SIKLS, ALBERT

born June 26, 1878, Budapest, Hung. died April 3, 1942, Budapest original name Albert Schnwald Hungarian cellist, composer, and musicologist. Sikls began composing at the age of six and started studying the pianoforte and music theory at seven. He took up the cello in 1891 and began lecturing while a student at the Hungarian Music School in 1895. He joined the staff of the Fodor Conservatory in Budapest in 1905 and that of the Academy of Music in 1910; from 1918 until his death, he was in charge of one of the two composition courses at the academy. Sikls' early works reflected the influence of his training in the Brahmsian Romantic tradition, but the later ones showed the effects of his 20th-century contemporaries Debussy and Richard Strauss. The bulk of his works were written for full orchestra, chamber groups, or the piano, but his catalog ranges from pieces for other solo instruments and voice all the way to choral works, ballets, and operas.