The foundation that carries the name of C.E.F. Weyse was established in 2001 by the Swiss-
Australian professor Hans Kuhn. On the basis of more than 50 years of research and an ardent
practical interest in Danish vocal music beyond measure, Kuhn wanted to promote the knowledge
of music primarily from The Danish Golden Age, the first half of the 19th century.
Professor Hans Kuhn (b. 1927) has been attached to The Australian National University of
Canberra teaching in Germanic and Nordic philology and literature, and the Danish connection
came early in his life. Kuhn learned an accomplished Danish studying in Denmark shortly after The
Second World War, and the following years he acquired a thorough knowledge of Danish literature
and music which carried out a number of scholarly treatises and articles, including the book
Defining a Nation in Song. Danish patriotic songs in songbooks of the period 1832-70 (Copenhagen
1990).
According to the instrument of foundation, The Weyse Foundation supports performances of
Danish music drama, editions of scores, inventories of works, publications of books and CD
recordings – as far as it deals with Danish music dating from the end of the 18th Century to the
end of the 19th century. Notably two projects of a more comprehensive nature have been important
during the short history of the foundation. In 2007 a badly needed edition of Weyse’s songs
was brought to light, worked out by associate professor Sten Høgel at Edition Samfundet. The
total of 141 numbers distributed in two volumes are partly popular songs with an original piano
accompaniment (such as Morning Songs for Children and Seven Evening Songs to poems of B.S.
Ingemann), partly songs from vaudevilles and cantatas with piano arrangement of the orchestral
score. The edition caters for singers, teachers and accompanists and of course all lovers of Weyse’s
music.
The other project favoured by the exclusive support of The Weyse Foundation is the first ever
printed version of Peter Heise’s opera King and Marshal which is managed by The Danish Centre
of Music Publication (The Royal Library) in collaboration with Edition Samfundet. The extremely
important edition will hopefully bring along with it that the Danes’ national ‘grand’ opera finally
finds its way to a broader international audience.
But during the past decennium a host of other and less spectacular projects have been supported,
including scores of C.E.F. Weyse, Friedrich Kuhlau, J.P.E. Hartmann and Peter Heise, CD
recordings of music by these composers together with Niels W. Gade and Peter Erasmus Lange-
Müller, and a number of live performances.
The home of The Weyse Foundation is Copenhagen, and its board consists of five personalities
representing Danish cultural institutions that may be relevant to the purposes of the foundation.