Christian Julius Hansen

Christian Julius Hansen (6 May 1814 – 15 March 1875) was a Danish composer, organist, voice teacher and choirmaster. He studied with Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann; his works include songs, choral and orchestral pieces as well as light operas. In several of his song compositions Hansen revealed an uncommon sense of choral movement and considerable melodic vein, sometimes used fresh and cheerfully, sometimes on a quiet, slightly melancholic way. Life Christian Hansen was born in Christianshavn, the son of stonemason Nicholas Hansen (1775–1834) and his second wife Frederikke Christine, née Hess (1775–1850). He was admitted to the Giuseppe Siboni Conservatory when he was 11 years old, but soon had to focus his attention on composition because his beautiful voice began to change. He was encouraged by both J.P.E. Hartmann and Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, to whom he dedicated his first printed work Six Romances written in 1835. In 1840 he took part in the Musikforeningen’s overture competition in Copenhagen, where Gade won first prize with his Echoes of Ossian. Hansen’s Overture in E major received “honorable mention”. It was performed by the Music Society on 6 April 1842 and posthumou