Sextus Miskow

Sextus Miskow (3 February 1857 in Nyborg – 24 November 1928) was a Danish singer, composer and music critic.

After 2 years in the army pupil school from 1871, Miskow changed tracks and continued his studies in violin and piano, and from 1876 to 1879 was taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Here he concentrated on singing lessons with Carl Helsted as a teacher, and he made his debut as a bass singer at the Royal Theatre in 1880. He was never on the staff of the theater and worked since as a singing teacher and as a concert singer. At times he was also a music critic, including by Berlingske Tidende, Denmark's oldest newspaper, in the years 1903–1914, and choral conductor of the Copenhagen Workers' Choir, which he founded in 1915. Moreover, he began to compose.

Most of his music is forgotten today, but one of his first songs was Den spillemand snapped' fiolen fra væg with text by Holger Drachmann, a song that still appears in new Danish songbooks and recorded by today's artists. To be known for one song is a fate he shares with many other composers (e.g. Alfred Tofft, Shaft Agerby and Jacob Saxtorph-Mikkelsen). Allegretto Fantasia for clarinet and piano by Miskow appears in "Concert and Contest", a widely used collection of intermediate level clarinet solos compiled and edited by Heime Voxman. Because of this it is a popular number on the Internet, where it can be heard in several versions.

• Nocturne (string orchestra, 2 horns and 2 bassoons)
• Snow White (Singspiel with Christian Danning)
• Tinderbox (Singspiel)
• Karl Knight Rise (Singspiel)
• The prisoner at Sønderborg (orchestra and soloist)
• Piano Pieces
• a sonata for violin and piano
• some fantasy pieces for piano and clarinet
• 50 songs