A basilisk is a hybrid creature. And that is reflected in the music we publish: although the Basilisk Edition specializes in recorder and viol music in particular, our editions are just as playable on other other melody instruments and some are also suitable for vocal ensembles.

After all, what is more fun than putting together a Broken Consort – a musical hybrid – and making music together with a wide variety of strings, woodwinds, brass and singers.

Furthermore, the basilisk is the heraldic animal of Basel, the Swiss city on the bend of the Rhine, where the Basilisk Edition is rooted. Between Marktplatz and Barfüsserplatz, right in the heart of Basel, in a somewhat hidden alley there is a fountain with an inscription that reads:

The two recorder players Manfred Harras & Raphael B. Meyer founded the publishing house in 2021 out of the need to publish sheet music that is player friendly, especially for recorders and viola da gamba. The two have been active as editors for years and have published sheet music with numerous publishing houses. Both musicians follow a busy teaching schedule and, as course leaders and conductors of various courses, music weeks, seminars and workshops, are always on the lookout for suitable literature for different ensemble formations. So the two decided to pool their wealth of experience and specialist knowledge and found a small publishing house which would produce exactly the kind of sheet music that the two course leaders would also use in their own courses.

With the two series "Early Music" and "Contemporary Music", the two musicians have also set themselves the goal of reviving historical works that are difficult to access or almost forgotten with well-researched new editions and preserving them from oblivion. The contemporary music series aims to expand the repertoire with modern, previously unpublished compositions.

Raphael B. Meyer is a recorder player and composer. At Basilisk Edition, he is responsible in particular for the “Contemporary Music” series.

He was born in Basel in XNUMX. From XNUMX to XNUMX he studied recorder and early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and Secondary School Music Education at the Hochschule für Musik Basel. Master courses with well-known composers such as Michael Giacchino, Dave Grusin or Bruno Coulais complete his education. As a freelance composer he works in his own recording studio in Basel. In addition to commissioned works for orchestras, choirs and ensembles, he writes music for computer games as well as for film and television. His music is performed internationally and also played by foreign orchestras (eg Budapest Art Orchestra). He is the conductor of several Swiss recorder orchestras, a founding member of the Basler Blockflöten-Band, a lecturer at the IAM (Internationaler Arbeitskreis für Musik) and a guest lecturer at the ZHdK and the Hochschule für Musik Basel. Raphael B. Meyer's compositions are published at Basilisk Edition, at Moeck-Verlagand at Heinrichshofen & Noetzel.

Manfred Harras is a recorder player and editor. At Basilisk Edition, he is responsible in particular for the “Early Music” series.

He studied recorder at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Hans-Martin Linde and graduated in 1974 with a teaching and soloist diploma. Further studies with Jeannette van Wingerden, Amsterdam followed. From 1979 to 1983 he led a concert training class at the State University of Music in Heidelberg-Mannheim and was also a lecturer at the Biel/Bienne Conservatory (Switzerland) from 1976 to 1990 for the subjects recorder, improvisation, chamber music, early music performance practice, Ensemble management and methodology. From 1974 to 2008 he also worked at the University of Applied Sciences at the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW). In addition to his teaching activities, he also worked for several years in the field of culture and music management.

In addition to extensive concert activities throughout Europe and Israel, numerous radio, television and vinyl recordings, he is a sought-after course leader in Switzerland, Germany, England, Italy and Israel. A special focus is his activity as the editor of numerous works of early music, among others at the Basilisk Edition Bärenreiter, Pan Verlagand Edition Tre Fontane. In professional journals he writes articles with a focus on the recorder and early music. In the new edition of MGGhe is represented with three articles.