Does music bind the world together? After Zwingli banned music from Zurich’s public life, it returned to the city after 1600. From the 17th century on, Zurich’s citizens gathered in music societies to make music, and in the 19th century the number of people acting in choirs in Zurich surged. During a 90-minute walk and in eleven stations the audio walk “Music in Zurich” (commissioned by the Institute of Musicology) gives an impression of the city’s diverse musical past and insights into the lives of Richard Wagner, Paul Hindemith, Ignaz Heim, Hans Georg Nägeli and the young Wolfgang Amadé Mozart as well as his father and sister. In addition, the origins of the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich and the Cabaret Voltaire can be discovered as well as the medieval song collection “Codex Manesse” and the heavy metal band “Black Sabbath”.

In a conversation, Simona Ryser (creator of the audio walk), Prof. Dr. Laurenz Lütteken and Viviane Nora Brodmann provide insights into Zurich’s music history and the making of a project based on a scholarly publication.