Swiss composer dies

Edward Stämpfli was particulary known for his use of twelve-tone music. www.zb.unizh.ch

The Bernese composer Edward Stämpfli has died at the age of 93 in the German capital, Berlin.

Stämpfli, who would have celebrated his 94th birthday on February 1, was a supporter of twelve-tone music and was particularly known for his “Variations pour Instruments à vent”.

The composer started playing the piano at the young age of six, when he received lessons from his father and later from Carl Aeschbacher, who taught him elementary theory.

He studied medicine in Bern, but never finished his degree and moved to the German city of Cologne, where he became a scholar of Wilhelm Mahler and Philipp Jarnach.

In 1930, the composer moved to Paris, where he continued his music studies with Paul Dukas, however, he returned to his home country in 1939, where he first lived in Basel and later in Lugano.

During his time in Switzerland between 1939 and 1951, Stämpfli composed 42 pieces, some of them ballets, which were often staged in Bern and Basel.

In 1951, Stämpfli moved back to Germany with his wife, where they first lived in Heidelberg and later in Berlin, where he died this Saturday.

swissinfo with agencies