Ferdinand Küchler


Ferdinand Küchler was a German violinist and violist, renowned violin pedagogue, and composer of instructive violin music.

Life and work

Küchler studied violin with Johann Naret-Koning and Hugo Heermann, and music theory with Arthur Egidi and Iwan Knorr from 1883 to 1888 at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. In 1889 he took his first job as principal violist of the Symphony Orchestra in Basel, also playing viola in a string quartet, and later began teaching violin at the local music school. In 1898 he was appointed a violin teacher at the Hoch Conservatory, and was also violist of the Heermann Quartet led by his former teacher. Küchler returned to Basel in 1910. The following year became director of a private music school and worked as a choral conductor. From 1927 to 1936 he taught violin at the Landeskonservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig.
Küchler wrote textbooks on violin technique and composed instructive pieces for the violin including several student concertos. His two-volume Course of Violin Instruction was a cornerstone of the violin instructional literature until the mid-1960s.

Works

Sortable list of compositions, pedagogical works and literature categorized by genre, opus number, date of composition, titles and scoring.
GenreOpusDateGerman title English titleScoringNotes
PianoSechs Walzer und Zwey Eccossaisen6 Waltzes and 2 Eccossaisesfor piano
PianoSechs neue Ansbacher Walzer und 2 Dreher6 New Ansbacher Waltzes and 2 Spinning Songsfor piano
PedagogicalTägliche Studien für die linke Hand des GeigersDaily Studies for the Violinist's Left Handfor violinpublished 1900s
1
Pedagogical21910–1911Praktische Violinschule: mit Verwendung von Übungsstücken älterer berühmter Pädagogen
  1. Erste Lage bis zur Einführung in das Doppelgriffspiel, die wichtigsten Bogenstricharten und ihre Ausführung nach modernen Anschauungen
  2. Der Fingersatz auf der Violine: mit vielen Beispielen aus der klassischen und modernen Violinliteratur
  3. Ein Beitrag zur Reform des Violinunterrichts auf Grundlage von F. A. Steinhausen's Werk "Die Physiologie der Bogenführung auf den Streichinstrumenten"
A Course of Violin Instruction: with Application of Exercises of Well-known Masters
  • The First Position to the Introduction of Double-Stop Playing, the Main Bow Stroke Types and Their Transfer to Modern Ideas
  • Violin Fingering: with Many Examples from Classical and Modern Violin Literature
  • A Contribution to the Reform of Violin Teaching Based on Friedrich Adolf Steinhausen's Book "The Physiology of Bowing for Stringed Instruments"
    		• for violinin 2 volumes, 8 books
    published 1914
    PedagogicalChorgesangschuleA Course of Choral Singingfor choruspublished 1915
    Chamber music3''Der Aufstieg vom Volkslied zu den klassischen Meistern: Eine dem Lehrgange der praktischen Violinschule von Ferdinand Küchler sich einfügende und stufenweise fortschreitende Sammlung von Liedern und klassischen Vortragsstücken''