Mani Matter (4 August 1936 in Herzogenbuchsee – 24 November 1972 in Kilchberg, Zurich, officially Hans-Peter Matter) was a popular Swiss singer-songwriter.

Biography

Mani Matter was born on 4 August 1936 in Herzogenbuchsee, Canton of Bern. His father, Erwin Matter, was an advocate, his mother, the Dutch woman Wilhelmina Matter-de Haan, was a secretary. He had a two years older sister, Helen Matter. Growing up in Bern, he started to perform his own chansons in contemporary

Bernese German Bernese German (Standard German: ''Berndeutsch'', gsw, Bärndütsch) is the dialect of High Alemannic German spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions. A form of Bernese German is spoke ...

at local venues and on the radio; he accompanied himself on the guitar. He was an active Boy Scout in the Pfadicorps Patria in Bern and he performed his first own songs during Boy Scout evenings. He also performed together with the Berner Troubadours (Bernese

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...

s). He was killed in a car accident on his way to a concert and is buried in the Bremgartenfriedhof in Bern. Mani Matter's literary estate is archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.

Legacy

His

songs remain very popular in the Swiss German speaking part of Switzerland, and Matter is a great influence on the

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

music scene in Bern, and his songs are frequently covered. A collection of cover-versions was published in 1992 on the album ''Matter Rock.'' Mani Matter's

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

s are often taught at school (including classes for adults wanting to learn

) and are famous for their soft irony.

Discography

*1966 ''I han en Uhr erfunde'' (EP, "I invented a watch") *1967 ''Alls wo mir id Finger chunnt'' (EP, "Anything I touch") *1970 ''Hemmige'' (EP, "Inhibitions") *1972 ''Betrachtige über nes Sändwitsch'' (EP, "Contemplations on a sandwich") *1973 ''Ir Ysebahn'' (LP, "On the railroad") *1973 ''I han es Zündhölzli azündt'' (double-LP, "I lit a match")

References

External links

*
Official website
of his family
Mani Matter
(information about the film) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matter, Mani 1936 births 1972 deaths People from Oberaargau District 20th-century Swiss male singers Swiss singer-songwriters Road incident deaths in Switzerland Scouting and Guiding in Switzerland