There are plenty of specialist books for organists and organ lovers. But so far none that begins in the Middle Ages and leads up to J. S. Bach. None other than Matthias Schneider, lecturer at the University of Greifswald and director of relevant summer vacation courses there, has now written one. It is to be continued in a second volume into the 20th century. After an introduction on notation, historical fingerings etc., ten chapters are devoted to: Medieval-Renaissance, North German organ tablatures, Italian music, Sweelinck and his pupils, Samuel Scheidt, Dieterich Buxtehude, South German, Iberian and French organ music, and finally Bach.

All users of the book are recommended to use it as a reference work. Read about the composer whose work you are working on. One advantage of Schneider's method is that he writes extensively about a few selected works. What you learn here can be applied to other works of the same genre.

Buxtehude is one of Schneider's specialties; he is one of the two editors of the annual journal Buxtehude studies. Here he discusses the composer on 27 pages.
Buxtehude did not yet notate in our musical notation, but in letters (so-called tablature notation). Not a single autograph has survived. The completely unsatisfactory source situation has led to good and unauthorized music editors arriving at very different results. Among the unauthorized ones, Klaus Beckmann stands out negatively because of his so-called "internal textual criticism". Schneider omits a warning against these editions; the problems can be easily identified, for example, by comparing them with the latest and best edition by Michael Belotti (the latter, however, are extremely expensive).

The most common non-choral North German form is called a toccata or prelude (but not prelude and fugue, as was later the case with Bach and his contemporaries). It consists of a number of alternating free and fugal sections. Schneider thoroughly discusses a single example on almost 5 pages, namely the Toccata in d BuxWV 155 with regard to time signatures (tablature notation shows no bar lines), the distribution between pedal (rarely marked Ped.) and manual as well as between the two hands, the articulative separation of motifs, the freedom of the overlay and the freedom to insert ornaments of various kinds. The choice of registrations and manual changes is a matter of interpretation. Whether and in which parts of the form organo pleno is appropriate needs to be considered. The audience's ears should not be strained on instruments from the era of the "organ movement", which often sound excessively sharp and loud.

At the time of Buxtehude, his predecessors and successors, such forms were generally improvised in church services and evening music. Are written compositions therefore merely intended as models? What is refreshing in Schneider's account is the wide range of freedoms. We can see from this that he not only presents musicologically correct information, but also draws on his experience as a course leader.

Schneider presents examples of three ostinato forms and ostinato parts of toccatas for discussion. Choral works receive a similarly free treatment. - Schneider describes Buxtehude's main organ in St. Mary's Church in Lübeck, which was built in 1518, naturally tuned to mean tones. It was enlarged in 1561 and 1598. None other than the famous organ builder Friederich Stellwagen worked independently in Lübeck from 1634. His rebuilding work in St. Mary's Church lasted until 1641. Presumably in 1684, i.e. during Buxtehude's term of office, it was given a compromise tuning in the style of Werckmeister-III. This made keys with many accidentals possible in the first place. This helps to date entire compositions (e.g. Prelude in F sharp minor BuxWV 146) or parts of them (Prelude in C major BuxWV 137 with B major triads).

The following restrictions must be taken into account with historical fingerings: ae voice per hand, scale sections up and down, keys with little use of upper keys. They also do not apply to several polyphonic voices per hand. It should also be borne in mind that all teaching for keyboard instruments was given on the clavichord (with the exception of France's clavecinists in the 18th century). On the sensitive clavichord, each finger must press down the keys as close to the front as possible. This is also the purpose of keyboards in which the lower keys only extend 2 to 2.5 cm beyond the upper keys, compared to today's piano keyboards with 4.5 cm. Finally, in most countries, the "good" fingers 1 and 3 are emphasized relatively, the "bad" 2 and 4 relatively unaccented; in France this is reversed because of the "jeu inégal".

The author devotes 49 pages to him. It is worth reading Schneider's detailed description of the organs played by Bach during his lifetime and the registration instructions of the time. For example, he treats the indication "pro organo pleno" with care and differentiation: Not every prelude, not every fugue can tolerate loud sound. Schneider could have added fundamentally different acoustic conditions and the effects of maritime and continental climates: While large brick Gothic churches with long reverberation predominated in northern Germany, churches in Bach's native Thuringia had many wooden fittings, meaning short reverberation. This enabled Bach to compose rapid harmonic changes without becoming incomprehensible to the congregation. The climate had serious consequences for the organ dispositions: many reeds in northern Germany, only a few in central Germany and reed mixtures containing thirds as a substitute. The basic principle still applies today: play slowly with a long reverberation and use as few and as quiet stops as possible.

Many organs in Bach's time did not have a complete chromatic row in the great octave. Schneider discusses the so-called "short octave", the "broken octave" and the almost universally missing C sharp in all parts of his book. Only the castle church in Weimar had C sharp in the two manuals and in the pedal (contrary to the inaccurate account by Hermann J. Busch, corrected by Jean-Claude Zehnder). Bach stayed in Weimar for 6 months from January 1703, employed at court as "Laquey". In the penultimate piece of the series of partitas on Oh, what am I supposed to do sinner BWV 770 contains the treacherous C sharp once in the left hand. This allows the work to be dated to this period. Schneider deservedly discusses this delightfully youthful work in detail.

Many of Bach's organ works were written during his Weimar period: the Organ bookletthe 17 great chorale arrangements (slightly revised after 1740 as Leipzig chorales more than half of his preludes and fugues and the concerto arrangements after Vivaldi's L'estro armonico op. 3. each genre is discussed in detail in a few examples. Three preludes are missing: A major BWV 536, F minor BWV 534 and C minor BWV 546, for whose fugues Bach's authorship was doubted by David Humphreys and Peter Williams. However, I was able to prove that they were written long before and that the fugue in A major is to be played manually, with the pedal only being added shortly before the end (in: The Organ Yearbook 2008).

Schneider is certainly correct when he writes in the 6 chamber music trio sonatas BWV 525-530, composed for the eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, that one stop per voice is sufficient, that the left hand can be fingered an octave lower with four feet for more comfortable playability and, above all, that a sixteenth foot is superfluous for the pedal. Schneider could have mentioned the cantatas with obbligato organ from the 1726/27 cycle, also written for Wilhelm Friedemann before he left Leipzig.

What should be added in a second edition of this seminal handbook: cases of temporelations in the "proportio sesquialtera". Here are just two impressive examples: Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543. The crotchets of the measuredly paced prelude, which is laden with many dissonances, take up the same amount of time as three quavers in the alto fugue. The prelude and fugue in G major BWV 541 behave the other way round: whole bars in the same period as half bars in the fugue. Only in this way does the prelude with the Vivace marking develop the necessary effervescence, without a highly exaggerated tempo in the demanding fugue.

Matthias Schneider: Handbuch Aufführungspraxis Orgel, Volume 1: From the Middle Ages to Bach. 267 p. hardcover € 49.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7618-2338-5

The funding volume of the fourth phase is around 2 million euros. The aim of the project is to provide relevant information services for top-level musicological research in Germany. Over the next three years, the BSB and SLUB will continue to expand their already established offerings and add new, innovative services.

The acquisition of relevant literature and academic resources is of central importance and includes both printed and electronic forms of publication as well as the licensing of e-media. Established formats for networked musicology are continuously expanded and optimized. This includes the provision and technical development of the online catalog of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM-OPAC) at the BSB.

Through the Dresden online repository musiconn.publish, the FID Musicology has now also developed into a permanent fixture in the field of publishing and open access and offers researchers the opportunity to publish their work free of charge and with long-term security. This service will be further expanded in the coming years, as will the database for musical performance events musiconn.performance at the SLUB and the web application musiconn.scoresearch, a melody search using optical note recognition at the BSB.

Existing services such as the web archiving of internet resources or the provision of a dissertation registration office will also continue to be supported by the FID in the coming funding phase. Completely new paths will also be taken with the establishment of a digital phonotheque (musiconn.audio) at the SLUB.

The exchange with the academic community will continue to be given high priority in the new funding phase. With the blog musiconn.kontrovers, operated by the BSB, a format will be continued through which current topics in the field can be discussed constructively. Through an advisory board with representatives from a broad institutional spectrum of musicology and an international advisory board, the FID also receives continuous feedback on its work and new impulses for further developments that are oriented towards the needs of science.

All offers and further information can be found on the project portal
www.musiconn.de can be called up.

"Reinhart" is still a name that resonates throughout Switzerland thanks to the top-class art collection at Römerholz of Winterthur's Oskar Reinhart (1885-1965). The fact that his brother Werner (1884-1951) achieved equally important things in the field of music is now mainly known to insiders. Werner Reinhart was more active in the background, supporting the Musikkollegium Winterthur and bringing the important conductor Hermann Scherchen to the Eulachstadt. Thanks to them, the orchestra became a European center of contemporary music between 1923 and 1951.

Reinhart was an excellent amateur clarinettist who had a flair for new music and made it the focus of his work. This was discreet, however, and his financial involvement in performances was often not even mentioned. Thanks to Peter Sulzer's standard work 10 composers around Werner Reinhart (Volume I, 1979; Volume II, 1980), it has long been known that he, like Paul Sacher in Basel, supported and strengthened selected composers in Winterthur in the long term. These included Stravinsky, Krenek and Honegger, but also Hindemith and Richard Strauss. Strauss in particular, who was "associated" with the Hitler regime, repeatedly gave rise to conjecture in connection with Reinhart. Much was rumored, but nothing more was known.

Now the archives of the Musikkollegium and thus also Reinhart's private archives have been opened; the musicologist Ulrike Thiele was able to go through them and write her dissertation. The result has been published by Bärenreiter. The excitement was great, but certain expectations were not fulfilled. Thiele reports in a differentiated and always balanced manner. This applies, for example, to Reinhart's dealings with the Donaueschingen chamber music performances, which were brought into line after 1933 and which he still attended and supported in 1938.

Thiele's assessment of the famous case of the opportunistic Wilhelm Furtwängler, who conducted in Winterthur in February 1945 despite fierce protests, as a "demonstration of a music-political position" that "is based on the idea of a strict separability of art and politics" is somewhat clattering. The same applies to the assessment of Reinhart's handling of Richard Strauss.

On the other hand, we are delighted by previously unknown patronage, such as the fact that De Falla's performance of Master Pedro's puppet show at the Marionette Theater Zurich in 1926 was made possible by Reinhart. Or how extensively he supported Clara Haskil over many years, both ideally and materially, thus ensuring her survival. Overall, Thiele's dissertation contains a wealth of information and sources on the history of music in Switzerland in the 20th century.

Ulrike Thiele: Patron and mentor. Werner Reinhart as a pioneer of musical modernism, Schweizer Beiträge zur Musikforschung, vol. 27, 332 p., € 39.95, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7618-7201-7

When it comes to "seasons", many music lovers probably think first and foremost of Vivaldi or Haydn. Perhaps also Tchaikovsky, who gave his collection of 12 musical monthly pictures for piano the same name. The 13 Seasons for piano by Daniel R. Schneider, which were published by Gilgenreiner-Verlag at the end of 2019.

The Winterthur composer, who also writes for orchestras, ensembles and theaters, has always been involved with a wide variety of musical styles and is obviously at home in classical music, jazz and folk music. The 13 Seasons are, as he says, inspired by everyday stories, moods and events and combine different styles into a unified musical language. The individual numbers have no titles (as in Tchaikovsky, for example), but are simply marked with a metronome number and a simple tempo or character description. Some reveal the skillful jazz musician who likes to sweep the entire keyboard with virtuosity. In others, an immediately touching mood is created with very simple (and yet not everyday!) pianistic and compositional means. This is particularly true of number 11.

Schneider also knows how to incorporate new playing techniques such as clusters or preparation. However, the instructions are not always formulated in a completely coherent manner. In some places, the composer invites you to improvise. This may be the case with number 5 in particular, with its wide-ranging accompaniment figures in the left hand and the long pauses in the right hand.

The level of pianistic difficulty varies considerably from piece to piece, but this need not be an obstacle. In the preface, Schneider expressly writes: "The cycle can be performed in its entirety or individual pieces can be combined as desired." However, it is definitely worth taking a closer look at the whole booklet. Because the last piece in particular, number 13, is a little gem!

Daniel R. Schneider: 13 Seasons, for piano, Fr. 36.00, Gilgenreiner, Winterthur 2019, ISMN 979-0-700268-31-2

Robert Schumann famously found it extremely difficult to put his own string quartets on paper after Beethoven and Schubert's significant contribution to the genre. He attempted to do so several times, as the four-part string unit fascinated him immensely. However, as a pianist who had not studied a string instrument, the established standards seemed too high to him for a long time, the goal too ambitious. Clara Schumann's motivation and Felix Mendelssohn's example, who took up the challenge with his own works, finally led in 1842 to the triumvirate of Opus 41, which was composed almost in a frenzy and within a very short space of time. In it - as in the symphonies - Schumann shows the compositional way out of the state of shock triggered by Beethoven among his contemporaries and the generation of composers that immediately followed. The aesthetic orientation towards the core of High Romanticism, which leaves formal, harmonic and structural constraints further and further behind, opens up the renaissance for the string quartet that Mendelssohn had already boldly embarked upon before 1826.

The manuscript version presented here in a new edition by Breitkopf & Härtel provides a glimpse into Schumann's compositional workshop. In the course of the first rehearsal of the three works by the quartet of violinist Ferdinand David, which took the incomprehensibly short time of five days until the premiere in a private setting, Schumann intervened in the score in numerous places in order to correct various imbalances that had proved unsatisfactory in the course of the work. He also improved the playability, avoiding uncomfortable double stops, bowings, phrasing and playing techniques. Noteworthy in the A minor quartet are the original use of mutes in the introductory Andante espressivo, later deleted doubled semiquavers in the following Scherzo, ornamentation suggestions in the Adagio and a shortening in the Presto. Schumann shortened considerably more in the variation movement of the second quartet, the F major quartet, and a repeat is also omitted in the Scherzo. Interesting in Opus 41/3 is a deleted additional bar at the beginning of the introduction to the first movement, which had delayed the entry of the first violin. A pizzicato in the cello in the notorious, tricky secondary theme of the first movement was also omitted. Typically for a pianist, Schumann writes impossibly long slurs, but in this edition they serve as a good model for intelligent phrasing and merely require a more practicable division that keeps the composer's instructions in mind.

Overall, however, it is surprising how few deviations there are. In Beethoven's case, the changes made in collaboration with the Schuppanzigh Quartet were much more extensive. From today's perspective, it is difficult to understand why Schumann had to insist several times with his publisher that a score be published alongside the parts to make it easier to work through the complex and multi-layered works. The quartets, which were unfortunately only composed in this one year, remain a great challenge for any ensemble even today.

Robert Schumann: String Quartets op. 41 no. 1-3, manuscript version, edited by Nick Pfefferkorn; set of parts, EB 32032, € 37.90; study score, PB 32032, € 23.50; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

Rainer Held is always good for a surprise. In this country, he is held in high regard as an original choral conductor who has also made a name for himself in orchestral concerts as the first permanent guest conductor of the Minsk Radio Symphony Orchestra (from 2003 to 2010). He has recently released two new recordings.

The Lucerne conductor has always been interested in Swiss music history. He spares no effort; large-scale works are particularly appealing to him. Nevertheless, people were amazed when, in 2019, he conducted the gigantic Symphony No. 4 in G minor op. 27 (2014/15) by Lucerne-based Alexander Brincken with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. This orchestra has never recorded anything this big, not even with Neeme Järvi, emphasizes the orchestra manager.

Brincken, born in St. Petersburg in 1952, openly draws on the late Romantic symphonies of Strauss and Mahler. Even if such an approach is generally unsettling nowadays, the composer knows something about instrumentation. The large orchestral apparatus is dense in sound but well balanced, and its wide-ranging melodies - such as the catchy horn solo in the slow movement - have a carrying power. Held's command of the orchestra and the combination of energetic rhythms and slow climaxes is also impressive.

The Capriccio for piano and chamber orchestra op. 11, which can also be heard on this CD, was written by Brincken in 1985 when he was still living in the Soviet Union. Focused entirely on the pianist Brincken, this decidedly "Russian" piano concerto unfolds a vital dialog between soloist and orchestra, impressionistic timbres alternate with Hindemith-style concertante joy of playing. Rainer Held knows how to realize the intentions of the composer and soloist Brincken with an alert spirit.

Shortly after the Brincken project, Held released his first CD with works by Heinrich Sutermeister (1910-1995) on the same label, Toccata Classics. 2020 marked the 25th anniversary of his death. Sutermeister became known primarily as an opera composer. He made his breakthrough in 1940 - in the middle of the war in Nazi Germany - with the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet at the Semperoper Dresden under Karl Böhm. The opera was subsequently translated and performed in several languages. Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch also conducted its music.

Sutermeister was also interested in the then new media of radio and television. The melodrama recorded here The Alps. Fantasy on Swiss folk songs for orchestra and narrator was written for a radio production. What sounds "old-fashioned" at first glance, like pathos from home, turns out to be an impressive play of colors for orchestra that is hardly inferior to Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony. Bruno Cathomas recites the powerful nature poem by the author Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) with pleasant simplicity.

Vivid and dramaturgically gripping is the Romeo and Juliet Suite for large orchestra, with which Sutermeister followed on from the great success of his opera in Dresden. The premiere of the suite took place on April 9, 1941 in Winterthur, with Karl Böhm and the Berlin Philharmonic. The light Divertimento No. 2 (1959/60) is a fine example of Sutermeister's French flair: dance-like and melodically inventive music with a varied use of percussion, reminiscent of the Groupe des Six.

The Toccata label specializes in major works by lesser-known composers and also works with London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This is how Held, who has long been involved with Sutermeister's orchestral and choral music, came to this well-known orchestra - once again an exciting "Swissness" project that Rainer Held has launched in London. Further CD recordings in this series are planned.

The Swiss composer, flautist and conductor Caroline Charrière (1960-2018) lived and worked mainly in Fribourg after studying with Aurèle Nicolet, Jean Balissat and René Klopfenstein. She composed this twelve-minute work in 2015 Feux for flute, clarinet, marimba, percussion, violin, viola and violoncello. The composer was inspired by the various stages and aspects of fire: small flame, burgeoning fire, smouldering under the ashes, will-o'-the-wisp, heat, destruction, excitement, agony, purification, love, ashes and desolation, rebirth and joy. Here and there, a few notes of an Icelandic folk song are inserted. This programmatic concept becomes comprehensible to the listener, the piece is varied and exciting.

In terms of the cast Feux for example with Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire and/or with the Folk Songs by Luciano Berio (the former requires a piano instead of percussion, the latter a harp, both additionally a singer or diseuse). Not to forget the conductor, who is needed for Feux needs in any case! Marimba and percussion can be played by the same person. The instruments all have easily realizable parts with versatile playing techniques. An attractive piece of new music by a Swiss composer who died all too soon!

On Youtube is a Inclusion of Feux to hear and see with the Ensemble Contrechamps (see below).

Caroline Charrière: Feux, for chamber ensemble (fl, cl, marimba, perc., vl, vla, vc), score and parts MCX80, Fr. 40.00, Éditions Bim, Vuarmarens

Louis Spohr (1784-1859) was the most famous German violinist, composer, conductor and teacher of his time. His violin school (1832), the Méthode de violon by the Frenchman Baillot (together with Rode and Kreutzer, 1793) and that of the Belgian Bériot (1858) were the outstanding pedagogical works of the time. Because Spohr always accompanied the pupils with his violin when teaching, all the practice pieces in his school are designed as duos - the first part for the pupil, the second part for the teacher - harmonically very stimulating, as Spohr also wanted to convey musical values.

Kolja Lessing has now republished a selection of these in two volumes with Breitkopf und Härtel. Book 1: The twelve first duos, first on empty strings, then in the first position, are all in C major with whole and half notes, often still tied; I wonder whether this difficult key and the long bow strokes are suitable for beginners. The second dozen of Lessing's selections progress from another four in C major, but with more rhythmic movement, to pieces in various major and minor keys that are really worthwhile. Book 2 is a firework of twelve duos covering many technical and musical aspects: two pieces in the 2nd position in C and A flat major, one in the 3rd position in C sharp major, a fast zigzag, a cantilena, three pieces in four parts for two, arpeggio, polacca with staccato volante and as a final bouquet a theme with eleven variations, close to Paganini - certainly not only valuable for study, but also for performance.

The booklets are arranged in such a way that you don't have to leaf through them for the three-page duets. Detailed texts by Spohr (autographs with transcriptions), editor Kolja Lessing and Karl Traugott Goldbach, the director of the Spohr Museum in Kassel, provide interesting information.

The popular beginners' duets by Ignaz Pleyel have now been published by Henle. The booklet contains the Urtext score and two parts with bowings and fingerings. Some of them are unnecessary, but some good suggestions for voluntary excursions into the 2nd and 3rd positions are helpful. The industrious and successful composer, publisher and piano maker Pleyel was compelled to publish easy duets in ascending degrees of difficulty in 1809. The first duet is not the easiest, precisely because it begins with long sustained notes and is in C major, which is not easy for violin beginners. These are light-footed sonatas in two or three movements, which often change to the parallel major or minor key. They are also suitable as sight-reading exercises, for which it is advisable to play from the score.

Louis Spohr: 36 duos for 2 violins from the violin school, edited by Kolja Lessing; booklet 1, 24 easy duos, EB 8976, € 21.90; booklet 2, 12 virtuoso duos, EB 8977, € 24.90; Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

Ignaz Pleyel: Six little duos op. 8 for two violins, edited by Norbert Gertsch, HN 1378, € 16.00, G. Henle, Munich

It is not unusual for a guitar school to introduce the notes with the thumb touch first. Characteristic of the teaching work Guitar playing - Guitar games is that the thumb is always placed on the next string when playing, i.e. played apoyando. Frank Hill's revised and self-published new school impresses with a wealth of material based on this basic idea. After many melodies played on the low strings, the index, middle and ring fingers of the right hand also appear initially only in combination with the thumb. It remains strangely unclear where the alternating stroke between the index and middle fingers begins. The fact that there are practically no fingerings contributes to a dignified score. Numerous songs with written-out accompaniments can also be performed as chamber music and round off the first volume.

Volume II, which was published at the same time, offers another rich selection of attractive pieces with over 200 numbers and is also ideally suited for teaching teachers who do not share the author's technical concept. There is now a third part of the ambitious seven-volume textbook. It bears the subtitle "Music for every occasion - Solo".

The course is much more marketable Today we hit the strings! for children aged 6 and over by Norbert Roschauer. Anyone who opens the new, supplementary playbook and takes a closer look at the songs and pieces will be pleasantly surprised. Apoyando or not? - Such questions are not discussed here. But the songs are clearly set, with clear indications of accompanying rhythm and plucking patterns. They range from traditional German folk melodies and Christmas carols to folk, gospel and rock songs. However, anyone looking for classical guitar literature will be better served by other booklets.

Frank Hill: Gitarrespielen - Gitarrenspiele, new version with drawings by David Marian, 2 volumes, € 24.80 each, Musica Longa, Berlin

Norbert Roschauer: Today we're hitting the strings! Playbook for the bestselling method, book, CD and online files, art. no. 20278G, € 19.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

When improvisation and composition, mixed with curiosity and inspiration, work together in the classroom, a fruitful dialog can arise. - Timon Altwegg is a concert pianist and piano teacher. He lives and works in the canton of Thurgau. In his collection of pieces he has succeeded in emotions 14 appealing piano pieces for the upper elementary level. The foreword reveals that some of the pieces were written directly during lessons. The starting point was often simple harmonic or melodic improvisations, which Timon Altwegg later added to form well-rounded pieces. The simple rhythmic and harmonic elements invite the listener to improvise with them.

I like how musical and technical demands go hand in hand and soon give the players a musical experience. In each piece, a technical and/or musical core idea is taken up, so that the pieces have the character of little etudes. The fact that the author, as he writes, deliberately dispenses with fingerings and pedal indications opens up a further working area in lessons.

Timon Altwegg: emotions, 14 lively pieces for piano, N 2769, € 11.90, Heinrichshofen and Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven

In November 2020, the canton extended its support for the cultural sector by signing a performance agreement with the federal government for CHF 10.4 million (50% federal, 50% cantonal). As a subsidiary measure, the State Council has also decided to compensate all singing and music associations that request it; it corresponds to 80% of the salaries (excluding social security contributions) for the loss of working hours of their director or organist for the period from September 26 to December 31, 2020, provided that the remuneration is normally paid by the association and not by the municipality, the parish or a third party.

By the end of 2020, the canton of Valais and the federal government had provided around CHF 11.5 million in support for cultural enterprises, creative artists and music society leaders. The cantonal project "Grants for research and development" has made it possible to support 70 projects with the aim of encouraging cultural professionals to continue their personal research despite the closure of cultural institutions.

More info: https://www.vs.ch/web/culture/coronavirus-culture

When I was hired at the Basel Music School in 2016, I wanted my piano students to have as smooth a start as possible in the fascinating world of piano literature. The aim was to keep the beginners motivated and, even more importantly, to ignite passions. But how should one deal with the often tedious but important task of reading music? I invented a game.

First, I drew a mountain landscape on paper, with a wide river in the foreground, lines of notes and the bass and treble clefs. Then I drew notes into it. Lying in the "water", they looked like round stones in a mountain stream. All in all, the picture corresponded to both the notation system and a fantasy landscape. A likeable character was not long in coming: Tuny. I immediately cut out the finely dressed little man and attached him to a thin stick to move him along the river. The first analog prototype was ready and the game could begin: The six-year-old beginner plays notes on the piano and Tuny, guided by the piano teacher's hand, jumps from stone to stone accordingly. As we all know, finding notes is not always easy, so Tuny and his fine concert suit occasionally end up in the water instead of on a stone. The pupil giggles at the sight of this and the game continues: the river washes the soaking wet fellow back again and the jump has to be attempted once more. In their eagerness to play, the children hardly notice that they are doing nothing but reading music. They cheerfully pursue the task, which not infrequently triggers their displeasure at the sight of "normal" notes.

The positive learning effects of the tool soon became apparent, and the analog prototype was turned into the app as part of a research project at the FHNW School of Music from 2018 to 2020. TunyStones - Piano developed. Today, the app is a sophisticated set of methods that uses improvisation and composition tasks to provide additional motivation, education and stimulate creativity. Its purpose is to promote and maintain the motivation of pupils on the one hand and to support teachers on the other. It allows them to explore and learn to understand the notation system largely independently, as the app recognizes the real, acoustic sounds of a piano and automatically moves the playing figure according to the notes played. The tablet stands on the music stand like a sheet of music. The piano becomes a kind of "game controller" and remains a musical instrument at the same time.

No prior knowledge is required to use the app, as the game is non-verbal and self-explanatory. A rough orientation in the notation system is first introduced by means of improvisation, then the musical intervals gradually appear in familiar melodies as well as reading etudes composed especially for the game. The app is also an unprecedented, interactive music book. In lessons, I recommend using the app "for dessert", i.e. towards the end of a lesson. Reading sheet music in this way is popular with five to twelve-year-olds and can refresh even tired minds so that they can overcome cognitive hurdles. It is a particularly welcome enrichment for daily and independent practice at home.

The play landscape, a fantasy world similar to the Alps, was created by Adorabelle Tan and Cindy Chuang. Three maps provide an overview of the progress made. In the first two, the melodies are arranged according to their didactic content and level of difficulty. The closer you get to the mountain peaks, the more challenging the tasks become. As soon as you have conquered the first mountain, you can climb the second with its characteristic two peaks.

The crowning glory of the game is the third - the composition mountain: here, everyone becomes a composer and can create their own melodies and levels. But beware: Tuny is about to appear and has to master what you have composed, including all the jumps! A learning process takes place that goes beyond simply reading music and has a lot to do with creativity, but also with self-assessment. Teachers can also use the highly sought-after composition mountain with individually tailored miniatures for the pupils. These can then be played directly in class or used as homework.

The development of the app was decisively supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and Innosuisse. The Musik Akademie Basel campus was the ideal location for research and development, as it provided an inspiring environment for synergetic interaction between the practice at the music school and the research at the FHNW School of Music.

Many parents, pupils and, above all, teachers played a decisive role as test subjects. Their ideas directly influenced the development of the method. User feedback is also welcome after the launch. For the time being TunyStones is available for iOS tablets (iPads) in the App Store - free of charge for teachers in Switzerland (create an account in the app, access authorization is granted within a few days) and for pupils on a subscription basis. Further development for other instruments and Android is planned.

All payments that cultural professionals receive from other sources, such as compensation for loss of earnings, are deducted from these 3840 francs. Cultural professionals declare these figures themselves. However, the specialist department for culture will carry out spot checks. False declarations have consequences under criminal law.

The model is efficient, writes the canton, because it keeps the administrative effort and costs for assessing applications low. The random checks and the threat of punishment are effective means of preventing possible abuse.

The model also creates justice: it ensures that low earners in the cultural sector can survive. The few high earners among the cultural professionals go away empty-handed, unless they have canceled events. These will continue to be compensated. Incidentally, the income replacement benefits in this group are higher than CHF 4800.

A total of 29 applications were received in response to the call for proposals. A jury awarded impulse contributions to eleven projects based on the development potential of their project and its sustainability. The selected projects represent the entire spectrum of choral music - from large community-oriented choirs to alternative, smaller formations and top professional choirs. The intended measures include program work, vocal training, structural changes and collaborations.

Supported are Association Chœur à Cœur, Bévilard (CHF 15,000), Bern Minster Children's and Youth Choir (CHF 25,000), Chœur de Biu, Biel (CHF 25,000), DERmännerchor, Bern (CHF 15,000), Ensemble vocal d'Erguël, St-Imier (CHF 24,000), Frauenchor Reitschule Bern (CHF 25,000), JazzChorBern (CHF 25,000), Konzertchor Oberaargau (CHF 20,000), Konzertchor Rapperswil (CHF 25,000), Verein ensemble ardent (CHF 25,000), and Vokalensemble Novantiqua (CHF 24,000).