The Lübeck model for musicians' health comprises several building blocks that aim to offer assistance and prophylaxis: A public consultation hour is to be established at the UzL with the aim of countering these complaints with learning strategies and training on the subject of body awareness. Not only professional musicians are affected by health problems, but also children and young people, for whom prevention and education should be the focus.

A theoretical and practical teaching program on musicians' health and music medicine is being developed at the MHL. The professorship also offers advice and further training not only for students and lecturers, but also for the public. Research on music medicine and music physiology will also be conducted at both universities.

The Lübeck model is characterized by the fact that it is not only aimed at university members, but also at music school teachers, freelance music teachers, orchestral musicians as well as singing and music-making amateurs by offering further training and advice. It is based on close cooperation between the MHL, the UzL and the UKSH with its clinics. Other Lübeck cultural institutions are cooperation partners such as the Lübeck music schools and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck.

Original article:
https://www.uni-luebeck.de/universitaet/aktuelles/artikel/erste-gemeinsame-luebecker-professur-fuer-musikergesundheit.html
 

Important cultural formats would be cut without replacement, and there is no future-oriented development project in the music sector, writes the association. For the already beleaguered cultural scene, which had significantly supported the SRG in the NoBillag campaign, this cutback without prospects is a hard blow and is akin to "a betrayal of the many supporters of almost three years ago".

The cutbacks really come at the wrong time in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. Sonart is generally open to the development of contemporary formats, but is calling for the associated reorientation of cultural reporting and the involvement of the relevant industry associations. The association is also demanding that SRG continues to comply with the licensing conditions and fulfills its legal mandate to promote culture.

More info: www.sonart.swiss
 

The "Power" video was directed by Mei Fa Tan from Lausanne. Muthoni Drummer Queen grew up in Nairobi and has made a name for herself as a rapper, singer, producer and entrepreneur in collaboration with the music scene in western Switzerland. The musical style of her three albums contains both hip-hop and electro elements.

Bastien Bron and Laetitia Gauchat win the Audience Award with their film agency . The audience voted "Une autre Chanson" by My name is Fuzzy as the Best Swiss Video Clip 2021. The awards are endowed with CHF 5000 each and will be presented digitally. A total of 195 entries were submitted for the "Best Swiss Video Clip" 2021.

Original article:
https://www.m4music.ch/de/best-swiss-video-clip/winner-2021

The study assesses the risk of infection based on the inhaled dose. This in turn depends on factors such as emission rate, respiratory activity, aerosol concentration and length of stay. In their assessment of the probability of infection, the researchers assumed that there was an infected person in all the enclosed spaces studied. In summary, it is stated that the situational R-value in cultural venues is lower than in classrooms or offices.

Using one example, the study concludes that a visit to the theater is "only half as risky in a venue with 30% occupancy and wearing a mask even when seated as in a supermarket." The illustrative graphic also shows that the risk of infection is lowest indoors in concert halls, theaters, cinemas and museums. 

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung presented the study in detail on February 15. A number of examples are discussed in detail.
Link to the NZZ article

Members of a creative team have different time horizons and work according to different rhythms and cycles. Until now, creativity and organizational research has assumed that synchronization, or entrainment, is the most promising strategy: in order to be as efficient as possible, the time frame is precisely defined. In such a time frame, however, there is little room for creativity.

According to the team, freedom for creative processes often arises through temporal tensions and idle time, for example when people start improvising in the studio during recording breaks and something new and unforeseen emerges from this. The researchers want to systematically investigate this interdependence between entrainment and disentrainment on the one hand and creativity on the other. The German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) are funding the project with around 225,000 euros each.

More info:
https://www.hcu-hamburg.de/fileadmin/documents/01_Startseite_HCU_Website/Presse_News/2021/210128_PM_HCU_Hamburg_DFG-Forschungsprojekt_Welche_zeitlichen_Strukturen_beguenstigen_kreative_Prozesse.pdf

The 21st Annual Congress of the GMTH in Basel from October 1 to 3, 2021, is an invitation to rethink sound and tuning systems. According to the press release, the broader the spectrum of topics and areas, the better. The following have been invited as keynote speakers: composer Catherine Lamb, music theorist Alexander Rehding and specialist in Arabic and Turkish music theory Michalis Cholevas.

The University of Music currently assumes that the congress can be held as a face-to-face event in Basel. However, online formats are also being considered should the need arise.

More info and call of paper:
https://www.gmth.de/veranstaltungen/jahreskongress.aspx

Max Nyffeler: August 27 marks the 500th anniversary of Josquin Desprez's death, and now, in March, the Early Music Festival Zurich ea program focus. What considerations were you guided by?
Roland Wächter: Commemorative days always attract a lot of attention. It makes sense for an organizer to respond to this. It wouldn't necessarily have been necessary with Beethoven, everyone knows him. But with perhaps the greatest composer of the Renaissance, who is little known in today's musical world, it's a different matter.

How is this reflected in the program?
Of course, you can't run a festival program with Josquin's music alone. That's why, within the limited framework of our concerts, we have also outlined his environment and, for example, the Missa "Et ecce terrae motus" from Antoine Brumela contemporary of Josquin. With its twelve voices - the norm at the time was four - it is one of the most spectacular works of the Renaissance, and is sometimes reminiscent of American minimal music. Steve Reich, for example.

A bold comparison.
This is not so far-fetched when you consider that Reich explicitly refers to the third Agnus Dei from Josquin's Missa "L'homme armé sexti toni"  where the four upper voices are led in pairs in canon and the tenor and bass sing the melody of the chanson L'homme armé simultaneously forwards and in a crab. Such canonic feats inspired Reich.

Max Nyffeler: Your program also includes numerous chansons by Josquin and others.
Roland Wächter: These secular polyphonic songs are an important branch of Josquin's oeuvre. French composers such as Clément Janequin and Claude Le Jeune followed on from him and took the polyphonic chanson genre to its peak.

What is the much-cited historical significance of Josquin?
On the one hand, he builds on predecessors such as Guillaume Dufay and Johannes Ockeghem, who shaped the then-novel structure of a harmonic movement with equal voices. On the other hand, he enriches this vocal movement with an expressiveness that did not exist before. With Dufay and Ockeghem, the focus is still on the constructive, such as canonic voice leading, whereas with Josquin the meaning of the words now also plays a role. In many works, one can observe a direct connection between words and music. That brings him closer to us. But the question is, of course, to what extent we still have an ear for these expressive values today.

Max Nyffeler: Josquin's music is also much more consonant than that of his predecessors, and the harmonies become more two-dimensional.
Roland Wächter: With Dufay and Ockeghem, the harmony still has something harsh and harsh. Josquin spent many years in Italy, and the Italian influence probably brought a new kind of transparency and suppleness to his music. It sometimes has something downright sweet about it, which cannot be said of Dufay or Ockeghem. For example Tu solus qui facis mirabilia or Ave Maria virgo serena: Such pieces have an immediate effect, and the Frottola El Grillo  is almost a hit.

There is a parallel to the visual arts of his time, which also developed a completely new sensual aura, even with religious motifs.
Absolutely. His direct descendants also made this reference and said: Josquin, with his sensuality and expressiveness, is the Michelangelo of music, so to speak.

Was Josquin's artistic development straightforward or erratic? He led a rather erratic life.
This is difficult to answer, as only a few works can be dated. The printed editions by Ottaviano Petrucci in Venice, which appeared from 1502 onwards, do provide a clue. However, as they do not contain the dates of origin of the works, we are more or less in the dark. Musicologists therefore attempt to reconstruct the stylistic development on the basis of the available data. According to this, Josquin began in the tradition of his predecessors Dufay and Ockeghem: there is a cantus firmus in the tenor, consisting of a fragment of Gregorian chant or a chanson, and the canons of the other voices entwine around this framework. This canon technique with its variants of the original melody - cancels, inversions, cancels of inversions, shortening, stretching etc. - is an essential feature of earlier Renaissance music. Josquin obviously departs from this in his middle phase, because here the cantus not only appears in the tenor, but can also wander through the other voices, resulting in imitative procedures. The voices thus participate in a common motif. In his final creative phase, this all develops in the direction of a relatively free compositional technique, where he arranges the material according to more subjective criteria.

Max Nyffeler: Josquin Desprez (or des Prez) was probably born in 1450 near Saint-Quentin in what is now northern France and died in 1521. He lived in the so-called High Renaissance, a time of extremes: on the one hand a heyday of the arts and sciences, on the other a time of great upheavals and wars. In 1477, the Confederates defeated Duke Charles the Bold at Nancy, bringing down the mighty Burgundian Empire, a great economic and musical power. In 1492, Columbus discovers America, and in 1517 Luther formulates his 95 Theses, which mark the beginning of the Reformation. This raises the question: are these conflicts echoed in Josquin's music? Or is it simply "timeless"?

Roland Wächter: Religious music is about eternal truths and not about the temporal with war, plague and famine. At best, the temporal is reflected in his secular music, especially in the chansons. They have a distinctly melancholy tone and mostly deal with emotional pain and unfulfilled love. You can already see it in the titles: Mille regretz  and Adieux mes amours. Or Fortuna desperataa desperate, hopeless fate. Josquin also wrote a parody mass on the melody of this chanson, as well as on the chanson Malheur me bat by Ockeghem.

Max Nyffeler: Melancholy really does seem to have been a zeitgeist phenomenon, just think of Dürer's engraving "Melencolia I" from 1514.
And then there's the song that was popular at the time L'homme armé, which refers to war and was used by Josquin and many others as a model for cantus firmus masses. We must not forget: At that time, it was the task of princes to wage war, as strange as that sounds today. It was about securing and expanding their sphere of power.

And control of the trade routes, in other words economic power. This played a major role for Burgundy in particular. It was already a form of early bourgeois economy that developed in the dukes' Dutch possessions in the 15th century.

Roland Wächter: It is remarkable that almost all the leading Renaissance composers, the so-called "Netherlanders", came from a core area of these Burgundian lands, namely from what is now the border region between France and Belgium, the Hainaut, or Hainaut in German. This can be explained by the wealth of this region at the time, from which the ecclesiastical singing schools, the so-called maîtrises, probably also benefited. The musicians trained here were often hired out to Italy. Ockeghem was one of the few exceptions. But Dufay commuted back and forth between his homeland and Italy, Josquin spent a long time in Italy in his early years, and composers such as Adrian Willaert remained there and even had an Italianized name like Cipriano de Rore.

Max Nyffeler: The composers presumably followed the trade routes installed across the continent by the leading trading and money houses in Burgundy, the Medici in Florence and others. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that their patrons also sent them on their travels as a cultural bonus to their business relationships.
Many of these composers - in the understanding of the time, they were actually singers, the profession of composer did not yet exist - were also high-ranking secretaries to princes and churchmen and often traveled on diplomatic missions for their patrons. On the other hand, there was a lot of money at the Italian royal courts, and this was used to satisfy the need for cultural representation.

Max Nyffeler: In his seminal work "The Culture of the Renaissance in Italy", Jacob Burckhardt points out that there was real competition among the princes in the display of splendor. The famous artists were lured to the courts with high fees and privileges.

Roland Wächter: There is an anecdote about Prince Ercole I of Ferrara, who is looking for a new musician and sends his agents around Europe. One of them writes to him: "Since only the best is good enough, only either Heinrich Isaac or Josquin Desprez come into question. Isaac is very sociable with the musicians, he composes what you order from him and he comes for 120 ducats. Josquin, on the other hand, is a difficult type, he only composes when he wants to and charges 200 ducats." For the prince, however, it was quite clear: he had to have Josquin. Back then, music had a representational function that we can no longer imagine today. Today, the super-rich own football clubs.

Judging by the salary payments, he was only in Ferrara for a short time, from 1503 to 1504. Before that, he was a member of the papal chapel in Rome for a long time, perhaps in Milan with the Sforza family and probably in the service of the French king for two years from 1501. Many dates in Josquin's life are uncertain. He probably left Ferrara in 1504 due to the plague and traveled back to his homeland, to Condé-sur-l'Escaut in Hainaut, where he held a high ecclesiastical office until his death in 1521.

Max Nyffeler: How was Josquin perceived after his death?
Roland Wächter: For the next two or three generations of composers, he was an undisputed authority.

It's almost reminiscent of Beethoven's impact in the 19th century.
The comparison is certainly apt. However, Beethoven had an intimidating effect on subsequent generations. With Josquin, the opposite is true: the exemplary quality attributed to his works challenged later generations to imitate them.

Petrucci's printed music played an important role in this establishment as a "classic".
Josquin is the first composer in music history to have an entire volume dedicated exclusively to him; Petrucci's print dates from 1502, Missae Josquincontains five of his masses. This shows the importance that was already attached to him during his lifetime. Josquin was undoubtedly involved in the project and used the new medium of printed music to disseminate his music. The mass volume went through three editions, which means that it was sold and found an audience. But then Josquin also appears in the writings of theorists such as Glarean, who worked in Basel and saw Josquin's loosened-up polyphony as an exemplary compositional model.

Martin Luther already said of him: "Josquin is the master of music; they have to do it the way he wants."
Josquin is also celebrated as the great composer by authors outside the world of music. His influence extends as far as Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso and Tomás Luis de Victoria, i.e. right up to the threshold of the Baroque era.

Then his reception obviously loses its power. Why is that? That was not the case with his contemporaries in the visual arts such as Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.
There are probably two reasons for this. Around 1600, there was a major paradigm shift from polyphony to accompanied solo singing, monody, where the passionate expression of the subject takes center stage, and to basso continuo. Monteverdi, who still mastered both styles, is exemplary of this change. The other reason lies in the fleeting nature of music itself. A picture, once painted, remains for a long time. But a score simply disappears into a drawer if it is not brought to life again and again. Because let's not forget: In the past, only "new music" was ever performed, i.e. pieces composed for the here and now. The fact that Orlando di Lasso composed the famous (and now also programmed by us) Missa "Et ecce terrae motus" by Antoine Brumel is a major exception. In doing so, he saved the work for posterity, as his copy remains the only source to this day.

Max Nyffeler: It was the composers who later kept the memory of Josquin's music alive.
Roland Wächter: But his works, like Renaissance music in general, were no longer performed. The ever-growing audience of the new era obviously couldn't or didn't want to put up with it. It was only in the 19th century, with the rise of historicism, that this music slowly came back into focus.

Today, Josquin still seems to be a case for special ensembles and a special audience.
Absolutely. The entire Renaissance period is still a fringe area of musical life. The last major appropriation of early music concerned Monteverdi in the seventies and eighties of the 20th century. This was mainly through opera, which made it easier to appreciate. But music before 1600 is still a specialty. Performers first have to work their way into it.

As far as performance practice is concerned, much is still unclear and will probably remain so. Recently, there has often been talk of mixed vocal-instrumental scoring, but the details are obviously not so clear.
We know these works in purely vocal versions from the older leading interpreters such as the Hilliard Ensemble, the Tallis Scholars or Philippe Herreweghe. This is certainly the main possibility, but not the only one. There are probably also different local traditions, for example the Sistina in Rome was always sung a cappella. In other places, instruments were used; there are corresponding illustrations and references in the sources. But how they were used in detail is not known. Younger ensembles today work with mixed instrumentation, for example the groups thélème or The Earle His Viols by Elisabeth Rumsey, who also perform here.

The audience also has to develop an ear for this music first.
Apart from a few pieces, we usually have no direct access to it, unless we simply enjoy its melodiousness and are satisfied with it. But where you find Josquin most often today, and interpreted in excellent and different ways, is on recordings. There is a wide range on offer here.

And that obviously sells. So there is a larger audience for it after all.
It's just not enough for continuous concert series. But the CD market is working. At least half a dozen CDs with music by Josquin have been released in the last few weeks, which of course has to do with the 500th anniversary of his death this summer.

Max Nyffeler: Fortunately, composers of the 20th and 21st centuries are also showing a growing interest in Renaissance music.
Roland Wächter: One of the first was Anton Webern, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Heinrich Isaac in 1906, which undoubtedly had an impact on his structural thinking in the later twelve-tone works. The great choral work by Ernst Krenek, Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae, composed in the spirit of the old vocal polyphony, should also be mentioned.

Klaus Huber has referred to Renaissance composers unusually often: 1979 in "Beati pauperes II", a - in his own words - "contrafacture" of the motets "Beati pauperes" and "Beati pacifici" by Orlando di Lasso, 1992 in "Agnus Dei cum recordatione", a "Hommage à Jehan Okeghem", based on his "Missa prolationum", in 1997 in "Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Iesualdi" with reference to Gesualdo and in 2006 with "Miserere hominibus", premiered in Lucerne, which not only uses Arabic scales, but with its polyphonic, instrumental/vocal mixed movement also makes recognizable reference to Josquin. These are just a few of Klaus Huber's works influenced by Renaissance techniques.

Steve Reich, too, with his reference to Josquin's Missa "L'homme armé sexti toni" should be mentioned again. He regards the methods practiced here as exemplary for minimal music.

In England, it was the composers of the so-called Manchester School, above all Peter Maxwell Davies, who studied the scores of the Renaissance masters and made them fruitful for their own music. In this case, however, it was the English composers of the 16th century such as John Taverner and Thomas Tallis.

And Ralph Vaughan Williams also referred directly to Tallis. You could probably find many more such references to tradition in the music of our time. This shows that the Renaissance is by no means a historically dead epoch.

There are different ways of coping with the pandemic in the music world. While some are doing nothing and struggling with the lockdown, others are trying to make the most of the opportunities that remain. Il Mosaico, the successful Swiss youth orchestra, is one of the latter. It teamed up with its partner orchestra CMC (Chamber Music Center of New York), with whom it has repeatedly held exchange programs in recent years, and not only took advantage of the Egmont-overture, but also processed the special The story of its creation online as a video under the title A Virtual Orchestra Across the Ocean. The idea came from Mary Jo Pagano, the director of the CMC.

Goethe wrote in his Egmont the struggle for freedom of the Dutch against Spain in the 16th/17th century. The idea of rebelling against an oppressor fits in well with humanity's current fight against the virus. Violinist Hermann Ostendarp, founder and director of Mosaico for 31 years now, says: "I'm not a big fan of these online formats, but young people have to have a goal. It's about not letting the music fall silent in these difficult times." Last year, the plans included a concert tour to Ukraine, but the unexpected lockdown in March put paid to those plans. Doing nothing was not an option, as the young musicians only stay in the orchestra for three to four years on average, so missing a year weighs very heavily.

Recorded in April/May. In the finished video, American and Swiss orchestra members can be seen and heard playing their voices alone in their rooms. How is it possible for everything to be absolutely synchronized and sound great? Ostendarp explains: "When the Concertgebouw Orchestra, for example, does a production like this, it takes an earlier recording of the piece and plays along with it." The Mosaico or the CMC did not have their own recording of the Egmont Overture. Sibylle Johner, the conductor of the CMC, therefore counted in the beginnings and transitions of another existing recording in such a way that clean entries were possible - a conductor was therefore not necessary. "Our orchestra members contributed with great enthusiasm and practiced the often challenging parts with great dedication. They found the digital collaboration both exciting and enriching." After a month - two minutes were recorded every week - the recordings were sent to New York and supplemented by the performance of the American youngsters. Audio engineer and video editor Sean Brekke took care of the rest, correcting mistakes, optimizing the sound and matching video images and sound. The actual music video was supplemented by a making-of, realized by multiple Emmy award-winning cameraman Martin Taube. He succeeded in creating a highly emotional portrait with intense images and heartfelt interviews against the backdrop of an epidemic-ridden New York.

Hermann Ostendarp founded the Il Mosaico orchestra in 1990 and positioned it from the outset as a joint project between the music school and the cantonal school in Wattwil. He was already working as a teacher at both schools at the time and built up well-functioning, coordinated structures. Today there are a total of five ensembles with different levels. The three basic formations are led by a colleague from the music school. In addition to the main orchestra with around 60 members, 35 of whom are string players, Ostendarp himself is also in charge of the Vivaldissimo string ensemble, in which 15 to 25 young people make music. The requirements for joining are based on the scale of the level tests. Level 4 to 5 is required for Vivaldissimo and level 6 for Il Mosaico.

The young people spend a lot of time together in weekly rehearsals, annual music camps and concert tours. They do something that connects them, discover music and experience emotions together. Ostendarp believes this is the most important thing: "The social aspect is very important, almost more important than the musical aspect. I've seen that in my own children, who all make music too." For many of the more than 300 alumni, making music is a lifelong pursuit. Two to three per year decide to study music. In addition to social integration, taking on responsibility is very important to the orchestra leader. The more experienced members look after the newcomers, take over rehearsals for the sections or, if the conductor is absent, even take over the entire rehearsal work.

Planning is difficult in these times. The Brahms double concert with Esther Hoppe, violin, and Christian Poltéra, cello, is planned for next June. The renowned soloist duo is offering the young people a workshop beforehand. The date for a concert tour to Florence is still in the stars, as is the date for last year's missed trip to the Ukraine.

The three Zurich musicians Florian Kolb (*1991), Pablo Lienard (*1994) and Philipp Saner (*1991) unite a variety of stylistic backgrounds and artistic approaches in the collective "#workoutjazz" (formerly White Pulse). The trio is characterized by a mixture of elements of free improvisation, new music, jazz, experimental rock and punk, thus creating their own musical language.

"#workoutjazz" is one of the most exciting young jazz formations on the Zurich scene, writes the canton. The members also act as networkers and organize concerts such as the legendary White Pulse marathon: around sixty musicians from all different styles play three-minute sets in quick succession. The concept of radical compression through high-quality music from different genres makes for a fascinating musical experience. The prize is endowed with 30,000 francs.

Original article:
https://www.zh.ch/de/news-uebersicht/medienmitteilungen/2021/02/christian-herdeg-erhaelt-den-kulturpreis-des-kantons-zuerich.html

In its press release of February 11, the Music Council writes: "Cultural life and the live music sector in particular are in officially decreed hibernation. It is still completely unclear when this will end. It is precisely in this already extremely precarious and uncertain situation that SRF is taking austerity measures, particularly in the areas of classical music, jazz and film.

It seems to have been completely forgotten that the Swiss cultural sector, and in particular the cultural associations, played a key role in ensuring that the NoBillag vote did not turn into a disaster for the SRG. SRG's central role in the dissemination and production of Swiss culture was recognized by those involved in the cultural sector at the time and acknowledged by their commitment to opposing the initiative.

The Music Council finds it incomprehensible that SRF does not involve the affected parties from the industry before taking such drastic cost-cutting measures. A company with a public service mandate should not act without those affected. Rosmarie Quadranti, President of the Swiss Music Council, commented: 'It is offensive when those affected are only ever informed of such important decisions after the fact. This is very damaging to a partnership."
 

Riccardo Chailly has been a regular guest at the Lucerne Festival since 1988, as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. He has been at the helm of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra since 2016.

Founded in August 2003, the orchestra is made up of internationally renowned soloists, chamber musicians and music professors as well as members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala. Claudio Abbado was the artistic director of this "orchestra of friends", as he himself called it, until his death in January 2014.

"Times and situations of crisis are essential human, social, scientific and artistic experiences. Although they are exceptional situations, they are nevertheless permanently present, not only in areas that are constantly plagued by hunger, war and disease, but also in affluent societies. Crises manifest themselves in a wide variety of forms and are perceived and processed in different ways.

In view of the fundamental nature of crises, it is only logical to ask about their relationship to music. The fundamental social conditionality of the two phenomena of music and crisis already allows the assertion that music and crisis have a complex reciprocal relationship. (...)

Contribution proposals with a maximum length of 300 words (in German, Italian, French, Romansh or English) should be sent to info(at)smg-ssm.ch by March 1, 2021. Feedback with the decision on acceptance is expected at the beginning of April 2021, the submission of the finished contributions is requested by July 15, 2021."

Further information:
https://www.smg-ssm.ch/smg-ssm/aktuell/newsarchiv/details/news/call-for-contributions-musik-in-krisenzeiten-schweizer-jahrbuch-fuer-musikwissenschaft-sjm-2021/
 

Our ears sit on opposite sides of the head and most sounds reach the auricles at slightly different times. Although both halves receive the information at different times and process different speech characteristics, the brain integrates what it hears into a single speech sound.

The exact mechanism behind this integration process was not known until now. However, so-called gamma waves play a role. The neurolinguists have now succeeded in demonstrating a direct link between the integration of what is heard and synchronization through gamma waves. In addition to UZH, researchers from the Netherlands and France were also involved in the project.

The results support the idea that gamma wave-mediated synchronization between different brain areas is a fundamental mechanism for neuronal integration. Previous studies have shown that disturbances in the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain are associated with auditory phantom perceptions such as tinnitus and hearing voices. Thus, electrical brain stimulation could represent a promising avenue for the development of therapeutic interventions.

Literature:
Preisig BC, Riecke L, Sjerps M, Kösem A, Kop BR, Bramson B, Hagoort P, Hervais-Adelman A. Selective modulation of interhemispheric connectivity by transcranial alternating current stimulation influences binaural integration. PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015488118

Composers currently face many challenges in the narrow classical music market. In addition to the internal musical considerations of their works, there is the question of how their pieces find their way to potential performers. At the same time, they have to take care of administrative necessities and rights management.

Universal Edition has responded to this situation with Scodo: With this publishing tool, the international Viennese music publisher offers all composers the opportunity to appear in its globally established catalog among renowned musical greats such as Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg, Pierre Boulez and Arvo Pärt.

Composers are provided with a new, easy-to-use and flexible web tool for publishing their sheet music. With just a few clicks, musicians can publish a new work at any time, which can be obtained worldwide via the Universal Edition website. All sheet music published via Scodo can not only be printed, but is also available digitally via UE now.

The music publisher with over 100 years of history keeps its finger on the pulse with Scodo and offers the whole variety of modern music distribution.

You can find more information at www.universaledition.com/scodo
 

The "Court - Music - City" research center began its work at the start of the year. Under the umbrella of the joint institution, musicologists will investigate the question of how courtly and urban music developed and influenced each other in southwest Germany.

A central component of the activities is also the further development of university teaching in the field of musicology, for example in the area of digital editions. The Schwetzingen-based center is headed by Christiane Wiesenfeldt (Heidelberg) and Panja Mücke (Mannheim).

More info:
http://www.hofmusikstadt.de/