Prologue
TrioTinus has got its name from Æ Tinuser – the renowned folk- and dance musicians from Vrøgum and Oksbøl in Western Jutland, who played at society balls, birthday parties, silver weddings, golden weddings and many other occasions for more than 60 years. They were brothers – Hans, Karl and Ejnar Nielsen – and they played the violin, the piano and the drums/the trombone respectively. They had the music from their father – Martinus Nielsen – who was a folk musician himself in that part of the country for a generation.
Æ Tinuser became an institution – when a family party was arranged you asked first Æ Tinuser, then the cook and at last the village hall – in the above mentioned order. For the party should include “soup, roast and Æ Tinuser”.
They also played at the morning song, so a silver wedding or a golden wed­ding could easily last more than 24 hours from the start till the end.
Ejnar Tinus told that one year they were out playing 315 times! Apart from the music they had ordinary jobs to attend to – Hans as a day-labourer, Karl as an unskilled labourer and Ejnar first as a blacksmith and later as a hairdresser and estate agent.
But little by little the old music faded out. New rhythms were known via radio and TV and even if a lot of the repertoire of Æ Tinuser was now “old-fashioned modern” their time was running out. Luckily they got into contact with the Danish Folklore Archives that arranged that a great part of their music was recorded on tape.
When Karl Nielsen died in 1983 it was the end of Æ Tinuser.
But the music never died.
In October 2005 Carl Erik Lundgaard was about to arrange a three-day project at
Carl Nielsen Academy of Music Odense about Æ Tinuser. For that occasion a trio consisting of Vagn Dahl Hansen (piano), Anders Ringgaard (trombone) and Carl Erik (accordion) was formed. It was the task for the trio to present a repertoire with Æ Tinuser’s music in a capable way and teach the students how to play the music.
Vagn had been third party in Æ Tinuser after Karl Nielsen, the piano player’s death in 1983, and had written down sheets of music with a comprehensive Tinus-reper­toire. During the years 1975-80 Carl Erik lived in Henne not far from Æ Tinuser’s home in Oksbøl/Vrøgum and had hence got a close relationship both with the music and the brothers. As a student at Carl Nielsen Academy of Music Anders’ teacher was Carl Erik and through him he got an extended knowledge of Tinus-music. Anders even succeeded in tracking down Ejnar Nielsen’s trombone at the police orchestra in Esbjerg and made a swop, so it’s a real Tinus-trombone, you are going to listen to on the CD.
After the project they simply couldn’t close down the trio. So TrioTinus was a fact. As an appreciation of the commitment of the trio the Academy of Music offered to put studio facilities and their magnificent technician and producer, Torben Sminge, at their disposal for a CD-release. We are grateful for this fine cooperation and want to express our thanks to the Academy and especially to Torben Sminge.
TrioTinus has no ambitions of producing the same sound as Æ Tinuser, but the inspiration is certainly there, even though the accordion has taken the place of the violin. One of the features of Æ Tinuser was that they did it their way. We play the music our way.