When you read that the composer Martha von Castelberg (1892-1971) received neither piano nor composition lessons, listening to the CD with her motets as well as secular and sacred songs makes you wonder: if Lili Boulanger had written her song cycle Clairières dans le ciel without regular composition lessons, Fanny Hensel wrote her piano work The year be able to write without many years of piano lessons? Does self-taught learning of an instrument lead you to discover new paths, and could it be that composing without studying with a teacher prevents you from following well-trodden stylistic paths?

Castelberg's songs, but not her motets, lead one to believe that a trained craftsman would have been more conducive to her composing and that her undoubted talent could have unfolded more freely. One has the feeling that her songs are accompanied somewhat simply by the piano and that a little pianistic sophistication would also suit the sacred texts.

Who was Martha von Castelberg? The Zurich native grew up as the daughter of a private banker in a strictly Catholic middle-class home. She received violin lessons at an early age, but was not allowed to study music despite her talent. As Sibylle Ehrismann writes in her informative CD booklet, von Castelberg, who was very devout and spiritually interested, campaigned with her husband for Zurich Catholicism, which had a difficult time in the reformed city. Many of her compositions have a religious background, others have a connection to Disentis in Graubünden, her husband's homeland.

The four singers and the pianist interpret the songs with audible commitment, rich in color and finely crafted. If you listen to all the songs, which are quite attractive individually, one after the other, a certain monotony sets in, especially with the sacred songs, as the works are not varied enough. It is remarkable that there are hardly any other settings of the chosen texts - for example by Fontane, Rückert, Bergengruen and Rhaeto-Romanic poets.

The real discovery on the CD, however, are the five motets for mixed voices. They are interpreted by the Basel larynx vocal ensemble under the direction of Jakob Pilgram at the highest level, with a beautiful sound and with every desirable differentiation. Although firmly anchored in the tradition of sacred music, the motets fascinate with their distinctive, "modern" harmony. They are probably Martha von Castelberg's most important contribution to Swiss music of the 20th century.

The names, work titles and song texts in the booklet contain quite a few errors, which is particularly noticeable in an otherwise so careful edition.
 

You could dryly call it "contributions to biographical research". But Werner Grünzweig's "Conversations with six composers and one female composer about their student days" offers far more than subjective retrospectives of composers who have since become successful. If you read the interviews with Peter Ablinger, Orm Finnendahl, Georg Friedrich Haas, Hanspeter Kyburz, Bernhard Lang, Isabel Mundry and Enno Poppe carefully, you will gain deep, lively and multifaceted insights that say a lot about aesthetic education, psychology and, last but not least, about a certain milieu called New Music.

The Austrian composer and composition professor Gösta Neuwirth is a constant point of reference. From around 1980 to 1990, he was the teacher of all seven portrayed, partly in Graz and later in Berlin. Neuwirth was a liberal patron to whom composition technique meant a lot, but not everything. He talked to his students about films, literature and painting. Hanspeter Kyburz, who grew up in Switzerland, was inspired by his time studying in Graz precisely because of its diversity: "Gosta's lessons were very stimulating, very open, foreign worlds. But what do you do with these aliens that you've seen?"

A central question indeed. Anyone who considers the development of the seven very different composers comes to the conclusion that each of them built their own aesthetic world. Kyburz went in an almost scientific-objective direction, Peter Ablinger pursued a conceptual-boundary-crossing aesthetic, while Georg Friedrich Haas successfully turned to microtonal sound exploration. The fact that he did not develop a school in the sense of Arnold Schönberg clearly speaks in Neuwirth's favor. There are much more rigid composition professors with a much narrower concept of music.

Although Neuwirth is the connecting link, Grünzweig is not primarily concerned with teaching composition. In the interviews - already conducted in 2007 and 2008 - he asks his questions openly, guided by the flow of conversation and tailored to the respective composer. This method leads to a captivating variety of topics and a very personal tone. Even experts on one composer or another will find out something new and be able to read between the lines (especially where names are not mentioned). Looking back to the 1980s is almost melancholy. Back then, there was obviously far more freedom than there is today, when even composition studies are gradually being made more academic. Basically, the book is a plea for liberal openness - an openness that makes self-determined and self-confident paths possible in the first place.

Werner Grünzweig: How is music created? Conversations with six composers and one female composer about their time as students, 200 p., € 19.80, von Bockel-Verlag, Neumünster 2019, ISBN 978-3-95675-026-7

The French opera singer and composer Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) was one of the most versatile artists of the 19th century. At that time, it was hardly possible for women to develop their talents. Nevertheless, she made a name for herself as a singer, composer and woman of the world. As a singer, she was comparable to stars such as Adele or Netrebko, except that she obviously had a far greater vocal range than them. The meetings in her salon with famous contemporaries such as Franz Liszt or Clara and Robert Schumann must have been legendary and only begin to show what an interesting personality she must have been. As a woman of today, one always searches in vain for female role models in the past. In the case of Pauline Viardot, one is rewarded and in this project her legacy as a composer is to be fully appreciated and, above all, heard!

Aurea Marston, Cornelia Lenzin, Simona Mango and Nicolaia Marston would like to celebrate Viardot's 200th birthday with a semi-staged concert in May 2021. Her songs, duets and song arrangements will play the main role. They will be complemented by other songs and duets by composers from her circle of friends (e.g. Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt or Clara and Robert Schumann). In addition to the music, the performers also want to bring the composer's life and times to life with a great deal of humor. A light-footed staging gives the program a narrative thread and a humorous touch. The aim is to bring this wonderful music of the Romantic period to a wide audience.

In times of Corona, traditional fundraising has left the performers high and dry, which is why they looked for new ways to finance the project and started crowdfunding:
www.lokalhelden.ch/concerts
 

The library of Engelberg Abbey holds a printed part from 1764, written by Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee (1720-1789) from Lucerne, who composed the four concerti for harpsichord or organ and orchestra. His life, which ended in the year of the French Revolution, was shaped by his patrician lineage. His parents inherited Schauensee Castle above Kriens and henceforth called themselves Meyer von Schauensee. (This castle, painted by Mara Meier, is emblazoned on the cover pictures of the scores).

Joseph's musical family gave him singing and organ lessons from the age of five, so that the precocious boy was soon able to substitute for his teacher at the organs of the Hofkirche St. Leodegar in Lucerne. He learned to play the violin and cello at monastery schools in St. Gallen. Back in Lucerne, he taught himself the basics of composition and created music for the Jesuit school theater as early as 1738. The young man spent 1740-41 in Milan. Impressed by the glittering musical life and the works of the Neapolitan school (Feo, Leo, Pergolesi), he acquired further virtuosity on the violin and harpsichord, which made him a popular composer. Chamber Sonatas for the Clavecin which have unfortunately been lost.

After his return, his father organized an officer's position for him with the King of Sardinia-Piedmont. But despite his military duties, he found time to compose. The cold and wet weather in the mountains and the storms on the Mediterranean inspired him to write future works. His later positions in Lucerne as Grand Councillor and supervisor of the Reis-Waage left him enough time for music; he conducted and played the organ in Engelberg, Muri, St. Gallen, Beromünster and was called in as an organ expert in Rheinau. From the age of 32, he retired from secular offices and concentrated on spiritual and musical tasks at St. Leodegar Abbey. In 1760 he founded the first public Collegium musicum and in 1775 he founded the Helvetic Concorde Society, an association that propagated the national unity of the Old Swiss Confederacy. His music was highly regarded during his lifetime - even father and son Mozart performed his church music - and his virtuosity and imagination were praised. However, with the political and cultural upheavals following Meyer's death, his music sank into oblivion.

Now the Solothurn organist Hans-Rudolf Binz has carefully re-edited the four concerti mentioned above to mark the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth. Each of the three-movement works has a special character. The first concludes virtuosically with a prestissimo ed alla breve, the second calls for martellato and sospirando, the third is a Christmas concerto with piverone (bagpipe) pedal tones and allegretto ed amoroso lullaby, the fourth Il Molino rapid apeggios imitate the rattling of a mill. Concerti II and III require two horns ad lib in addition to the strings. The editor has included printed solutions for the cadenzas requested by the composer in I and IV.

The introduction and revision report in German, French and English provide detailed information about the composer and his contemporary history (the biographical details given here are based on this), performance and editorial practice. The works were recorded as early as 1949 on Radio Bern by Eugen Huber, who also carefully added missing parts (a pity that these additions are missing in the new edition!), and in 1975 with Philippe Laubscher and François Pantillon on record. The beautiful new material inspires new performances!

Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee: Quattro Concerti armonici d'Organo o di Cembalo op. 8, parte 1ma.
Concerto I in C major, M&S 2367
Concderto II in D major, M&S 2368
Concerto III in G major, M&S 2369
Concerto IV in A major "il molino", M&S 2370
Score I, II, IV/III: Fr. 38.00/22.00, piano reduction Fr. 28.00/18.00, parts Fr. 8.00/5.00 each;
Müller & Schade, Berne

The name Albert Moeschinger only appears sporadically in concert programs in Switzerland, and he seems to be almost unknown to the younger generation of musicians. He was born in Basel in 1897, where he also went to school and then - in accordance with his father's wishes - began an apprenticeship as a banker. However, he soon abandoned this and devoted himself to music studies in Bern, Leipzig and Munich. He initially earned his living as a coffee house musician and later as a teacher at the Bern Conservatory.

As a composer, Moeschinger explored the most diverse styles and created an oeuvre of over 100 opus numbers in almost all genres. Prominent soloists such as Walter Gieseking played his piano concertos, while Hermann Scherchen, Paul Sacher and other conductors championed his orchestral works.

For health reasons, Moeschinger gave up his teaching position in Bern in 1943 and subsequently lived as a freelance artist in Saas Fee, Ascona and Thun, where he died in 1985.

Why is his music so rarely performed today? It cannot be due to its quality. His piano concertos and works for solo piano in particular reveal an extremely skillful use of the instrument's possibilities. And so one can only be grateful that the publisher Müller & Schade has published the Sonatina op. 66 has been newly published. A varied three-movement work on a total of 13 pages, which is reminiscent of Ravel's Sonatine pour piano, and not only because of its short length. In Ravel's case, too, the title does not refer to a student piece, but rather a deliberate, economical reduction of the temporal dimension.

The pianistic demands are not overly great, and the piano writing is generally very good. Some passages require skillful crossing of the hands (which is sometimes a little awkward in Ravel's work ...). Despite the deliberate reduction of compositional means, the three movements are very different in character and sound, so that the impression of a rich musical parcours remains in one's memory.

Hopefully the publisher Müller &Schade will publish more such trouvailles by Moeschinger in the future. (So far available for piano are: Kleine Klavierstücke M&S 1999, Danses américaines M&S 2095, Fête de capricorne, M&S 2107). And then perhaps also with some accompanying text and further information on this exciting musician.

Albert Moeschinger: Sonatina for piano op. 66, M&S 2144, Fr. 12.00, Müller & Schade, Bern

Outside the French cultural sphere, the two string quartets op. 112 (1899) and op. 153 (1918) by Camille Saint-Saëns lead a marginal existence. The works of other French composers are too dominant, above all the epochal milestones of the genre by Claude Debussy (op. 10, 1893) and Maurice Ravel (F major, 1904). But the contributions of Darius Milhaud, Gabriel Fauré and César Franck have not been completely forgotten either.

Saint-Saëns is a phenomenon in music history. Like Max Bruch, he never left the path of tonality and some of his works sound out of time. However, while Bruch's Quintet in A minor and Octet in B flat major from 1918/19, for example, could have been written 60 years earlier, the French composer's two string quartets in E minor (1899) and G major (1918) clearly show traits of their time of composition. Saint-Saëns was quite open-minded towards Gustav Mahler and other modernists who followed on from late Romanticism, while he described those who overturned the known laws and forms, such as Igor Stravinsky, Debussy and the group Les Six, as "madmen".

His music is always technically flawless, characterized by great sophistication and ingenuity as well as captivating melodies. At the same time, it is always closely linked to tradition and anchored in the formal principles that have evolved over the centuries. At the same time, however, it is full of surprises, brilliant ideas and effects that cannot be found elsewhere. It thus characterizes the individualist Saint-Säens, who has often been unjustly called backward simply because he did not want to follow the upheavals of the 20th century. For he constantly mutated in his own style, the only one available to him, even if he occasionally chose to go backwards. It is also possible to be innovative in an ancestral language that makes its roots recognizable. It should not be forgotten that the composer was a fiery pianist and musician to the very end.

The two quartets are very different. Due to its length of 30 minutes alone, the 1st String Quartet towers above its counterpart of Haydnian brevity, written almost a generation later. The Bärenreiter publisher's announcement states that the form and style of the quartets refer (among other things) to the aesthetics of this great father of the genre. This is sometimes shockingly true in the 2nd Quartet, but as a sales argument or stigma - depending on how you look at it - it falls far too short. The composer always corrects and counteracts this closeness immediately with the unexpected, for example with grandiose, complex fugal techniques. In the more traditional late work, the deeply felt slow movement is particularly engaging, which can certainly be understood as an allusion to the devastation and sadness of the time. The 1st Quartet, much played by the great stars of the string scene in the French-speaking world immediately after its publication (e.g. by Eugène Ysaÿe and Pablo Sarasate), is nothing less than an unqualified masterpiece. With its rich harmonies, counterpoint and effect passages, rhythmically gripping like the Scherzo, grateful strings and full of passionate melody, it deserves its rightful place alongside the works of the famous late Romantics.

Camille Saint-Saëns: String Quartet No. 1 in E minor op. 112, parts, BA 10927, € 32.95; String Quartet No. 2 in G major op. 153, parts, BA 10928, € 34.95; No. 1 + 2, study score, TP 779, € 29.95; Bärenreiter, Kassel

The eight miniatures for two violins by Rudolf Kelterborn have a total performance time of seven minutes - plus the "clear relaxation pauses" recommended by the composer. The Eight ideasas he calls them, can be performed in any order, which is why the scores are printed on single sheets. The demanding complementary-rhythmic formations require great presence of mind. The technical demands are varied and very stimulating. When ideas are expressed, there are pauses for thought; accordingly, fermatas are often prescribed on rests or sounds (sometimes even the duration in seconds!). Excitement, vocal tranquillity, exact busyness and homophonic dance alternate.

Rudolf Kelterborn, born in 1931 - "composer, musical thinker, mediator", as Andreas Briner calls him in the title of his book published in 1993 - dedicated these duos to Bettina Boller and Malwina Sosnowski.

Rudolf Kelterborn: Eight ideas for two violins (2018), BA 11408, € 28.50, Bärenreiter, Kassel

John W. Duarte was an Englishman through and through, so he was always a little annoyed that his name was pronounced by non-English speakers - Du-árte instead of Djú-ǝtsen. Although this was almost inevitable for an internationally active guitarist and composer who cultivated friendships with people like Andrés Segovia and Antonio Lauro. He was an organizer, editor, reviewer, a well-known figure in London music life and doyen of the British guitar scene, sharp-tongued but friendly. His veston and pipe were reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. After every guitar concert that took place in the famous Wigmore Hall, his disciples would gather around him in the pub for a convivial debriefing.

The album, which has now been compiled in honor of the man who died in 2004 at the age of 85, comprises 20 pieces for solo guitar, all of which were published by Duarte in the seventies and eighties, including three of his own compositions. These are lively, colorful, sometimes a little quirky with their tonality broken by sharp seconds and transverse chords. It is surprising how adequately Duarte transferred Gaspar Sanz or Alonso Mudarra's tablatures to the guitar even back then. His clear interpretative ideas can be easily understood from the bar setting, the slurs and the seamless fingering.

The musical notation has been copied one-to-one from the earlier editions, including printing errors. The scordatura indications are missing for some pieces. In addition to much early music, not least by John Dowland, transcriptions by Domenico Scarlatti are well represented, and some lighter, beautiful-sounding numbers, for example by Rodrigo Riera, invite you to dream. A short study by Reginald Smith Brindle sounds the most modern. Overall, the volume is John W. Duarte - A Celebration of His Music for Guitar a beautiful tribute to a striking personality as well as a varied guitar album that invites you to browse through the music.

John W. Duarte : A Celebration of His Music for Guitar, selected by Paul Coles, UE 29201, € 14.95, Universal Edition, Vienna

Johann Sebastian Bach prefaced some of his cantatas with a sinfonia as an instrumental introduction instead of an opening chorus. These are always chamber music gems with often unusual instrumentation.

The present Concertino a 5 now combines the symphonies of the cantatas BWV 18 and 152 (As the rain and snow fall from the sky and Step onto the path of faith) into a three-movement instrumental work. In order to make the combination of the pieces possible, the instrumentation had to be coordinated. That of the cantata introduction to BWV 152 with alto recorder, oboe, viola (originally viola d'amore), viola da gamba and basso continuo was adopted unchanged. The original instrumentation of the Sinfonia of BWV 18 was quite unusual with four violas and continuo; in the revival it was even reinforced by two partially colla parte octave recorders. Major changes have now been made to this piece: the two original upper viola parts have been transferred to the recorder and oboe with partly altered octave positions or exchanged parts, and the viola da gamba and viola da gamba have been included in the motif. Minor technical retouching on both string instruments completes the preparation for this new and attractive instrumentation.

The rearranged Sinfonia now forms the first movement of this concertino, in which falling rain and snow are musically depicted in the character of a chaconne. The Adagio from BWV 152 in the middle movement, which is only four bars long and features finely chiseled upper voices, leads to one of the few instrumental fugues in Bach's cantata works.

The question arises as to whether it is legitimate to make such major interventions in a work. There are three reasons for this: Bach himself dealt with his compositions in a similarly free manner and changed instrumentation, just as a free approach to instrumentation was common at the time. Secondly, all the changes are plausibly explained and carefully documented. And thirdly, two independent symphonies are thus combined to form a new work that represents an absolute enrichment of the chamber music literature in terms of sound and composition.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Concertino a 5 after instrumental movements from Weimar church cantatas, for treble recorder, oboe, viola da braccio, viola da gamba and b.c., edited by Klaus Hofmann, EW 1085, € 21.80, Edition Walhall, Magdeburg

Martin Neukom - The Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology ICST is one of the two research institutes of the ZHdK Music Department. It employs 15 people, mostly in part-time positions, who work on a wide variety of research projects. The institute has research rooms, studios and offices in the Toni-Areal. From the various areas of specialization of the staff, such as engineering, perception, computer science, mathematics, sound engineering, generative art, media art, musicology, music theory, performance and composition, projects are developed in which the relationship between technology and musical practice is examined in an examination of the tradition of contemporary and electro-acoustic music using scientific and artistic research methods. Current research areas of the ICST are Interfaces & Augmented Instruments, Network-Based Composition and Performance Systems, Interactive Movement and Music, Musical Notation and Representation, Sonification/Acoustic Ecology and Immersive and Virtual Environments.

As different as the projects are, so different are the resources required and the methods used. Accordingly, applications could be programmed and texts written without any problems last semester, but the opportunities to use infrastructure, rehearse, carry out experiments or invite external scientists and composers were very limited. It became clear that not only the (digital) exchange between researchers is important, but also the processing and archiving of research results. The following examples show how individual research groups have responded to these particular challenges.

"The Art of Diagram", the successor to the SNSF project "Sound Color Space - A Virtual Museum" (https://www.zhdk.ch/forschungsprojekt/sound-colour-space-426348), has made great progress. Daniel Muzzulini's international team is working on historical diagrams from antiquity through the Middle Ages to modern times that explore and illustrate the concepts of sound, tone, pitch and timbre. A large collection of diagrams and accompanying scientific texts was published in a virtual museum in 2017 and made accessible for further research. Last semester, ICST decided to publish the results under the title "The Art of Diagram" in Gold Open Access ePub format (online and print). At the same time, the content of the virtual museum is being updated and new forms of presentation are being developed. Musicologists from various European countries and the USA are very interested in participating in this publication project. ZOOM meetings, which are hosted and documented by Susan F. Weiss (Baltimore), serve to exchange research results. In order to institutionalize this collaboration, Daniel Muzzulini and Susan F. Weiss have applied for the research group to be accepted as a Study Group Musical Diagrams of the International Musicological Society IMS.

The SNSF research project "Performing Live Electronic Music" (2018-2022, led by Germán Toro Pérez) did not have any significant restrictions, as this six-month period was intended as a documentation phase in which the team wrote detailed reports on the 12 compositions realized so far and completed the audio and video documentation. This was mainly done from the home office, which worked well. Some planned recording dates for the next SACD had to be postponed. The 12 articles will be published in the "Performance Practice Database" by the end of August.

Lucas Bennett and Tobias Gerber have worked with the Media and Information Center MIZ to develop a concept for recording and archiving the materials from the ICST residencies and are in the process of recording the data sets in the MADEK media archive. The SNSF project "Haptic Technology and Evaluation for Digital Musical Interfaces" (HAPTEEV) focuses on the development and evaluation of digital musical interfaces with haptic feedback. Current research topics are design, vibration characterization and experimental evaluation of both new and extended commercial interfaces. The technical work and measurements could be carried out when the ICST workshop could be used again. However, a planned experiment with ZHdK students as participants had to be postponed. Programmers and composers have been working on the development of tools for the production and reproduction of 3D sound since the ICST was founded. Last year, Johannes Schütt and Christian Schweizer developed the ICST Ambisonics Plugins version 2.0 (https://ambisonics.postach.io/page/icst-ambisonics-plugins). Programming and testing were completed. Practical tests with composition students and guest composers, who have their own procedures and sound ideas, are very important for assessing the usability of these plugins and the documented workflows. Unfortunately, these tests had to be postponed.

Martin Neukom

... is a lecturer at the DMU of the ZHdK and a research assistant at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology.

Actualités et perspectives de recherche à la HEM de Genève

Rémy Campos - For several years now, the Haute école de musique de Genève has been supporting research projects in all the artistic fields covered by its courses. We will mention just three of the most recent.

Le premier est un projet international consistant à imaginer un outil informatique d'aide à l'orchestration. Intitulé ACTOR (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration), il a été initié par Stephen Mac Adams (McGill University) et associe des universités, des centers de recherche et des écoles d'art en Amérique du Nord et en Europe. In Geneva, Éric Daubresse has animated a team of teachers and students in composition (following the departure of our colleague in October 2018, it is Gilbert Nouno who has taken over responsibility for the project). The originality of the logiciel is that it allows you to test combinations of timbres using your computer as a virtual orchestra.

In a completely different field, William Dongois has succeeded in exploring the secrets of a treatise on music written by Silvestro Ganassi and published in Venice in 1535: La Fontegara. Premier ouvrage consacré uniquely à l'art de la diminution, il expose l'art d'orner les mélodies qui s's perdu au cours des siècles. With the help of numerous partners and by bringing together artists and researchers together with musicians in training, the project has varied the approaches from the conception of a logic of analysis of the forms of diminution to a dialogue with the musical traditions of Renaissance Italy (India, the Balkans, etc.).

Finally, the project realized by Jérôme Albert Schumacher focuses on the use of digital tools in a pedagogical context. The aim of the study is to define the place and role that instrument and chant teachers give to new teaching tools. The present study is a review of the different uses in music schools of the resources and tools available, with a particular focus on digital technologies (applications for smartphones and/or tablets).

We can ask ourselves to what extent the current health crisis can disrupt the work of the committed teams. The ambitious projects do not rely on an intense circulation of ideas and people? The remote working tools that we have all experienced over the past few months have already shown that the reduction in mobility should not be a limiting factor for large collaborative companies. In addition, artistic research - like the musical practice it focuses on - requires regular meetings with the public. In this field, too, the limits are never forgotten.

It is therefore important to note that, in the years to come, artistic research, of which innovation is the private domain, is set to enter a period in which the forms of the musician's profession will have to be reinvented.

Rémy Campos

... is coordinateur de la recherche à l'HEM.

News from the Institute of Interpretation at Bern University of the Arts

Martin Skamletz - In 2019, Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH set up a repository for research publications, which are increasingly available in open access, and renamed the previous research focuses of Bern University of the Arts BUA as institutes. The resulting Institute of Interpretation continues to focus its activities on externally funded projects and does everything in its power to make its findings fruitful in the long term within the university and in collaboration with external partners. For example, the "Geisterhand" project series on interpretation recordings on Welte and other paper rolls as "Magic Piano" has entered the phase of broad-based mediation activities as part of an Agora project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF - under the leadership of Thomas Gartmann, who is also involved in projects relating to the archive of the Swiss Association of Musicians STV and a collection of bootleg recordings from the 1970s to 2000s from New York opera houses acquired by the BUA. There will be an online conference on this at the beginning of September, while an international Welte networking event in collaboration with Stanford University - already planned for last June but postponed for obvious reasons - will hopefully take place in Bern and at the Museum für Musikautomaten Seewen in 2021.

Another Agora project based on a series of projects on historical wind instruments dating back to the beginnings of HKB research will soon be completed. It has developed the special exhibition "Fresh Wind" at the Klingendes Museum Bern, which is headed by Adrian v. Steiger in personal union with the HKB research field "Musical Instruments". The already successful initiatives to offer HKB students the opportunity to play on historical instruments from the museum are currently being put on a long-term footing through foundation funding.

The lecturers in music theory are also very active in the transfer of research results into teaching, participating in projects on the institutional development of theory teaching in the 19th century together with the musicologist Claudio Bacciagaluppi in the research field of the same name.

The research field "Performance and Interpretation" is coordinated by Annette Kappeler, who is herself conducting research into a hitherto little-known northern Italian theater of the early 19th century as part of an SNSF project. We are celebrating the Beethoven Year in collaboration with the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in the form of a symposium "Beethoven and the Piano" initiated by Leonardo Miucci at the beginning of November in Lugano.

Recent years have seen an increase in activities relating to "interfaces of contemporary music". They are being developed by Leo Dick, who is investigating "Advanced music theater and collective identity formation in Switzerland since 1945" in his SNF Ambizione project. Roman Brotbeck's Mikroton project in collaboration with the Hochschule für Musik Basel and Chris Walton's examination of Swiss cultural policy in South Africa during apartheid also belong in the context of this field of research. This summer, Andreas Schoenrock took over the further development of the popular music research established by Immanuel Brockhaus in recent years. As head of the MAS Pop & Rock, he will also ensure cooperation with the HKB continuing education program. The doctoral program "Studies in the Arts" in collaboration with the University of Bern is running successfully; in the 2021/22 academic year, the BUA will also begin participating in the artistic-scientific doctoral program of the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz, and further collaborations are being planned.

Martin Skamletz

... is head of the Institute of Interpretation at the HKB.

Wolfgang Böhler* - The Swiss Society for Music Medicine (SMM) brings together under one roof specialists from the fields of medicine and a wide range of therapeutic approaches, as well as scientists and professional musicians. A central concern of the SMM is to encourage constructive dialog between these groups. However, it also wants to help musicians who are struggling with specific health restrictions or are simply interested in putting their music-making on a sustainably healthy footing.

We are proud to have doctors in our circle who can offer medical solutions for music-related illnesses at the highest level. In everyday life, however, people seeking help from the world of music are usually closer to trusted individuals with low-threshold therapy services than medical specialists, who generally have to cope with the hectic pace of clinics or surgeries. The variety of methods, schools and techniques in the therapy jungle can be confusing. The decision in favor of a technique is then often a matter of chance - usually based on personal encounters or recommendations.

With the 18th symposium, the SMM would like to offer those seeking help the opportunity to get to know some of the most important body-oriented approaches in music in one place and at the same time take the opportunity to talk to their representatives without obligation. The therapists should also be able to approach each other on this day. A motto that the American epistemologist Nelson Goodman once coined for philosophy should apply here: those offering therapies should no longer be judged according to which schools and world views they represent, but for which problems they develop solutions.

A world premiere to kick things off

We are delighted to announce that we will be opening the symposium with an unusual world premiere. It is a highly interesting work by the clarinettist and saxophonist Fabio da Silva, who is currently studying at the HKB. Rugueux 2, a game between live performance and pre-produced sounds for baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, is a low-frequency performance accompanied by a pre-produced tape. The instruments, which mix very well, especially in the low frequencies, approach microtonally specific frequencies. Multiple sounds are filtered, creating stronger and weaker frictions.

*The music psychologist and music producer Wolfgang Böhler has been President of the SMM since January of this year.

In cooperation with the Swiss Performers' Foundation SIS, the Bern University of the Arts HKB, the Swiss Music Pedagogical Association SMPV and the Swiss Association of Music Schools VMS.

Various recognized and proven forms of body-oriented approaches in music will be presented on stage and at tables. Keynote speakers are Klaus Scherer (music psychologist and founder of the Geneva Center Interfacul-taire en Sciences Affectives) and Günther Bernatzky (founder of the Salzburg Pain Institute and board member of the Austrian Society for Music and Medicine).

Saturday, October 24, 2020, 9.50 a.m. - 5 p.m., Bern University of the Arts, Papiermühlestrasse 13a, 3014 Bern. Costs: SMM members, students and employees of the BUA: CHF 30; non-members CHF 90; first-year students free admission.

The protection concept of the symposium will be adapted to the current pandemic situation and the corresponding cantonal and national regulations and recommendations in a timely manner. There may therefore be changes to the program at short notice.

Information and registration: Phone 032 636 17 71 or www.musik-medizin.ch, registration deadline: October 10, 2020.

More info:

> www.musik-medizin.ch/aktuelles-symposium

Fiona-Olivia Plüss is 17 years old. She has been taking piano lessons at the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich (MKZ) for more than five years, three of them with music teacher Sophie Aeberli. The fact that access to music lessons was so straightforward for her despite having Down's syndrome certainly has something to do with the pragmatic approach taken at the MKZ. There is no specific support or integration program for children with disabilities. The lessons are "inclusive" and - as Sophie Aeberli puts it: "I approached them without fear and with 'Gwunder'."

In conversation with Fiona, her parents and Sophie Aeberli, it becomes clear how beneficial such lessons can be for everyone. Nevertheless, the number of children and young people with disabilities who are taught at music schools is still in the low single-digit percentage range.

Fiona's introduction to the piano was via the melodica. Fiona learned to read music and play a keyboard instrument. When her older sister wanted to take piano lessons, Fiona said: "I want that too!" Anyway, Fiona was always there everywhere. Her parents were strongly committed to the inclusive path. Fiona attended the same regular kindergarten and then elementary school as her sister. Today, she attends the second secondary school class at Zurich's Letzi school with the children from the neighborhood. "That was the best decision," says Fiona's father.

Access to the municipal music school was easy, although neither the website nor other publications refer to the range of inclusive music, dance and theater lessons. A recent survey of teachers at the MKZ revealed that significantly more pupils with disabilities are being taught than was previously known.

Fiona is enthusiastic about her lessons with Sophie Aeberli. She beams when she talks about her piano teacher. In addition to piano lessons, she attends drama lessons with drama teacher Arniko Dross with a group of MKZ pupils. She practices regularly, independently and is proud to have something "for herself". She also really enjoys her auditions. Fiona doesn't really have stage fright, she is in her element on stage. Her mother remarks: "Her older sister would have loved to run away during the audition, but Fiona enjoyed the performance."

We ask her mother whether her musical education has influenced Fiona's development. She says: "I think so. But because she is currently also receiving good support at school, it is difficult to assess what has what effect. André Frank Zimpel, a professor specializing in mental development and disability education at the University of Hamburg, also believes that playing the piano is one of the best ways to promote coordination. It has an effect on the brain, just like singing and dancing."

Sophie Aeberli sees Fiona's great enjoyment of music as the key to her success: "I often let her play. So that she doesn't have the feeling that she has to learn this or that. The point is, we simply get on well as people and meet as equals." For her, there is no separation between special support or didactics and normal lessons. The practice is probably somewhere in the middle.

Did she adapt the piano lessons specifically for Fiona? "We read less music, it takes too much time. Fiona's motor skills are rather tense, but her fingers are strong. Fluency or speed are therefore not her thing, so I prefer to focus on other topics such as sound," reveals the music teacher. It's also important that Fiona doesn't get into stress mode. She has started to play a lot by heart with Fiona, which works well. Sometimes she records what she plays in a kind of graphic notation. Aeberli also encourages her to play together with a friend (who also has Down syndrome). "We deliberately set ourselves smaller goals, but we achieve them."

Inclusion was not an issue during her training as a piano teacher in Lucerne, or at most was only mentioned in passing. Aeberli therefore took a rather pragmatic and intuitive approach to Fiona's lessons. She didn't do much research, but tried out different things. After all, in one-to-one lessons, every pupil is something special and she always responds differently to learning styles and speeds. Now, however, she feels the need for specific further training or an exchange between teachers. One topic that concerns her is the assessment of performance in level tests. Aeberli is critical of purely performance-oriented assessments because the differences between pupils are seen as a weakness and not an asset. If, on the other hand, concerts and level tests are designed as playful, motivating moments of making music together and exchanging ideas, everyone can participate, as is the case at the MKZ.

With around 23,000 students, the MKZ is the largest music school in Switzerland and one of the largest in Europe. There is not (yet) a concept for the inclusion of students with disabilities for the approximately 600 qualified music, dance and theater teachers. Opportunities for further training or exchanges take place occasionally. However, there is a great deal of openness on the part of the management and teaching staff.

Sophie Aeberli advises teachers who are new to such a task to remain relaxed, to seek an exchange with experienced colleagues and to establish constructive contact with parents.

The Bern Conservatory Music School is playing a pioneering role. On its website, it explicitly refers to its music lessons for people with disabilities. The lessons are individually adapted. There are also band lessons for people with disabilities. A separate concept goes into the various methods. Among other things, lessons for people with cognitive impairments are coached and supervised by the Bern University of Teacher Education. The music school bears the "Kultur inklusiv" label, an award for cultural institutions that are particularly committed to the topic of inclusion.

- Spectrum Inclusion - we are part of it! Ways to develop inclusive music schoolsVdM, Association of German Music Schools (a very comprehensive guide with concrete examples)

- Making music with a disability at the Bern Conservatory Music School (Concept for inclusive access and teaching)

- Because disability is not an obstacle, Thurgau Music Schools Association in collaboration with Pro Infirmis and Insieme Thurgau