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Cyrill Kistler (12 May 1848 in Großaitingen, Swabia, Germany – 1 January 1907 in Bad Kissingen, Lower Franconia, Germany) was a German composer, Music theory, Music education and Publishing.
From 1884 on, he worked at Bad Kissingen in Lower Franconia, where he founded his own music school. From 1880 on, he published the music journal „Musikalische Tagesfragen. Organ für Musiker, Musikfreunde und Freunde der Wahrheit“ ( „Current questions on music. An organ for musicians, friends of music and friends of truth“). The journal existed for a period of 12 years, with periods of interruptions due to Kistler's health problems in between. Kistler composed operas (for instance „Baldurs Tod“, „Die Kleinstädter“, „Kunihild“, „Der Schmied von Kochel“ und „Eulenspiegel“), secular and clerical choral works, songs, and pieces for organ and piano. In 1904, Kistler published his harmonics „Der einfache Kontrapunkt und die einfache Fuge“ ( „The Simple Counterpoint and the Simple Fugue“).
In his lifetime, Kistler became very well known through his work and by writing more than 200 works. He was placed on a par with Richard Strauss and, in a certain way, was in competition with him. When Kistler premiered his opera „Eulenspiegel“ at Würzburg in 1889, Richard Strauss, though, regarded the libretto of the opera to be „clumsy“ and „amusing“. Instead, he used the opera as an opportunity to write his own Symphonic poem „Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks“ a few years later, which had far more success.
Richard Wagner described his friend Cyrill Kistler as his only dignified successor. Kistler's former teacher Josef Rheinberger dedicated his work „De profundis“, which he had written on April 22, 1881, to his former student Kistler with the handwritten dedication on it: „Herrn Cyrill Kistler zu freundl. Erinnerung. München 16.5.1896. J. Rh.“ ( „To Mr. Cyrill Kistler on a friendly memory. Munich, May 16th 1896, J. Rh.“).
However, Kistler's music is nowadays sunk into oblivion to a great extent. His grave on the Bad Kissingen Kapellenfriedhof ( Chapel Cemetery) is unnoticed.
Among his students was the pianist Mieczysław Horszowski, who was once described as Polish „child prodigy“.
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