Jewish and Celtic, but also circus music
Pan-Verlag can look back on 35 years of company history this year. The company was founded in Switzerland and is still based in Basel.
In 1979, Walter Keller-Löwy in Zurich gave his new publishing house the name of a dazzling mythical figure: Pan. The Arcadian god of shepherds and hunters was said to have invented the panpipe. An apt choice of name for a publishing house that felt a particular affinity with the various flute instruments. After the death of the founder of the publishing house, the Kassel-based publisher Renate Matthei became aware of the small publishing house and finally took over the company in 2007. In 2008, a branch was added in Kassel, but Pan remained an independent publishing house based in Basel and is an integral part of the Swiss publishing landscape.
The edition series in the choir has a secular and a spiritual offering. There are, for example, songs of Rhaeto-Romanic origin. The arrangers are experienced musicians such as Frédéric Bolli, Rudolf Jaggi and Kit Powell. With the sheet music of the edition series in the ensemble groups with a wide variety of instrumentations can play rousing movements with a folkloristic character. Marie-Louise and Cedric Dumont, Roland Fink and François Lilienfeld guarantee a high musical standard in easy-to-play arrangements.
Folk music from all over the world, e.g. from Central and South America, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary or some Asian countries, is also the basis for many arrangements for recorder duo or larger recorder groups. Among the most popular editions are the arrangements of tangos by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla for recorder quartet (PAN 768).
Two publication series are dedicated to the musical treasures of Jewish culture: Play, Klesmer, play... and Synagogue and shtetl. The authors are the Swiss klezmer researcher, composer and Chasan François Lilienfeld and Rudolf Jaggi.
In 2010, the publishing house launched the series Sonic Roots - Root sounds. Its author is the composer, teacher and jazz pianist John Wolf Brennan. A lifelong search for Celtic-Helvetian traces in music is reflected here. Four volumes for a wide variety of instrumentations have been published to date (PAN 2000-203, 2007).
A special feature of Pan-Verlag are the arrangements of circus music that Reto Parolari has compiled from his wealth of experience as a conductor at international circus festivals. The collection Circus, Circus (PAN 125) is aimed equally at school and ambitious amateur ensembles.
