Music in E minor

Music in the key of E minor is often said to have a plaintive, sad, and mystical character.  Charpentier describes this tone as "languid and sad." Mattheson states that it "produces a very thoughtful and sad state." More than that, it suitable for funeral music - although the story that Haydn asked for the slow movement of this symphony No. 44 in E minor to be played at his funeral, is apocryphal. But indeed, the slow movement from the E minor piano trio by Shostakovitch was played at his public funeral service held in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory!

E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F♯, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major.

The key of E minor is one of the easiest minor keys to play on the violin as the E string is the highest open string. Since it is also the lowest open string on the guitar, it is one of the preferred keys in guitar music, as well - therefore, it is a frequently used key in popular music.

In classical music, E minor is not exactly a popular key, especially in the 18th century (when minor keys were anyway rare), but the small number of works written in this key includes a surprising number of famous works. The number increases in the 19th / early 20th centuries. with concertos by Mendelssohn, Chopin and Elgar, and symphonies by Brahms, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky.

Characteristic works in E minor

Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 44 in E minor "Trauer" (1772)

This symphony has the nickname "Trauer" ("Mourning") because Haydn is said to have asked for its serene slow movement in E major to be played at his funeral - that doesn't seem to be a true story, but the movement was actually played at a memorial concert in Berlin in 1809. The work is typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress") period, with a powerfully brooding minor-mode insistence. Highly typical and yet fiercely original are the jagged unison opening, the subdued tension of the violin theme, and the outburst of imitative writing between first and second violins. The symphony has significant traits in common with Mozart's E minor violin sonata (see below). The construction of the work is tight and forceful. Though there is contrasting material in the opening movement, it does not sound like a second subject, so that the movement seems to be monothematic. The second movement is an ascetic minuet written as a canon at the octave; this is offset by a trio in E major in which tranquil violin thirds are eerily joined by a horn at the top of its register. The slow movement, with muted violins, flowing accompaniment and restless triplets, is an example of stasis conveyed by ceaseless activity. The intensity of the symphony boils over in the Finale, and here, too, a unison theme provides the material for the whole of the movement. It is quite contrapuntal, and ends in E minor rather than finishing in a major key as was usual in most other minor key works of the time. (Partly based on the liner notes by Nicholas Kenyon in the Archiv CD of this symphony).

This famous symphony explains why Haydn's minor works of the 'Sturm und Drang' period are of such high importance. The whole work is concise and concentrated - not one note is too many - and it maintains its mood of serious suffering with remarkable continuity. The symphony is also unusual in that the minuet precedes the slow movement. This basic pattern is found only in five other Haydn symphonies, all but one of which were composed early.

John Eliot Gardiner  
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Sonata No. 21 in E minor K. 304/300c (1778)

Composed in 1778 while Mozart was in Paris, during the same period that Mozart's mother, Anna Maria Mozart, died, and his love relationship with Aloysia Weber ended badly, something which is reflected in the sonata's mood. Both the austere character of its opening movement and the haunting nostalgia of its minuet-style finale make it quite different from other works by Mozart. The opening is a powerful unison of piano and violin playing in bare octaves. The harmonization of the theme occurs at the start of the recapitulation and is intensely chromatic. The sotto voce minuet theme of the second movement, with its descending bass line, carries an infinite feeling of melancholy. Even so, the theme is surpassed in expressive intensity by the movement’s major-mode middle section. Also the halting phrases of the coda seem stricken with grief.

Rebecca Raimondi violin, Alessandro Viale piano
Ardorè Duo

Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (1808)

This work is the second of three of Beethoven's "Rasumovsky" cycle of string quartets, a product of his "middle" period. Written in 1806, six years after the composer’s initial Op. 18 set, the Op. 59 String Quartets contain groundbreaking music. Formal boundaries are stretched and the four voices of the string quartet engage in a drama which reaches symphonic heights. Earlier chamber works were written for the entertainment of aristocratic amateur musicians. With this music, the string quartet moved decisively into the concert hall. Commissioned by Count Andreas Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, the Op. 59 trilogy was written for one of the first professional string quartets, led by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. The string quartet is set in a restless, tumultuous E minor. According to Carl Czerny, the second movement of the quartet occurred to Beethoven as he contemplated the starry sky and thought of the music of the spheres; it has a hymnlike quality. The scherzo movement of the quartet, the third movement (allegretto), uses a Russian folk song in a humorous and even sarcastic way. The final rondo is characterized by a dance-like theme that is almost entirely unaffected by sonata form. It has a "floating tonality," vacillating between the introductory C major chord and the E minor tonic, settling on the home key of E minor only after 50 measures.

The Dover Quartet includes:
Joel Link, violin
Bryan Lee, violin
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Camden Shaw, cello

Felix Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)

The most popular of all violin concertos. Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to the violinist Ferdinand David, a close friend and then concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Although conceived in 1838, the work took another six years to complete and was not premiered until 1845. During this time, Mendelssohn maintained a regular correspondence with David, who gave him many suggestions.

Its unusual structural features - the absence of an initial orchestral tutti, and the linking of the movements (the first and second by a single bassoon note, the second and third by a quasi recitative) were copied by Schumann, Bruch and others. Mendelssohn also composed and wrote out the cadenza section, which until then had often been left to the player's discretion. Its appeal lies in its violinistic brilliance, its charm, the melodic sweetness of the tender andante, and the seemingly spontaneous ebullience of the finale.

Julia Fischer, violin; Vasily Petrenko, conductor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

 

Frédéric Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (1830)

The piano concerto in E minor is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner, a celebrated pianist and composer in Chopin's day. The concerto had its premiere on October 11, 1830 in Warsaw, where Chopin himself played the soloist role as a 20-year-old composer and pianist. It was one of the last concerts Chopin gave in Poland before leaving for France.

Apart from the usual orchestral introduction, the concerto has a thinly instrumented orchestration, with the piano solo almost always in the foreground and the orchestra providing supportive accompaniment. In the concerto, one hardly sees the "titanic rivalry" or dialogue, as in the concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven, but rather the listener hears a poetically narrative and virtuoso pianist carried by a meticulously accompanying, serving orchestra. Chopin modeled his concertos after the works of Jan Ladislav Dussek and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, whose style he knew well.

Olga Scheps with the Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, conductor Agnieszka Duczmal.

Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op. 98 (1884)

A mournful, tragic color is heard in the opening movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony. From the start, the first movement feels the tow of strong passacaglia forms. The music is powerfully organic and continuously unfolding. Its sadness is enticing, its ending triumphant. The Andante moderato carries that feeling forward with some of the most heart-warming music Brahms ever wrote, while the dance movement turns to jubilation. One might indeed be forgiven to think this third movement to be a finale. And its finality reveals a special purpose: it allows much of the work of the symphony to be resolved before the last extraordinary movement begins. As a result, Brahms can relax, and glory in his Passacaglia with its conscious devotion to the Bach Chaconne (30 eight bar variations), its archaic power, its defiant optimism. And even this intellectual music is dramatic - if we must live with tragedy, it seems to say, we can at least defy it, overcome it with sheer mastery and an affirmative use of the musical tradition. This is the only one of Brahms' four symphonies to end in a minor key. It has been praised as "one of the greatest orchestral works since Beethoven.”

hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" in E minor Op 95 (1893)

When Antonín Dvořák set foot on American soil in 1892 to accept the appointment as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, he was already a world-renowned composer. With the 9th Symphony, written during his three-year stay in America, Dvořák created probably his most popular symphonic work. Although Dvořák had taken on the task as conductor and teacher of raising a young generation of musicians who would develop a national American musical style, his 9th Symphony is by no means American music, although some influences are  evident in the harmonic and rhythmic idiosyncrasies of the symphony. For example, the English horn melody of the 2nd movement is based on the semitone-less five-note scale of the pentatonic, which was common in Native American music. (More important, however, is the major role Longfellow's poetry about Hiawatha - that is, the chief who founded the Iroquois Confederacy of Indians - plays in the symphony, see below). Rhythmically, the syncopations typical of spirituals also stand out (1st and 3rd main themes of the 1st movement). In addition, however, the Bohemian musician is unmistakably evident with his tonal language rooted in native folk music, as in the cozy Ländler of the Scherzo Trio.

The themes of the corner movements are short and concise and cyclically subordinate to the above-mentioned basic conception: The 1st main theme of the 1st movement appears in all the following movements. In the finale, the main themes of the 2nd and 3rd movements are also worked in a suggestive manner.

1st movement: Adagio - Allegro molto
The first movement begins with a wistful, slow introduction. The Allegro, which gradually develops through a unison of strings and hard timpani beats, is filled with rousing momentum. The main theme rises in the horns and is immediately taken up by the entire orchestra. A second theme first appears in the woodwinds before it is heightened and rhythmically altered. Of the same character, a secondary theme appears in the flute, which seeks to unite the two themes. Both themes are developed in detail. The coda bursts in with elemental force and ends the movement in thunderous E minor.

2nd movement: Largo
The second movement was described by the composer as a dirge inspired by a scene from Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha". In painful melancholy, the English horn sings the main melody with which this movement begins and ends in sublime calm. A new thought emerges and is effectively accompanied by string tremolos. This somewhat faster theme, also chant-like, is finally cleverly joined with the dirge melody. A little later, a serene flute melody reminiscent of birdsong triggers a change in mood that is immediately interrupted by the main theme of the first movement bursting forth. The cor anglais again carries the main theme of the largo, with which the dirge fades away.

3rd movement: Scherzo, molto vivace
The Scherzo begins with a rhythmically striking theme that prepares the Indians' festive dance for Hiawatha's wedding. Again, a scene from Longfellow's epic is musically recreated. Yet the music is in reality is Bohemian and folk-like. The scherzo has a lyrical middle section and is thus more intricately constructed than Dvořák's other scherzos, resembling a formal model also used by Anton Bruckner. Between the scherzo and the trio, the main theme of the first movement echoes quietly and ominously in the low strings. The trio section consists of a graceful waltz melody that is typically Czech in its erratic rhythm. Shortly before the end, the main theme of the first movement reasserts itself with all its might.

4th movement: Allegro con fuoco
The last movement is filled with a dynamic that Dvořák had probably only achieved before in his 7th Symphony. The full orchestra delivers the march-like, energetic main theme, which announces pathetically the "New World." The second theme in the clarinets, on the other hand, expresses Dvořák's longing for his fatherland. No sooner does it fade away than the action comes to a head, and the first theme continues to assert itself. It is subsequently reworked in a variety of ways; in this process, motives from the first three movements appear again and again. An orchestral tutti then blasts out the main theme almost violently, a process that almost brings the musical action to a halt and is continued by the second theme. Once again, the main theme breaks its stride, leading the movement to an all-consuming climax, which, after a final pause, is followed by the triumphant coda. The movement ends with a few chords, the last of which is sustained by the winds, resulting in a slow fade instead of an abrupt ending.

Edward Elgar, Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919)

Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, when his music had already gone out of fashion with the concert-going public. In contrast with Elgar's earlier Violin Concerto, which is lyrical and passionate, the Cello Concerto is for the most part contemplative and elegiac - as suits the key of E minor.

The October 1919 premiere was a debacle because Elgar and the performers had been deprived of adequate rehearsal time. The work did not achieve wide popularity until the 1960s, when a recording by Jacqueline du Pré caught the public imagination and became a classical best-seller.

1st movement Adagio - Moderato 4/4 time → 9/8 time in E minor. Free sonata form.
The concerto opens with a tragic cadenza by the solo cello in E minor with many heavy notes, an unusual beginning for a cello concerto. This cadenza is an important element that dominates the entire movement and serves as a kind of circular theme. The main theme is derived and developed from this cadenza.

Second movement Lento - Allegro molto 4/4 time G major
The second movement opens with a fast crescendo with pizzicato chords in the cello. Then, the solo cello plays what will be the main motive of the Allegro molto section. Since the first and second movements are connected by an attacca, the conclusion of this movement also marks the end of the first movement.

Third movement Adagio in 3/8 time in B flat major
This adagio has a traditional song form, which is unusual for this piece where a pessimistic atmosphere dominates. However, it does not shake off the pathetic atmosphere of the previous movement.

Fourth movement Allegro - Moderato - Allegro, ma non troppo 2/4 time in E minor
This finale integrates the elements of the previous movements, and is a very contrasting movement in two-part form. The first half is structured like a rondo form, with a light theme dominating. In the second half, the speed is slowed down, and the theme of the third movement is repeated in the last part of the movement. The very short coda begins with a reproduction of the opening of the first movement and ends violently with the main theme of the rondo and a final chord in E minor.

Listen to Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Truls Mørk:




       

Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1942-43)

Shostakovich began writing the trio during the December of 1943. Several days before completing the piece's first movement, Shostakovich's good friend Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, died at age 41. Sollertinsky's death affected Shostakovich deeply, and he decided to dedicate the trio to his friend's memory. In the following months Shostakovich suffered from periods of depression and struggled to compose, at one point writing "it seems to me that I will never be able to compose another note again". He only finished writing the work later that year, completing the second movement by 4 August 1944 and the fourth by 13 August. The work received its premiere in Leningrad on 14 November 1944, with the composer at the piano alongside Dmitri Tsyganov and Sergei Shirinsky, members of the Beethoven Quartet.

1. Andante — Moderato
The first movement, in E minor, begins with a haunting passage in the cello, which plays exclusively harmonics. It is joined by the violin and then the piano, all three instruments playing in canon. This slow first section of the movement undergoes development before the music moves into the faster Moderato section, which is in sonata form. The melodic and rhythmic features of this section's first and second themes are in essence based upon motifs introduced in the opening, and are played alongside an rhythmic "eighth-note pulsation", an accompaniment which returns in the piece's fourth movement. The movement comes to a head in the climactic recapitulation, before it recedes in the final bars, closing quietly. Throughout the movement, G major, the relative major key, serves, in a conventional manner, as the key of the second theme of the Moderato; however, the keys of B-flat major and B-flat minor, a tritone from the tonic, also play a particularly notable role in the movement's modulations.

2. Allegro con brio
The second movement, in F-sharp major, is a frenzied, sardonic scherzo which moves relentlessly through dissonant figurations, never resting. The movement's trio section, in G major, is a "giddy waltz". Sollertinsky's sister considered the movement to be "an amazingly exact portrait" of her brother, whom she said Shostakovich "understood like no one else".

3. Largo
The third movement, in B-flat minor, is a lugubrious passacaglia, based around a repeating eight-bar theme of sustained semibreve chords in the piano, tonally unstable in character. Against this background, the violin and cello, playing in canon, trade off dark, slow, and somber melodic lines. The movement ends with an attacca marking, continuing into the next movement without a pause. In 1975, after Shostakovich's death, this movement was played at his public funeral service held in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, as thousands passed his coffin.

4. Allegretto — Adagio
The piece's fourth and final movement begins in E major and transitions to E minor. Staccato repeated notes begin this "Dance of Death" movement, which introduces a Jewish-style melody, and revisits the thematic content of the previous three movements. It ends in a tortured E major chord, almost inaudibly. Ian MacDonald says in his book The New Shostakovich that the movement was inspired by the composer's horror at reports that SS guards in Nazi death camps had forced Jews to dance by their own graves.

Martha Argerich, Edgar Moreau, Renaud Capuçon
  




[Incorporates technical sections of the relevant public domain articles from either the Japanese, Dutch, German or English Wikipedia]

Carl Nielsen Best Music

Nielsen: "Antithesis of Romanticism"

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is the most influential figure in Danish music. His fame - both nationally and internationally - is based on the complex and modern music he wrote for the concert hall; in addition, his songs based on Danish folk traditions are particularly appreciated in the country of his birth, although they are virtually unknown abroad.

Raised on the island of Funen (near Odessa), the young Carl Nielsen spent a few years as an army trumpeter before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he studied violin and composition with Niels Gade and Hartmann, among others. After graduating from the Academy, Nielsen played violin in the Royal Danish Orchestra from 1886 to 1905. He then served as Kapellmeister at the Royal Theater (1908-14) and conductor of the Copenhagen Musical Society (1915-27), and from 1915 he taught at the Royal Conservatory, where he became director in 1931, shortly before his death.

In 1891, Nielsen married the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen in a relationship that was a "meeting of minds." Anne Marie was a gifted artist and a "strong-willed and modern woman, determined to make her own career. After her husband's death, she sculpted the Nielsen Monument in Copenhagen. Their daughter Anne Marie married the Hungarian conductor and violinist Emil Telmányi, who was instrumental in promoting Nielsen's music both as a violinist and as a conductor.

Nielsen's early music is still rooted in the 19th century, but his later style is a powerful fusion of chromatic and often dissonant harmony, solid contrapuntal structure, concentrated motivic treatment, and bold extensions of tonality with frequent polytonal passages. His personal style is the antithesis of Romanticism, perhaps a little dry, but also infused with humor. But there is also a certain hardness and stiffness in his music that makes it difficult for some listeners (not the writer - I am a great fan of Nielsen's music!) to feel close to it - unlike the mysterious and melodious music of that other great Northern European composer, Sibelius.

[Carl Nielsen in 1917]

Symphonies

Outside of Denmark, Nielsen is most closely associated with his six symphonies, powerful works that feature decisively articulated tonal progressions, written between 1892 and 1925. The works have much in common: they are all just over 30 minutes long, brass instruments are a key component of the orchestration, and they all feature unusual changes in tonality that heighten the dramatic tension. Symphony No. 1 (1890-92), while reflecting the influence of Grieg and Brahms, shows Nielsen's individuality from its opening bars. In Symphony No. 2 (1901-02), Nielsen embarks on a description of human personality, inspired by a painting of the four temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine). Symphony No. 3, "Sinfonia Espansiva" (1910-11), exploits Nielsen's technique of juxtaposing two keys, and includes a peaceful section with a wordless chorus. Symphony No. 4, "The Inextinguishable" (1914-16), written during World War I, is one of the most frequently performed of the symphonies. In the final movement, two sets of timpani are placed on opposite sides of the stage and engage in a kind of musical duel. Nielsen described the symphony as "the life force, the unquenchable will to live. Also frequently performed is Symphony No. 5 (1921-22), which presents another battle between the forces of order and chaos. A snare drummer is given the task of interrupting the orchestra, playing "ad libitum" and out of time, as if to destroy the music. In Symphony No. 6 (1924-25), "Sinfonia Semplice," the tonal language seems similar to that of Nielsen's other symphonies, but the symphony develops into a series of cameos, some sad, some grotesque, some humorous.

I have already discussed the Fifth Symphony in my article "Best Symphonies from the Twentieth Century, Part One," so here I'll take a closer look at the Sixth Symphony.

Symphony No 6 "Sinfonia Semplice"

The sixth and final symphony, Sinfonia semplice, was written in 1924-25 and is a strangely oblique and fascinating work. It is emotionally ambiguous and complex - although the music itself is not at all difficult. The textures are very spare. The first movement is as anti-heroic as they come, oscillating between outrageous humor and at times almost menacing drama. The "modern music" of the second movement mocks and derides the avant-garde, turning it into a circus act that amuses and disturbs. The Bartokian nature of the intense string fugue gives the third movement (called "Serious Proposition") a powerful but enigmatic atmosphere. The "Theme and Variations" of the final movement all too easily dissolves into chamber music or passages of extreme elegiac expressiveness, the elements of which refuse to coalesce into any kind of wholeness. As Nielsen said, the bizarre variation with tuba and percussion represents "death knocking at the door," but the following fanfares seem a death-defying gesture. The symphony ends with two bassoons playing powerfully at their lowest pitch, as if giving the finger to death.

 

Listen to the hr-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Paavo Järvi:

Concertos

Nielsen wrote three concertos: the Violin Concerto, Op. 33, is a mid-period work from 1911, in the tradition of European classicism, while the Flute Concerto of 1926 and the Clarinet Concerto that followed in 1928 are late works influenced by the modernism of the 1920s. In contrast to Nielsen's later works, the Violin Concerto has a distinctly melody-oriented neoclassical structure. The two-movement Flute Concerto was written for flutist Holger Gilbert-Jespersen, a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, which premiered Nielsen's Wind Quintet. In contrast to the more traditional style of the Violin Concerto, it reflects the modernist trends of the time. The first movement, for example, alternates between D minor, E-flat minor, and F major before the flute enters with a cantabile theme in E major. The Clarinet Concerto was also written for a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, Aage Oxenvad. Nielsen stretches the capabilities of the instrument and the player to the limit; the concerto has only one continuous movement and contains a struggle between the soloist and the orchestra and between the two main competing keys.

Clarinet Concerto

Carl Nielsen's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra op. 57 was composed between April and August 1928 and expresses the essence and expressive potential of the clarinet with a small orchestra and snare drum playing with and against each other.
and against each other. In addition to the instrument itself, Carl Nielsen was inspired by the person for whom the work was intended: the unique and spirited clarinetist Aage Oxenvad, a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet and a participant in the very first performance of Nielsen's Wind Quintet (see below).

Eschewing the large classical concerto form, Nielsen has cast the Clarinet Concerto in one continuous movement. It begins with a firm Allegretto un poco, relieved by a somewhat more songful second theme. There are many stormy exchanges between the soloist and the orchestra, and between the two main competing keys, F major and E major. Each time hostilities seem to be at an end, a snare drum incites the combatants to renewed conflict. A poco adagio follows, interrupted several times by faster, more disturbed sections. The final section is an energetic Allegro vivace, but a return to the Adagio brings the work to a conclusion of calm austerity, with the key of F major ultimately triumphant.

Listen to Sebastian Manz with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart directed by Herbert Blomstedt:

Orchestral Music

Nielsen's first work composed specifically for orchestra was the immediately successful Suite for Strings (1888), which evoked Scandinavian Romanticism as expressed by Grieg and Svendsen. The work marked an important milestone in Nielsen's career, as not only was it his first real success, but it was also the first of his works that he conducted himself when it was performed in Odense a month later.

The Helios Overture (1903) dates from Nielsen's stay in Athens, which inspired him to compose a work depicting the rising and setting of the sun over the Aegean Sea. The score is a showpiece for orchestra and is one of Nielsen's most popular works. Saga-Drøm (Saga Dream, 1907-08) is a tone poem for orchestra based on the Icelandic saga Njal's Saga. At the Beer of a Young Artist (Ved en ung Kunstners Baare) for string orchestra was written for the funeral of the Danish painter Oluf Hartmann in January 1910 and was also played at Nielsen's own funeral. Pan and Syrinx (Pan og Syrinx), a powerful nine-minute symphonic poem inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, was premiered in 1911. The rhapsodic overture, "An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands" (En Fantasirejse til Færøerne), draws on Faroese folk tunes but also includes freely composed sections.

Nielsen's orchestral works for the stage include Aladdin (1919) and Moderen (The Mother, 1920). Aladdin was written to accompany a production of Adam Oehlenschläger's fairy tale at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Moderen, written to celebrate the reunification of South Jutland with Denmark, was first performed in 1921; it is a setting of patriotic verses written for the occasion.

Aladdin, Suite for Orchestra, Op 34

Aladdin is a "dramatic fairy tale" in verse, in a prologue and five acts, based on The Arabian Nights, written in 1805 by Adam Oehlenschläger (along with Ludvig Holberg, the foremost Danish dramatist - their statues still flank the entrance to the Royal Theatre). It is the most extensive of Nielsen's scores for the theater, and with some 80-85 minutes of music, it is his largest work overall, apart from his two operas. It is also one of his most inventive scores, and the musical language he developed for the exotic dances and depictions of good and evil greatly enriched his style and exerted a strong influence, for example, on his Fifth Symphony of 1921-1922. Nielsen frequently conducted orchestral excerpts from Aladdin, both in Denmark and abroad, always to great popular acclaim. His supporters believed that his music for Aladdin could eventually do for his reputation what Peer Gynt had done for Grieg. The three solo songs from Aladdin were published in 1919, followed in 1926 by a suite of four orchestral pieces arranged for small orchestra. In 1940, to coincide with a new production of the drama using Nielsen's music, a definitive suite of seven pieces was published, which has since been widely performed and recorded.

Listen to the  hr-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Constantinos Carydis:

 

Chamber Music 

String Quartets

Nielsen wrote four string quartets. The First String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 (1889, revised 1900) contains a "Résumé" section in the finale, bringing together themes from the first, third and fourth movements. The Second String Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 5 appeared in 1890 and the Third String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 14 in 1898.  The Fourth String Quartet in F major (1904) initially received a mixed reception, with critics unsure of its restrained style. Nielsen revised it several times, the final version in 1919 being listed as his Op. 44.

String Quartet in F major Op 44 (1919)

Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 4 in F major was composed between February and July 1906, after one of Nielsen's major dramatic works, the comic opera Maskarade. The last of Nielsen's four string quartets, its first public performance took place in Copenhagen on November 30, 1907. The quartet was originally titled "Piacevolezza" after the first movement, which was marked Allegro piacevolo ed indolente (Pleasant and Lazy). In the revised 1919 edition, the movement was renamed Allegro non tanto e comodo and the title was dropped.

The opening movement, Allegro non tanto e comodo, is a perfect example of the studied nonchalance of a composer who was an expert at creating music of a certain character whenever he chose. Note the polyphonic dexterity with which the composer expresses himself, and the cheerful bird chirping that gives the piece its own tone. The second movement, Adagio con sentimentio religioso, shows Nielsen's interest in music for Denmark's national songs. It is evocative cathedral music. The third movement, Allegretto moderato ed innocento, is a graceful scherzo full of surprises. Beginning quietly, the theme is interrupted by a forte glissando that leads into a charming rondo. The Trio begins with a pleasant melody in the cello, followed by a brief dramatic crescendo, before ending with the main theme. The finale, introduced by a brief Molto adagio, moves into an Allegro non tanto, ma molto scherzoso, which forms the main section. The lyrical, lighthearted second theme is perhaps the most telling part of the work, ending in full harmony.

It is a pity, however, that Nielsen wrote only string quartets (and a string quintet) in the early years of his career - I would have liked to see how his style would have developed in his later mature phase.

For another discussion of this string quartet, see my blog article Best String Quartets Part 3.

Listen to the Akela String Quartet:

My blog article Best String Quintets contains a discussion of Nielsen's 1888 string quintet, a very harmonious work.

Violin Sonatas

The violin was Nielsen's own instrument, and he composed two major chamber works for it. The departures from standard procedures in the First Sonata, Op. 9 (1895), including its often sudden modulations and terse thematic material, unsettled Danish critics at its first performance. The Second Sonata, Op. 35 of 1912 was written for the violinist Peder Møller, who had premiered the composer's Violin Concerto earlier that year. The work is an example of the composer's progressive tonality, for although it is in G minor, the first and last movements end in different keys.

Violin Sonata No 2 Op 35 in G minor

Nielsen's Second Violin Sonata was composed in 1912. It is a darker affair than the First Violin Sonata and contains more dissonance than its predecessor. There are echoes of the Third Symphony, but there is none of the composer's self-confidence in that symphony, and it does not reveal its secrets as easily.

It is in three movements. The opening movement, Allegro con tiepidezza, begins gently, with a pastoral calm. However, it is quickly followed by a powerful risoluto section. This is followed by a quieter and more lyrical section, and this remains the pattern throughout this substantial movement. There is a note of tragedy in the second movement of the sonata before it becomes more lyrical, even wistful. There are also loud chords in the piano, with the violin "screaming" above them, indicating that all is not well, before the movement ends quietly and peacefully in major. The movement has a powerful, schizophrenic character. The flowing main theme of the finale, another Allegro piacevole, breaks the mood and provides the necessary contrast before becoming agitated with fast, repeated notes in the piano with the singing violin above. The G minor Sonata is probably Nielsen's most frequently performed violin work abroad, thanks in part to Telmányi's dedication to the piece, which he called "a work without equal in the sonata literature. Both he and Nielsen themselves considered the second movement to be particularly unique.

Listen to Christine Pryn and Manuel Esperilla play Carl Nielsen's 2nd sonata:

Music for Winds

The Wind Quintet, one of Nielsen's most popular pieces, was composed in 1922 for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. It was deliberately composed for the five members of that Quintet, each part cleverly made to suit the individuality of each player.

Wind Quintet Op 43

The Wind Quintet is one of the composer's last works in which he attempted to express the characters of the various instruments. At one moment they are all speaking at once, at another they are all alone. The work consists of three movements: a) Allegro, b) Minuet, and c) Prelude - Theme with Variations. The theme for these variations is the melody of one of Carl Nielsen's hymns, which is used here as the basis for a series of variations, at times merry and whimsical, at times elegiac and serious, ending with the theme in all its simplicity and very quietly expressed. Overall, the piece combines aspects of neoclassicism and modernism.

Listen to Denmark's best known woodwind quintet CARION:

Music for Piano

Over a period of 40 years, Nielsen composed only occasionally for the piano (he does not seem to have been a great pianist himself - he was more of a violinist and started out as a trumpeter). The 8 major piano works he wrote can be divided into shorter character works (the Five Piano Pieces Op. 3, the Bagatelles Op. 11, and the delightful teaching pieces that make up Piano Music for Young and Old Op. 53), and the more important (anti-Romantic) works in which Nielsen's individual style comes through (the Symphonic Suite Op. 8, the Chaconne Op. 12, and the large-scale Theme and Variations Op. 40 (arguably Nielsen's greatest piano work, the Suite Op. 45, and finally the Three Pieces Op. 59).

Theme and Variations

In Theme and Variations, Op. 40, critics have recognized the influences of Brahms and also of Max Reger, of whom Nielsen had previously written to a friend: "I think that the public will not be able to grasp Reger's work at all, and yet I am much more sympathetic to his efforts than to those of Richard Strauss.

Here is Theme and Variations played by the Ukrainian pianist Mariya Orlenko:

 

Music for Organ

Commotio

Nielsen's organ works were late compositions. Nielsen's last major work – Commotio, Op. 58, a 22-minute piece for organ – was composed between June 1930 and February 1931, only a few months before his death.

Here it is played by Nils Henrik Asheim (with dance by Lene Aareskjold) on the Stavanger Konserthus Orgel:

 

 

Operas

Nielsen's two operas are very different in style. The four-act Saul and David, written in 1902 to a libretto by Einar Christiansen, tells the biblical story of Saul's jealousy of the young David, while Maskarade is a comic opera in three acts, written in 1906 to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg. Saul and David received a negative press when it premiered in November 1902, and did no better when it was revived in 1904. In contrast, Masquerade was a resounding success in November 1906, with an extraordinary run of 25 performances in its first four months. Generally regarded as Denmark's national opera, it has enjoyed enduring success and popularity in its home country, thanks to its many strophic songs, its dances and its underlying "old Copenhagen" atmosphere.

Maskarade Overture played by Danish National Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi:

*****

The Carl Nielsen Society maintains a list of performances of Nielsen's works by region (Denmark, Scandinavia, Europe outside Scandinavia, and outside Europe), which shows that his music is regularly performed throughout the world. The concertos and symphonies appear frequently in these lists.

The Carl Nielsen International Competition began in the 1970s under the auspices of the Odense Symphony Orchestra. A violin competition has been held there every four years since 1980.

In his native country, the Carl Nielsen Museum, in Odense, is dedicated to Nielsen and his wife, Anne Marie.

[Contains edited text from the relevant articles about Nielsen in the English and Dutch Wikipedia]

 

Symphony in White, No. 2, by Whistler

This painting shows a young woman in a three-quarter figure, dressed in white and with loosened hair, standing by a fireplace with a large mirror above it. She gazes dreamily into the mirror, which shows not only the reflection of her somewhat sad face, but also a painting hanging on the opposite wall, a seascape. A wedding ring is prominently displayed on her left hand, which is resting on the mantelpiece. In her right hand she holds a Japanese fan - with its ukiyoe-like design, it appears to have been made in Japan for the export market. Also on the mantelpiece are a red pot and a blue-and-white porcelain vase, and in the lower right corner is a sprig of pink azalea, probably in a vase. All of this adds a certain Japanese atmosphere to the painting. 

[Whistler - Symphony in White No. 2]

What are we seeing?

There is no story behind this painting - Whistler's goal was for viewers to appreciate the design, color and mood of this painting. This is also why he changed the original title "The Little White Girl" to "Symphony in White", a title under which he created three paintings. In all three paintings, the model is the artist Joanna Hiffernan, Whistler's muse and lover. Whistler was deeply interested in Japanese design and culture (so-called "Japonisme"), and this influenced the composition and the choice of objects, such as the fan and the porcelain vase.

Whistler created Symphony in White No. 2 in 1864 and decided to submit it to the 1865 annual exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. However, the jury rejected the canvas, which was in fact judged very negatively by art critics, who did not hesitate to stigmatize the work as a "bizarreness tinged with a dirty gray". Whistler continued to consider the painting worthy of his talent and exhibited it at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, where it won the Grand Prix for painting. In other words, Whistler had been more than 35 years ahead of his time! After this resounding success, the canvas was purchased by the British wallpaper manufacturer John Gerald Potter, a friend and patron of Whistler's. It is now in the Tate Gallery in London.

The Symphony in White is inextricably linked to Algernon Swinburne's poem "Before the Mirror." Whistler and Swinburne met in 1862 and immediately struck up a warm friendship. Enchanted by the painting, Swinburne wrote this poem on the spot in Whistler's studio. Whistler copied it on sheets of gold paper and pasted them on the frame. For Whistler, this was proof of the superiority of painting over all the arts, including literature: it was Whistler's painting that inspired Swinburne's poem, not the other way around. Swinburne himself said: "Whatever merit my song may have, it is not so complete in beauty, in tenderness and meaning, in exquisite execution and delicate power, as Whistler's picture...". One could also say that, for Whistler, Swinburne's poem praised a sensibility based on the autonomy of artistic creation, uncontaminated by moral and utilitarian justifications.

Whistler

American-born James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) was active as a painter in oils and watercolor, and as a printmaker. He left the United Sates in 1855, and was for the rest of his life based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake".

He first became famous for a painting of his mother, almost entirely in black and white, entitled "Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 1" but commonly referred to simply as "Whistler's Mother."

His highly atmospheric "Nocturnes" series shows Japanese influence. His sparing use of color makes the work almost abstract. The color-analytical method of the Impressionists did not suit him. His attention to the aesthetic effect of color is rather based on 17th-century Dutch tradition, which he greatly appreciated.

In 1878, Whistler sued the famous art critic Ruskin for libel after he called his "Nocturne in Black and Gold" "a pot of paint" and himself "a conceited brush". After this he left for Venice for a few years, where he mainly made etchings. He also loved Amsterdam. He said to his Dutch colleagues: "You Dutch painters do not know what you are neglecting by not making anything of your wonderful Amsterdam, which I find more beautiful than Venice." He associated with Willem Witsen and George Breitner, on whom he had great influence.

Whistler was on close terms with several French artists, including Édouard Manet. He was also a prominent figure in the aesthetic movement, together with his friend Oscar Wilde. But he also made many enemies in his life. He cultivated these enmities, among other things, by conducting many lawsuits. He wrote a book about it in 1890: The gentle art of making enemies.

Joanna Hiffernan

Joanna Hiffernan (c. 1843 - after 1903) was Whistler's Irish model and mistress. Whistler first met the seventeen-year-old Hiffernan in 1860 in a studio on Rathbone Place. Around 1861 he began a six-year relationship with her. She was witty and beautiful, with red hair and a fiery temper. Apparently, she gave Whistler the constant companionship he couldn't live without. During this period she modeled for some of his most famous paintings, such as Symphony in White, Nos 1, 2 and 3.

Whistler's family disapproved of this relationship. Unmarried artists' models, and especially those who posed nude, were considered little better than prostitutes at the time. When Whistler's mother visited from America in 1864, Whistler had to seek alternative accommodation for Hiffernan.

In 1866, when their relation was cooling down, Hiffernan traveled to Paris and posed for Courbet's "Le Sommeil" (The Sleep), which depicts two naked women sleeping in bed. It is likely that she had an affair with Courbet during this period. After 1880 almost nothing is known about her, although she helped raise Whistler's son, Charles, the result of an affair of Whistler with a housemaid.

Other "Symphonies in White"

Here are the two other Symphony in White paintings for which Joanna Hiffernan modeled:

Whistler created the painting "Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl" in the winter of 1861–62. It was rejected both at the Royal Academy and at the Salon in Paris, but eventually accepted at the Salon des Refusés in 1863. That exhibition also featured Édouard Manet's famous Déjeuner sur l'herbe, and together the two works gained a lot of attention. 

The White Girl seems to have made 19th-century viewers uncomfortable. The woman pictured wears an informal cambric house-dress - in other words, she has been caught at a private moment. Her long red hair hangs loose, contrasting vividly with the white dress and the white curtain at her back. All of this was against the conventions of portraiture. She stands on a bearskin rug (with an aggressive maw directed at the viewer) and flowers have apparently dropped from her hand to the floor. Her expression is vacant, but at the same time exudes a worldliness and lack of innocence that in the 19th century were deemed as shocking.

"Symphony in White, No. 3" was started in 1865, but Whistler was not ready to exhibit it publicly until 1867, when it went on display at the Royal Academy. This painting shows two women, one (Hiffernan) sitting on a white sofa dressed in white, and the other resting on the floor, with a yellowish dress. The presence of a fan on the floor again shows the influence of Japonisme. Joanna Hiffernan poses as a "collapsing woman," shown in the presence of a woman friend - a popular theme in those years. Her attitude is a mixture "of the cult of invalidism, stylish boredom, and a new, slightly troubling undercurrent of erotic languor" (Bram Dijkstra in Idols of Perversity, p. 70). The work was greatly admired by Whistler's colleagues, including Henri Fantin-Latour, James Tissot and Edgar Degas.

Swinburne's poem

BEFORE THE MIRROR.

(verses written under a picture.)
inscribed to J.A. Whistler.

I.
White rose in red rose-garden
⁠Is not so white;
Snowdrops that plead for pardon
⁠And pine for fright
Because the hard East blows
Over their maiden rows
⁠Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright.

Behind the veil, forbidden,
⁠Shut up from sight,
Love, is there sorrow hidden,
⁠Is there delight?
Is joy thy dower or grief,
White rose of weary leaf,
⁠Late rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light?

Soft snows that hard winds harden
⁠Till each flake bite
Fill all the flowerless garden
⁠Whose flowers took flight
Long since when summer ceased,
And men rose up from feast,
⁠And warm west wind grew east, and warm day night.

II.
"Come snow, come wind or thunder
⁠High up in air,
I watch my face, and wonder
⁠At my bright hair;
Nought else exalts or grieves
The rose at heart, that heaves
⁠With love of her own leaves and lips that pair.

"She knows not loves that kissed her
⁠She knows not where.
Art thou the ghost, my sister,
⁠White sister there,
Am I the ghost, who knows?
My hand, a fallen rose,
⁠Lies snow-white on white snows, and takes no care.

"I cannot see what pleasures
⁠Or what pains were;
What pale new loves and treasures
⁠New years will bear;
What beam will fall, what shower,
What grief or joy for dower;
⁠But one thing knows the flower; the flower is fair."

III.
Glad, but not flushed with gladness,
⁠Since joys go by;
Sad, but not bent with sadness,
⁠Since sorrows die;
Deep in the gleaming glass
She sees all past things pass,
⁠And all sweet life that was lie down and lie.

There glowing ghosts of flowers
⁠Draw down, draw nigh;
And wings of swift spent hours
⁠Take flight and fly;
She sees by formless gleams,
She hears across cold streams,
⁠Dead mouths of many dreams that sing and sigh.

Face fallen and white throat lifted,
⁠With sleepless eye
She sees old loves that drifted,
⁠She knew not why,
Old loves and faded fears
Float down a stream that hears
⁠The flowing of all men’s tears beneath the sky.

 

Paintings and their stories:

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli 

The Nightmare by Fuseli

Suzanna and the Elders by Gentileschi

Jupiter and Io by Coreggio

The Pretty Horsebreaker by Landseer

Girl in a white kimono by Breitner

Lady Godiva by Collier

The Roses of Heliogabalus by Alma-Tadema

Saint George and the Dragon by Uccello

Proserpine by Rosetti 

The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse

Judith and Holofernes by Klimt

Nana by Manet

Symphony in White, No. 2, by Whistler