Back to the Swiss Radio archives this week for a performance of the Symphonie Helvetique by Jean Daetwyler with the composer conducting the Beromünster Radio Symphony in this broadcast from November 18, 1958
Composer, orchestral and choir conductor, as well as brass band and folk group director, Jean Daetwyler was born in Basel in 1907. In 1913, his family moved to Bulle. He began studying violin and trombone in the same city with Raphaël Radraux. Then, from 1927 to 1938, he pursued advanced training in Paris at the Conservatoire, the Schola Cantorum, and then the École César-Franck. There, he attended classes with Vincent d’Indy, Jean de Valois, Guy de Lioncourt, Albert Bertelin, and Paul Leflemme. To support himself during his Parisian years, Jean Daetwyler became a silent film musician. With the advent of talking pictures, he diversified his sources of income and became involved as a violinist and trombonist in various orchestras, including those of the Casino de Paris and the Folies-Bergère. In 1933, he married Augusta Folly de Bulle, who gave him three children and supported him throughout his career.
In 1938, the Second World War forced him to return to Switzerland. He settled in Sierre, Valais, where he directed the municipal band La Gérondine for forty years (1938-1978) and the mixed choir Sainte-Cécile (1942-1981) of the parish of Sainte-Catherine, as well as La Chanson du Rhône (1948-1991) and other choirs and groups (fanfare L’Avenir de Chamoson, La Saltina de Brigue, the men’s choir of Venthône) for which he composed. From 1940, Jean Daetwyler collaborated actively with Aloys Theytaz, who wrote the texts for nearly 300 works that he set to music. In 1949, he founded, with Georges Haenni, the Cantonal Conservatory of Music. In addition, he wrote the music for several films by Roland Muller which won awards at the Cannes Film Festival: Terre valaisanne (1952), Horizon blanc (1957), Barrage (1960).
His artistic career has allowed him to compose for all forms of musical language and for all kinds of ensembles: voice and piano, chamber music, concertos, symphonic or wind music, music for radio plays, secular and sacred choral works. Since 1970, his alphorn concertos dedicated to Jozsef Molnar have made him famous nationally and internationally, as have his famous march Marignan (1939) and his choruses Le Rhône danse , Les forgerons or the Suite anniviarde (1954). One of his main sources of inspiration, in his own words, has been nature, hence the pastoral character of several of his scores. He has sung of the mountains, the vineyard and its work as well as freedom, which gave rise to a symphony.
On to the music.
