Born in Frauenfeld, Danuser studied piano, oboe, musicology, philosophy and German language and literature at the Musikhochschule and the University of Zurich from 1965; he received his doctorate with a dissertation on musical prose.
After working as a research assistant, he habilitated in 1982 at Technische Universität Berlin with a thesis on the music of the 20th century (published in 1984).
His most recent and currently ongoing research projects deal with the interaction of factors aesthetic to autonomy and heteronomy in the musical work of art (monograph Weltanschauungsmusik, 2009, with analyses, etc.)
Danuser's extensive publishing and editorial activities make him one of the most important German-speaking musicologists of the present day.
Hundreds of essays and articles in specialist periodicals and reference works, introductions, forewords and epilogues, honours, newspaper articles and much more a.m.[4] A selection of 125 texts has been published in a four-volume edition (arranged under the volume titles "Theory", "Aesthetics", "Historiography" and "Analysis"):