Meinrad Schütter

Meinrad Schütter is one of the most intriguing of recent Swiss composers. His music offers a highly personal synthesis of twentieth-century European modernisms, from Hindemith to Bartók, Stravinsky, Berg and beyond – and yet it is still largely unknown. This book hopes to win him some of the attention he deserves.

Schütter was born in 1910 in Chur in the Swiss Alps. He studied in his native city and then at the Zurich Conservatoire. His wayward attitude towards authority resulted in his debarment from the Swiss Musicians’ Association and its manifold opportunities for advancement, but avid study and a thirst to acquaint himself with the latest trends across Europe led to his developing an idiosyncratic style – initially Neo-Classical but later featuring elements of serialism and even aleatory. Schütter enjoyed early support from Hermann Scherchen, who conducted his first orchestral pieces in the 1940s. Aged over 40, keen to expand his knowledge of contemporary developments, Schütter attended Paul Hindemith’s classes at Zurich University. For thirty years, he worked as a repetiteur at the Zurich Opera House, where few knew of his activity as a composer. He published nothing and enjoyed few performances. But a remarkable Indian summer after retirement brought forth several dozen songs as well as chamber and orchestral works. Schütter died in Switzerland in 2006. Many of his works have now been recorded, garnering enthusiastic reviews around the world. This book is the first in English to examine his life and music.

Author Ute Stoecklin is a musician, gallerist and curator. As a pianist, she has performed and recorded the music of contemporary composers extensively in Switzerland and abroad, including many works by Meinrad Schütter. She began editing and publishing Schütter’s songs and chamber works in the 1990s and published his biography in Germany for his centenary in 2010. She has run the Concert Gallery Maison 44 in Basel since 2002, organising its interdisciplinary programmes combining contemporary art, music, literature, science and scholarship.

Chris Walton taught music history at the Basel University of Music in Switzerland, is an Honorary Professor at Africa Open Institute (Stellenbosch University in South Africa) and runs two research projects at the Bern University of the Arts for the Swiss National Science Foundation