GADE, NIELS VILHELM (1817-1890), Danish composer, was born at Copenhagen, on Feb. 2 2, 1817, his father being a musical instrument maker. Though he studied the violin under Wexschall, and theory under Weyse and Berggreen, he was largely self-taught. In 184o his Aladdin and his overture of Ossian at tracted attention, and in 1841 his Nachklange aus Ossian over ture gained the local musical society's prize, the judges being Spohr and Schneider. A further stipend from the king enabled him to go to Leipzig and Italy. In 1844 Gade conducted the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig during Mendelssohn's absence, and on the Tat ter's death became chief conductor. In 5848, on the outbreak of the Holstein War, he returned to Copenhagen, where he was appointed organist and conductor of the Musik-Verein. In 1852 he married a daughter of the composer J. P. E. Hartmann. He became court conductor in 1861, and was pensioned in 5876— the year in which he visited Birmingham to conduct his Crusaders. This wcrk, and the Frithlingsfantasie, the Erlkonigs Tochter, Fruhlingsbotscjiaft and Psyche (written for Birmingham in 1882) enjoyed great popularity. Of his eight symphonies the best are the first and fourth. A friend of Mendelssohn and of Schubert, Gade was a romanticist, whose music owes much to Scandinavian folk song. He died at Copenhagen on Dec. 21, 1890.