Bernhard Henrik Crusell (15 October 1775 – 28 July 1838) was a Finland-Swedish clarinetist, composer and translator, "the most significant and internationally best-known Finnish-born classical composer and indeed, – the outstanding Finnish composer before Sibelius".
Between 1791 and 1799 Crusell studied music theory and composition with Abbé Vogler and another German teacher, Daniel Boritz, when Böritz was resident in Stockholm. In 1803 while in Paris Crusell studied composition at the Conservatoire with Gossec and Berton. He composed pieces, including concertos and chamber works, not only for his own use, but also for other wind players in the court orchestra. In 1811 he travelled to Leipzig where he established a relationship with the music publisher Bureau de Musique, which became part of C. F. Peters in 1814.
From 1818 to 1837 during the summers he conducted military bands in Linköping, providing them with arrangements of marches and overtures by Rossini, Spohr, and Weber and composing pieces for male choir. In 1822 he published three volumes of songs to texts by the Swedish poet Tegnér and others, and in 1826 another volume, Frithiofs saga, with ten songs to texts by Tegnér. An opera, Lilla slavinnan (The Little Slave Girl), was first performed in Stockholm in 1824 and was repeated 34 times in the following 14 years.
Instrumentation: Violin, Viola, Clarinet and Cello.