Shorter Nielsen

Although Carl Nielsen's work is not nearly as well known in North America as in Denmark and Britain, there's a decent body of recordings, slowly growing, that offers multiple choices for almost all of his significant works. 


This post has two parts: first, about some of his shorter orchestral works, and then about some of his choral music.


Nielsen received many commissions for music for theatre stage plays, and he wrote a great deal for this purpose.  Typically, music for plays tends to come in short movements (except, perhaps, for overtures) and doesn't require nearly as intense a concentration on structure as symphonic writing.  Theatrical music also encourages writing that is highly colourful, yet still approachable and easily grasped at one hearing.


Nielsen's best-known theatre music is the extensive suite of pieces he composed for a production of Adam Oehlenschlager's play Aladdin.  The published suite consists of seven movements extracted from the much longer complete score.  All seven pieces contain scales and triads that suggest exotic environments, along with percussion parts to reinforce that impression.  Melodies are short, neatly turned, and frequently repeated.  The music stands well alone, too, for concert or home performance.


The recording of Aladdin that I own partners it with a number of shorter tone poems and overtures, not overtly theatrical but nonetheless pictorial.  Helios depicts a magnificent sunrise, high noon, and sunset over the Mediterranean.  An Imaginary Journey to the Faeroe Islands especially fascinated me after I had made the journey to the Faeroes myself (a Danish territory in the Atlantic Ocean between Scotland and Iceland).  It ends with a lively adaptation of a Faeroese folk dance, notable for its odd number of beats in each phrase.


Most fascinating to me is the tone poem Saga-Drøm ("Saga Dream"), inspired by an old mythical tale from the sagas of a wanderer having a nightmarish dream when he lies down to sleep during his journey.  The music is mostly quiet, with a recurring motif of mysterious block chords for horns in modal harmony that is obstinately memorable.  It also includes a revolutionary passage in which four instruments -- oboe, flute, clarinet and bassoon -- quietly play four quite separate and independent solo cadenzas in total freedom, until they slowly coalesce again on a single chord.  That moment of reunification then ushers in the final recurrence of the horn chorale.


Another favourite recording contains three significant cantatas for choir and orchestra from this composer.  The first, Hymnus amoris ("Hymn of Love") is set to a secular text, written in Latin, which praises Love as the divine essence of humanity.  Firmly tonal and diatonic in style, it passes through several connected sections, ending in a grand conclusion where the choir, instead of singing "Amen", sings "Amor".


Next came Søvnen ("The Sleep"), setting a poem about the different phases of sleep.  The central "Nightmare" section teems with startling discords which shocked the original audience.  Less shocking today, the music still effectively portrays the disquieting influence of nightmarish dreams.  These works date from 1897 and 1905 respectively.


The third cantata didn't appear till 1922, after World War One, but has become the most popular in Denmark because it is the most overtly Danish -- as well as being the sunniest and most entertaining of the three, by a wide margin.  Fynsk Foraar ("Springtime in Funen") is a loving and lovable tribute to the rural island communities in which Nielsen was raised.  The themes are broadly folklike in cut and harmonization, and the rhythms always seem to go with a swing in their step.  There's a lengthy section for children's choir depicting -- what else? -- the games of the children.  This is followed by a solemn but warm chorus of reminiscence and contentment for a group of old men.  I find it impossible to listen to this cheery cantata without getting a smile on my face.  The piece then ends with a rousing chorus of joy from all the singers.  It's an excellent piece for gloomy winter days!


The disc closes out with three unaccompanied choral motets, which use a much more rarified and indeed more acerbic harmonic language than the orchestral cantatas.  But the whole disc (on Chandos) is a sheer delight.  There have also been other recordings of the three major works for choir and orchestra.