Ditlev (or Ditlef) Ludvig Rogert (1742–1813) was a Danish songwriter who is credited with composing the music for Denmark's

royal anthem The anthem for a person, office or rank is music played on formal or ceremonial occasions in the presence of the person, office-holder, or rank-holder, especially by a military band. The head of state in many countries is honored with a prescrib ...

" 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'' whic ...

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

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 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 Danish male composers 18th-century Danish jurists Danish classical violinists Danish male classical violinists {{Denmark-composer-stub