Ditlev (or Ditlef) Ludvig Rogert (1742–1813) was a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
songwriter who is credited with composing the music for Denmark's
royal anthem "
Kong Kristian stod ved højen mast". He was also a High Court judge and violinist.
The lyrics to the anthem first appeared in May 1778,
in
Johannes Ewald
Johannes Ewald (18 November 174317 March 1781) was a Danish national dramatist, psalm writer and poet. The lyrics of a song from one of his plays are used for one of the Danish national anthems, ''Kong Christian stod ved højen mast'' which ...
's
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
play, ''The Fishermen''. It has long been debated who composed the music to the song. It was originally accredited to
Johann Hartmann, the same composer who wrote the score for ''The Fishermen''; however his original romantic score for the vaudeville was entirely different from the score commonly used today.
Following the dismissal of the possibility that Hartmann could have composed the score, it was suggested that Rogert had been the original composer, a claim that was backed up by several 19th century intellectuals. In 1880,
Vilhelm Carl Ravn Vilhelm is a masculine given name, the Scandinavian form of William and Wilhelm. Notable people with the name include:
* Vilhelm Ahlmann (1852-1928), Danish-Swedish architect
* Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953), Danish author, literary historian and ...
presented his theory that the score significantly preceded Ewald's poem and had no one particular composer. This is the most commonly supported theory today. The song was adopted as a national anthem in 1780.
References
1742 births
1813 deaths
Danish composers
Male composers
Danish jurists
Danish classical violinists
Male classical violinists
{{Denmark-composer-stub