Songs without words

TC: The harp is one of the oldest musical instruments and had a very high value in the early historical music making practice. In the ancient Orient, women were apparently only allowed to play the harp. Could you tell us something about the social history of the harp? Is there a reason why even today a majority of women reach for this instrument?

VS: I find this impression to be a great contradiction to the facts: Since the early Middle Ages at the latest, the harp has been depicted on works of art mostly with male players. I also only know names of harpists from that time. In the 16th, 17. and 18th century we also meet mostly men. A major exception might be the time around 1800; in the context of salon music, wealthier women often performed with the harp. If you’re talking about social history, I think it’s interesting to note that this has mostly been a lighter genre. There the role of the woman in the society and her role as a musician to the good, cultivated entertainment becomes graspable. But these ladies were all trained by Maîtres!
The tradition of “true” harp virtuosos seems to have been a male one after all. And even today there are a large number of harpists in France, for example, which puts our image of the supposedly feminine instrument in a somewhat different light. And yet, the sound of the harp seems to be associated with something genuinely feminine. In addition, there is probably the visual, the petite woman at the instrument with the delicate sound.
I often sense this thinking when, for example, instrumentation is discussed in the basso continuo: The harp is supposed to sound when it comes to the celestial, the feminine. I often wonder how this would have been viewed 400 years ago.

TC: Starting from contemporary music, your artistic career has led you “back” to early music. Could it be that the bridge – especially with regard to the practice of ornamentation and improvisation – is more obvious from modern to baroque or renaissance music than to classical music? In any case, your broad performance practice gives the impression of a great willingness to experiment.

VS: I think it was or is sheer curiosity. I can’t stand knowing only a small section. I need to know what came before or after; I’m interested in the continuum. And when you study a modern instrument and play an early work, the “dark” inkling arises in you that the sonic result cannot be the ultimate truth … At some point I heard recordings of 16th century Italian music. with historical instruments, and was completely electrified. This reinforced the above discomfort and logically had to result in an education in early music.
Contemporary music opens up a similar field here: I have to learn to listen anew each time, to engage with the different aesthetics of the individual composers, to think anew about my instrument, its sound and the associated playing techniques.
And what is probably also central is a certain complexity. I’m interested in resistance; I want to work my way through a musical text, also wrestle and search a bit for meaning. I want to illuminate styles, confront failure again and again, train myself in new listening habits. When it gets too comfortable, I move on – that makes it a bit of a hassle, too. In this respect, I would have to limit your question and say that the path into classical music would have been fatal for me, not into classical music per se.

TC: You not only curate music festivals, but are also interested in cultural policy issues in Switzerland. Do our current politicians understand the social relevance of general music education? As an expert – on the Music Committee of both Basel – where do you still see a need for action?

VS: The fact that I could never put down the music of today has a lot to do with my understanding of art: I believe in the relevance of what we do, I am convinced that a healthy society needs art and that art is a place of reflection that makes visible what is present underground. Especially with the harp I want to distance myself clearly from the purely entertaining. Through contemporary music, I can actively participate in today’s cultural creation, as a person of the 21st century. Silence is not an option for me, especially in view of the current upheavals.
In Basel, the political situation seems to me to be very benevolent; there is a climate of enabling. The only question that drives me is how regulatory policy should be. Here I vote for complete artistic freedom, precisely in order to always be one step ahead of society. However, I fear that we have created an ivory tower for ourselves away from all politics. I think a lot about how we can get back into society and still be true to ourselves. In this respect, I see a need for action above all among us composers and musicians.

TC: My last question, for a given occasion, always concerns the recent resurgence of interest in Renaissance music. Will pre-1600 music remain a niche experience for a savvy audience, or will it soon enjoy broader exposure?

VS: I keep it similar here to contemporary music: I as a performer have the responsibility to make the present or the past time as carefully audible as possible. I have to create relevance through my actions. You mustn’t be too concerned with external effects, you mustn’t jump on any hype. I experience this very strongly at ReRenaissance! In addition, there is the loving design of the series, through the people involved, through the graphics, the magical places – ReRenaissance is, fortunately, already a success story. In this respect: Let the music speak for itself!

At that time there was no (English titled) Master’s thesis, but a (Latin titled) Magister thesis, to practice and to show that afterwards one could tackle a weightier topic and a more extensive thesis, the dissertation. My choice of topic was therefore intended to bring together my historical and my musical interests and to leave room for a more ambitious work, about which I was already in discussion with my teacher, Prof. Carl Dahlhaus. But things turned out differently.

I had personal ties to the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, the repository of the manuscript in question, in that my father was the director of the Berlin museums. When I found what I was looking for in the catalog there, the interest was great, not only on my part, but also on the part of the staff, who didn’t know much about the manuscript and wanted to know more. The research subsequently led me both through all the other (not so few) parallel manuscripts of the 15th century to find out whether there are “Unica” in our collection, i.e. pieces that have survived only here, and all the way to the library of Perugia to determine the “alliance coat of arms” of the manuscript and thus its dating on the basis of the armorial books to be found there – the Internet did not yet exist.

To my boundless surprise, four weeks later I received a letter (which I keep to this day…) from Prof. Dahlhaus suggesting that I turn the paper into a dissertation without any changes and schedule the oral exams. Obviously there were many students, but too few verifiable degrees… Only by this miracle was I then in the right place at the right time, when in 1973 a deputy to the Schola director Prof. Wulf Arlt was sought. How do you think my life would have gone on if I had had to write another dissertation for years at that time?

And now the second great joy: to hear the pieces of the manuscript, and especially the Unica, in performances at today’s level of development of performance practice and at the level that our Basler musicianguarantee on the basis of their local training. How will the pieces sound? How is the decision made about vocal or instrumental instrumentation? How are the problems of missing texts solved?

A very special evening for me!