DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

KIECHENMUSIK KIRCHGE8SNER 579
collection with his music was published in
Gotha in 1711. This part ot the history of
Cantatas, which diviiies them into two periods
in matter of form, is too elaborate to be treated
here, but a very full account will be found in
Spitta's J. S. Bach, Engl, tr., i. 40, 446 ; ii.
348, etc.
As regards the music, the form was extremely
variable. In a great number of cases the work
opened with a chorus, which in Bach's hands
assumed gigantic proportions. This was followed
by a series of recitatives, airs, ariosos, duets or
other kinds of solo nuisic, and in the greatest
number of instances ended with a simple chorale.
In some cases the work opens with an aria or
duet, and in others there are several choruses
interspersed in the work, and occasionally they
form the bulk of the whole. In one somewhat
singular instance (viz. ' Ich will den Kreuzstab
gerne tragen ') the Cantata consists of two long
arias, and two recitatives, and an adagio, all for
a bass voice, and ends with a chorale. In ' Ich
habe genug ' the bass voice is alone throughout,
and there is no chorale. It is evident that the
works were constructed with reference to the
particular resources at the disjiosal of the com-
poser for performance ; and in this respiect the
band varied as much as the musical form of the
work. Sometimes the organ was accompianied
by strings alone, at others by a considerable
orchestra of strings, wood, and brass. With
developed resources the Cantata occasionally
began, both in the older and the later forms,
with an instrumental introduction which was
called irrespectively a symphony or a sonata or
sonatina, and evidently had some relationship to
the instrumental Sonate da Cliiesa which were
common in Italy in the Roman Catholic
churches. This practice appears to have been
more universal before Bach's time than ai)pears
from his works, as instrumental introductions
to Cantatas with him are the exception. In
such an astonishing number of exampiles as
Bach produced it is inevitable that there should
be some disparity in value, A considerable
number are of the highest possible beauty and
grandeur, and a few may not be in his happiest
vein. But assuredly the wealth stored up in
them which lias yet to become known to the
musical public is incalculable. Their uncompromising
loftiness and generally austere purity
of style have hindered their universal popularity
hitherto ; but as people learn to feel, as they
ultimately must, how deeply expressive and
healthily true that style is, the greater will be
the earnest delight they will find in music, and
the greater will be the fame of these imperishable
monuments of Bach's genius. c. H. H. p.
KIECHENMUSIK, AKADEMISCHES IS"-
STITUT FUR. This Institution was founded in
Berlin (Hardenbergsti-asse, Charlottenburg, No.
36), in 1822, and was placed under the direction
of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1875, since
when the Director of the Institution is a member
of the Senate of the Academy. The Institution
is devoted to the education of organists, canto]'S,
and music-masters for high-grade schools and
seminaries. There are hve professors, giving
instruction in the organ, pianoforte, violin,
singing, harmony, counterpoint, and form, organ
construction, and criticism of exercises. The
first director was Bernhard Klein, and at present
the post is held by Prol'essor Radecke. w. B. s.
KIRCHER, Athanasius, learned Jesuit,
born May 2, 1602, at Geisa near Fulda ; early
became a Jesuit, and tauglit mathematics and
natural philosophy in the Jesuit College at
Wiirzburg, where he was professor in 1630.
About 1631 he Avas driven from Germany Ijy
the Thirty Years' War, and went in 1633 to
the house of his Order at Avignon, and thence
by way of A^ienna (1635) to Rome, where he
remained till his death, Nov. 28, 1680. He
acquired a mass of information in all de]iartments
of knowledge, and wrote books on e\'ery
conceivable subject. His great work Mu^unfia
universalis sive ars marpia coiisoni et dissoni,
two vols. (Rome, 1650), translated into German
by Andre.is Hirsch (Hall in Swabia, 1662), contains,
among much rubbish, valuable matter on
the nature of sound and the theory of comjiosi-
tion, \\\t\\ interesting examples from the instrumental
nmsic of Frescobaldi, Froberger, and
other composers of the 17th century. The
second vol., on the music of the Greeks, is far
from trustworthy ; indeed Meibomius {Miisici
antiqui) accuses Kircher of having written it
without consulting a single ancient Greek
authority. His Phonurgia (Kempten, 1673),
translated into German by Agathus Carione
(ap[)arently a nam de phivie), with the title Xeue
Rail- mid Thon-kunst (Nordlingen, 1684), is an
amplification of part of the Musurgia-, and deals
chiefly with acoustical instruments. In his
Magncs, sine de arte magnctica (Rome, 1641) he
gives all the songs and airs then in use to cure
the bite of the tarantula. His CEdipus mgyptia-
cus (Rome, 1652-54) treats of the music contained
in Egyptian hieroglyphics. [See J. E.
Matthew's Literature of Music, p. 57.] r. G.
KIRCHGESSNER, Makiasna, performer on
the glass harmonica, born 1770 at Waghausel
near Rastatt, Baden. An illness in her fourth
year left her blind for life, but this misfortune
was compensated by a delicate organisation
for music. She learned the harmonica from
Schmittbauer of Carlsruhe, and made numerous
successful concert -tours. Mozart heard her in
Vienna (1791), and composed a quintet for her
(Kcichel, 617). In London, about 1794, Froschel
made her a new instnrment, wdiich in future she
always used. Here also she recovered a glimmering
of sight under medical treatment. Much
as they admired her playing, musicians regretted
that she failed to bring out the true qualities
of the harmonica, through a wrong method of