One of the most French-oriented composers ever in Denmark, one of the most elegant and tasteful, and unfortunately also a composer who has not written much. Jersild studied with Schierbeck and Roussel. With his Trois pièces en concert he wrote his artistic credo in 1944, in favour of music that was sensual, elegant, French classicist, concertante in style. He has an intimate relationship with the harp, and those of his works that use this instrument (not least the Harp Concerto of 1972) are among his most important. In addition he has composed a number of now-classic pieces for choir, as well as chamber music, songs and music for the theatre, TV, films (e.g. Carl Theodor Dreyer's last film, Gertrud, from 1964) and radio. Jersild was a professor of music theory and ear training at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and he has written music theory and musical textbooks which have become standard works in Denmark.