Edgar Tinel
Edgar Tinel was born on 27 March 1854 in Sinaii (Belgium). His father was verger and organist at the local church and his first music teacher. Later he received lessons by Ferdinand van Durme. After school Edgar Tinel studied music at the Brussels conservatory under Louis Brassin (piano), Alphonse Mailly (organ), Joseph Dupon (harmony) and Francois-Auguste Gevaert (composition).
After his studies Edgar Tinel first started a career as concert pianist. He toured through Belgium and the adjacent countries.
In addition Edgar Tinel also composed music and in 1877 he won the Belgian Prix de Rome for his cantata "Kloekke Roeland". In the following years Edgar Tinel composed mainly sacred vocal works: motets, psalms, canatas and established himself as one of the leading Belgian composers of this genre. His output also contains secular compositions, but almost exclusively vocal music like songs.
In 1881 Edgar Tinel was appointed director of the Mechelen Institute for Sacred Music, the so-called "Lemmens-Institute" (named after its founder and Tinel's predecessor Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens). In 1889 Edgar Tinel also became superintendent of the music schools in Belgium. This educational and pedagogical work forced Edgar Tinel to stop his compositional activities. In 1896 he was also appointed professor at the Brussels conservatory and lectured counterpoint and fugue. In 1909 Edgar Tinel became director of the Brussels conservatory. In his last years Edgar Tinel came back to his work as a composer and created a few more works.
Edgar Tinel died on 28 October 1912 in Brussels (Belgium).
Liedeken
In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the work "Liedeken" for piano by Edgar Tinel. The work is a tiny piano composition - lasting only 16 bars - composed on 16 August 1884 and dedicated to "mijne lieve kleine Bertha" (my lovely little Bertha). The dedicatee is Bertha Baetens, the daughter of one of the Baetens brothers. Emiel and Gustaaf Baetens were amateur musicians and lived in Lokeren. They were befriended with the Tinel family and the young Edgar Tinel often went to their house to perform his latest studied works on the piano. Later Edgar Tinel dedicated his 5 songs op.11 to Gustaaf Baetens.
Edgar Tinel archive
In addition to the autograph music manuscript I also own several autograph letters and visiting cards by Edgar Tinel sent to the Baetens family. For completeness I list them here:
- 12.05.1873: to Emiel and Gustaaf Baetens
- 26.09.1874: to Gustaaf Baetens
- 10.02.1875: to Emiel and Gustaaf Baetens
- 31.05.1875: to Emiel and Gustaaf Baetens
- 16.08.1884: to Madame Baetens
- 01.10.1885: to Gusaaf Baetens
- 24.11.1885: to Madame Baetens
- 08.10.1886: to Gusaaf Baetens
- 02.01.1887: to Madame Baetens
- 02.02.1888: to Gustaaf Baetens
- 05.02.1888: to Madame Baetens
- 15.04.1888: to Madame Baetens
- 02.05.1888: to Madame Baetens
- 03.05.1888: to Bertha Baetens
- 29.09.1888: to Madame Baetens
- 01.04.1889: to Madame Baetens
- 02.04.1889: to Madame Baetens
- 11.07.1889: to Madame Baetens
- 16.01.1890: to Madame Baetens
- 16.10.1890: to Madame Baetens
- 15.04.1891: to Madame Baetens
- 31.07.1891: to Madame Baetens
- 20.05.1893: to Madame Baetens
- 11.05.1894: to Madame Baetens
- 27.09.1894: to Madame Baetens
- 02.08.1895: to Madame Baetens
- 08.12.1896: to Gustaaf Baetens
- 07.05.1897: to Madame Baetens
- 17.05.1897: to Gusaaf Baetens
- 18.06.1897: to Madame Baetens
- 11.11.1904: to Bertha Baetens
the archive also includes the following miscellaneous items:
- issue of "Musica Sacra" from 25.01.1892 (volume 11, issue 6) including a long article about Pierre Busschaert (28.07.1840-10.01.1892) by Edgar Tinel
- program shared at the occasion of the presentation of the painting of Edgar Tinel at the St. Gregorius association in Mechelen on 14 March 1887. The painting of Edgar Tinel was done by Armand Backx.
- two handwritten vocal parts for the composition "Kerslied" by E. Lubig
