De Koster, Charles

Peter François (translation: Joris Duytschaever)

Charles De Koster was born in Halle (greater Brussels area) on 5 December 1885.

His father Louis De Koster (1857-1906) served already as organist there, and was a well-known composer. The love of music was imparted on Charles from a very early age. Starting in 1898 he enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he studied solfège with Julien Vienne and Richard Kips, as well as organ in the class of Alphonse Mailly. Mailly, himself an alumnus of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, was phasing out awaiting retirement in 1901. Given Mailly’s advanced age, in all likelihood Charles was mainly taught by Mailly’s assistants. He pursued his education at the Lemmens Institute, then still in Mechelen. With Edgar Tinel, Aloys Desmet and Oscar Depuydt he studied piano, organ, harmony, counterpoint and fugue. On 31 July 1906 he was the only one among the fifty or so students to take the exams for the diploma of ‘troisième degré’. Concurrently Arthur Meulemans, who later was to teach at the institution himself, earned the diploma of ‘premier degré’, a highly exceptional coincidence. The following year Charles was the only candidate for the diploma of ‘deuxième degré’, completing his course of study with distinction.

Charles De Koster will be remembered mainly as founding father and first director of the music school in Halle. The ‘Académie de Musique de Hal’ started on 10 May 1909 and Charles De Koster was tenured for life as teacher of piano and general director. When the course offerings were expanded, he also taught vocal and instrumental ensemble, history, organ, harmony, counterpoint and fugue. In 1921 the academy was upgraded to the status of “conservatory of the kingdom”, at that moment the highest achievement possible for an institution that provided basic education in music and verbal expression. De Koster organized many concerts for the academy, often hiring famous musicians. Even the famous Hungarian violin virtuoso André Gertler performed three times in Halle. Most often De Koster conducted the orchestra himself. From 1913 to 1924 he served in Halle also as conductor of the choir ‘Roland de Lattre’ and from 1919 to 1939 as conductor of the symphonic orchestra ‘Cercle Servais’. In addition he was the tenured organist of the local St Martin’s basilica from 1906 to 1919.

Charles De Koster was also active as a composer. The solid foundations of counterpoint and harmony that he had acquired at the Lemmens Institute came in handy, as well as his advanced composition studies with Paul Gilson. De Koster left behind a relatively impressive output for different strengths: songs for voice and piano (or orchestra), cantatas, works for symphonic wind orchestra or symphonic orchestra, motets for choir and organ, works for organ solo… At least 45 compositions of De Koster were published.

Many other works remained in the manuscript stage. Until recently only a few of those manuscripts were known. In 2008 a foundation without purpose of gain in Halle, “Servais”, managed to acquire a stack of manuscripts by De Koster, totalling 903 pages, among them 794 manuscript of his own. The collection holds the manuscript of five works for orchestra, seventeen works for organ, three vocal works with orchestral or organ accompaniment, thirteen vocal works with piano accompaniment and even a foxtrot. Meantime they have been inventoried and made available to musicians and researchers.

From the music academy in Halle De Koster managed to network with many representatives of Belgian music life such as Emile Wambach, August De Boeck, Paul Gilson, Arthur De Greef, Joseph Jongen and Edouard Jacobs. All of them came to Halle either for a concert or with a view to serving in a jury. On 12 January 1936, for example, De Koster organized a ‘Festival Paul Gilson’, completely devoted to work by Gilson. On 10 January 1937 Arthur De Greef himself conducted the orchestra of the academy and the ‘Cercle Servais’ for a programme consisting exclusively of work by De Greef. For the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the academy in 1935, there was a grand gala concert with works by August De Boeck, Arthur De Greef, Paul Gilson, Joseph Jongen and Charles De Koster. Thus De Koster conspicuously applied himself to the distribution of the oeuvre of contemporary Flemish and Belgian masters.

In addition to his busy schedule in Halle De Koster managed to teach music and music history at the ‘Athénéé Royal’, a secondary school in Brussels (Oak street) from 1912 on. He was also in great demand as a jury member. On top of that he contributed to several music periodicals and from 1925 he was president of the ‘National Federation of the Music Schools in the Kingdom’.