DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

580 KIROHNER KIRNBERGER
execution. After living in retirement at Gohlis
near Leipzig, she undertook another concerttour,
but fell ill and died at Schaffhausen,
Dec. 9, 1809.
KIEGHNER, Theodor, one of
c. F. p.
the most
gifted disciples of Schumann, a composer of
' ' genre pieces for the pianoforte, was born Dec.
10, 1823, at Neukirchen near Chemnitz in
Saxony, and got his musical training at Leipzig,
under 0. F. Becker, from 1838. Having completed
his schooling at Leipzig and Dresden, he
took the post of organist at Winterthur in
Switzerland in 1843, which town in 1862 he
left for Ziirich, where he acted as conductor
and teacher. In 1873 he became director of
the ' ' Musikschule at Wiirzburg, but after two
years he threw up that appointment and settled
at Leipzig, until 1883 [when he moved to
Dresden as a teacher of ensemble in the Conservatorium.
In 1890 he moved once more to
Hamburg, where he died, Sept. 19, 1903.]
Kirchner's works extend to over 100 opus
numbers. Except a string quartet, op. 20, a
' Gedenkblatt, ' a ' Serenade, ' and ' Novelletten,
op. 59, for piano, violin, and violoncello, some
violin pieces, op. 63, and eight pieces for violon-
cello, op. 79, and a number of Lieder, they are
all written for pianoforte solo or duet, are mostly
of small dimensions, and put forth under suggestive
titles such as Schumann was wont to give
to his lesser pieces. The stamp of Schumann's
original mind has marked Kirchner's work from
the first ; yet thougli sheltered under Schunjann's
cloak, many minor points of style and diction
are Kirchner's own, and decidedly clever. At
best, his pieces are delicate and tender, frequently
vigorous, now and then humorous and
fantastic ; at worst, they droop under a taint
of lachrymose sentimentality. They are always
carefully fmished and well shapen, never redun-
dant, rarely commonplace. Among his early
publications, ' Albumblatter, ' op. 9, became
popular as played by Madame Schumann ; and
among his later, 'Still und bewegt,' op. 24,
and particularly ' Nachtstueke, ' op. 25, deserve
attention. K. D.
KIRKMAI^. The name borne by a family of
eminent harpsichord, and subsequently piano-
forte makers. .Jacob Kirclimann (afterwards
Kirkman), a German, came to England early
in the 18th century, and worked for Tabel, a
Flemish liarpsichord maker, who had brought
to London the traditions of the Ruckers of
Antwerp. [See Ruckers.] Another ap|irentice
of Tabel's was Shudi (properly Tschudi), who
became Kirkman's rival, and founded the house
of Broadwood. Taljel would have been quite
forgotten, but for these distinguished pupils,
and for the droll anecdote, narrated by Dr.
Burney, of Kirkman's rapid courtship of Tabel's
widow, and securing with her the business and
stock-in-trade. He proposed at breakfast-time,
and married her (the Marriage Act being not
then passed) before twelve o'clock the same day,
just one month after Tabel's demise. [Jacob
Kirkman was organist of St. George's, Hanover
Square ;
he wrote several sets of pieces for organ
and pianoforte, and published them himself at
the sign of the King's Arms in Broad Street,
Carnaby Market, now No. 19 Broad Street,
Soho.] Dr. Burney places the arrival of Jacob
Kirkman in England in 1740, but that seems
to be too late ; Shudi was probably established
by that time in Meard's Street, Dean Street,
Soho, whence he removed in 1742 to the premises
in Great Pulteney Street. There is no
reason, however, to doubt the same generally
excellent authority that his death took place
about 1778, and that he left nearly £200,000.
Burney, in Eees's Cyclopaedia, gives Jacob
Kirkman's harpsichords high praise, regarding
them as more full in tone and durable than
those of Shudi. These instruments retained
certain features of the Antwerp model as late
as 1768, preserving Andre Ruckers's keyboard
of G, f" (nearly five octaves), with lowest Gj
wanting. This, as well as the retention of the
rosette in the sound-board, may be seen in the
Kirkman harpsichord of that year, which belonged
to the late C. K. Salaman, and in which
we find King David playing upon the harp,
between the letters I and K. Dr. Burney met
with no harpsichords on the continent that could
at all compare with those made in England by
Jacob Kirkman and his almost life-long competitor,
Shudi.
Jacob Kirkman, having no children by his
marriage, was succeeded by his nejihew Abraham,
whose son Joseph, the first Joseph Kirkman,
followed him. The piano was introduced in
Kirkman's workshops in the time of Abraham
Kirkman, as there is record of a square piano
inscribed Jacob and Abraham Kirchmann, which
was dated 1775. A grand piano dated 1780
was also theirs, and the manufacture of both
kinds of instrument went on side by side for
some years, as there was a single harpsichord
in the possession of the firm, dated 1778, and
the douljle harpsichord, in the possession of the
Editor, is dated 1798 ;
Kirckman. ' His
it is inscribed 'Josephus
son, the second Joseph, died
at the advanced age of eighty-seven in 1877,
his second son Henry, to whom the business
owes its present extension, having died some
years before. The warerooms were for many
j'ears in Soho Square. In 1896 the business
was amalgamated with that of the CoUards.
The Kirkmans were the English agents for
Signer Caldera's attachment known as the
Melopiano. A. j. H.
KIRNBERGER, Johanx Philipp, composer
and \vriter on the theory of music, born April
(baptized on the 24th) 1721, at Saalfeld in
Thuringia ; learnt the rudiments of music at
home, the organ from Kellner of Grafenrode,
and the violin from Meil of Sondershausen.