We were welcomed with true central-European hospitality by the Deputy Director of the Schola Cantorum, the German linguist and musicologist Dr Thomas Drescher, in his office on the first floor of the building which houses the official headquarters of the School. The venerable old building stands in a garden laid out on the lines of an American campus, surrounded by the buildings of the city’s "conventional" conservatoire. Since 1933 the Schola Cantorum has operated as both a music academy and a research centre, the oldest of its kind in the world.

The Schola Cantorum’s history goes back a long way. "Until 1954", Dr Drescher tells us, "when the centre merged with the Basel Academy of Music, it was the private residence of Paul Sacher, a conductor and early music enthusiast who also commissioned new works by contemporary composers." In fact, Sacher commissioned pieces by Stravinsky, Honegger and Bartók, whose Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste was first performed in Basel. Sacher’s goal was to return to "a new simplicity, to go back to the origins" of music, and he flatly rejected the principles governing interpretation that were prevalent in his day, imbued as they were with nineteenth century notions of performance. In the 1930s, Sacher invited the great Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska to Switzerland; so deeply impressed was he by her interpretation of Bach and her analysis of the composer’s works, that he was moved to bring into being the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

"Sacher was the director of the school until 1969, and since the 1970s it has been the first, and indeed, only music school in the world devoted exclusively to the study of medieval music", Dr Drescher observes with obvious pride. Among its other accomplishments, the centre boasts Switzerland’s principal and most widely consulted music library, as well as a museum of original instruments including such gems as an English piano dating from 1830 that was owned by both Brahms and Wagner. Dr Drescher also points out "our approach to music theory differs from that of other conventional schools. We work with tablatures (an ancient form of musical notation now fallen into disuse) and we work on historical analytical principles. Even our way of training musicians’ ears is different. In our view, musical analysis means learning to look at the work in a different way. Musicians need to understand that they are here, the work is there, and history is what lies in between."

The school is divided into two main branches. One, which offers non-degree courses and is open to the public, has some 500 students; the other, catering to professional musicians, has more than 200 students from all over the world. The latter study at the Schola Cantorum for 4-5 years. These advanced students are professional musicians who come to further their knowledge of early music to a degree equivalent to the post-doctoral level in other disciplines. Although there are many students from central Europe, Spain and Latin America, "the majority of our students today come from Eastern Europe, mainly from Poland and the Czech Republic." It is also interesting to note that, unlike some years ago, the instrument now most in demand is the human voice, which accounts for almost 50% of student applications. Dr Drescher also remarks on "the generosity of the city of Basel, from which the institution receives up to 90% of its funding, a fact which is all the more remarkable in that over 80% of the Schola Cantorum’s students are from outside Switzerland." Such a situation would be truly extraordinary in any other country and context. Amazing, but true. The average yearly cost to the city per student is 34,000 Swiss francs (around 22,000 euros), of which the student pays only 2,400 Swiss francs (around 1,600 euros). Of course, the cost of living in Switzerland is high, even though the courses of study themselves are not expensive.

Famous names who have studied at the Schola Cantorum include the great Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, Catalan musicians Jordi Savall and his wife Montserrat Figueras, and the lutenists Hopkinson Smith and Rolf Lislevand. One interesting fact that speaks reams for the quality of the teaching at the centre is that the gambist Jordi Savall was for many years a teacher at the Schola Cantorum, having succeeded August Wenzinger, the first musician to record early music using original instruments back in 1950. Decades before Harnoncourt and others, Wenzinger was the first to record Monteverdi’s Orfeo following historical criteria. Savall, in his turn, was succeeded by Paolo Pandolfo. It is remarkable that "since 1933, the Schola Cantorum has had only three viola da gamba professors: Wenzinger, Savall and Pandolfo." Its strength of tradition is undeniable.

Last year, in an attempt to understand the current phenomenal success of early music, the Schola Cantorum organized a seminar entitled "Early Music and Marketing" (no less!). With a mixture of surprise and amusement, and not without a touch of irony, Drescher says, "We have seen how this type of music has become almost a pop phenomenon. We have even started to see the kind of experiments and cross-overs that characterise other areas of music. But, in spite of all this, we try not to give way to frivolity. The Schola Cantorum is committed to the highest standards." Moreover, with each new intake of musicians surpassing those who went before, the future of early music would appear to be guaranteed. We are even witnessing the paradoxical situation of "aspiring young musicians who already play better than our graduates did twenty years ago. These young performers began their initiation at such an early age that early music has become their whole life." In other words, Dr Drescher forecasts a brilliant future in store.

"Improvisation and composition are the keys to the future", says Dr Drescher with conviction. "The idea is to approach the works afresh and really make them our own. To change them, improvising in the way that was usual 300 years ago. Until the seventeenth century, the repertoire was 90% improvisation. Basically, we have a lot in common with jazz." Asked whether there were still works to be discovered, the German musicologist answered, "All the really great music has been discovered, but we can still be surprised by some marvellous pieces. There is still so much waiting to be discovered in the field of opera. Fortunately, there is still a great deal to be done. There are always new points of view, new approaches to the works, even those that we know or believe we know already."

When we asked him his opinion about the performance of Baroque and Renaissance music using modern instruments and interpretation criteria, Dr Drescher laughingly answered, "We are not the music police! The other day I heard Martha Argerich play a Bach Partita according to modern criteria, and it was so artistically satisfying, so profound and so richly musical that only a fool could have dismissed her performance on the grounds that she was not following historical criteria or playing the piece on a harpsichord. In all cases, the main thing is always the emotional quality of art. We must develop the student’s emotional potential as much as or even more than his or her technical skill."
Rodrigo Carrizo Couto