DENMARK

The three giants in Nordic music are undoubtedly Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen. However for Nielsen recognition as "one of the classics" has only come in recent years. With the help of such champions as directors Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karayan and countless admirers, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is now more frequently included in the repertoire of concert halls all over the world. The still underrated composer is doing well on CDs and all his important works are available, often in multiple recordings.

Carl Nielsen was born in the same year as Jean Sibelius as number 7 of the 12 children Niels Jørgensen and Maren Kristine brought into the world. Carl’s father was an unskilled labourer known as "Niels the Painter" who loved to play the fiddle at various gatherings. At this time a child’s surname was still taken from the father’s Christian name, so Carl was christened Carl August Nielsen. He describes his birth in his book "My Childhood in Funen".

"On the ninth of June 1865 my mother had a hard, but also a happy day, I hope. My parents lived in the middle of a field in the parish of Nørre Lyndelse in Funen. The neighbourhood is called Sortelung. My mother was alone in the house when she was going to give birth to me. It was a very difficult delivery, and she went outside, clasped her arms round a tree, and knocked her head against the trunk. So I think she must have felt glad and relieved when at last I was born."

The book describes a childhood that was outwardly poor but inwardly very rich. Carl’s close identification with his native soil radiates from every page of this charming book. He was sent out early to earn his living, first as a herd boy and then as a grocery store apprentice.

It was Carl’s father who discovered his musical talent. At age 14, Carl was entered in a competition for the vacant post of trumpeter in the 16th Batallion in Odense. Carl beat a 16 and an 18-year old and got a chance to devote his life to music. He bought an old piano and started getting acquainted with Bach and Mozart. He had formed a string quartet with friends from the regimental band, when he, at age 28, was accepted as a student in the Copenhagen Academy of Music. In the capital Carl Nielsen rose to fame first as violinist and later conductor of the Royal Theater Orchestra, while he pursued his composing ambitions on the side.

Carl Nielsen’s book about his childhood was filmatized recently and called "Carl - My Childhood Symphony". It has a beautiful score from the composer’s music.

Today Carl Nielsen for most people is synonymous with Danish music. This, however, is not entirely true, as Nielsen "took comfortable old Danish music by the scruff of its neck and shook hard: his was a big fist breaking windows to let in fresh air. The startling total freedom and evolutionary development of Nielsen’s style still baffles some listeners even in Denmark ..." writes John H. Yoell in "The Nordic Sound".

Carl Nielsen spelled out his musical philosophy in the book "Living Music" but to really understand it you have to turn to his works. If you are lucky you may get a chance to see a performance of Masquerade or the Saul and David operas. The songs, choir works, organ, keyboard music and chamber music is all available on CD and the Wind Quintet that Nielsen wrote at the peak of his powers often comes up on the international repertoire. Of the six symphonies, the No 2 The Four Temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine) brings out most of Nielsen’s strengths: pithy themes, rhythmic snap, irrepressible energy and dramatic coherence.

"I got the inspiration at a village inn many years ago. On the wall there was a very funny picture in colour, divided into four parts, bearing the titles: ‘The Choleric Humour’, ‘The Phlegmatic Humour’, ‘The Melancholic Humour’, and ‘The Sanguine Humour’. The choleric man was on horse-back; he had a long sword in his hand, with which he beat the air frantically, his eyes were about to roll out of their sockets, his hair was streaming wildly round his face, which was contorted with a fiendish hate. The other three pictures were in the same style, and their naivete, exaggerated expressions and comical gravity amused us. My thoughts returned to these pictures again and again, and one fine day it struck me that they contained a sort of central or basic idea, or indeed a foundation for musical composition. Some time after I began working out the first movement of the Symphony, but of course I had to take care that it was not just beating the air, and that it should be hit by the irony of fate. I tried to raise the idea behind the pictures to another level".

Towards the end of Nielsen’s career he displayed bitterness and he felt discouraged over the failure of his music to win the wider audience it has now got.

Suggested listening: C. Nielsen - Fynsk Forär & Aladdin Suite, DKPCD 9054. N.W. Gade - Symphonies Nos 5 & 6, BIS 356. H.C. Lumbye - Polkas & Galops. Unicom DKPCD 9089

For more information: Danish Music Information Centre, 16 Graabroedre Torv, DK-1154 Copenhagen K. Phone: 45 3311 2060, Fax: +45 3332 2016