Van Gilse stood firmly on the foundations of tonal late romanticism and wrote music of dazzling beauty. After completing studies with Humperdinck at the Academic Master School (1905), van Gilse moved from Berlin to Bremen to begin his career as conductor of the local theater. Presumably inspired by Wagner's operas, performed many times at the Theater, in May of 1906, he began composing his 3rd symphony (Erhebung), as a work of large scope with soprano solos in it's 3rd and 5th movements.