Werner Kaegi (composer)

Werner Kaegi (17 June 1926 – 16 March 2024) was a Swiss electronic composer, musicologist and educator. During the 1960s, he promoted electronic music in his home country. In the 1970s, as a composer and researcher at Utrecht’s Institute of Sonology, The Netherlands, he developed pioneering programs in the field of computer-generated music. Early life Kaegi was born in Uznach, in the St. Gallen canton, on 17 June 1926, as the third child of Heinrich Kaegi and Clara Kaegi-Schlaepfer. In their parental home he came into contact with classical music literature at an early age because a lot of music was being played at home. His father in particular was a passionate amateur violinist. His sister played excellent piano, and his brother played violin, viola and flute. The young Werner soon proved able to arrange pieces for the house concerts. From six years he received clarinet and piano lessons. He studied mathematical logic and music in Zürich, Heidelberg and Basel, and music composition in Zürich, Basel, Salzburg and Paris. In 1951, blending his interests for mathematics and music, he received his doctorate with a study of the structure of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions and Fugues