Open AccessCarl Nielsen and the Danish Tradition of Story-Telling
Author(s) -
Colin Roth
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
carl nielsen studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2245-5809
pISSN - 1603-3663
DOI - 10.7146/cns.v4i0.27758
Subject(s) - symphony , adventure , fantasy , narrative , context (archaeology) , art , order (exchange) , power (physics) , literature , musical , danish , art history , humanities , history , philosophy , linguistics , physics , archaeology , finance , quantum mechanics , economics
The author explains Carl Nielsen’s sixth symphony, ‘ semplice ’, as ‘eventyr’, ‘fantasy-adventure’, setting it in the context of works by Golden Age authors like Adam Oehlenschlager, Hans Christian Andersen, August Bournonville and Soren Kierkegaard, and Nielsen’s own friend, the painter Vilhelm Hammershoi. Colin Roth reads Sinfonia semplice as a direct address to Nielsen’s own audience, its ironised, disruptive selfconsciousness blending autobiographical elements with musical ones in order to heighten the symphony’s narrative and expressive power.