Arnfried Edler (21 March 1938 – 20 April 2022[1]) was a German musicologist and university professor in Kiel and Hanover.
Born in Lüdenscheid, Edler studied music, German literary history and philosophy in Saarbrücken and Kiel and also took the A-Examen for Protestant Church Music at the Musikhochschule Köln in 1964.
After completing his doctorate in historical musicology in 1968 and his legal clerkship for teaching at grammar schools, he worked from 1969 as a research assistant, head of the student cantor's office and university organist in Kiel with simultaneous teaching duties at the Lübeck Academy of Music.
From 1989 to 2003, he worked at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.
He has frequently worked as editor and co-author on scientific monument and complete editions (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Robert Schumann) as well as on congress and project reports.