Karl Heinz Schäfer (17 March 1932 – 12 October 1996) was a German-born composer and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

who worked mainly in France.

Life and career

Born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

to Jewish parents, he moved with his mother during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to the United States, where he learned piano and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

. He returned to Europe to study philosophy and linguistics at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

, and settled in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, in the early 1950s. He was a student of

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

, and in the evenings played piano in nightclubs, where he worked for a while as an accompanist to

Stan Getz Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...

. Bob Stanley, Liner notes for ''Paris in the Spring'', Ace Records CDCHD 1525, 2018, p.5 He then spent time touring American military bases, and developed a taste for

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

Indian music Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk, rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over several ...

. "Karl Heinz Schäfer (1932-1996)", ''Musique Classique''
Retrieved 10 December 2019Karl-Heinz Schäfer, ''MusiqXXL'', September 2007
Retrieved 10 December 2019 From the 1960s, he worked as an arranger in the French recording industry, for singers including

Adamo Adamo is both a masculine given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Adamo Abate (c. 990 – 1060–1070), Italian medieval Benedictine abbot and saint, a promoter of the unification of the Southern populatio ...

and

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( ; ; ; born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a Armenians in France, French singer and songwriter of Armenian descent. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringi ...

, and the band

Rockets A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

, and started working with

Michel Magne Michel Magne (20 March 1930 in Lisieux, Calvados, France – 19 December 1984 in Cergy-Pontoise, Val-d'Oise) was a French film and experimental music composer. Early life He was the fifth child in a family of eight. As young as age five, h ...

film soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

s. He worked on many soundtracks in the 1970s, notably including László Szabó's obscure 1973 film ''Les Gants Blancs du Diable'', which has been reissued and excerpts from which have been included in later compilations of French music. "Karl Heinz Schäfer: Les Gants Blancs du Diable", ''Clone.nl''
Retrieved 10 December 2019 Other soundtracks to which he contributed included '' Tender Dracula'' (1974), ''Zig Zig'' (1975), ''L’Empreinte des Géants'' (1980), ''Extérieur, Nuit'' (1980), ''Polar'' (1984), and '' Street of No Return'' (1989). After 1980, he worked closely with filmmaker Patrick Schulmann and musician Jean-Louis Bucchi. Schäfer died in 1996, aged 62.

References

External links

Karl Heinz Schäfer
at Data.bnf.fr * * 1932 births 1996 deaths {{France-composer-stub