Theodor Walter Hirsbrunner (2 April 1931 – 6 November 2010) was a Swiss musicologist and violinist.
He then studied violin with Walter Kägi in Bern and René Benedetti in Paris.
From 1956 to 1987 he taught music theory, work analysis, and more recently, historical musicology at the Hochschule der Künste Bern.
He gave lectures in Europe (e.g. at the Lucerne Festival), Australia (Adelaide 1979), Japan (Tokyo 1989), Taiwan (Taipei 1999) and the USA (Berkeley 1977 and Los Angeles 1987) as well as on representatives of Neue Musik at European radio stations (BR, WDR, RSR, RIAS, NDR, SFB and DRS).
In addition to numerous articles for specialist journals, encyclopaedias and newspapers, he wrote five monographs on musical personalities (Debussy, Stravinsky, Boulez, Messiaen and Ravel) and two volumes on the history of music.