Paul Sacher Stiftung

edited by angela ida de benedictis
woodbridge, uk: the boydell press 2022

language: english
other editions: none

essays by
michele chiappini, carlo ciceri, paolo dal molin, angela ida de benedictis, pascal decroupet, leo izzo, christoph neidhöfer, veniero rizzardi, maurizio romito, nicola scaldaferri, anne c. shreffler, claudia vincis, benedetta zucconi

utopia, innovation, tradition: bruno maderna's cosmos is the first collection of essays in english dedicated to one of the most multifaceted and interesting musical personalities of the 20th century: bruno maderna (1920–1973), a main protagonist in the development of new music after world war ii.

the 15 essays cover the most important aspects of bruno maderna's peculiar compositional approach. thanks to innovative methodological perspectives based mainly on the study of archival materials, they arrive at new and often completely unexpected interpretations. the book also contains a newly revised chronology of maderna's own works and transcriptions of the works of others.

contents pdf here

order from boydell
467 pages – hardcover – 23.3 x 17.0 cm
isbn 978-1-83765-030-9
gbp 25 / usd 36.95
e-book:
isbn 978-1-80010-897-4
gbp 19.99 / usd 24.95

edited by hermann danuser and matthias kassel
mainz etc.: schott music, 2017

language: german
other editions: none

essays by
gottfried boehm, camilla bork, angela ida de benedictis, hans-joachim hinrichsen, mark katz, siegfried mauser, ulrich mosch, simon obert, robert piencikowski, tobias plebuch, and heidy zimmermann

talks
peter hagmann with pierre boulez and heinz holliger
matthias kassel with theodor ross
jonathan cross with george benjamin, vinko globokar, william kinderman, and julia spinola

this volume derives from the like-named symposium held by the paul sacher foundation in basel in april 2011. topics related to musical performance and authorship were illuminated from various angles in eleven papers and three round-table discussions, with a special emphasis on developments postdating the second world war. in addition to the textual and authorial dimensions between composition and performance, the papers also touched on the medial and performative expansion of music, which generates wholly novel sets of problems and concepts of authorship.

contents + introduction pdf here

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order no: psb 1018
271 pages – hardcover – 23.3 x 17.0 cm
isbn 978-3-7957-1173-3
eur 36

for hermann danuser on the occasion of his 70th birthday

edited by the paul sacher foundation
mainz etc.: schott music, 2016

language: german
other editions: none

contributions by
angela ida de benedictis, pascal decroupet, matthias kassel, doris lanz, felix meyer, simon obert, robert piencikowski, and heidy zimmermann

although deeply traditional and concerned with organic evolution rather than with revolutionary overthrow, arnold schoenberg (1874–1951) was instrumental in helping to shape and reshape 20th-century music with his innovative compositions. it is common knowledge that he met not just with the approval of his contemporaries but, quite often, also with bitter opposition. nevertheless, almost all observers were aware that there was an extraordinary and important artist at work whose oeuvre could not be passed over in silence.

this publication illustrates this impact of schoenberg on the basis of 59 selected reception documents altogether (music and text manuscripts, but also concert programmes, records, among others) from the collections of the paul sacher foundation, thus focussing not on sources by schoenberg himself but on documents written by composers, interpreters and publicists of different provenance and character who have studied schoenberg's oeuvre over the course of the past 100 years

contents and list of documents here

order from schott music
order no: psb 1019
191 pages – 59 color plates – brochure – 24.0 x 24.6 cm
isbn 978-3-7957-1202-0
eur 35

edited by felix meyer, carol j. oja, wolfgang rathert, and anne c. shreffler
woodbridge, suffolk: the boydell press, 2014

language: english
other editions: none

34 essays and 2 interviews

throughout the 20th century, exchanges between north america and europe were vital to the development of musical life on both sides of the atlantic.

american musicians studied in europe; european musicians visited the u. s. or were driven into exile there; orchestras and soloists crisscrossed the ocean to give concert tours; music festivals attracted an international clientele; and printed music, recordings, journalism, radio, and eventually the internet flowed freely within a transatlantic circuit.

this volume, resulting from an international conference held at harvard university and the university of munich, explores these and other musical interactions between the two continents, showing how a postcolonial imbalance of cultural power at the opening of the century has given way to an increasing sense of encounters between equals.

pdf here

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527 pages – hardcover – 26 x 19 cm
isbn 978 1 84383 900 2
gbp 40

edited by hermann danuser and heidy zimmermann
boosey & hawkes, 2013

language: english
other editions: none

this richly illustrated volume gathers together eighteen essays by leading authorities on music, art, and culture to clarify, deepen, and expand our knowledge of the rite.

a detailed chronology recounts the work’s complicated genesis with all available facts. in several essays the collaboration among the main protagonists (igor stravinsky, sergey diaghilev, nicholas roerich, and vaslav nijinsky) and the work’s significance to cultural history are presented in a fresh light. analytical studies of the work’s orchestration and harmony make use of the available handwritten sources for the first time.

special emphasis falls on the first century of the work’s impact: its career as a concert piece, audible on almost two-hundred gramophone recordings, and its place as a key work are discussed along with milestones in its choreographic interpretation from léonide massine to pina bausch. finally, it is shown that the rite not only had a lively influence on many twentieth-century composers, but also entered popular culture, from disney’s fantasia to the berlin project rhythm is it!

with essays by jan assmann, jonathan bernard, tobias bleek, john bowlt, esteban buch, jonathan cross, lynn garafola, paul and edmund griffiths, claudia jeschke, stefanie jordan, andreas meyer, herfried münkler, robert piencikowski, svetlana savenko, david schiff, arne stollberg, richard taruskin, and stephen walsh.

contents + introduction pdf here

order from boosey & hawkes

501 pages – hardcover – 27,0 × 20,0 cm
ismn 979–0–060–12554–6
isbn 978–0–85162–823–3
gbp 56

this book is part of the centenary edition of stravinsky’s le sacre du printemps
paul sacher foundation / boosey & hawkes, 2013

other volumes:
igor stravinsky, le sacre du printemps: facsimile of the autograph full score [here]
igor stravinsky, le sacre du printemps: manuscript of the version for piano four hands: facsimile [here]

edited by matthias kassel

136 pages, 24,5 x 22,5 cm
isbn 978-3-7965-2751-7
chf 28

basel: schwabe 2011
(not available through schott)
german edition only.

the basel 2011 version of mauricio kagel's zwei-mann-orchester

mauricio kagel's zwei-mann-orchester (two-man orchestra) is one of the most original yet peculiar pieces in contemporary music. it was created between 1971 and 1973 for two one-man orchestras. using a maximum number of instruments and sound generators, two musicians construct a complex arsenal of equipment and develop the associated music themselves in accordance with kagel's conceptual score. the result is a dual entity consisting of sounding kinetic sculpture and visually oriented music.

the work’s third performance only took place in basel in april 2011 during a joint project involving the paul sacher foundation, the basel academy of music, and the museum tinguely. for this most recent version wilhelm bruck, who had already played the original version at the donaueschingen première (1973) and the second version in kassel (1992-93), was joined by basel percussionist matthias würsch to help construct the orchestral machine.

the present volume, published by the paul sacher foundation, gathers together essays by several guest authors on the work's musical and artistic background. it also offers a comprehensive and richly illustrated documentation of the zwei-mann-orchester and its performances to date, using original sources from the paul sacher foundation's mauricio kagel collection and other archives.

felix meyer and anne c. shreffler

367 pp. - 22,2 x 28,6 cm

13 digit isbn: 978-1-8438-3404-5 / 10 digit isbn: 1-8438-3404-9
gbp 25,00

woodbridge, suffolk: the boydell press 2008
(not available through schott)

the american composer elliott carter (1908-2012) is one of the most esteemed international figures in the music of our time. his works span more than seven decades and have been the subject of many analyses, and most of his writings have appeared in carefully edited collections. in contrast, few of the documents on his life and music, largely preserved at the paul sacher foundation in basel, are known to the public. this body of material forms the main source of the present volume, which offers not only the very first representative glimpse into carter's correspondence but many other documents, including unpublished writings, facsimiles of selected musical manuscripts, and photographs. the rich, thoroughly annotated material paints a fully rounded portrait of a composer who, building on american modernism and interacting with the latest developments in europe, slowly and deliberately forged a distinctive musical language. it was only in his maturity, around 1960, that carter achieved his international breakthrough. since the 1980s he has produced a late flowering of music distinguished for its unique variety and plenitude. this publication highlights carter's biographical, intellectual, and artistic evolution and captures his friendships with such fellow musicians such as charles ives, nadia boulanger, john kirkpatrick, aaron copland, nicolas nabokov, and, more recently, pierre boulez, oliver knussen, heinz holliger, daniel barenboim, and james levine.

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vols. 10/1 and 10/2
edited by monika lichtenfeld, 2007

2 vols., 523 pp. + 351 pp. - 15.6 × 23.4 cm - cloth with dustcover

isbn 978-3-7957-0451-3 (psb 1014)
eur 69

with this collection of the writings of györgy ligeti, the paul sacher foundation presents the first substantial edition of texts by this outstanding composer of recent music history. the central essays are gathered together with other writings previously difficult to obtain. ligeti expressed himself at length on composition, aesthetics, his musical friends, and his historical forebears, including a series of radio broadcasts on anton webern. there are also many short essays on various topics spanning more than five decades, from his years in hungary to the recent past. his own music is discussed in essays and a substantial series of introductory analyses. the two volumes are rounded off by an index of names and compositions.

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 11
edited by ulrich mosch, 2006

312 pp. - 15.6 × 23.4 cm - cloth with dustcover
isbn 3-7957-0454-5 (psb 1016)
eur 24.95

this volume, published on the occasion of paul sacher's one-hundredth birthday, contains five essays dealing with his various fields of activity as a conductor, a champion of early music, a mediator between the old and the new, a musical policy-maker, and not least of all a founder of institutions, together with five interviews from the 1970s to 1990s. the scholarly articles, all drawn from rich source materials, are complemented by sacher's personal self-assessment to form a multi-faceted picture of this influential figure, whose impact is felt everywhere, not only in the music history of twentieth-century switzerland. rounding off the volume is an up-to-date list of works commissioned by sacher and a complete discography of performances recorded under his baton on lp, cd, and shellac disc.

basel, 2001

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 9
edited by hermann danuser, with the assistance of
matthias kassel, 2003
445 pp. - 15.6 x 23.4 cm

isbn 3-7957-0481-2 (psb 1013)
eur 32

this volume contains the proceedings of the «music theater today» symposium. besides introductory and interdisciplinary discussions, it presents papers on specific issues, grouped into the various subareas that make up the genre of opera: libretto, score, and stage setting. current problems in traditional and avant-garde music theater are discussed in the context of theoretical writings using examples from particular artists and works. some of the authors offer detailed evaluations of sources housed at the paul sacher foundation for pieces of music theater by harrison birtwistle, pierre boulez, elliott carter, helmut lachenmann, and wolfgang rihm. also included are discussions of stage direction and design, contemporary dance theater, and musical structure in film dramaturgy. the volume is rounded off by two forums with well-known participants: an interview with klaus huber on his opera schwarzerde, recently premièred in basel, and a round-table discussion on the subject of «music theater: an institution in turmoil?», chaired by peter ruzicka and featuring sylvain cambreling, john dew, mauricio kagel, wolfgang rihm, michael schindhelm, jürg stenzl, and jürg wyttenbach.    

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 8
edited by neil boynton, 2002

438 pp., 15.6 x 23.4 cm
isbn 3-7957-0450-2 (psb 1012)
eur 36

the lecture notes collected in this volume were taken from the courses in musical form that webern held in various private viennese homes from 1934 to 1938. while the contents of his two preceding courses on the historical preconditions of twelve-tone music have been familiar since the publication of willi reich's notes («der weg zur neuen musik», 1960), his thoughts on musical form, especially as exemplified by beethoven's piano sonatas, are hereby made accessible to a large public for the first time. taken down partly by professional musicians and partly by amateurs, the notes form a major contribution to our understanding not only of webern but of the entire second viennese school. rounding out the edition is a detailed commentary on webern's teaching activities, his circle of pupils, and the musico-theoretical premises behind the topics discussed in his courses.    

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 7
edited by ernst lichtenhahn, 1999

720 pp., 15.6 x 23.4 cm
isbn 3-7957-0396-4 (psb 1007)
eur 48

anton webern and heinrich jalowetz were, along with alban berg, among the earliest and closest pupils of arnold schoenberg. webern's letters to his friend, later a well-known opera conductor, form a new and fully rounded picture of the composer's personality, thoughts, feelings, and actions. the 300-plus documents in this book (jalowetz's replies have not survived) cover a period of more than thirty years.    

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 6
edited by ulrich mosch, 1997

439 + 459 pp., 15.6 x 23.4 cm
isbn 3-7957-0395-6 (psb 1006)
eur 39

this two-volume collection presents the major writings of wolfgang rihm as well as several interviews and the complete notes and introductions to his own works. the texts, many of which originally appeared in obscure publications, outline a distinctive compositional and intellectual stance among composers of the post-war generation.

basel 1996

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 5
edited by hermann danuser, 1997

341 pp., 17 x 28 cm
isbn 3-7957-0394-8 (psb 1005)
eur 28

this volume contains the papers read at the symposium that accompanied the «classicist modernism» series in celebration of the foundation's tenth anniversary in 1996. the musicological perspective is complemented by views from neighboring disciplines and a transcript of the conference's round-table discussion with luciano berio, pierre boulez, cristóbal halffter, heinz holliger, and wolfgang rihm.    

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 4
edited by felix meyer, 1996

483 pp., 17 x 28 cm

isbn 3-7957-0393-x (psb 1004)
eur 28

to celebrate its tenth anniversary in 1996, the foundation mounted a series of events under the heading of «classicism in modern art», including a broadly conceived concert series accompanied by this book. the seventeen essays deal with various historical and analytic aspects of the topic. besides source readings and discussions of works, the book also contains personal statements from composers associated with the foundation.    

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 3
edited by felix meyer, 1993

329 pp., 23 x 30 cm

isbn 3-7957-0392-1 (psb 1003)
eur 98

several select works have been chosen to explore the creative processes and musical thoughts of twelve composers, with the emphasis falling on post-1950 music. the authors evaluate many unknown sources, of which a representative selection is reproduced in color plates.

publications of the paul sacher foundation, vol. 2
edited by hans oesch, 1991

279 pp., 23 x 30 cm
isbn 3-7957-0391-3 (psb 1002)
eur 90

this volume comprises six studies on mahler, stravinsky, webern, frank martin, and «facsimiles as sources of error», all written by musicologists active at the paul sacher foundation. an appendix provides a list of works commissioned by, premièred by, or dedicated to paul sacher.

new english/french edition, edited by robert piencikowski, 2002

360 pp., 15.6 x 23.4 cm
isbn 3-7957-0390-5 (psb 1001)
eur 24

the correspondence between pierre boulez and john cage is a document of seminal importance to an understanding of the renewal that western music underwent in the middle of the twentieth century. these two musicians, so different in their backgrounds and so contrary in their later carreers, acknowledged not only their views in common but also their unsurmountable differences. one by one they allude to their technical and aesthetical preoccupations while painting a vivid picture of cultural life in europe and the united states. this new edition has been completely revised to reflect the knowledge acquired since its first publication, offering the reader perspectives on debates surrounding the creation of contemporary art music.