C. F. E. Horneman was born in Copenhagen, the son of the composer
Emil Horneman and of Camilla Scheuermann (a cousin of composer
Emma Hartmann). He studied at the
Leipzig Conservatory with
Ignaz Moscheles,
Ernst Friedrich Richter,
Moritz Hauptmann, and
Julius Rietz. After his return to Denmark he composed divertimenti and opera fantasies and began work on the opera
Aladdin, the composition of which occupied him for more than twenty years. The overture, completed in 1864, is Horneman's best known work, along with the four-movement suite drawn from incidental music for the
Holger Drachmann drama
Gurre. Together with composers Gottfred Matthison-Hansen,
Edvard Grieg, and others he founded in 1865 the music institute Euterpe to encourage newer Danish music. This was in reaction to the Music Society (
Musikforeningen), which was controlled by
Niels Wilhelm Gade and was regarded by the younger composers as too conservative. Horneman conducted the organization's concerts. During a trip to Germany in 1867 he wrote his
Ouverture héroïque and led a performance of his
Aladdin Overture at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In 1874, together with
Otto Malling, he founded the Concert Association (
Koncertforeningen) and in 1879 the Horneman music conservatory (
Hornemans Konservatorium) that bore his name until its closing in 1920. ==Partial list of works==