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Very Rickenbacher

“I have definitely never composed music for monetary reasons”

“I have definitely never composed music for monetary reasons”
On 12 October 2024 the brass band musician, conductor, composer and arranger Very Rickenbacher will be awarded the “Golden Clef 2024”.
Photos and videos: Manu Leuenberger
Text by guest author Markus Ganz
The “Golden Violin Clef” award goes to Very Rickenbacher this year. This is due to the fact that the musician from central Switzerland has played an instrumental part in characterising the brass band scene over the last decades, be that as a conductor of the brass band Rigispatzen (“Rigi Sparrows”) or as an outstanding composer.

“Most of my ideas for new compositions, about 95 to 98 percent, come to me in the middle of the night”, Very Rickenbacher explains, laughing. “I wake up and have something in my head, usually a melody and the key, but I cannot say for which instrument. Then I rush into the bathroom and write it in the empty notepad with stavelines that I have placed there for exactly that purpose.” After that, he goes back into his bedroom where he simply falls asleep straightaway. In the morning, he would then go to see what he actually had written down. “And if it is good, it also stays in my head.”

When the head is nearly exploding

In situations where he is walking around or sitting somewhere, it often happens that the melody comes back. “I can then also hear the instruments, such as flugelhorn and tenor horn, and then there are some wood instruments like the clarinet, for example. Finally, I have so much going on in my head that I need a quiet space because it almost hurts.” In such circumstances, he would have to sit down at the computer as soon as possible where he would then enter all the musical score of the arrangement into the program. This is also what happened to Very Rickenbacher recently during composing a piece for the well-known Lucerne brass band Lublaska for their 25th anniversary. “When I had the score ready, I asked the band whether I was allowed to attend a rehearsal. And it nearly sounded exactly the same way as it had in my head, really.”

As astounding as it is, there is still an explanation for it. “I usually only ever compose a piece if I know who is going to play the respective piece such as was the case with Lublaska.” This comes to the fore even more with his usually Bohemian-influenced polkas for the brass band Rigispatzen whom he had joined as early as 1975 as a musician. There, he was the musical director between 2003 and 2017. “I know exactly in that case how the individual band members are going to play their parts because I know their skills and adapt the music accordingly.” During the notation process at the computer, he would also note that he needed more significantly more time for fine tuning compared to the early years “without computer”. It would be rather tempting to tell himself that a second clarinet could play this, and the trumpet that.

A fulminating career start

A content Very Rickenbacher is sitting in his garden in Immensee, SZ where he was born as the youngest of nine children in 1957. Music always played a big role in the family, his father played the Schwyzerörgeli, his mother was yodelling. At the age of six, Very got a toy saxophone and was allowed to attend a performance in a restaurant. “The room was bursting at the seams, and I did a bit of ‘tum ti tum – doo doo’ and the crowd went mad, of course. For an encore, two men lifted me up to a table.”

Very Rickenbacher being interviewed in August 2024 in his garden in Immensee SZ.

“Yes”, Very Rickenbacher tells me, beaming,“making music triggered good feelings in me back then already and showed me the effect you can achieve with music.” After that, he often played together with his father. It was, however, his older brother Balz who turned into his musical mentor. “He took me to a wind instrument course for young people where I learned how to play the tenor horn, simply because no other instrument was available back then. At the age of 14, the euphonium followed. Later, he also gave me the opportunity to conduct, to rehearse, to experiment and to play together impromptu. And there was always that joy that went hand in hand with the music.”

Autodidactic learning and inspiration

It was, once more, rather by chance that Very Rickenbacher began to compose music himself. “When I was 16 years old, the widow of my godfather came to visit and gave me his Schwyzerörgeli because she thought I was playing that instrument just like my father. So as not to disappoint her, I said that I would try it out.” He wrote down which buttons of the Schwyzerörgeli made what tones that he knew from brass music. “And then I just started to experiment, and from these experiments, more than thirty dances emerged.” A contributing factor to better understand the art of composing was that he had to take piano lessons in the teacher seminar. “I am, however, rather grateful for that by now, as it also helped me to do different things with two hands. Everything I have learned apart from composing, however, such as conducting and playing the Schwyzerörgeli, was through autodidacticism. This involves constantly experimenting and learning more.”

Very Rickenbacher has written many pieces for the brass band Rigispatzen and lives in Immensee at the Rigi so that it could be assumed that this mountain is inspiring his compositions. The musician waves this assumption aside. The name of the brass band stemmed from the original name of the farmers’ ensemble Rigispatzen founded in 1956. “For me personally, the Rigi has no relation in the sense that it inspires me, especially as I suffer from a strong fear of heights even though I can just about manage up there on the Rigi”, he retorts, laughing. But the combination of lake and mountain, was, after all, a “rather beautiful home”. And when it comes to titles such as “Kirschblütenzauber (cherry blossom magic)”? “I really saw a wonderful tree in full bloom when these melodies went through my head. A gardener then told me that this wasn’t even a cherry tree. But the real name was complicated and would not have served well as a title” (laughing from the bottom of his heart).

A brass music classic

In addition to a few waltzes, Very Rickenbacher has mainly created Bohemian-influenced polkas. This also applies to the composition “Ein halbes Jahrhundert (half a century)” which he wrote for the 50th anniversary of the Rigispatzen in 2006. Said piece continues to be popular with the audience and has turned into a classic for brass music ensembles; it is regularly played at concerts, mainly in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. “When we had the first rehearsal of the piece I realised that the audience had a special reaction to it: They were whistling outside the rehearsal room, that was really quite something.” Nowadays there was even an arrangement for an accordion orchestra.

But what was so special about this composition? “I introduced something like a rumba into the accompaniment, which was previously unheard of. And I have inserted a minor harmony into the trio melody, something that had not existed like this before, but is often tried nowadays – and yet does not always sound nice.” He thinks that this composition was something that turned out so well rather accidentally. Remember: “I have definitely never composed music for monetary reasons. I am happy when music is played. And of course, I am happy if I then get a little bit of money from SUISA for that.”

Grateful – and grounded

Very Rickenbacher registered his first compositions with SUISA in 1984 and is now telling me how touched he was when he recently found the very first settlement from SUISA from the year 1985. “I am grateful that SUISA exists.” This not only because of the settlements but also because the digital media arena had become so much more complex. “I have the impression that the SUISA staff look at us composers rather well; I already got some advice from them. What also is important that my works are protected, and, under certain circumstances, I can even get a pension.”

“Grateful but also grounded” is how Very Rickenbacher feels on the back of receiving the award “Golden Violin Clef 2024” by the association of the same name. “It is totally indescribable for me as it has come completely unexpected.” To him, the award was always something located in the area of the Landler music. In the brass music area, the “Golden Violin Clef” had last been awarded to Emil Wallimann in 2009 but he had implemented yodelling into his music. “It fills me with a bit of pride, actually, that I am only the fifth of 46 award winners who has something to do with brass music, and I am even the first one with Bohemian brass music.”

SUISA supports the association “Golden Violin Clef”. It has been awarding this prize in the area of Swiss folk music since 1979.

www.goldenerviolinschluessel.ch Official website of the association Golden Violin Clef
www.verol-noten.ch Official website of the music publisher of Very and Roland Rickenbacher

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