The SMG is awarding the Handschin Prize 2020 to the musicologist Dr. Laura Decurtins (born 1985), who wrote her doctoral thesis entitled "Chantai rumantsch! Zur musikalischen Selbst(er)findung Romanischbündens" at the University of Zurich and to the musicologist Dr. des. Rafael Rennicke (born 1979 in Rottweil), who wrote his dissertation entitled "Erinnerungspoetik. Berlioz and the reception of Ranz des vaches in the 19th century" at the University of Tübingen.

While Laura Decurtins explored the "musical DNA" of Romansh-speaking Graubünden and offers an impressive musical view of Romansh-speaking Graubünden, Rafael Rennicke succeeds in elevating the previous debate about reflections of the "cow herd" in composed music to a new, interdisciplinary and intercultural level in the best sense of the word.

The selection committee, consisting of members of the SMG board, found it particularly difficult this year to choose from 14 very good dissertations and decided to award two excellent theses with a prize of CHF 3000 each. In addition to his academic work, the prizewinner currently works as a music editor at the cultural radio station SWR 2 in Baden-Baden, while the prizewinner works at the Institute for Cultural Research Graubünden (ikg) and is a freelance academic.

This is the sixth time that the Swiss Music Research Society has awarded the prize named after the Moscow-born Swiss musicologist and organist Jacques Handschin (1886-1955), which is awarded to young researchers every two years. The award ceremony will take place on September 17, 2020 as part of the SMG's 1st Study Day in the main building of the University of Bern.

Around five years ago, the event took place in Brunnen, the birthplace of Othmar Schoeck, a festival lasting around ten days takes place. The organizing team has now worked out a multi-year concept with a partially new composition: On a weekend each September, the composer's work is to be brought to life, reflected upon and placed in relation to other works of art.

This year, under the motto "Amazons", the roles and images of women in the transition from Romanticism to Modernism will be scrutinized. Numerous music makers and researchers will discuss the topic over three days.

The easing of restrictions decided by the Federal Council on May 27 now allows events to be held subject to certain conditions. Due to the limited space available at the Villa Schoeck, only very few visitors will be able to attend the festival live. For this reason, the events will be made accessible to a larger audience via live streams in collaboration with various partners.

In addition to various accompanying events, the festival is characterized by three main points:
- In the Performance homELESS artists will be presenting works by Mascha Kaleko,
Else Lasker-Schüler, Clara Schumann, Marianne von Willemer, Sibylle Berg and Judith Weir.
- Songs by Stefan Keller are performed in a Concert and contrasted with works by Othmar Schoeck.
- The symposium Women:Voices - Roles and personalities under the direction of Merle Fahrholz, chief dramaturge at the Dortmund Opera, deals with opera in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century.

The detailed program is available at www.schoeckfestival.ch and is constantly updated there.

Originally composed as the finale to the 1825/26 String Quartet in B flat major op. 130 The Schuppanzigh Quartet's first performances of the fugue were met with incomprehension - even among connoisseurs. One reviewer found it "like Chinese", although it was acknowledged that the time may yet come "where that which at first glance appeared cloudy and confused is recognized clearly and in pleasing forms". In any case, Beethoven's Viennese publisher Mathias Artaria did not want to wait that long and approached the composer with a request to replace the fugue with another, more conventional movement (an extended rondo at the end). It took some persuasion and an extra fee before Beethoven reluctantly agreed to the request. Karl Holz, the quartet's cellist, later recalled: "He thought a lot of it on the joint and could only be persuaded to let her go with difficulty. from the string quartet to separate."

The usual name of this unquestionably monstrous sentence is deceptive: the Large joint is neither a composition in the sense of the stile antico nor of the kind that Beethoven had already composed in Bonn during his lessons with Christian Gottlob Neefe in Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-tempered piano had studied. Apart from the considerable technical difficulties, it is a radical, revolutionary development, so that Beethoven could rightly claim that the work was "tantôt libre tantôt recherchée" (sometimes free and sometimes bound). Igor Stravinsky even considered it "an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will forever be contemporary".

After the decision had been made to publish the fugue separately as opus 133, Mathias Artaria also approached Beethoven about a four-hand piano version, but he was initially unwilling to accept what he considered to be a rather technical work. However, Beethoven was so dissatisfied with an arrangement made by Anton Halm at short notice that he now produced an independent version himself with a separate opus number, formulating his demands to the publisher in his manuscript with a few half-joking, half-serious notes: "1=tens / Penale Penalty consisting / of 2 ClementiKlaviand 3 exquisite / impressions of the portrait / of L. v. Beethoven / 2=firstly, a fine / for this / and that as well as / other / 3=thirdly, the M. S. Manuscript of this excerpt / either honored / or returned to the author -"
 

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Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

The Meiringen Music Festival Week will be one of the few summer festivals to open its doors and play live music. The size of the event means that the new audience restrictions and safety regulations can be adhered to.

The Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich also plans to resume operations in a reduced form. The first concerts will be heard in the Tonhalle Maag from mid-June. Chief conductor and music director Paavo Järvi will be able to finish his first season in person. There will be musical surprises as early as next week during the opening of Festival X on June 5: instead of the planned opening concert on Münsterplatz, musicians from the orchestra will perform in a more intimate setting in various courtyards in Zurich. In the Kosmos event complex, the Zurich Festival will set up a studio from which live streaming will take place.

The General Assembly, the annual highlight of social life at the SUISA cooperative, should have taken place this year on Friday, June 26, 2020, at 11 a.m. in the Bierhübeli in Bern. However, this is not possible due to the coronavirus pandemic, even if we do not yet know exactly when the ban on gatherings will be eased again and for what size of event. This is because the organization of a general meeting requires a preparation time of around two months in any case.

The Board of Directors therefore decided on April 29, 2020 that this year's Annual General Meeting can only be held by post as an exception. This decision is in line with the requirements of the Swiss Confederation in Covid-19 Ordinance 2, which exceptionally allows the AGM to be held in this way under emergency law, although the formation of opinions is restricted by the absence of discussion at the AGM.

1. organizational handling

All members entitled to vote will receive an invitation to participate in the postal vote on the resolutions of the AGM by post from May 27, 2020. Members entitled to vote have the opportunity to return the completed personalized voting form upon receipt of the invitation. The letter with the voting form must be received by SUISA by June 26, 2020.

The results of the votes will then be counted by the election office under the direction of Dr. Bernhard Wittweiler (Head of SUISA Legal Services).

On June 30, 2020, the voting and election results will be formally determined by the President, the Recording Secretary, the CEO and the Head of Legal Services on the basis of the count and published on the SUISA website on the same day.

The submitted voting documents are confidential and will be kept until the expiry of the deadline for contesting the decision (two months after the resolution is passed, August 31, 2020) and then destroyed.

2. agenda items for the postal vote instead of the AGM

In addition to the usual statutory business - approval of the minutes, resolutions on the annual financial statements, the management report and the annual report of the SUISA cooperative and the SUISA Group - two new seats on committees are to be filled.

2.1 By-election to the Board of Directors

Our long-standing Board member Reto Parolari passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on December 15, 2019. The Board of Directors proposes that Melanie Oesch be elected to the Board as his successor.

Melanie Oesch grew up near Thun in the canton of Bern and attended music high school in Thun. With her many ideas and plans, Melanie is the creative head of Oesch's die Dritten in many areas. Oesch's die Dritten are a Swiss folk music group from the Bernese Oberland, consisting of Hansueli and Annemarie Oesch, their children Melanie, Kevin and Mike and accordionist Urs Meier. Melanie Oesch has been a member of SUISA as an author since 2006. The Oesch Music publishing house, which she manages, is also a member of SUISA. She is also a member of the "Performing Phono" section of Swissperform.

2.2 By-election to the Distribution and Works Commission

At the last General Assembly, Grégoire Liechti was elected to the SUISA Board. He has therefore resigned from the Distribution and Works Commission. The Board proposes Michael Hug from the publishing sector as his replacement. He is Managing Director of Ruh Musik AG and is the 4th generation to run the family business, which was founded in 1910. Ruh Musik is known nationally and internationally for publishing wind music; however, the catalog also includes numerous works of classical and choral music. Michael Hug took over the company from his father together with his wife in 2009. He is 55 years old and - like all his predecessors in the publishing house - is also musically active himself.

Even in times of crisis, shaping the future of SUISA is important. For once, those members who would otherwise be unable to attend the General Meeting can also take part in the written vote. We hope for a large attendance.

Information on the Annual General Meeting as well as documents and records can be found at

> www.suisa.ch/generalversammlung

Felicitas Sigrist -- The measures required to combat the coronavirus pandemic are having the same effect on many musicians as a professional ban through no fault of their own. Long-prepared events and regular commitments have been abruptly canceled - and for some, all sources of income have been lost. With the expected economic slump, the music industry is likely to recover only slowly. In this stressful situation, not only economic but also psychological effects are to be expected.

People often initially react to shocking changes/strokes of fate with bewilderment. They then take action to secure their existence until they finally find emotional coping strategies. In this phase of imminent threat, acute stress reactions such as impulse outbursts, panic, anger or grief can occur. Some people develop excessive fears about the risk of contracting the coronavirus and need appropriate psychological help.

More often than such acute reactions, psychological disorders are to be expected in the medium term if the emergency situation persists and little can be done to influence it. The consolation that the drastic measures can be overcome collectively will also fade with the easing of measures. Helplessness, feelings of powerlessness and even unemployment are risk factors for mental illness. On the one hand, previously compensated complaints, such as tinnitus or chronic pain, can intensify. On the other hand, depression, substance abuse and suicidal crises can increase. If those affected or their relatives observe increased behavioral patterns such as circling thoughts, sleep disorders, loss of concentration, emotional numbness, social withdrawal, irritability and difficulty with impulse control, it is important to seek help. This is especially true when thoughts of being tired of life become apparent. The SMM counseling center can make an initial assessment of the problem and provide professional support.

"Crises are opportunities", they say. Many people can grow from crises - this is called post-traumatic growth. However, expecting this in advance is cynical and trivializes hardship. There are also people who are broken by crises. Requirements and resilience are individual. Resilience to cope with the impending period of uncertainty can be demonstrably promoted with supposedly banal everyday habits: maintaining a daily structure, sleeping regularly and sufficiently, eating a balanced diet and exercising - just 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week has an antidepressant effect. Social contacts are helpful, as long as not only the current distress is discussed, but also positive things are exchanged, which steers thoughts in a different direction. It is important to be able to talk authentically about your own emotional state, but to limit yourself to a circle of trusted people. Various methods of mindfulness practice have proven to be effective in dealing with crises more calmly. These teach the ability to focus on the present moment and not allow thoughts of the past or future to dominate and weigh you down. In medical terms, this reduces the physiological symptoms of stress and causes less long-term damage to health.

The break in the performance calendar can be used to review and, if necessary, optimize your own music-making. Have habits, postures or playing techniques crept in that could cause long-term health problems? An analysis with the help of a specialist with knowledge of music physiology is also useful as a preventative measure - the advice center can also put you in touch with specialists for this.

As we have already seen in the two months since the lockdown, the need for music has not diminished. Music enables something essential: contact even without physical contact - a feeling of connection even at a distance.

Dr. med. Felicitas Sigrist

... is a psychiatrist and music psychotherapist and heads the SMM's counseling center for musician medicine. She can be contacted at beratung@musik-medizin.ch.

Lorenzo Micheli - The COVID-19 pandemic has become a catastrophe in the global education arena, leading to an immediate and radical revolution. Nella sua enorme drammaticità, però, la chiusura forzata di scuole e università ha incentivato un processo che era in atto da tempo, dandogli una spinta senza precedenti. Due to limited experimentation, l'e-Learning si è imposto come frontiera ultima e unica dell'insegnamento anche in ambito musicale, persino per quelle aree della didattica (ad esempio la performance) in cui era tradizionalmente considerato inattuabile.

Teaching during the pandemic has been a notable challenge of flexibility for the entire Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana, both for the students and the teachers and administrative staff. The biggest challenge has been to keep at the center of the research the formative, or rather private, objectives of their formal and ritualistic "contenders". This has led to a quasi total revision of the courses in terms of content. Le variegate declinazioni della didattica musicale (lezioni collettive/lezioni individuali, materie pratiche/materie teoriche) hanno reso impossibile l'adozione di unico formato, e favorito piuttosto una ricerca creativa in cui docenti e studenti hanno giocato un ruolo paritario nella scelta delle modalità di apprendimento e della piattaforma da utilizzare. For lezioni individuali e di gruppo sono stati sperimentati servizi di video conferenza remota come Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex Meetings, software per chiamate VoIP, come Skype o What's App, e sistemi più "tradizionali" come l'uso di registrazioni audio e video. I corsi teorici, forti di un'esperienza già consolidata negli anni passati, hanno sfruttato per la condivisione dei materiali didattici le potenzialità di iCorsi, la piattaforma e-Learning adottata dall'USI e dalla SUPSI.

Nell'esperienza di questi mesi non mancano le ombre, che abbiamo cercato di intercettare e raccogliere dalla viva voce degli studenti (anche attraverso un questionario ad hoc). In molti casi il passaggio all'e-Learning ha portato a un aggravio considerevole del lavoro individuale. The perception of each individual student is then determined (and sometimes falsified) by his or her personal, logistical and economic situation, and the same course of study is likely to have a different effectiveness when it is based on psychological (such as those caused by isolation) or technological (such as the digital divide preclude di fatto la frequenza dei corsi a diversi studenti). Le attività di insieme sono sospese fino a nuovo ordine, e passata l'emergenza dovremo fare uno sforzo per ricordarci che la pratica (e la fruizione) della musica sono essenzialmente momenti collettivi e sociali. Last but not least, la verifica dell'apprendimento rimane un capitolo ancora da scrivere, e dal finale tutt'altro che scontato.

Un vero e proprio bilancio sarà possibile solo a posteriori. Tuttavia, a fronte di questi problemi, appare chiaro che le pratiche di e-Learning stimolano forme personali di elaborazione dei contenuti, sollecitano l'autonomia individuale e consentono una maggiore integrazione tra strumenti bibliografici e strumenti tecnologici, oltre a presentare qualità interessanti di sostenibilità ambientale e accessibilità. L'emergenza ha richiesto un'ottimizzazione delle risorse interne del Conservatorio e una gestione fluida e pragmatica dei processi decisionali (compresi quelli mirati a fornire un sostegno economico agli studenti in difficoltà) che potranno rivelarsi preziosi in futuro. Alcune delle forme di e-Learning introdotte in questi mesi potrebbero essere mantenute, laddove esse possono garantire continuità e facilitazione nell'apprendimento, o dove permettono l'interazione con un network educativo più ampio di quello abituale. Le piattaforme come iCorsi, infine, hanno le carte in regola per diventare veri e propri "hub" di conoscenze condivise.

Lorenzo Micheli

... è docente di chitarra al Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana, co-responsabile della formazione e co-responsabile dell'area performance alla Scuola Universitaria di Musica.

Michael Eidenbenz - As we all know, we should learn from the crisis. And so, of course, the ZHdK has also set up working groups to evaluate the digital lockdown experiences in a methodically correct manner and will one day translate them into productive recommendations. For the time being, this is just a subjective and fragmentary impression from an observer working from home.

So we have learned. For example: entrance exams are possible online, despite all previous skepticism. The rate of wrong decisions is hardly any higher than when meeting in person, and a lot of pointless air travel can be saved. - We have learned how online teaching requires greater didactic reflection. It requires greater precision, is becoming more democratic and students' expectations are growing. A lot of old classroom dust has been wiped away. - We realized how close and natural the digital world had been before. The digital safe space was occupied incredibly quickly when the real world began to become dangerous. Hundreds of Zoom licenses had been procured in advance, the e-learning teams put tutorials online and offered platforms for sharing experiences. Lecturers and students installed their streaming accounts and, as in the rest of the world, the universe of Zoom, Skype and Facetime jerks took hold after a few days. There was little opposition, but astonishment: how easy this technology suddenly became, how easily even supposed digital dummies got to grips with the apps, how latency and sound compression problems could be solved - and: how many people you suddenly met who were rarely seen before. Everyone was at home and reachable anyway, and the digital space knows no distances. - We generally learned that supposedly sedate institutions such as art academies can be surprisingly alert. In any case, the emergency teams were set up at the ZHdK within days, communication and decision-making channels were defined, central processes were clarified and organized, such as the implementation of online examinations including the adaptation of binding regulations. And generous funds from the university's own foundation were made available for the students' foreseeable financial crises. There was a real euphoria about solving problems.

We have observed the refinements, the increasingly skillful use of workplaces, the successful attempts to stream class lessons, podiums and entire concerts. We have learned how interdisciplinary online music-making is and how important staging is becoming. And we have had to take note of the fact that the number of Insta clicks was many times higher than the number of analog concert attendances thanks to original contributions, e.g. on #zhdkathome.

But we also learned what doesn't work: orchestra, choir, chamber music, rehearsals, spontaneous jamming, dance and movement - real interaction is not possible. And questions arose: If one main aspect of making music doesn't work, doesn't the whole thing remain a big "as if"? And: didn't we once demand excellence, listen meticulously to shades of sound, strive for perfect acoustics, feel the performative vibes and minimal interpretative finesse? Now we are satisfied when the Bluetooth micro doesn't lose the connection and enjoy polyphonic a cappella apps. Didn't we know the quality of following a work in its entirety and with concentration instead of just listening to live streams? Will it stay that way? Was the digitalization push of the lockdown just a shot across the bow, or has the concertante 19th century just been buried for good? Will musical life in the digital world ever achieve the same level of excellence that pop culture has been demonstrating for some time now? And the eternal question of educational institutions: Who will we train for what in the future?

It remains unanswered. But be warned against the illusion of digital convenience: art is a risk. It lives in a dangerous world. It withers away in a germ-free safe space.

Michael Eidenbenz

... is Director of the Department of Music at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

MvO - Béatrice Zawodnik is coordinatrice de l'enseignement à la Haute École de Musique de Genève. She answers our questions.

Béatrice Zawodnik, when did you realize that the coronavirus crisis would be a major challenge?

From the moment we realized that face-to-face classes were no longer possible due to the confinement and that all public courses - which are an essential part of the practical training of music students - were cancelled.

Are you, in terms of e-learning, prepared for such a situation?

Even though we have been equipped for the past two years with specialized software for music practice at a distance, we were not prepared for such a situation. But the teachers of all the disciplines reacted extremely quickly to find and propose alternative distance learning solutions, creativity was at work, regardless of the generation concerned (young teachers, but also teachers a few months into retirement...).

What has been your high school's experience with e-learning over the past few months?

Various forms of teaching have been proposed: collective ex-cathedra courses, semi-collective courses, individual instrumental and vocal courses on Teams or Zoom, individualized follow-up, envoi de prestations/travaux d'étudiants par mail ou vidéo et retour des enseignants, conférences/séminaires spécifiques préregistrés, puis séances bilan à distance, enregistrements " minus one " préparés par les accompagnateurs, etc.. Sharing of good practices between HEM professors, virtual meetings to share problems and propose common solutions.

The other major challenge during this period in which everyone was isolated from each other - be it administrative and technical staff, teaching and research staff or students - was for the management to maintain a link with each HEM stakeholder: Internal communication has been strengthened, regular contacts with the students' association have been established and the heads of department, supported by their assistants, have taken care to contact all professors and students depending on their background in order to ensure the health of each student's academic progress, and thus to be able to address fragile situations and provide specific, financial or other support. The evaluation and validation methods have been adapted to the context of distance learning, without lowering the requirements for the acquisition of skills in order to guarantee students the value of the certificates they are awarded.

What are, according to you, the main inconveniences and advantages?

The main inconvenience is, of course, the degradation of all teaching related to music practice, as well as the impossibility of realizing all ensemble music projects. Furthermore, according to the unanimous opinion of all the professors of the main discipline, nothing can replace the instrument/voice courses in presence: many parameters cannot be verified on the computer, quality of sound, finesse of nuances, projection of sound or voice, posture and breathing, etc.. On the other hand, many students find themselves in a difficult situation to practice their instrument/voice intensively at home: problems of sight-reading or of the instrument.

A certain advantage - which could lead to an interesting institutional reflection within the COVID context - would be the possibility of registering certain ex-cathedra theoretical courses, special seminars or conferences, afin de permettre aux étudiants d'avoir accès à ces contenus en de de l'horaire régulier du cours, entrant régulièrement en collision avec des activités ponctuelles qui jalonnent l'année académique. But this forced experience of living music at a distance can never replace the pleasure of playing together and for a public.

How did the students react to the changes and how did they participate? Y a-t-il eu des contributions directes des étudiants ?

A great deal of creativity on the part of the HEM professors, but also on the part of the students. The students responded well to the changes, with some legitimate concerns about the new evaluation and validation methods. Communication played a crucial role in enabling them to understand the decisions made and to take their difficulties into account. The students created high-quality, original and humorous collective videos involving a large number of them, thus fostering the feeling of being part of a united community, despite the distance imposed by confinement

Capuçon won over the orchestra above all by conducting a concert last March, which presented works by Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart, but had to be played without an audience due to the coronavirus crisis. Capuçon is the seventh Artistic Director of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. The OCL will already be working with Renaud Capuçon next season for a concert at the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence on April 8, 2021.

Born in 1976, Renaud Capuçon studied violin at the Paris Conservatoire. His particular fondness for chamber music has led to collaborations with Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Hélène Grimaud, Truls Mørk, Frank Braley and his brother, the cellist Gautier Capuçon. In 2013, Renaud Capuçon took over the artistic direction of the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence. He plays a Guarneri del Gesù, which previously belonged to Isaac Stern and was made available to him by the Banca Svizzera Italiana.

Mozart certainly need not be afraid of the music of his contemporaries. But what about the other way around? The Basel violinist Plamena Nikitassova and her accompanist Aline Zylberajch on the fortepiano present a CD that juxtaposes precisely these two worlds. It is certainly not the first attempt of this kind, but with works by Joseph Welsch, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust and Antoine Lacroix, composer names appear that are not all that familiar.

This recording opens up a rarely heard world of gallantry and the art of entertainment to the practiced ear. However, there is little evidence of the typical dualism of classical music and its motivic and thematic treatment; the focus of this music is on pleasure and amusement. There is, for example, the Sonata à Violin Solo col. Accompagnemento by Rust, in which the melodious violin forms the center of the music. It also makes sense that the five-movement work ends in an airy scherzando that still reveals baroque traits. Zylberajch accompanies discreetly on a beautiful-sounding fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein (1792).

An exciting encounter also brings the Theme with variations from "Airs varieés pour un violon" by Joseph Welsch, which survives in a copy from Lübeck from 1795. Nikitassova plays the piece with equally lyrical and virtuoso passages on a violin by Jacobus Stainer (1659) with a melting tone and high art of phrasing. However, the reverberation of the Seewen church, where the CD was recorded, is occasionally distracting, which applies to the entire recording.

The circle of contemporaries is framed by two works by Mozart: the Violin Sonata K. 302 at the beginning and the Sonata for Piano and Violin K. 454 at the end. In their profound diversity, these compositions emphasize the certain arbitrariness of the other works, which, despite their quality, are primarily focused on their entertainment value. Mozart remains in a different league, which is underlined by Nikitassova's lively interpretations.

"I like practicing, but I don't like exercises where I have to play the same thing all the time. Of course practicing is repetition, but I don't want to get bored either." This is what Jost Nickel says and presents a work that offers players a wealth of different, varied snare exercises to improve their playing technique and general understanding of rhythm.

In his usual structured form, the author presents exercise concepts in various time signatures and subdivisions for the systematic improvement of rhythmic flexibility and motor independence as well as for better playing control via tempo changes, which strengthens the rhythmic overview. A separate bound booklet is included at the beginning of the book. These are the reading texts that are repeatedly used as a basis in the various chapters and topics. This shows how structured and well thought-out the work is.

The Snare Book is divided into six chapters. The first contains various warm-up exercises in which, for example, familiar hand movements are combined with unusual accentuations, subdivisions and time signatures. The ostinato exercises, which improve independence, are particularly exciting, while the interlocking exercises promote better coordination.

Clear concepts also characterize the second chapter of the book, in which Nickel leads step by step through exercises for inverted double-stroke rolls, flams, multiple strokes, ruffs, paradiddles and more. They enable the drummer to devise his own exercises by keeping the approach but changing the content.

Nickel also gives many helpful tips on practicing in general, e.g. how to sing a groove to the exercises or how to approach a practice plan with a tempo list. He describes the individual exercises in detail and clearly, guiding the player through the topics in a targeted manner.

Conclusion: an interesting work that makes you want to play the lottery drum.

Jost Nickel: Snare Book, book and reading texts (supplement). Art. no. 20279G, € 21.95, Alfred Music, Cologne 

Louis Théodore Gouvy was born in Goffontaine (today: Schafbrücke [Saarbrücken]) in the Franco-German border region in 1819 and died in Leipzig in 1898. He lived alternately in France and Germany and found artistic recognition in both countries. His compositional oeuvre includes symphonies, chamber music, an opera, songs and vocal symphonic works.

The ten character pieces for violoncello and piano op. 28, written in 1859, were published under the supertitle Décaméron. These are all duo compositions that treat the piano and cello equally. They can be performed both cyclically and as individual numbers and offer the performers a varied palette of moods.

The level of difficulty is medium. The rediscovery of this romantic cycle is an enrichment for instrumentalists and listeners alike.

Louis Théodore Gouvy: Décaméron for violoncello and piano, edited by Wolfgang Birtel, Volume 1: PON 1035; Volume 2: PON 1036; € 19.95 each, Ponticello Edition, Mainz 

The canon in music is the strictest form of musical imitation, which consists of two or more voices making the same vocal steps one after the other and thus offset. The English term "round" sums it up as a form of singing together, and Sumer Is Icumen In from 13th century England is the first surviving canon in the history of music.

In addition to the fact that all the great composers used the technical finesse of the canon in the counterpoint of their works, a genre of entertaining canons has also developed over the course of time, which can be used as a choral pedagogical tool for sound training.

Werner Beidinger and Kristian Commichau have now published the highly recommended collection Canonissimo with 66 canons for school, choir and leisure. It contains a broad spectrum in various categories: canons of old masters, dance canons, modal canons (pentatonic/church modes), swing/pop canons, 1625 canons (meaning the steps of the harmony scheme) and Malagueña canons ("Andalusian cadence" etc.).

In addition to the conducting scores, easy piano accompaniments, didactic notes and, above all, the presentation of all canons as choral scores are very helpful. To get a better impression of the polyphonic sound, a CD is also included with "sound scores" of all the canons as pdf and mp3 files.

Kanonissimo, 66 canons for school, choir and leisure, ed. Werner Beidinger, Kristian Commichau, 148 p. with CD, order no. 335, € 29.90, Fidula, Koblenz

Should Béla Bartók's famous pedagogical piano literature also be played on the guitar? It is somehow obvious and yet not an easy undertaking. While the left and right hands interact on the piano keyboard but each have their own independent movements, the notes on the guitar are usually only played by four fingers of a single hand, the left hand. This requires a great deal of fine motor skills in order to bring out a groovy seven-eighth rhythm and the melody above it equally smoothly.

Now Siegfried Steinkögler has taken over the Microcosm Bartók's monumental collection of over 150 short pieces, 16 of which are arranged for solo guitar. They contain everything that makes up the quality of Bartók's teaching literature: pleasing, often folkloristic melodies, attractive rhythms, major/minor harmonies offset with sharp chromaticism, contrapuntal two-part writing. It is also always surprising how attractive parallel octaves can sound when used effectively in composition.

The Austrian guitarist, composer and editor remains as faithful to the original as possible. But what appears very simple in the piano notation looks terribly complicated in the guitar notation - and it is! Fingerings, position markings and string numbers clutter up the music, but help the guitarist to find her way around the fretboard. For example, an accompanying ostinato has to be fingered very differently in the course of a piece, depending on the position of the upper voice, and additional playing indications are useful here.

Back in 2017, Steinkogler had already published Bartók's collection For children but for two guitars instead of just one and with a different aim: to introduce Bartók's music to young players. With the Microcosm he takes a different approach: "With several conceivable guitaristic solutions, I have often dispensed with a simplified version in favor of a more sophisticated but detailed one," he writes in the preface. Bartók's miniatures are certainly worthy of the high demands placed on their execution.

Béla Bartók: Mikrokosmos, 16 pieces for guitar arranged by Siegfried Steinkogler, UE 38060, € 14.95, Universal Edition, Vienna 

The Urtext edition of Schubert's songs, based on the "New Schubert Edition", is now available in nine of a total of thirteen planned volumes. Edited by Walther Dürr, it surprises with various innovations. On the one hand, the songs have been rearranged, on the other, completely new, authorized sheet music material has been made available, and there are various practical advantages for the performing singer.

It has been decided not to arrange the songs chronologically throughout or, as in the Peters edition available since the mid-19th century, to proceed according to their presumed significance for musical practice, but rather to adopt the order that Schubert himself gave to his songs. This applies to around a third of all the songs published during his lifetime. The remainder are then arranged in the order in which they were written.

The songs themselves are preceded by extensive (bilingual) information material: There is an English translation of each text, detailed commentaries on the text, the history of its composition and the sources, as well as information on the number of alternative versions that may exist. These alternative versions are included in the appendix of each volume, providing the performer with supplementary musical material that was not previously available. For example, the Song of Mignon"Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt", probably one of the most famous Schubert songs of all, is presented in no fewer than five versions, some of which differ considerably from one another. The performer is thus given the opportunity to choose the version that comes closest to his or her understanding of the work. This new material invites you on a highly exciting journey of discovery into a previously unknown world of Schubert.

Last but not least, there are some unbeatable advantages for performing singers: whereas in the old Schubert edition only volumes 1 to 3 were available in transposed versions and from volume 4 onwards you had to make do with the original keys or transpose them yourself, completely new treasures now open up, especially for medium and low voices! The entire song oeuvre is transposed and available in three different keys.
What I also like is that in the transposition of the great cycles such as "Winterreise" and "Schöne Müllerin" the original sequence of keys has been preserved, whereas in the Peters edition the transposition was still based on other criteria. Thus in the middle edition The beautiful miller's wife as a whole by a minor third, which Winter journey down by a major second. This approach is certainly much more in keeping with Schubert's intention.

I would like to emphasize one small but helpful thing: the table of contents at the beginning of the book and the user-friendliness that comes with it. You don't have to dig through pages of sources, translations and commentaries to finally track it down.

Franz Schubert: Lieder, edited by Walter Dürr, Vol. 1-9 for high voice: BA 9101-9109; for medium voice: BA 9121-9129; for low voice: BA 9141-9149; € 36.50 each, Bärenreiter, Kassel