Paul Sacher Foundation Scholarships
The Paul Sacher Foundation awards two types of research scholarships:
1. Scholarships for research on self-chosen topics
2. Scholarships for research on predefined topics
Detailed information regarding the guidelines and requirements for both types of scholarships is provided below.
1. Scholarships for research on self-chosen topics
Every year the Paul Sacher Foundation awards a limited number of research grants (CHF 2250.00 per month) to visiting scholars, particularly those from abroad. They are intended primarily to help defray the costs of living in Basel.
Prerequisites and Details
- Scholars interested in applying must have completed a degree in musicology or possess comparable qualifications.
- The major part of the research project should involve the Foundation’s own archival holdings. Therefore, the presence of the scholars during the Foundation's opening hours is a requirement.
- The duration of the grant (a minimum of one month) must be appropriate to the scope of the project.
- Preference in the awarding of grants will be given to first-time applicants.
- Only complete applications will be taken into consideration.
- A brief report of the scholar’s activities must be submitted at the end of the grant period.
Notes on Applications
- Applications may be submitted before either of two cut-off dates: 15 February or 31 August.
- The applications must contain the following enclosures:
- Curriculum vitae (with date of birth, and nationality)
- Detailed project description (ca. three pages) including a working title, and the requested duration of the grant period
- List of publications
- Copies of two or three publications. - Applications should be submitted in digital form (PDF) wherever possible, using the following contact address.
Contact address
for applications and inquiries: office-pss@unibas.ch
2. Scholarships for research on predefined topics
In addition to the research scholarships available for self-chosen topics, the Paul Sacher Foundation also awards scholarships for research on selected items belonging to its holdings. The stay in Basel required for the research is financially supported with a monthly grant of CHF 2250; the total duration of the scholarship is determined during the application process.
Current topic suggestions can be found below.
Prerequisites and application instructions
- Your interest in our selected materials is a prerequisite for an application, along with a degree in musicology or a comparable qualification. The project description will state any necessary prior knowledge or particular competencies.
- Applications may be submitted at any time; there are no submission deadlines.
- Should you be interested, please first contact the curator named under the proposed topic to determine the focus of the planned research project.
- The duration of the grant must be proportionate to the scope of the project and will also be agreed in advance with the collection curator.
- After the preliminary discussion, please provide the curator with the research project summarised on approx. 2 PDF pages along with a curriculum vitae.
- You will receive a notification of acceptance and approval of the project's duration as soon as possible, as well as further information regarding the organisation of your research stay.
- During the granted scholarship months/weeks, attendance during the opening hours of the Paul Sacher Foundation is required.
- An activity report must be submitted at the end of the research stay.
Currently available research projects concerning the Foundation’s holdings
- 2024-05 Documents on Henry Brant's "Textures and Timbres"
shortly before he died in 2008, henry brant completed the manuscript for textures and timbres: an orchestrator's handbook, which was published by carl fischer in new york in 2009. until now, the paul sacher foundation has kept a few notes for an orchestration book written from 1956 onwards. extensive additions to the collection have now revealed that henry brant had already drawn up plans for such a handbook as early as the mid-1940s and had more specifically worked on the manuscript in the 1950s and 1960s. around 1,200 pages of notes and drafts for this book project have survived from this period.
brant earned his living in new york from the 1930s onwards, notably by composing for radio and film, and quickly gained a reputation as an excellent orchestrator. for example, his orchestration of charles ives' concord sonata, which he worked on for thirty years before completing it in 1995, proves that he did not regard this as routine work but as art in its own right.
from 1945, brant taught composition and orchestration, first at columbia university, then at the juilliard school and finally at bennington college until 1980. his teaching activities not only left their mark in the handbook; almost 100 pages of notes from his lessons with students have also been preserved, allowing for conclusions to be drawn regarding the genesis of the manuscript, as the composer also annotated some of these notes. furthermore, around 500 pages of henry brant's drafts from the 1980s have been preserved; these precede the book's preparation through two revisions (approx. 850 pages) for publication in 1994. however, the final editing and printing did not begin until 2004, as evidenced by some 660 pages of documents. the documentation on the book project, totalling over 3,000 pages, reveals the changes in henry brant's understanding of an orchestration handbook over the course of sixty years.
further information about the collection and contact to the curator florian besthorn
- 2024-05 Kagel's Early Years in Buenos Aires
contrary to kagel's statements, several extensive files with musical sketches and drafts, along with other notes, have survived from the composer's time in buenos aires (until 1957). they provide insights into his earliest musical studies and contain fragments and approaches to unrealized compositions as well as initial sketches and drafts of accomplished compositions. kagel's own published statements on the subject can be partially reconstructed from the documents but also partially contradict them.
the initial aim would be to catalogue the files entirely and compare them with the initial classifications made some ten years ago. their connections to works carried out in argentina or later can be identified on this basis.
knowledge of spanish is an advantage for studying the collection, but it is not essential.
further information about the collection and contact to the curator matthias kassel
- 2024-05 Musical Interpretation: The Example of the LaSalle Quartet
although the lasalle quartet, active from 1946 to 1988, is regarded as one of the 20th century's leading string quartet ensembles, the number of its published recordings is relatively modest. however, the lasalle quartet collection in basel includes almost 500 tapes with concert, radio and rehearsal recordings that provide impressive documentation of the quartet's work; the earliest recordings were made in 1949, the latest in 1987.
in addition to these recordings, which alone represent an immense fund for the history of interpretation of the quartet literature in the second half of the 20th century, regarding both the classical-romantic repertoire and new music, two other types of documents are available. while the performance materials – annotated parts and playing scores – can be used to trace the interpretative approaches in writing, the extensive scrapbooks with concert programmes and reviews (1948–87) reflect the media's reactions.
the rich source material available can be studied both in terms of documentation (performance catalogues, etc.) and interpretation, with case studies on individual works, repertoires, or periods.
further information about the collection and contact to the curator simon obert
- 2024-05 Henri Pousseur's Works from the 1970s onwards
studies of henri pousseur's oeuvre usually focus on his compositions from the 1950s and 1960s. in contrast to the works that were in all evidence created in the context of the darmstadt summer courses and with the compositional techniques developed by the musical avant-garde of the time, many of the works written after votre faust (1960–68) still await in-depth examination and contextualization, which is to be carried out in the light of the various documents available in the henri pousseur collection.
among the works to be rediscovered are scenic and/or instrumental compositions in which pousseur also experimented with electronic music, as in tales and songs from the bible of hell for soloists and live electronics (1979) or déclarations d'orage for soloists, orchestra and tape (1988/89). the latter, in turn, can be seen as a "satellite" of an earlier piece from 1983 (trajets dans les arpents du ciel) and as an example of pousseur's typical compositional approach, which saw him conceive some of his works as "generative systems" for subsequent compositions.
the research would aim to analyse the materials of selected compositions that henri pousseur created in the last decades of the 20th century and to assign them to the corresponding work sets. in addition to the numerous surviving manuscripts, sound documents can equally be used for this purpose.
further information about the collection and contact to the curator angela ida de benedictis
- 2024-05 Jürg Wyttenbach: The Early-Works Files
among the files containing jürg wyttenbach's early works, some of which were compiled and labelled by his father werner wyttenbach, two (1944–48 and 1948–53) are complete; of four others (1957–62), only the labelled envelopes have survived (there is no evidence of a presumed file no. 3 for the period 1948/49–1956/57). an initial examination shows wyttenbach's development from his first compositional attempts as a ten-year-old to his first small pieces and early forms of realized and valid compositions. numerous sketches and drafts – mostly in piano settings – allow us to follow in detail the development of this compositional voice.
the aim would be an initial systematic indexing of the surviving files and the attribution of individual parts to completed works; in turn, some of the manuscripts preserved in files for individual works can be assigned to their original position in the compiled files from 1957 onwards, which were probably dissolved by jürg wyttenbach himself.
further information about the collection and contact to the curator matthias kassel