Flemming Weis

Flemming Weis
(b Copenhagen, 15 April 1898; d Hellerup, 30 Sept 1981). Danish composer and organist.

He studied the organ and theory with Gustav Helsted at the Copenhagen Conservatory (1916–20) and then went to Leipzig, where he studied with Straube (organ) and Graener (theory and composition), graduating from the Hochschule für Musik in 1923. After his return to Denmark he was organist at the Annakirke in Copenhagen (1929–68) and also worked as a music critic (for Dagens nyheder, 1953–61, and Politiken from 1964). He also served in a great number of honorary administrative offices, contributing significantly to Danish musical life: for example, he was a board member, assistant chairman and then chairman (1942–56) of Det Unge Tonekunstnerselskab, a member of the Musikråd (until 1971), chairman of the Dansk Komponistforening (1967–71) and chairman for the Samfund til Udgivelse af Dansk Musik.

Although Weis’s first compositions were marked by his stay in Leipzig, he soon freed himself from that derivative late Romantic style, retaining his respect for Bach’s polyphony and combining it with his admiration for Nielsen’s diatonic and linear modernism. This is clear in his vocal music (choral arrangements as well as songs) and chamber works, which, especially those of the 1930s and 1940s, are characterized by interwar Danish neo-classicism (as in the Serenade ‘Uden reelle hensigter’). His two symphonies reveal his ability to compose on a large scale, with a starting-point in Nielsen’s experimental symphonic writings from the 1920s. He also contributed to the development of a serially influenced Danish modernism (as in the Femdelt Form series).