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Music belongs
to my life
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Music was always an important
part of my life, both as a listener and as a person actively playing music
instruments. My interest was and still is very broad regarding music styles and
interpreters. The same ist true for the instruments played by myself. The
consequence: I never was really good at any one.
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It started in early primary
school when I took lessons in C flute for many years. But then, at a performance,
I heard a solo cellist. The sound of this instrument touched and fascinated me
so much that I started to play the violoncello and joined the classical
orchestra of my school. I also played the guitar and some
banjo,
accompanying songs in youth groups and camps. At that time we sang a lot (and
very loudly): old student songs, chansons, folk, spirituals etc. Lessons in accordeon
and later in electronic orgue and piano opened up the world of folk music, swing and
dance music. In my own teaching of religious education in schools and with my confirmands, I used Orff instruments and made my students improvise
over Psalms and create
biblically inspired sound worlds. Two harmonicas regularly accompanied me for
romantic evenings on canoe trips and on
journeys to other continents.
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My discovery
of the Norwegian
Ten Sing movement, its
introduction in Switzerland and later the support of its development all over
Europe brought me in contact with contemporary rock and pop music and the related youth cultures. Today, I firmly work in
our church for the promotion and development of a broad range of popular and
traditional music
in worship and
other church activities. I carry responsibilities for the
Popular Church Music Department, the
Evangelical Church Music School and the
Music Academy St. Gallen. Our church
offers today the only state certified professional music education for popular
church music in Switzerland.
For the significance of music for myself you may also read my speech: "Musik
verbindet Menschen von Seele zu Seele" ("Music connects people from soul to
soul") and my text "Musik berührt die
Menschen in ihrem Herzen" ("Music touches people in their hearts").
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My love for the saxophone
started in the middle years of my life
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My love for the
saxophone started in the middle years of my life.
Again, it was an experience
with people that awakened the passion in me. On one of my
bicyle trips in Southern
Europe, I visited in Spain
the concert of a young teachers' saxophone quartet. They played tunes from
Johann Sebastian Bach via Isaac Albéniz
to Dizzy
Gillespie and others.
And like at my first encounter with the cello, I was thrilled
by the deep, resonate sound of the baritone sax. That's what I needed to learn!
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I looked for a saxophone
teacher, started to play the tenor sax, soon after also the baritone,
and added
excursions to other sax types, especially the soprano.
Today,
I play for my own enjoyment and with friends almost everything from Evergreens and Standards via
Gospel, Blues, Swing and Be-Bop to Elton John, Robbie
Williams and Rainhard Fendrich. A for me new and exciting field was and remains free
improvisation.
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Jazz giants
and the
fascination of vintage saxophones
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As always with me, with this
new theme a whole new world opened
up for me. In musical terms the World of the
famous jazz giants, their styles and
recordings, today on CD easily
accessible in fine sound quality. Then the richness of jazz and contemporary harmony. But also the exciting history of the saxophone
as an instrument - and the fascination
of awesome vintage horns. I
for example own a gold plated Martin Handcraft baritone
saxophone (deep Bb), born 1925, and a Conn C-Melody from the twenties. - A great musical world!
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My re-discovery of the banjo
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A live encounter with
Sean Moyses
and his virtuosic playing on a 4-string Plectrum Banjo reminded me some time ago
of the banjo playing attempts in my youth. I started to study the fascinating
history of the banjo: From its origins in West Africa and its travel with the
slaves to the USA, over the reduction of the 5-string banjo of the 19th century
to the 4-string rhythm banjo, played with a plectrum, in the early New Orleans
Jazz and in the Dixieland music, the 5-stringers in the American Old Time Music
(Frailing, Clawhammer styles), the development of the three-finger Scruggs-style
in the developing Bluegrass music of the late 40s, the banjo use in the folk revival of
the 60s (Pete Seeger), up to modern interpreters like
Béla Fleck or the
Kruger Brothers
(grown up in Switzerland), who very creatively make use of the banjo
in all kinds of musical contexts and styles.
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As always, only listening and reading was not
enough for me. That's the reason why I, besides continuing with guitar, also
returned to the banjo - among them a
Deering Tenbrooks with a
Jens Krüger tonering made by Rüetschi in
Switzerland. Occupying myself with American Old Time Music, I also came in
contact with George
Orthey, a great pioneer of the diatonic Autoharp, a genuine American instrument.
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Banjola - a fascinating recently developed instrument
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Studying the banjo and its history brought me in
contact with Edward Dick, a luthier in Colorado. Since the late 90s he is under
the name Banjola
developing a kind of banjo with a mandolin body, sometimes adding a 6th string.
Edward built me a gorgeous 6-string banjola with nylon strings and a spruce top
from Bergün in the Swiss mountains (Graubünden). It is a wonderful instrument with a
- despite its comparably small body - full, complex sound and a relaxing, even
meditative character - ideal for late evening and night hours. You can see me play
Banjola
here.
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In conclusion: A great, always expanding
musical world! It's so exciting and enriching! |
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