Cyrill Kistler (1848-1907)

[Alan Howe]

How about this composer? The Prelude to Act 3 of his (very Wagnerian-sounding) opera Kunihild (1884) can be heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1DqnCnv-K4

Details of his stage works here:
http://www.operone.de/komponist/kistler.html

[edurban]

Now this is something mystifying.  Forgotten composer.  Forgotten opera, (even, I'll wager, by most of us UCers.)  Yet there are SEVEN, count 'em, SEVEN performances of this piece on Youtube, all in transcriptions for symphonic band.  Most are diabolically out of tune.  What sorcery is this?

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Name definitely rings a bell with me, which still means as _good_ as forgotten...

Judging from IMSLP, his works also include a lot of songs, an opera setting Goethe's Faust Part I ("Goethes Urfaust") (full score to the Prelude to Act IV available at Munich Library, digitized, mirrored @ IMSLP), other things... there's an incomplete and hard-to-read (I'll work on neatening it up, it looks like cut and paste work from Hofmeisters-RHUL searches as though someone were in a freakish hurry... tsch...) worklist there.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The arrangement for wind band of the Prelude, of which there are so many YouTube recordings, was probably made (I suspect from the vocal score, since I cannot locate a full score anywhere) with school bands in mind. It seems to be readily available, hence its popularity with such ensembles. But why this extract from an opera by this very obscure composer should have been chosen for this treatment I can't tell. It would be nice to hear it in its original orchestral guise, but I don't know if a full score exists, or indeed where Kistler's mss. are, or if they have survived.

[eschiss1]

The orchestral parts may be @ Württembergische Landesbibliothek  (see [http://www.worldcat.org/title/vorspiel-zum-iiiten-akte-der-oper-kunihild/oclc/314203435 Worldcat].)

[soundwave106]

Most of the scores I see for this indicate that it was arranged by a Robert M. Barr, probably this person who was a noted community band leader. Some searches also indicate they are on many concert band lists for "Grade 3 level" band compositions, which would indicate it is made for intermediate-level students.

So this explains the out of tune nature, but does not explain why Mr. Barr plucked such a relatively unknown composer out of thin air it seems. Most of the other arrangements I can see (this list for instance) seem more standard repertoire.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, and welcome to UC!

[cypressdome]

Kistler's manuscripts appear to survive in his adopted hometown of Bad Kissingen. This site created in 2007 to commemorate the centenary of Kistler's death provides a brief description of the holdings and gives contact information.  It's not clear to me if the manuscripts are still held by the family (Klaus Kistler is listed as one of the contacts) or by the municipal/state archives. 

Also, the Bavarian State Library has the performance material for Kunihild that originated from the Bavarian State Opera.  Note, however, that in its catalog the twenty entries for this list the composer's first name with only one L which, of course, causes any one searching for "Kistler, Cyrill" to miss it.

[Double-A]

...his works also include a lot of songs, an opera setting Goethe's Faust Part I ("Goethes Urfaust")...

Maybe too pedantic but here goes (we are talking about one of the most famous works in German literature after all):  Goethe's Faust comes in three versions:  Urfaust (the first attempt to deal with the subject; I believe the name Urfaust was given it from hindsight), then "Faust, ein Fragment", finally Faust I and II.  So Urfaust is not Faust I even though it tells the same story.

[eschiss1]

Not pedantic to me- very interesting. Apologies for belated response.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Goethe's "Urfaust" was never published and the MS was lost - and remains so. However, a copy was discovered in 1886. This discovery may have inspired Kistler to use the "Urfaust" as the text for his "Faust" opera.

[Alan Howe]

I think Wikipedia has it right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe%27s_Faust

Remember 'Ur-' simply means 'original'. So 'Urfaust' means 'Faust: Original Version'.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Remember 'Ur-' simply means 'original'. So 'Urfaust' means 'Faust: Original Version'.

Quite so.

[Double-A]

I think Wikipedia has it right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe%27s_Faust

Remember 'Ur-' simply means 'original'. So 'Urfaust' means 'Faust: Original Version'.

Feeling like being pedantic second version (as opposed to the Urversion above):  "original" here literally as derived from "origin", not original as opposed to photocopy or to arrangement.
Examples: Urversion (first version from which later ones were derived--as in the Faust example), uralt (extremely old: seems to have been around forever), Urgrossvater (Father of grandfather), Urknall (big bang, more precise translations would be: first bang ever, the bang that got everything started).

[Alan Howe]

Well, they're all derived from the meaning 'original'. So my point stands.

(sometimes initial capital letter): a combining form meaning "earliest, original," used in words denoting the primal stage of a historical or cultural entity or phenomenon.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ur-

So, moving on...