunciation of bar lines or overly precise tempo or rhythm indications. Some ossia passages offer the performer options. In Kurtág's music, the most precise characterization possible is always central: here, a wide variety of verbal indications help, such as più sonore, raddolcendo, con slancio, disperato, pochiss. più intenso or again and again rubato and parlando.

The most extensive and best-known work in the collection is In Nomine - all'ongheresea magnificent monody that exists in a slightly different form for numerous instruments. But some shorter pieces also deserve in-depth study, such as the Sappho fragment or the two-part Hommage à Elliott Carter. In the chamber music works, a clarinet instrument is often added (in no less than three cases it is the contrabass clarinet). As a very short duo, the fierce Versetto for cor anglais and bass clarinet, but also the infinitely slow and (except for a brief outburst) infinitely quiet Rozsnyai Ilona in memoriam for cor anglais and contrabass clarinet. The two duos for soprano and oboe and cor anglais are also extremely poetic, Lorand Gaspar: Désert and Angelus Silesius: The Ros'. All the works in this extraordinary and magnificent collection are dedicated to Heinz Holliger, who penned the other edition, which is reported on here.

His collection consists of ten duos for oboe and harp, which were originally composed for his own use. They are playful, sometimes very short works, birthday presents for Robert Suter, Elliott Carter or Peter-Lukas Graf, for example, some of which have now also been arranged for other melody instruments (flute, carinette, saxophone). Two longer and very demanding pieces stand out at first glance from the "Albumblätter-Miniaturen": firstly, the work that gives the edition its title Un bouquet de penséesdedicated to his esteemed teacher Émile Castagnaud on his 90th birthday, an expansive dialogic song from 1999 for oboe d'amore and harp; on the other hand Surrogò, all'ongheresededicated to György Kurtág in 2006, a buzzing and shimmering composition (these expressions can be found in the subtitle!) of a highly energetic character for cor anglais and harp, which dissolves into a tonal nothingness at the end.

In addition to this extremely worthwhile compilation, the previously published Mobile for oboe and harp. On the one hand, the new edition is indispensable, as significant changes have been made to both the harp and oboe parts. On the other hand, the work now loses a decisive characteristic feature: the twelve short parts were printed on one large page in the first edition and could be played in three different sequences. If now, with the new edition, an entire booklet (in which the three versions are printed one after the other) is played through and, in addition, the transitional fermatas have to be constantly leafed through, the quasi-improvisatory character of the performance, for which the title Mobile stands. The reviewer takes the liberty of recommending that the individual parts be slightly reduced in size and glued onto a large cardboard as in the first edition. With good placement, the two musicians could even play from a music box, which would allow for even more lively and spontaneous interactions.

György Kurtàg: Signs, Games and Messages, solos and chamber music works for oboe and cor anglais, Z. 15 074, ca. Fr. 52.00, Editio Musica Budapest 2018

Heinz Holliger: Un bouquet de pensées, 10 pieces for oboe (oboe d'amore, cor anglais) and harp (individual pieces also for flute/alto flute, clarinet, soprano/alto/tenor saxophone and harp), score and parts ED 9467, € 55.00, Schott, Mainz

id., Mobile, for oboe and harp, playing score ED 5384, € 28.00, Schott, Mainz

The title promises a lot: a compendium on improvising and fantasizing in the 17th and 18th centuries, an almost adventurous undertaking, because the claim is high, since we have no direct evidence of this music-making practice from that time: no records and no MP3s, only notes, reports and treatises. However, the organist Markus Schwenkreis and a group of musicians from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel Research Group for Improvisation) have in fact compiled some very exciting material: on the suspension of a basso continuo line or a fixed bass framework, on cadenzas and preludes, also on dance suites and fugues, on chorale harmonizations and the interludes between song verses and generally on music as a rhetorical art. A detailed bibliography, a glossary and numerous musical examples are included and appended. For the dead theory is, where possible, also translated into living practice. This is what distinguishes this large-format Compendium of the numerous musicological essays on historical improvisation that have been published in recent years. And that seems to me to be the most adventurous and important thing about this book: the knowledge comes from experience; the knowledge has been improvised by the playwrights; it has passed through their fingers, as it were.

To take one example: The formal scheme of a fugue, as it was taught in French organ lessons, always seemed somewhat one-sided to Gaël Liardon, because it had little in common even with the Bachian music it purported to follow. So the organist from Lausanne, a pupil of improvisation pioneer Rudolf Lutz, who died in 2018, examined a different model, that of Johann Pachelbel's light-footed, lucid, seemingly simple and yet highly original fugues. He analyzed them, tried to recreate them improvisationally, came up against his limits, discovered tricks and peculiarities in dealing with them and thus experimented with the analysis. Perhaps this is how Pachelbel himself once developed his method, who knows? This seems to me to be a wonderful basis for a procedure appropriate to the subject matter, a combination of pedagogy and virtuosity - and for improvisation itself finally taking its important place in musicology.

Compendium Improvisation. Fantasizing from historical sources of the 17th and 18th centuries, ed. by Markus Schwenkreis, Basel, 408 pp. Music examples, Fr. 74.00, Schwabe, Basel 2018; ISBN 978-3-7965-3709-7

Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser's book is not a history of folk music, as the author herself states in the foreword, but a four-hundred-page collection of material. Why it still bears this title, however, remains a mystery.

The publication summarizes the life's work of Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser; this is both the strength and the weakness of the book. The variety of topics and the breadth of the collected material is impressive. Hardly anyone has spent so long and so intensively studying the various facets of Swiss folk music, resulting in a unique collection of material that makes this book a must-read for all specialists. From historical evidence to Alpine blessings, types of yodeling, folk songs, the alphorn, brass band music to children's instruments and calendar customs, a wide range of topics are covered. All chapters are accompanied by a wealth of illustrations. The collection is completed acoustically by two CDs with examples of the individual chapters and with melodies, rhythms and noise in calendar customs, making it a remarkable concept that is not only impressive in terms of text, but also visually and sonically.

However, the book has some weaknesses that cloud the positive overall impression. The selection and weighting of the material seems very random. For example, thirteen pages are devoted to cattle bells and cowbells, while the Swiss Yodelling Association is given just one page. Ländler music - after all, one of the central genres of Swiss folk music - is also dealt with on five and a half pages. This weighting would be tolerable if it were somehow justified. However, there is no indication as to why it has been chosen or what is meant by folk music here. The handling of the collected source material is also unsatisfactory. For example, it is claimed that the cow rows in the 18th and 19th centuries were written down without lyrics because the foreign researchers could not do anything with the Swiss dialect, but the fact that Jean-Jacques Rousseau explicitly attributed his example to the bagpipe is omitted. It is also a pity that there are numerous errors of detail. For example, a photo of Stocker Sepp in front of a Swissair plane is dated "around 1925", although Swissair was only founded in 1931, or it is claimed that Bligg's title Folk music had been in the hit parade for weeks, which cannot be confirmed on the basis of the Swiss hit parade lists.

What is most disappointing, however, is that most of the chapters are stuck in the 1970s and 1980s and have hardly been updated - and if they have, then with a few, carelessly researched sentences. This is particularly noticeable in the chapter on the "Renewal of folk music", which is limited to the 1960s to 1980s and barely mentions the last 25 years, during which Swiss folk music was extremely lively and changed considerably.

The book is therefore highly recommended as a collection of sources for critical specialists, but is less suitable as an overview for beginners.

Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser: History of Swiss folk music, 399 pp., 187 illustrations, 2 CDs, Fr. 64.00, Schwabe, Basel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7965-3853-7

Why another book about music and the brain? is the first question Eckart Altenmüller asks himself. It differs from others, he answers, because it also asks questions about where, how and why. He covers a wide range of topics, with insights into research into the prehistory of music-making, the question of whether animals also make music, emotion research and music therapy. He does all this in a pleasantly unpretentious, clear and well-founded style. The explanations in the continuous text are supplemented by musical examples that can be called up with the help of QR codes.

Altenmüller is a neurologist and, as a flautist, a student of Aurèle Nicolet, i.e. extremely talented both as a musician and as a scientist. He is rightly regarded worldwide as one of the most important representatives of neuromusicology. The fact that reading the book is a great pleasure is also due to the fact that he remains present as a person. He illustrates his theses and theories primarily from his personal experience as a flautist. He has also played numerous examples on his instrument himself. His roots in the Western European, educated middle-class medical tradition are also very noticeable. Inserts to break up the scientific explanations quote personalities such as Grimmelshausen, Proust, Ingeborg Bachmann, Ovid and so on.

The strongest passages in the book are the explanations of the physiological aspects of music-making. Altenmüller not only knows how to explain the latest findings on brain physiology and the sensory aspects of music-making. He also deals with practicing techniques and musicians' illnesses, especially the "musician's cramp", in an enlightening way. He is a little more on the slippery side when it comes to the more humanistic areas of emotional theories and music therapy. A great deal of space is devoted to the more physiological research on goosebumps in music. As Altenmüller himself admits, these are produced more reliably by rather banal things such as scratching on a blackboard. One can therefore wonder how great her knowledge potential for emotion research in music really is.

However, important current models of emotion research in music remain unmentioned or are only touched on in passing. For example, references to David Huron's ethological model or Klaus R. Scherer's component process model and Nico Frijda's emotion theories, which are the starting point for the most important newer models, are likely to be missed. Altenmüller also reflects on music therapy primarily as a physiologist. Some examples of current music therapy research seem unrepresentative or outdated.

Eckart Altenmüller: From Neandertal to the Philharmonie - Why humans cannot live without music, 511 p., € 24.99, Springer, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-8274-1681-0

Dominik Ettlin - The lower jaw is a horseshoe-shaped bone. Its two ends form the temporomandibular joints with the base of the skull. The position and movements of the lower jaw are regulated by the activity of the masticatory muscles. Disorders in the temporomandibular joints or muscles usually manifest themselves with clicking or rubbing noises accompanying movement and/or pain, for example when chewing or yawning. Occasionally, the opening of the mouth is restricted (temporomandibular joint blockage). The symptoms typically fluctuate over time and depending on the position of the lower jaw.

The lower jaw is in a relaxed or physiological floating position when the upper and lower teeth do not touch when the lips are closed. Unphysiological movements or postures such as excessive gum chewing, frequent teeth clenching or night-time teeth grinding can promote overloading of the masticatory system. The lower jaw also adopts a persistently unphysiological position when playing certain wind instruments or singing. Popular expressions such as "doggedly approaching a task" or "gritting your teeth and getting through it" or "chewing on a problem" reveal the close link between chewing muscle tension and emotions. Accordingly, emotional stress can also lead to tension and discomfort in the masticatory apparatus.

Good quality scientific studies on the subject of temporomandibular joint complaints in musicians are few and far between. In a Dutch study, music students complained more frequently than medical students of complaints in the areas of hands, shoulders, neck and jaw. A survey of 210 students found a significantly higher risk of developing temporomandibular joint complaints in those who played wind instruments compared to musicians of other instruments. An even more detailed analysis of the distribution of complaints by instrument was provided by a survey of 408 professional musicians from two classical orchestras in Germany. Because making music with woodwind instruments (flute, bassoon, clarinet and oboe) requires a persistently unphysiological lower jaw posture, it is not surprising that functional disorders and pain in the temporomandibular joint were described more frequently in this group. What is surprising, however, is that similar complaints were experienced just as frequently by people who played stringed instruments.

Other risk factors such as night-time teeth grinding and persistent jaw clenching could at least partially explain this observation. This is because these risk factors frequently describe people under stress, which in turn is associated with increased chewing muscle tone and jaw and facial pain. Around half of 93 professional violinists in Portugal reported suffering from stage fright, with a clear correlation with jaw joint pain. Excessive singing is also thought to be a possible cause of TMJ, but reliable data is not available.

In summary, musicians complain of jaw complaints with variable frequency. According to currently known data, these cannot be clearly attributed to playing a particular type of instrument. However, the impairment is highest for singers and wind instrument players. Health-promoting training is now recommended at music training centers. Instruction on recognizing stress and tension during training is useful, as young musicians, for example, suffer more from stage fright than experienced musicians. It also makes sense to impart knowledge about tinnitus and other hearing disorders, which are frequently associated with jaw problems, at an early stage. Both preventively and therapeutically, the focus is on dealing with emotional stress, optimizing body awareness and learning relaxation techniques.

PD Dr. med., Dr. med. dent. Dominik Ettlin Interdisciplinary pain consultation

Center for Dentistry,

University of Zurich Plattenstrasse 11, 8032 Zurich

The references can be found in the online version of the article at:

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"Instead of patting an artist on the back with an award after the fact, we are now investing more of the money available to us in the future," said Urs Schnell, Director of FONDATION SUISA, a year ago, explaining the new funding policy adopted by the Foundation Board. The aim is to promote rather than judge and "to focus more on the future".

No sooner said than done. The first call for applications for "Get Going!" resulted in over 90 applications. This huge interest in something completely new was simply overwhelming for him, says Schnell. "We really struck a chord with the times. We couldn't have expected it to this extent, as such an openly formulated call for applications was an innovative shot in the dark despite all the analysis."

Bertrand Denzler, Michael Künstle, Beat Gysin and the duo Eclecta (Andrina Bollinger and Marena Whitcher) were the first recipients of the "Get Going!" award. They were awarded CHF 25,000 each because they were able to convince the expert jury with their creative visions. As the start-up funding is not tied to a result, it allows the musicians to work free from financial and time pressure. "I believe that in an increasingly hectic environment, time has become a precious commodity that should not be underestimated," says Schnell, explaining one of the advantages of "Get Going!".

Call for applications "Get Going!" 2019 from the end of June

From the end of June, creators, authors and musicians who can demonstrate a clear connection to current Swiss or Liechtenstein music creation can once again apply for a "Get Going!" contribution. In 2019, four such start-up grants of CHF 25,000 each will be awarded by an expert jury.

It is also important to mention that "Get Going!" neither competes with nor affects FONDATION SUISA's other funding programs, in particular the current application system, existing partnerships, trade fairs and events abroad and classroom music-making.

"On the contrary," explains Schnell, "the new model is an important start-up aid that complements the previous funding. We want to identify new creative spaces and prevent certain projects from falling between a rock and a hard place in future."

Urs Schnell knows that the deliberately open wording of the "Get Going!" call for proposals could be a little confusing at first: "In recent decades, musicians have been conditioned by traditional funding instruments to think in terms of applications. Our aim with the new focus is to move towards the artists as a funding body in order to bring free creative thinking back into focus with this reversal." To demonstrate the possibilities of "Get Going!", portraits of the recipients of last year's "Get Going!" grants will therefore be published on the FONDATION SUISA website as well as on the SUISA blog over the next few weeks.

> www.fondation-suisa.ch

> www.suisablog.ch

The Haute Ecole de Musique Vaud Valais Friborg (HEMU) is an educational institution recognized for its demanding and comprehensive training, as well as for its complicity with professional circles and its commitment to musical life. Multidisciplinary and multi-style, it covers all training profiles in classical, jazz and contemporary music. The HEMU is located in the heart of Europe and French-speaking Switzerland, and offers university-level education to more than 500 students of 39 different nationalities. Emphasizing both theory and practice, its Bachelor's and Master's study programs are established in such a way as to promote good access to the professional world. Its teaching staff, made up of many internationally renowned artists, guarantees its students high-level supervision. Historically present in the Lausanne Conservatory (before the Bologna reform), classical music has been taught at the HEMU for more than 150 years. Alongside it, the jazz and contemporary music departments, offered exclusively in French-speaking Switzerland, were created in 2006 and 2016 respectively. tradition, creation, research and development always with the aim of achieving, and helping to achieve, excellence. Each year, the HEMU produces more than 300 public performances: concerts, workshops, etc. The masterclasses given by prestigious musicians and the partnerships concluded with world-renowned institutions provide students with rewarding educational experiences and, above all, allow them to create a network. Its Bachelor and Master studies are accredited by the Swiss Confederation and recognized internationally. Since 2009, the HEMU has been part of the 'Music and Performing Arts' area of the Western Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (HES-SO), the largest network of higher professional training in Switzerland, which had nearly 21,000 students. at the start of the 2018-2019 school year.

Matthias von Orelli - Noémie L. Robidas, violonist and until now Director of the Living Spectacle Department of the Toulouse Institute of Fine Arts, is the new General Director of these two institutions. Québécoise, she is the beneficiary of a wealth of professional experience as a musician, teacher, researcher and director of the establishment.

Madame la Directeur, I am delighted that you have taken the time to talk to us. You took over the management a few months ago. What are your first impressions?

I am happy and delighted to be at the bar of such a great musician who welcomes musicians from a very young age until they receive their Master's degree. I have the impression of being able to contribute to an ecosystem of music. I found the professorial and administrative teams motivated and ready to work at the HEMU-CL. I also got to know the students, who are many and full of talent! This is a great source of inspiration for me!

You have known Switzerland for a long time. Has your perception of the country changed since you took up this new post?

Switzerland is a country where I've been living permanently for a dozen years and which I actually feel close to, probably because of my Swiss origins. However, from a professional point of view, I feel more at home in the Swiss countryside than in France, where I spent the last 7 years. I believe that this is due to the fact that the values of simplicity and accessibility to the hierarchy have been restored there, but this doesn't mean that the functions are disrespected. I also hope to see this collective search for consensus in Switzerland. However, the emphasis is different! (rires)

You are confronted with an institution that has gone through a period of crisis and tension, which has forced the former director to resign. Has this affected your work?

I would like to inform you that this does not affect my work at all. I'll help the team to hoist the big cloud after the break. Some people are still worried that the wind will blow again, but that's normal. What I sense is that the whole world wants to see what's ahead! This accompaniment to change is inherent in all new governance, it is a challenge that I am ready to tackle!

You are originally from Canada and have been working in France for a long time: what are the differences - or similarities?

I got to know the music scene in Switzerland through the network of conservatories and music schools, where I had the opportunity to continue my training for many years. I was also initiated into the new developments in music at the school after a 6-month replacement at the HEP-Bejune. As far as the musical scene itself is concerned, I would like to get to know it now. I think that musicians in Switzerland, like in Europe, have the chance to have the support of the state, many musical structures and a public that appreciates art and culture. In the North of America, musicians often have to carry out all their projects and initiatives independently. Entrepreneurial qualities are almost as important as talent for a musician's success.

You have a very international career. How do you perceive the Hautes Ecoles de Musique Suisse in an international comparison?

There are many establishments that offer high quality training programs which, according to me, are highly competitive internationally, which also explains our great attractiveness and the fact that our students come from all over the world!

The Swiss music schools are also facing some major challenges. What are the most important and urgent ones in your opinion?

I believe that the main challenge for the future of our schools lies in their ability to adapt to a constantly changing professional environment. Our higher education institutions must not only be attuned to the needs of their students, but also anticipate the context in which their graduates will be confronted in the next 10-15-20 years. Nowadays, it is no longer enough to be an excellent instrumentalist to succeed and live music. It is therefore necessary to provide our students with a wide range of skills to ensure their professional success. To this end, we must also question certain of our pedagogical habits and revise our study plans carefully.

Recently, a Swiss journal declared that many musicians often live for music, but not from music. In Switzerland, few people choose music as a profession. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that children in Switzerland are not specialized from a very young age, which is essential for music, but they are offered different options. On the other hand, many Swiss people are not only able to live "for" music, they want to live "from" music. Where do you see your school in this context?

This is a big question! I believe that the HEMU-CL has a role to play in boosting the Swiss music ecosystem in Switzerland by better supporting the talents of the region. Present in the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg, I believe more than ever that the HEMU-CL must act in synergy with conservatoires and music schools so that we can create a desire among young people to surpass themselves by providing them with models, by creating mentoring systems, by encouraging the teachers and directors of the various institutions to work even harder in the classroom. We need to find ideas of competition for ideas of complementarity.

Digitalization is an omnipresent topic. Where do you see the opportunities of this technology for your high school?

I would like to point out that we are a little behind schedule on this front. Whether it's digital learning environments, applications, the creation of digital learning communities or working in a recording studio, there are several opportunities to explore that are efficient and much more accessible than one might think. Furthermore, we will be inaugurating a large-scale studio in Flon this spring! However, we must ensure that all these technological innovations remain at the service of education and music.

You said that you want a constructive dialog within the institution and that innovation and creativity are just as important to you as excellence. What does this mean in terms of concrete implementation?

I believe that today we do not represent all the ecological and social issues of the future. In this sense, while excellence remains for me a fundamental value for the HEMU-CL, it seems to me primordial to create musicians who are more open to the issues of the world today and capable of contributing to the evolution of our society through their art. Concretely, we must teach them to diversify their practices in terms of aesthetics, we must provoke encounters with other forms of art, with contemporary creation, with diverse publics. The students must certainly learn to defend a musical heritage, an aesthetic and their instrument, but they must also develop an inventiveness that must always be renewed. This is one of our biggest challenges as a school!

Although I like several musical styles, my heart always comes back to an inexhaustible source of inspiration: Jean-Sébastien Bach... and, being a trained violinist, when I have a little free time (laughs), I dive back into happiness in the manuscript version of his Sonatas and partitas. His simple pen already lets the music be heard.