Hartmann, Johann Peter Emilius, Danish composer and organist. He was a grandson of Johann Ernst Hartmann (1726-93), a German composer and violinist who, settling in Denmark in 1766, wrote Singspiels that laid the foundation for Danish national Romantic opera. J. P. E. Hartmann followed both a government career and that of cathedral organist, conservatory teacher and director and conductor in Copenhagen, becoming a leading figure in Denmark though attracting little attention elsewhere (unlike his son-in-law Niels Gade). His 'Norse' aspect was evident from the 1830s, particularly in the melodramas he wrote to Oehlenschlaeger's texts, from Guldhornene (1832) to Yrsa (1883), and in his operatic masterpiece evoking a medieval atmosphere, Liden Kirsten (1846); through numerous hymns and songs he further satisfied rising national feelings in 19th-century Denmark.
Robert Schumann was also interested in Hartmann's music and often wrote about the composer in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Hartmann composed 86 works with opus numbers and at least as many without.