Pierson, Henry Hugh (or Heinrich Hugo) (1815–1873)

English-born German composer. Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, he studied music with Thomas Attwood and Corfe, and interrupted a medical course to continue music studies at Leipzig, where he met Mendelssohn, Schumann, and others. He became Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh in 1844 in succession to Henry Bishop, but soon resigned and returned to Germany, where he remained, married Caroline Leonhardt, and changed the spelling of his name.

Works Opera the operas Der Elfensieg (1845), Leila (1848), and Contarini (composed in 1853, produced in 1872), Fenice (1883); incidental music to Goethe's Faust (Part II).

Oratorio Jerusalem (1852).

Orchestral Macbeth symphony (1859); overtures to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet (1874); funeral march for Hamlet (1859).

Other numerous songs; part songs.