Theodor Kirchner
1823 — 1903
Fürchtegott Theodor Kirchner was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic era.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Theodor Kirchner.
From the period sources
Theodor Kirchner, a German organist and composer born in Neukirchen, near Chemnitz, in 1824, received his musical training at the Leipzig Conservatorium (Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886). He was notably the first student whose name was entered at the Leipzig Conservatorium, founded by Mendelssohn in 1843, where he studied composition and pianoforte under Mendelssohn and Schumann (Grove’s Dictionary, 1906; Dictionary of Music, 1896). Kirchner is recognized as “one of the most gifted disciples of Schumann” and “one of the most renowned followers of Robert Schumann in the domain of Pianoforte music,” whose work bears “the stamp of Schumann’s original mind” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1906; Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886).
His career included serving as organist at Winterthur, Switzerland, a post he held until 1862, when Hermann Goetz succeeded him (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1879; Grove’s Dictionary, 1906). Kirchner also worked as a conductor and teacher in Zurich from 1862 to 1875, and briefly as Director of the Royal School of Music at Würzburg in 1875, a position Karl Kliebert later assumed (Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886; Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1889; A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). Robert Schumann himself, who “loved to follow the progress of young men,” wrote about Kirchner in his paper, and Kirchner’s “Albumblatter,” Op. 9, became popular through performances by Madame Schumann (Grove’s Dictionary, 1908; Grove’s Dictionary, 1906). His prolific output, extending to over 100 opus numbers, consists mostly of small-scale piano pieces, often with “suggestive titles such as Schumann was wont to give,” and is described as “beautiful in every sense of the word, and at times rises to a considerable height of inspiration” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1906; Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886).