Polish composer Boguslaw Schaeffer died on July 1, 2019 in Salzburg. Born on June 6, 1929 in Lviv, he was 90 years old.
Schaeffer made his compositional debut at the age of 17. Over the course of his life, he wrote about 550 pieces of music in 23 different genres, including symphonic, chamber, solo, sacred music, jazz, music dramas, and electronic pieces. One of the leading Polish proponents of avant-garde music, he was a member of the avant-garde Cracow Group of Polish composers alongside Krzysztof Penderecki and others.
Schaeffer was also a playwright, musicologist, graphic artist and educator. He wrote over 40 plays, directed several of them, and founded his own publishing house in 1990. He was editor-in-chief of the journal Ruch Muzyczny and also wrote books, essays, contemporary music articles, philosophy studies, and three outlines of music history. He received his doctor of philosophy from the University of Warsaw in 1970 and later taught composition in Krakow as well as in Salzburg, where he became a professor at the Mozarteum in the mid-1980s. He created art pieces related to music.
Bogusław Schaeffer was married to musicologist Mieczysława Janina Hanuszewska-Schaeffer. Their son, Piotr Mikołaj Schaeffer, is a music journalist.
[Source: culture.pl, pizzicato.lu]