English Biography




1897 Born in Basel on 10 January

1903 First piano lessons

1914-1917 Apprenticeship at a bank, first compositions

1917-1920 Studies at the Music Conservatory in Bern: Piano with Oskar Ziegler, theory with Ernst Graf. Piano coach at the Bern Theatre.

1920 Benefactor Werner Reinhart grants Moeschinger a three year scholarship for studies abroad

1920-1922 Stay in Leipzig. Studies composition with Paul Graener and Sigfrid Karg-Elert

1921 First string quartet

1922 His second string quartet is played at the Swiss Musicians Reunion in Zug, is accepted as member of the Swiss Musicians Society

1922-1923 Munich: Studies with Paul Courvoisier

1923 Return to Switzerland, makes his living as a pianist by playing in hotels together with various music ensembles specialising in light music.

1928 Gives up entertainment music; earns his life with difficulty by teaching piano and music theory privately; composes.

1929 27. October: Concert in the Bern town hall with his works is a big success. Moeschinger becomes a requested composer whose pieces are also performed by famous interpreters and conductors.

1933 First compositions for orchestra: Variations and Finale on a theme by Henry Purcell, 0p.32

1937 Teacher at the Music Conservatory in Bern

1942 During a convalescence in Saas Fee he decides to move there, leaves the Music Conservatory in Bern. Compositions for Paul Sacher, Hermann Scherchen, Hermann Müller and others.

1950 The reading of Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann brings a change in his compositions with the introduction of the twelve-tone-technique. Realizes the fictional composition described in the novel as a piece for piano, entitled Vier Fünftonstücke über H-E-A-E-Es.

1953 Award of the Music Prize of the city of Basel

1956 Moves to Ascona. Numerous compositions, chamber music as well as orchestral works (Sinfonie IV in memoriam Arthur Honegger; Concerto pour Piano et Orchestre No 5). Travels and short stays in Northern Italy.

1957 Prize for composition of the Swiss Musician Society

1978 Settles definitively in Thun. Moeschinger spends the remaining years of his life here and composes his last works: short compositions, principally for one or two instruments.

1981 Moeschinger is awarded the Cantonal Music Prize in Bern

1985 On 25 September he dies a quiet and longed for death