Carl Nielsen

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), most famous composer of Denmark, whose works were internationally significant. Born at Nørre Lyndelse, near Odense, he studied with the noted Danish composer Niels Gade in Copenhagen at the Royal Conservatory, where he taught from 1915. He also conducted the Royal Opera in Copenhagen and was violinist in the Royal Chapel Orchestra. Nielsen is best known for his six symphonies (written between 1892 and 1925), which reflect his increasing concern for counterpoint (interweaving of melodic lines); chromaticism (using chords foreign to the given key), which melt into nonchromatic harmonies at points of climax; and “progressive tonality“ (also used to a certain extent by Mahler) in which the music begins in one key and moves progressively further away to end in another, rather than ending in the same key as the beginning, which had been regarded during the previous century as an essential means of unifying a symphonic work. The Symphony No. 5 (1922) has an early aleatoric feature: at one point the snare drum is instructed to improvise and drown out the rest of the orchestra. Like Sibelius, Nielsen showed that after World War I it was still possible to write large-scale tonal works without having recourse to Neo-Classicism. His other works include the early cantata Hymnus Amoris (1896), to his own text translated into Latin; two operas, Saul and David (1901) and Maskarade (1906); chamber music; and Danish hymns and school songs. He wrote a memoir, My Childhood (1927; trans. 1953).