Our society only talks about winning. Competition, which was still the domain of athletes twenty years ago, has conquered all areas of life. On television, everything becomes a competition: People are looking for the super chef, the supermodel, the mastermind ... Music is no exception, quite the opposite. Young singers compete against each other in countless shows. Orchestral positions and even places in certain schools are awarded to the best of the best. Moreover, a professional musician is unlikely to make a career without winning a first prize here and there.

In this issue of Swiss Music Newspaper But let's take a look at the opposite tendency of this worldwide phenomenon for once and take a closer look at losing. Of course it is anything but fun to lose your ear - and unfortunately many musicians are affected by this - and the thought of all the scores lost over the centuries is also saddening. But losing music also has its good sides, because it is usually associated with change. This constant can be observed in the history of music: Every time an instrument, a musical practice or a style was abandoned, it was because something new was asserting itself, because new horizons wanted to be conquered. What is forgotten is not necessarily lost forever, especially when it comes to immaterial values. Ideas, approaches, knowledge and skills do not disappear without a trace like a stone thrown into the sea.

So if Switzerland "loses" the baroque musician Albicastro, his music is by no means lost. And even if we are no longer used to composing or playing the viola da gamba according to the laws of the contapunctus floridus, we can always pick up this habit again. Some of us do, because it has its appeal to swim against the tide. And, as Christophe Sturzenegger says very aptly, also in this number: especially in music, a divergent path should not prevent us from expressing ourselves.