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The 20th
Century
Symphony
Programme Notes
for Nielsen’s
Symphony no 5
Neil Thomas (OCA student
number 509009)
The 20th Century Symphony: Programme Notes for Nielsen Symphony No 5 by Neil Thomas (OCA student number 50900)
Carl Nielsen – Symphony No 5 (1922)
Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) completed his most accomplished symphony just nine
days before conducting it’s première, at Musikforening (the Music Society) in Copenhagen on
January 24th 1922.
Carl Nielsen was born on the island of Funen and his musical education was mainly at Copenhagen
Conservatory from 1884 to 1886. He travelled around Europe upon graduation, but would spend
most of his life in Copenhagen. He was married to the sculptress Anne Marie Broderson. Although
best known for his six symphonies, Nielsen also wrote a couple of operas, incidental music for plays
and some notable concertos.
The Fifth Symphony is written in two movements, although there are four distinct parts, as Nielsen
moved away from the traditional formal structure of symphonies of the classical and romantic
periods. Along with a fresh approach to tonality, which Nielsen had been developing since his first
symphony, the fifth lays down the marker for his successors in the symphonic form to follow.
Tonight’s work was written during 1921 and the horrors of the recently ended ‘Great War’, along
with his troubled married life, is reflected in this work. The viola and bassoon at the start set the
dark mood, but the first movement is dominated by the conflict between the side drum the rest of
orchestra, which is only finally resolved at the end of the movement as the drum fades and the flute
prevails. The second movement builds on this conflict before resolving itself and ending with a
traditional symphonic climax, bringing the work to an emphatic finish.
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The 20th Century Symphony: Programme Notes for Nielsen Symphony No 5 by Neil Thomas (OCA student number 50900)
Nielsen didn’t get much recognition outside Denmark during his lifetime until a famous performance
of this symphony at the Edinburgh Festival in 1950 by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, which
along with Robert Simpson’s book, Carl Nielsen: Symphonist, gave the Dane the recognition he
deserved.
Resources:
Cover Picture: Programme from World Première of Nielsen’s Symphony No 5 [online image].
Available from: http://carlnielsen.dk/media/Billedsektion/femtesymf.jpg, accessed on January 29th
2012.
Bibliography:
Fanning, David. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. [online] Available from:
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/19930, accessed on January
22nd 2012.
Kuenning, Geoff (1995). Nielsen: Symphony No 5. [online]. Available from:
http://www.lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/prognotes/nielsen/symphony5.html. Accessed on January 29th
2012
Layton, Robert. The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Music Online (edited by Alison Latham).
[online] Available from: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e4723,
accessed on January 29th 2012
Markow, Robert (2011). Symphony No 5, Op. 50: About the composition. [online]. Available from:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=4861.
Accessed on January 29th 2012
Schwartz, Steve. Classical Net. [online] Available from:
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.Ist/nielsen.php. Accessed on January 22nd 2012
Unaccredited. A Whole Pile of Works. Carl Nielsen Official website [online]. Available from
http://carlnielsen.dk/pages/biography/a-pile-of-works.php, Accessed on January 29th 2012
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