Far too rarely do film scores make it into print. Yet such scores are extremely helpful for studying details of the composition, which is often acoustically relegated to the background, beyond freely compiled "suites". This is particularly rewarding when the music proves to be suggestive and independent. For example, the music composed by Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) for Alfred Hitchcock's ingenious agent thriller peppered with subtle irony North by Northwest (1959).

The very first bars are formative: a fandango rhythm in the timpani (readable as 6/8 in double time), answered by a syncopated alternating note in the low strings (double time as 3/4). The overture describes the pulsation of the big city, later the wild ride on a coastal road. Rhythms, themes, harmonic twists and timbres run through the entire film as leitmotifs - and thus unify the almost uninterrupted sequence of dramatic scenes, whose trigger in the film is ostensibly dated November 24, 1958 by the insertion of an issue of The Evening Star from the following day (incidentally, albeit graphically altered, with an authentic headline). The legendary scene in the cornfield is completely without music (and for a breathtaking stretch also without language).

The printed score also includes all those numbers that were (for good reasons) omitted or shortened in the film. A descriptive analysis on twenty pages makes the musical text comprehensible even for film buffs. A continuation with further legendary Herrmann settings would be desirable, for example of Vertigo or Psycho.

Bernard Herrmann: North by Northwest (1959), score, Omni 50791, XX+211 p., € 79.00, Omni Music Publishing/Schott, Los Angeles/Mainz 2022, ISBN 978-1-73450-791-1

Music knowledge is a life's work. Who is well versed in all eras, who knows a composer's oeuvre in its entirety, who knows about genre boundaries and can provide similar information about Duke Ellington, Def Leppard or Johann Sebastian Bach? In view of the diversity, it's a good idea to start with the basics - the basics that The practical theory book for music lessons first published in 1997 by the now retired music teacher Emil Wallimann and the bandleader and music coach Peter Wespi.

Learning platform

Since 2015, both experts have been promoting an e-learning platform to accompany the book, available at www.musikwissen.ch. The target audience is - according to the book itself - "grammar school pupils, but also prospective conductors or music teachers". Anyone who studies the exercises will come up with other "customers": in addition to applicants to music academies or interested amateurs or pensioners, there are also long-time music editors or music journalists who might want to brush up on their theoretical knowledge. Well, what was that again about the enharmonic confusion? Where were the semitone steps in the Mixolydian mode again? Or: What does the bebop scale actually sound like in a minor key?

You can tell that the two long-standing educators have experience in teaching. And they make imaginative use of the diverse digital-interactive possibilities: The website and its respective pages are refreshingly clear and without fuss. There are audio examples (the ear training under the title "Eartraining" is particularly recommended), there are simple multiple-choice questions, as well as continuous texts to be completed. Once a learning unit has been completed, you move on to the next exercise. Motivating progress can be made quickly; a quick glance at the book or links to short information videos will help if you get stuck.

Insights into music history

The platform is divided into four levels of difficulty. If you have completed everything with a green tick, you have already achieved a very solid foundation in aspects of musical notation, rhythm, instrument, genre and form theory and harmony. The illustrative examples provide the learner with many an insight into music history en passant, which can of course be expanded upon. There is a brief mention of non-European music, as well as the 20th and 21st centuries, in which composers consciously abandoned traditional musical knowledge and traditional elements such as the circle of fifths, the rondo or the sonata form.

In times of blatant loss of musical education, this enthusiastically run and constantly updated learning platform remains an extremely useful initiative!

musik-wissen - easy to learn. Offers and conditions for individual users, schools, institutions and associations with printed workbook, multimedia eBook or e-learning at: musikwissen.ch/offer

Many violinists know and love Telemann's 12 fantasies The continuation, TWV 40:26-37, is only known to viola da gamba players, a minority today. The viola da gamba was already going out of fashion in Telemann's time, which is why in 1735 he added a great deal of sophistication to his 12 viol fantasias in order to attract buyers: broken chords and passagework, monophonic and polyphonic writing in both fugal and gallant styles.

Viacheslav Dinerchtein adapted the Fantasias for viola for Amadeus-Verlag back in 2019. This was followed in 2022 by an arrangement by the English composer Brian A. Schiele. Each of these lively works has two or three movements, and all the odd fantasias contain a fugato full of surprises. Some movements are reminiscent of dances such as Allemande, Gavotte, Courante, Bourrée, although they are never named as such. Others are contemplative and polyphonic or joyfully virtuosic. Every well-defined key appears once: Eight are in the circle of fifths in major from E flat to E, four in minor from C to E. Since the viol has six strings in fourth-octave tuning and a larger range in the lower register, octaves have to be accepted on the viola and chords either broken or thinned out. Schiele has done this skillfully, but recommends in the preface that the facsimile (the printed edition in Edition Güntersberg/Walhall G281 or online) be consulted.

Georg Philipp Telemann: Fantaisies pour la Basse de Violle TWV 40:26-37, 12 Fantasies arranged for viola by Brian A. Schiele, EW 1150, €18.50, Edition Walhall Magdeburg

Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter, has always fascinated and inspired many composers with its miracle of tongues and the sending of the Holy Spirit. With Music for the Spirit is the first choral book on this subject to be published by the German-English composer, conductor and church musician Stephen Harrap with Breitkopf und Härtel.

The collection for mixed choir a cappella or with organ accompaniment is a real treasure trove and contains over 500 years of choral music by important European composers. A certain focus of the repertoire is on English choral music. Attention has also been paid to the different lengths, levels of difficulty and instrumentation (from 3 to 8 voices) of the pieces. Highly recommended!

Music for the Spirit. Chorbuch zu Pfingsten & anderen Anlässen, edited by Stephen Harrap, ChB 5384, € 26.90, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

It is generally known that Vladimir Horowitz, the legendary pianist, often interpreted the musical text in a very personal way and did not shy away from interventions. In Mussorgsky's Pictures of an exhibition The piano movement in a way that corresponded to his more orchestral conception of sound. Rachmaninov's Second Piano Sonata or Liszt's Mephisto Waltz he played in his private versions. Not to mention the numerous piano transcriptions, which also testify to his creative temperament and established part of his fame.

However, even die-hard fans might be surprised to learn that Horowitz was apparently also an ambitious composer as a teenager and wrote a whole series of original piano works. However, when the Russian Revolution reached Kiev and his family suffered greatly as a result, he had to give up this dream. He now tried to start a career as a pianist so that he could at least support his family financially. "If the revolution hadn't played so hard on his family and forced him to give concerts, the world would have known a different Horowitz later on," said his former classmate Vera Resnikov.

When Horowitz was later asked about his compositions in the West, he always replied that the manuscripts had remained in a secret place in Russia. It was not until 1986, when he was finally able to visit his homeland again, that he received the sheet music back. Schott Music has now set itself the task of publishing these previously unknown works as part of the Horowitz Edition.

Below is Fragment douloureux op. 14, probably the last composition written in Kiev. The piece comprises just 73 bars and begins "lento, lugubre, misterioso" as a kind of funeral march in 3/4 time. The following sighing motifs and sweeping arpeggios are strongly reminiscent of Rachmaninov, while the numerous trills from bar 27 onwards are more in Scriabin's handwriting. With a steady increase in tempo and dynamics, the piece reaches its culmination at bars 47/48 and from then on gradually returns to the atmosphere of the beginning "poco a poco a tempo lento". (Presumably a diminuendo should also be added here).

In its brevity, this Fragment douloureux a kind of drama in miniature. The piano writing is pianistically quite demanding and can only be mastered by big hands. The possibilities of the instrument are exploited with great flair. You can already sense the keyboard magician to come ... Horowitz dedicated the work to his piano teacher Felix Blumenfeld, who was himself a great pianist and composer.

Vladimir Horowitz: Fragment douloureux pour piano, The Horowitz Edition, ED 23085, € 12.00, Schott, Mainz

For more than ten years, the name Sarah Chaksad has been synonymous with jazz full of concise motifs, subdued sounds and complex rhythms. Until the coronavirus pandemic, the saxophonist, composer and bandleader was primarily on the road with her "Orchestra", with which she also released two albums. For her latest work, TogetherShe has not expanded her ensemble, but reduced it to 13 musicians. According to the 40-year-old, the current formation is therefore more flexible and enjoys additional space for improvisation.

Rare instruments, odd meters

In an interview with the author of these lines in 2022, Chaksad explained that her aim is to continue to develop and that music serves as a place of strength for her. Both are reflected in her ten new pieces. The majority of the compositions were triggered by the death of her father, who came from Iran. This prompted her to delve deeper into traditional Persian music. As a result, she has expanded her dynamic sound with instruments such as the eufonium, valve trombone and Persian violin, which are little known in jazz.

In addition, almost all the songs on Together are based on odd meters. While the playful Imagine Peace features a 13/8 time signature, the atmospheric title track uses a 5/8 time signature and is particularly appealing thanks to Misagh Joolaee's soulful solo on the kamanche, a spike fiddle. Numbers such as the elegiac Love Letters or the cheeky Lostwhich was inspired by parental life in Berlin, are imaginative, inspired and stick with you.

Ultimately, the album is characterized by depth of focus, diverse timbres and careful solo contributions. Sarah Chaksad would like to Together The band's music is full of curiosity and moves from genre to genre, which is easy to understand.

Sarah Chaksad Large Ensemble: Together. Clap Your Hands CYH

Line up: Yumi Ito (voc), Hildegunn Øiseth (tp, goat horn), Paco Andreo (vtb), Lukas Wyss (tb), Sophia Nidecker (tuba), Catherine Delaunay (basset horn), Christoph Bösch (fl), Fabian Willmann (ts), Julia Hülsmann (p), Fabio Gouvea (g), Dominique Girod (b), Eva Klesse (dr), Misagh Joolaee (kamancheh), Sarah Chaksad (ss, as, comp)

Switzerland has a lot to offer in the field of choral music thanks to its different national languages and the associated cultural areas. The Swiss federation Europa Cantat took this as an opportunity to publish a compact choral book with Carus-Verlag, which aims to reflect this diversity and make it better known internationally. A challenging undertaking.

The result is an interesting collection of 28 pieces of varying length and difficulty for mixed choir a cappella in all national languages as well as English and Latin. It includes folk song highlights, works by well-known and lesser-known composers from the Swiss choral music scene, short pieces by the "stars" Heinz Holliger and Beat Furrer and the latest compositions by the younger generation, including four female composers.

In addition to truly original and recommendable works, the now widespread, sales-oriented soft sound with the same old cuddly chords also finds its way into choral music. Perhaps it would have been worth taking a look at truly representative greats such as Willy Burkhard, Adolf Brunner, Arthur Honegger or Frank Martin. However, QR codes for the pronunciation of the three Rhaeto-Romanic pieces and beautiful recordings of all the works on CD with the Swiss Youth Choir are useful additions.

Swiss Choral Music, Chorbuch Schweiz (SATB), edited by Patrick Secchiari and Johannes Meister; Carus, Stuttgart.

Orders from Switzerland via Editions Henry Labatiaz: Choir book CV 2.305/10, Fr. 23.00; choir book with CD, CV 2.305.00, Fr. 37.00 (lower graduated and special prices for SFEC members)

"Make an effort to play easy pieces well and beautifully, it is better than performing difficult ones mediocrely." Robert Schumann's tip from his Musical house and life rules could be a guideline for this wonderful CD released by the Austrian label Gramola. The 28-year-old Georgian pianist Giorgi Iuldashevi, who studied in Zurich and also lives there, not only played Schumann's well-known pieces from the Album for the youth but also many other pieces that might be familiar to the piano student: Excerpts from For Children by Belá Bartók, from the collection Játékok by György Kurtág or pedagogically motivated pieces by Sergei Prokofiev or Peter Tchaikovsky. Less common, but no less attractive to the ear and fingers, are the 12 pieces by composer Nodar Gabunia, born in Tbilisi in 1933: From the diary of a pupil.

Yes, it sounds child's play - and not at all suited to a trained professional pianist who made his debut as a 12-year-old with Mozart's difficult Piano Concerto K. 466 in D minor. But, keyword Mozart: simplicity has its pitfalls. And Giorgi Iuldashevi not only masters these, but also demonstrates a rare range of musical expression in these very different pieces. Even the familiar appears fresh in his interpretations - also because he never lapses into superior distance or unnecessary romanticizing. Iuldashevi keeps the balance, and always in an exciting way. He garnishes Bartók with wit, Tchaikovsky with the necessary seriousness in places, and above all the tempi and the natural flow in Robert Schumann's pieces are inspiring.

If you are (or were) a pianist, you will immediately feel the urge to try out many a pretty miniature again. But this CD is also simply good for the listener: in its unobtrusive tone, in this expression that has nothing at all of the tense muscle play that is unfortunately common among piano virtuosos.

Simplicity. Giorgi Iuldashevi plays works by Gabunia, Bartók, Kurtág, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Schumann. Gramola 99291

Would Jean Sibelius agree to the publication of these early works? The statements that the composer made in old age about his then lost or unpublished chamber music manuscripts vary. There is talk of "burning", another time he said: "It was the time when one was developing."

Before and during his student days, Sibelius composed a piano trio for his siblings every summer and performed them during the vacations with relatives and friends. He played the violin part himself. The place names "Havträsk" and "Korpo" go back to this genesis, but do not originate from the composer. Five multi-movement trios were composed between 1883 and 1888, none of which were printed during Sibelius' lifetime. He did not compose any more works for this instrumentation later on. His heirs donated the manuscripts of the two present piano trios to the National Library of Finland in 1982.

The editors Folke Gräsbeck and Anna Pulkkis have meticulously prepared these sources in 2021. The critical report in both volumes is almost as extensive as the musical text. There are even two versions of the first movement of the "Havträsk" trio. If you listen to the interpretations on the net, you'll be leafing through the pages!

In comparison, the shorter trio Havträsk in A minor (22 minutes) is the more catchy piece and is completely dominated by the spirit of Romanticism. It poses fewer technical challenges for the performers. In the more than half-hour Corpo-In the second trio, much more is demanded of them; as a violinist, Sibelius must have practiced a lot of Paganini! This second trio points to the later Sibelius. The second movement in particular, entitled "Fantasia", experiments with timbres, playing techniques and harmonies. Occasionally, the instrumental movement comes across as somewhat wooden, for example when the piano plays alone and accompanies its melody with crotchets for long stretches. However, when the strings take over in pairs, one can hear the tonal language of the later symphonies. There, the formal blocks seem much more coherent than in these early works. The master has indeed made great progress!

Tracing the genius of this important symphonist is probably the justification for examining his early works, even if he did not release them for printing.

Jean Sibelius: Trio in A minor "Havträsk" JS 207, for violin, violoncello and piano, edited by Folke Gräsbeck and Anna Pulkkis, EB 9448, € 39.90, Breitkopf &Härtel, Wiesbaden

id.: Trio in D major "Korpo" JS 209, EB 9449, € 39.90

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), who was gifted at an early age but suffered from chronic lung disease, was able to study composition with the help of her older sister Nadia (1887-1979) and was supported by important composers. She won the Prix de Rome at the age of 23. Her 50 surviving works include secular and sacred choral cantatas and even an unfinished opera. Nadia, who was a famous composer (Copland, Piazzolla, Glass, Bacewicz ...) and piano teacher (Lipati) until old age, took care of the dissemination of the works after Lili's death.

Four pieces for violin and piano by Lili Boulanger have come down to us: D'un matin de printemps (1917/1918), Nocturne (1911), Introduction - Cortège (1914) and Pièce (1910). The editors used the first editions as models for the new edition. Autographs and alternative versions were only used to clarify editorial questions.

Pièce of the seventeen-year-old has only survived in manuscript form and is reproduced here as faithfully as possible. This mystical, slow piece with its undulating piano accompaniment contains surprising chromatic harmonic progressions, enharmonic reinterpretations and colorful dissonances. The racy first, the tender second and the flamenco-like third pieces also enchanted us as we played them. They were premiered by Yehudi Menuhin in 1972.

Lili Boulanger: Die Violinwerke, for violin and piano, edited by Edmund Wächter and Elisabeth Weinzierl, VLB 232, € 19.50, Schott, Mainz

The Concertino for cor anglais and orchestra by Gaetano Donizetti is one of the best-known and most popular works for this instrumentation. The situation of the sources and the transmission is complex and complicated; the ambiguities extend to the choice of key and the structure of the individual variations. A new edition, recently published by Boosey & Hawkes, describes and considers all the sources in detail and in particular weighs up the autograph (from Paris) and a later manuscript (not by Donizetti, from Bologna). As an extremely pleasing and profitable addition, the successful edition contains a double solo part in which both variations are printed on top of each other. In the variations in particular, it is a good idea to use both variants alternately for the repeats.

Gaetano Donizetti: Concertino for English Horn 1816, Critical edition by Stefaan Verdegem, Piano reduction with solo part, BB 3571, print edition € 28.00, Boosey & Hawkes / Bote & Bock, Berlin  

Stefan Müller-Altermatt, President of the Parliamentary Group for Music PGM, was joined by National Councillors Estelle Revaz, cellist, and Vroni Thalmann-Bieri, folk musician, at the group's latest meeting to discuss the discrimination of Swiss musicians on streaming platforms.

Switzerland ranks sixth in the world for per capita expenditure on recorded music. In 2023, Swiss customers spent CHF 234 million on recorded music, 88% of which was spent on streaming. This enormous amount is offset by zero: not a single one of the digital service providers (DSPs) has even one employee who is primarily concerned with Swiss music, and not a single one has a branch in this country. The curators work the Swiss market on the side, in the case of market leader Spotify from Berlin as an "encore" to the ten times larger German market. They are not familiar with the local scene and don't have the time to deal with it. Acts from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino receive even less attention. As a result, Swiss music hardly features on the playlists they put together. This underrepresentation is exacerbated by the other playlists created by algorithms on this basis. There is clear discrimination against acts from comparable countries.

Previous initiatives by associations in this matter have been unsuccessful. Now Stefan Müller-Altermatt has submitted a motion demanding that DSPs of a certain size have a Swiss editorial office based in Switzerland. It will be dealt with by the councillors in one of the next sessions.

Detailed report on Swiss music on the streaming market

On the double-decker train, there are those who always sit at the top and those who sit at the bottom. There are Migros children and Coop children. Even the wolf has friends and enemies. We divide many aspects of our lives into either-or. Yet a little more diversity would do us a world of good. Not only as a society, but also when playing e-bass. It's the little things that make us realize this. In this case, the little thing is about 3 by 3 centimetres in size and is called a plectrum.

Most bassists play exclusively with their fingers or with a plectrum. The other technique is simply ignored, if not devalued. For me, this imprint led to a real awakening experience when I spent some time with the plectrum. It's not just a different world, it's a wonderful addition to my playing. But how exactly does it work? How do I practise it properly and who can give me some advice on how to get started?

As always, you can try it yourself. At some point you'll get the hang of the fire and then it won't be so difficult with the pick. But with the book Bass pick by Christoph Herder, success comes a little faster. And he doesn't make it complicated. He sheds light on the world of plectrum playing in a serious overview, gives tips, organizes the technical aspects and provides practice material. The basically simple exercises build on each other and help both beginners and those who are just starting out. Practicing will be rewarded with fascinating (new) soundscapes and sound technical know-how.

The only disadvantage: teaching aids for plectrum bass are still charming niche products. This is also the case with this one, which dates back to 2020 and comes with MP3 files on a CD. But if you can still find a drive somewhere, you can also use the crisp play-along grooves.

Christoph Herder: Plectrum Bass for four- and five-string, Everything you need to know about the Plectrum technique must know!, with CD and Plectrum, 128 p., order no. 20287G, € 23.95, Alfred Music, Cologne

Swiss composers have written countless wind quintets for the Stalder Quintet, which was founded in 1955, but not the ones that the Art'Ventus Quintet has recorded on its new CD. The ensemble, made up of some of the best young Portuguese musicians, has only been playing together for three years, but has already reached a very high level. The flautist and oboist studied in Switzerland. For their program Swiss Treasures they have chosen works by Peter Mieg, Paul Huber, Paul Juon and Gion Antoni Derungs; the first two are premiere recordings. The graphically appealing CD also contains an interesting booklet text by Dominik Sackmann.

When Goethe said about the string quartet that you can hear four sensible people talking, this should actually also apply to a wind quintet, despite the somewhat larger instrumentation. In Peter Mieg's quintet, which was completed in 1977, you get the feeling that everyone is constantly talking and no one lets the others have their say. A glance at the score shows that most of the time all five instruments play simultaneously, which is really a weak point of the composition. The beginnings of the movements sound promising, but interest quickly wanes because the music is incredibly repetitive.

The quintets by Paul Huber, who was a musical institution in St. Gallen during his lifetime, and Gion Antoni Derungs, who was an important representative of Grisons music, are significantly better. Both works, composed in 1963 and 1977 respectively, adhere to tonality, but from today's perspective this cannot be a sign of a lack of open-mindedness or quality. The Portuguese quintet audibly identifies with the pieces and guarantees ideal performances. Huber's work consists of an expressive, melancholy Adagio and a virtuoso Scherzino, in the trio of which Ferdinand Fürchtegott Huber's folk song Luegid vo Berg und Tal is easy to recognize. Derungs' Divertimento, somewhat more modern than the other pieces on the CD and difficult to categorize stylistically, is, contrary to the title, not a particularly cheerful piece and may not be obvious on first hearing.

Confectioners from the canton of Graubünden were successful throughout Europe and often achieved considerable wealth, as evidenced by the villas of returnees in Poschiavo and Val Bregaglia. Paul Juon, born in Moscow, was the son of a Grisons confectioner from Masein. He received a sound musical education and studied composition with Anton Arenski and Sergei Taneyev. He himself later taught at the Berlin Academy of Music before spending the last six years of his life in Vevey. You will search in vain for Swiss traces in his music, but there were contacts with Swiss musical life. The Wind Quintet op. 84 from 1928 recorded here is dedicated to Jakob Vogel, who was president of the Bern Orchestra Association for many years.

Some of the best-known and most frequently performed wind quintets were written in the 1920s, such as those by Paul Hindemith, Carl Nielsen, Hanns Eisler, Arnold Schönberg and Jacques Ibert. Juon's quintet can easily bear comparison with these works. It is impeccably crafted, powerful and imaginative, often harmonically bold and challenges every instrument. The new recording by the Art'Ventus Quintet is very energetic, but the first movement is played noticeably too slowly, which gives it too much earthiness. The dynamics should have been better respected in some of the quieter passages, as it would have given the interpretation a little more relief.

Overall Swiss Treasures a CD worth recommending, as it documents works by somewhat lesser-known Swiss composers.

Swiss Treasures. Chamber Music for Wind Quintet. Art'Ventus Quintet (Paula Soares, flute; Tiago Coimbra, oboe; Horácio Ferreira, clarinet; Nuno Vaz, horn; Raquel Saraiva, bassoon). Prospero PROSP0081

In his music, the German composer Johannes Schöllhorn (*1962) has repeatedly explored the music of others, transcribing and transforming it, making music about music, such as Bach and Ravel, Purcell and Satie and, wonderfully, Gabriel Fauré. Several of these pieces can be found on the double CD Sérigraphies (bastille musique 20).

Schöllhorn himself is therefore an expert in appropriating and transforming. His 500-page book, a partly loose and yet internally consistent collection of shorter texts, is also about the dialectic of this approach. The conquest of the world is at the center, as well as its accompanying music, which has always been one of appropriation, even theft - and one of ordering: that is why the map, clock and score play the main role in the title.

Our European culture has made the globe its own with the help of these instruments. Schöllhorn follows these traces, to the printing press and across the seas, into painting and compositional technique, into the past and into the future. And because he has a broad horizon, there is an enormous amount to learn from him. The book seems to be written quickly and also reads quickly. This spontaneity is refreshing, full of verve, sometimes the author is gripped by anger, sometimes the thoughts run wild and confuse, because Schöllhorn ventures into unfamiliar territory with the help of good secondary literature.

The whole thing is unsystematic, does not bundle things together, but lays out threads that could be traced back to a core point. There are a few gaps you would like to fill, others you would like to know more about, and you often have objections while reading, many in fact, but they should be fine. Because the book is stimulating - and despite all the doubts and despair, it does not leave us hopeless, because "music can always do one thing - comfort us".

Johannes Schöllhorn: Map, clock and score. Variationen und Volten über Eroberung und ihre Begleitmusik, edited by Rainer Nonnenmann, 512 p., € 24.00, MusikTexte, Cologne 2022, ISBN 978-3-982467-0-2