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Henry Hugh Pierson (12 April 1815 – 28 January 1873) was an English composer resident from 1845 in Germany. He was bornHenry Hugh Pearson and his middle name is sometimes given asHugo.[1] His original name was Henry Hugh Pearson, in Germany he used Heinrich Hugo Pierson.[2] He had success in his adopted country with his operas andsongs but little in his own, and his music is now rarely performed.
Pierson was the son of a clergyman, Rev. Dr. Hugh Nicholas Pearson.[3] He was educated atHarrow School andTrinity College, Cambridge, where he studiedcounterpoint withThomas Attwood Walmisley. From 1839 to 1844 he studied music in Germany under C. H. Rink, Tomaschek and Reissiger.[3] He also studied inPrague withVáclav Tomášek. His amorous adventures included an apparent liaison withMary Shelley, before he married in 1844. Although elected Reid Professor of Music atEdinburgh University in 1844[3] he was made to resign when he did not take up his duties and subsequently based himself in Germany.[1]Hubert Parry took lessons with him in 1867.
Many of Pierson's manuscript full and vocal scores, including those of his oratorios and operas, appear not to have survived. The funeral marchHamlet,Macbeth,Romeo and Juliet andThe Maid of Orleans were his only orchestral compositions to be published in full score (copies of which are held by the Library of Congress amongst other locations), whilstJerusalem andFaust were only published in vocal score, with no orchestral material seeming to be extant. His operas remained unpublished, excepting the libretti. Manuscript material for several works does, however, survive including theRomantische Ouverture (orchestral parts, University Of Pennsylvania Library Ms Coll 217),Salve eternum (full score, Royal College of Music, London, RCM MS 502), the funeral marchHamlet (full score,Landesbibliothek Coburg, Ms Mus 364), the first version of the overture to the operaLeila (full score, Landesbibliothek, Coburg, Ms Mus 369) and the operaLeila (57 orchestral and choral parts, University Library [Carl von Ossietzky Music Department], Hamburg, D-Hs/ ND VII 310).
