A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Kircher, Athanasius

by Franz Gehring

KIRCHER, Athanasius, learned Jesuit, born May 2, 1602 (Mendel, with less probability, gives 1601), at Geisa near Fulda; early became a Jesuit, and taught mathematics and natural philosophy in the Jesuit College at Würzburg. About 1635 he was driven from Germany by the Thirty Years' War, and went first to the house of his Order at Avignon, and thence to Rome, where he remained till his death Nov. 28, 1680. He acquired a mass of information in all departments of knowledge, and wrote books on every conceivable subject. His great work 'Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni,' 2 vols. (Rome, 1650), translated into German by Andreas Hirsch (Hall in Swabia, 1662) contains among much rubbish valuable matter on the nature of sound and the theory of composition, with interesting examples from the instrumental music 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 ('Musici antiqui') accuses Kircher of having written it without consulting a single ancient Greek authority. HiS 'Phonurgia' (Kempten 1673), translated into German by Agathon Cario (apparently a nom de plume) with the title 'Neue Hall- und Thon-kunst' (Nördlingen 1684), is an amplification of part of the 'Musurgia,' and deals chiefly with acoustical instruments. In his 'Ars magnetica' (Rome 1641) he gives all the songs and airs then in use to cure the bite of the tarantula. His 'Œdipus ægyptiacus' (Rome 1652–54) treats of the music contained in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

[ F. G. ]