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The term traditional music refers to music rooted in a culture, passed down from generation to generation, usually orally, and evolving over time. Traditional music generally has a strong identity component. After the recordings of a few pioneers (ethnomusicologists Constantin Brailoiu, Alan Lomax, and closer to home Marcel Cellier) who travelled to more or less […]

At night, the moon shines placid and silent. This soothing image illuminates the human spirit and becomes a source of romantic inspiration, a mirror for lovers’ feelings and a source of contemplative charm for artists. The moon, the earth’s natural satellite, is at the center of some of the world’s greatest songwriters, including Frank Sinatra, […]

Whether romantic and gentle or eerie and dark, night has been a source of inspiration for musicians of all eras. Its music is composed to express feelings, and comes in infinite forms. The serene night is expressed in musical forms such as the Serenade, the Berceuse and, above all, the Nocturne. The first piece of […]

The oldest manuscript in the library is a parchment fragment dating from around 830.

Exhibitions and research projects in Paris and Geneva, fine books, literary texts: RUINES are in the spotlight at the Bibliothèque cantonale universitaire de Lausanne, site Unithèque. Following the random declination of this post dedicated to RUINES, let’s begin our odyssey with a few literary memories… Literature Joachim Du Bellay Joachim Du Bellay (1522-1560) brought back […]

Fifty years ago, in 1971, Swiss women gained the right to vote and stand for election at federal level. The same issue, put out to consultation a few years earlier in 1959, was rejected by 66.9% and accepted by just three cantons. While women’s suffrage was achieved in most European countries at the same time, […]