Christian Heinrich Rinck was a German organist and composer who lived during the transitional time between the Classical and Romantic periods. He was also a highly respected educator and composed several instructional works for the organ. He was born in 1770 and his first music instruction was from Abicht, Junghanss and Kirchner. Later, from 1786 to 1789, he studied with Johann Christian Kittel, who was a former student of J. S. Bach. After he completed his musical education, he became the municipal organist of Giessen. In 1805 he moved to Darmstadt to work in the music school, where he served as the organist, cantor, and as a teacher. While in Darmstadt, he met Abbé Vogler, Gottfried Weber, and joined the Hofkapelle of the Grand Duke Ludwig I. He was appointed the position of court organist in 1813, and he also built his reputation as an educator. Consequently, many aspiring organists were drawn to Darmstadt for lessons with Rinck, including Charles Hallé, Joseph Mainzer, and Georg Vierling. Rinck's compositional style combined the melismatic flowing melodies of the Classical era with the more adventurous harmonies of the Romantic. Although he was mainly interested in composing liturgical music, he wrote a large volume of instructional works for organ in addition to masses, motets, and sacred cantatas. Both his Praktische Orgelschule, Op. 55, and Theoretisch-Praktische Anleitung zum Orgelspielen, Op. 124 continue to be popular among organ students. He was also a music critic and contributed to the journal "Cäcilia," which was produced by the Schott publishing company. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen in 1840. Rinck passed away in 1846, and his library was purchased in 1852 by Lowell Mason, in Boston. In 1873, it was given to Yale University, and is kept in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Over 100 years later in 1984, this collection yielded several unknown works by J. S. Bach, Johann Michael Bach, and Johann Christoph Bach. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi