Peter Arnold Heise

A student of Berggreen in Copenhagen and Hauptmann in Leipzig Heise became the conductor of the Studentersangforening (1854) and a teacher at the musical academy in Soro (1857). By 1865 he had returned to Copenhagen where he was able to pursue his compositional interests. Heise was a member of convention though his "Piano Quintet," "String Quartet No.4 in C-mol," and "Cello Sonata in A-mol" demonstrated the Germanic influence of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Arrangements of Danish art-songs by Heise were the apex of that form. Eventually he moved from the stability of Classicism to the avant garde qualities of romantic dramatic and expressive musical elements. "Drot og Marsk" was the zenith of Danish opera during the nineteenth century illustrating the influence of Verdi and Meyerbeer. ~ Keith Johnson