Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann

Complying with his father's wishes (who wanted to protect him from the uncertainties of a musician's life), he studied the law and worked as a civil servant from 1829 to 1870, whilst pursuing an extensive musical career.

Hartmann also cooperated with other important Danish writers of his time, such as Henrik Hertz on his opera Korsarerne or with Adam Øhlenschlæger, writing incidental music and overtures to several of his plays, as well as music in the form of both songs and also melodramas for some of his poems (e.g. Guldhornene), and cooperating in writing numerous cantatas.

In his early musical life, Spohr and the Danish composer Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse were Hartmann's most important mentors, as well as Heinrich Marschner.

[8][9][10] Many important later Danish artists, such as the composer Niels Viggo Bentzon and the director Lars von Trier descend from Hartmann.

The Nordic elements, which can be discerned in the themes based on folksongs, modulations, and the tendency towards rather dark sounds, emerged strongly after the 1830s.

Hartmann united these Romantic influences with a strong control over both form and theme, acquired through his Classical training.

His early works, such as a Flute Sonata or a Piano Quartet were still written in Beethoven's lifetime and are naturally in the style of the Viennese classicist period.

His work had a strong influence on Scandinavian composers of later generations such as Edvard Grieg, Peter Erasmus Lange-Mueller or Carl Nielsen.