Aage Stentoft (1 May 1914 – 8 July 1990) 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 ance ...

composer,

film score composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

. He composed over 700 melodies during his lifetime.

Biography

Stentoft was born in

Holbæk Holbæk () is a town in Denmark and the County seat, seat of Holbæk municipality with a population of 29,608 (1 January 2022).law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

, but due to lack of money, he started to compose music for

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

. In 1934, he began working as an

accompanist Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles o ...

and composer for the

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own du ...

troupe ''Co-Optimisterne''. A lot of his tunes quickly achieved widespread popularity, and he earned good money by composing and, later on, by producing revues. During his career, Stentoft also managed various

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

s: Frederiksberg Teater (now ) in

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...

and three theatres in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, , Det Ny Scala and . In 1961, he

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. In 1973, he returned to Denmark as leader of the

Tivoli Gardens Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli, is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Kla ...

theatre, a job he kept until his retirement in 1981, when he returned to Spain. He died at his home near Málaga in 1990.

Popular tunes

* ' (1935) * ' (1936) * ' (1936) * ' (1936) * ' (1937) * ' (1937) * ' (1938) * ' (1939) * ' (1939) * ' (1940) * ' (1942) * ' (1944) * ''Jacobsen'' (1948) * ' (1954) * ' (1977)

Sources

Kraks Blå Bog online
* Male composers Danish film score composers Danish theatre directors 1914 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Danish composers Male film score composers 20th-century Danish male musicians People from Holbæk Municipality Danish expatriates in Spain {{Denmark-composer-stub