The Symphony No. 5 (Op. 50, FS 97) by Danish composer Carl Nielsen is the fifth of the composer's six symphonies. It was completed on 15 January 1922 and first performed in Copenhagen on 24 January 1922 with the composer conducting. The work is dedicated 'To My Friends Vera and Carl Johan Michaelsen'. Carl Nielsen Carl August Nielsen (June 9, 1865, Sortelung – October 3, 1931, Copenhagen) was a conductor, violinist, and the most internationally known composer from Denmark. ... January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ...

The work is renowned for its high originality and its startling weight of substance, which distinguishes it from its precedent classical-romantic symphonies.^[1] It was one of the only two of Nielsen's six symphonies without a subtitle (the other one is Symphony No. 1 in G minor). The Symphony No. ...

The fifth symphony has only two movements instead of the usual four:

1. Tempo giusto - Adagio non troppo
2. Allegro - Presto - Andante un poco tranquillo - Allegro

History

Composition

There is no documentation of what had inspired Nielsen in writing his fifth symphony or when he started to write it, but it is generally understood that the first movement was composed in Humlebæk during the winter and spring of 1921. He reported to Telmányi in two letters dated 17 February and 23 March 1922 that the progress on his fifth symphony was slow, yet he mentioned to his wife Anne Marie Carl Nielsen on 4 March that the first movement has been completed. He told his wife on 31 March that he had made a fair copy of the first movement but had to stop for rest.^[2] Fredensborg-Humlebæk is a municipality (Danish, kommune) on the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in eastern Denmark. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ...

Nielsen stayed at his summer house at Skagen in the early summer that year. He moved to his friend's home at Damgaard later at the end of July to compose the cantata Springtime on Fyn. Only in autumn he used his free time from his conducting work in Gothenburg to work on the second movement of the symphony. ^[2] He wrote to his wife on 3 September, 'Now I am going to go on with my interrupted symphony.'^[3] The sand-engulfed Buried Church (tilsandede kirke) at Skagen. ... Location of Gothenburg in northern Europe Coordinates: Country Sweden County Västra Götaland County Province Västergötland Charter 1621 Government  - Mayor Göran Johansson Area  - City 450 km²  (174 sq mi)  - Water 14. ...

Nielsen finished the whole symphony on 15 January 1922 as dated on the score, only nine days before its première at the music society Musikforening in Copenhagen, conducted by the composer himself.^[4] January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ...

Reception

The symphony was generally well received in the following days press, especially the first movement. Axel Kjerulf wrote that in the Adagio section, he heard a Dream giving way to a 'Dream about Deeds... Carl Nielsen has maybe never written more powerful, beautiful, fundamentally healthy and genuine music than here.'^[4]

Critics were more hesistant towards the second movement. In August Felsing's review, he commented that 'Intellectual art is what the second part is, and it is a master who speaks. But the pact with the eternal in art which shines forth in the first part is broken here.'^[5]

Musicians' opinions were divided. Victor Bendix, a long-time supporter and friend, wrote to Nielsen the day after the première, calling the work a 'Sinfonie filmatique, this dirty trenches-music, this impudent fraud, this clenched fist in the face of a defenceless, novelty-snobbish, titillation-sick public, commonplace people e masse, who lovingly lick the hand staine with their own noses' blood!' ^[4]

Performances

Nielsen repeated the symphony at Gothenburg's Orkesterfo. He conducted the German première in Berlin on 1 December 1922. The press was mixed this time. Oscar Bie in the Berliner Börsen Courier observed that 'The Fifth Symphony, in two movements, with its Nature scenes and string chorale was reminiscent of Mahler's technique, but not so primordially felt: a not quite coherent assembly of desired vision and skilful art.'^[6] Location of Gothenburg in northern Europe Coordinates: Country Sweden County Västra Götaland County Province Västergötland Charter 1621 Government  - Mayor Göran Johansson Area  - City 450 km²  (174 sq mi)  - Water 14. ... Location of Berlin within Germany / EU Coordinates Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DE3 City subdivisions 12 boroughs Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) Governing parties SPD / Left. ...

The Swedish performance on 20 January 1924, under the baton of Georg Schneevoigt, caused quite a scandal as reported in the Berlingske Tidende that some audience could not take the modernism of the work: Berlingske Tidende is a Danish broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Sunday. ...

Midway through the first part with its rattling drums and 'cacophonous' effects a genuine panic broke out. Around a quarter of the audience rushed for the exits with confusion and anger written over their faces, and those who remained tried to hiss down the 'spectacle', while the conudctor Georg Schneevoigt drove the orchestra to extremes of volume. This whole intermezzo underlined the humoristic-burlesque element in the symphony in such a way that Carl Nielsen could certainly never have dreamed of. His representation of modern life with its confusion, brutality and struggle, all the uncontrolled shouts of pain and ignorance - and behind it all the side drum's harsh rhythm as the only disciplining force - as the public fled, made a touch of almost diabolic humour.^[6]

Nevertheless the Swedes approved the symphony, as seen from reviews of the Stockholm concert on 5 December 1928. Nickname: Location of Stockholm in northern Europe Coordinates: Country Sweden Municipality Stockholm Municipality County Stockholm Province Södermanland and Uppland Charter 13th Century Population (April 2007)  - City 782,885  - Density 4,160/km² (10,774. ...

The symphony was performed under the baton of the composer five times, including the Oslo concert in 4 November 1926 and the second Stockhom performance with Concertgebouw on 5 December 1928, together with the above three performances. Nielsen's son-in-law Emil Telmányi took the French première at the Salle Gaveau in Paris on 21 October 1926. The symphony was once again performed in Germany on 1 July 1927, as Wilhelm Furtwängler conuducted at the festival International Society for Contemporary Music World Music Days in Frankfurt, which had an excessively slow tempo at the Adagio as reflected in the audience's lack of enthusiasm; Wilhelm Furtwängler performed in right tempo in the Leipzig concert on 27 October 1927.^[7] The symphony did not reach Britain until 27 years after the symphony was composed, when Erik Tuxen conducted it in a 1948 BBC studio concert. County Oslo NO-03 District Viken Municipality NO-0301 Administrative centre Oslo Mayor (2004) Per Ditlev-Simonsen (H) Official language form BokmÃ¥l Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 224 454 km² 426 km² 0. ... concertgebouw The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ... Emil Telmányi (1890-1988) was a Hungarian violinist who invented the Bach bow, designed to play and sustain three or four notes on a violin for Bachs solo partitas and sonatas for solo violin. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 – November 30, 1954) was a German conductor and composer. ... For other uses, see Frankfurt (disambiguation). ... Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 – November 30, 1954) was a German conductor and composer. ...   [] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the federal state of Saxony in Germany with a population of over 504,000. ... Erik Tuxen (July 4, 1902 - August 28, 1957) was a German-born orchestra conductor, composer and arranger, who worked for most of his life in Denmark. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion (US$7. ...

Score publication

Three editions of the Fifth Symphony have been published

• Borups Musikforlag, 1926, reprinted by Edwin F. Kalmus & Co., Inc. (A5659), with introduction by Clark McAllister, March 1983
• Skandinavisk Musikforlag, 1950, ed. Emil Telmányi and Erik Tuxen
• The Carl Nielsen Edition, 2001, ed. Michael Fjeldsøe

As Nielsen did not obtain satisfactory terms for the publication of his symphony with his usual publishers Wilhelm Hansen Edition, he turned to his dedicatee Carl Johan Michaelsen. An industrialist aware of the symphony's worth, Michaelsen financed the publishing firm Hans Borups Musikforlag as their first major project to produce the original publication of the Fifth Symphony in 1926.^[8] Nielsen received 2000kr for the work, two or three times his expectation.^[9] ISO 4217 Code DKK User(s) Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands 1 Inflation 1. ...

In 1950, Skandinavisk Musikforlag published a new score with a brief commentary, heavily edited by Erik Tuxen. The revision is repeatedly criticized as beyond Nielsen's intention. Emil Telmányi, credited in the preface as joint editor with Tuxen, later censured the latter for going beyond the 'necessary' retouches to the orchestration. Beside the modification on scoring, articulation and dynamics, other notable changes include the elimination of three-sharps key signature for the Allegro in the second movement, and removing a melodic trumpet part at the opening of the second movement present in the fair copy of the score but not in the first pencil draft.^[10]

The Carl Nielsen Edition published in 1997 is based on the edition by Borups Musikforlag under the general editorship of Niels Martin Jensen, edited by Michael Fjeldsøe. The project itself is under the auspices of Wilhelm Hansen Edition.^[11]

Music

Ideas

Nielsen asserted that the symphony is non-programmatic, although he had once expressed his basic thought of the symphony:

I'm rolling a stone up a hill, I'm using the powers in me to bring the stone to the top. The stone lies there so still, powers are wrapped in it, until I give it a kick and the same powers are released and the stone rolls down again.^[12]

The symphony itself is often interpreted as a work contrasting dark and light, in particular since the work was completed after World War I. The composer felt he was not conscious of it, adding that 'not one of us is the same as we were before the war.'^[12] In fact, the motto 'dark, resting forces, alert forces' can be found on the back cover of the pencil draft score. Nielsen might have considered it an encapsulation of the contrast both between and within the two movements of the symphony. ^[13] Nielsen also wrote in a statement about the presence of an 'evil motif' in the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

Then the "evil" motif intervenes - in the woodwind and strings - and the side drum becomes more and more angry and aggressive; but the nature-theme grows on, peaceful and unaffected, in the brass. Finally the evil has to give way, a last attempt and then it flees - and with a strophe thereafter in consoling major mode a solo clarinet ends this large idyll-movement, an expression of vegetative (idle, thoughtless) Nature.^[14]

Orchestration

In the 1950 edition of the score revised by Emil Telmányi and Erik Tuxen, the fifth symphony is scored for 3 flutes (third doubling piccolo and optional flute in G), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (second doubling optional contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, celesta, and strings.^[15] The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... In its simplest form, multiplication is a quick way of adding identical numbers. ... The piccolo is a small flute. ... The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. ... The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left, with capped mouthpiece) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that plays in the tenor range and below. ... This is a contrabassoon. ... The horn (popularly known also as the French horn) is a brass instrument decended from the natural horn that consists of tubing wrapped into a coiled form. ... For Trumpet Winsock, see Winsock. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... The tuba is one of the largest of low-brass instruments and is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide. ... A timpanist in the United States Air Forces in Europe Band. ... For the Japanese rock band, see Cymbals (band). ... An old-fashioned triangle, with wand (beater) Angelika Kauffmann: LAllegra, 1779 The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. ... Köçek with tambourine c. ... The snare drum or side drum is a tubular drum made of wood or metal with skins, or heads, stretched over the top and bottom openings, and with a set of snares (cords) strethced across the bottom head. ... French type, four-octave Celesta The Celesta (IPA ) is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. ... A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ...

Structure

The fifth symphony is the only one by Nielsen to be in two movements rather than the usual four. In an interview with Axel Kjerulf, Nielsen jokingly explained that it was not difficult to write the first three movements of a symphony but in the finale most composers have their ideas run out. ^[12]

First movement

The first movement begins mysteriously with the soft, static pulse of violas between the notes A and C, being infiltrated by the entries of the bassoons and other wind instruments; the beginning of Tempo giusto, in Robert Simpson's words, is "like the wave of a seismograph that reacts to the tremors of earthquake at vast distances, then settles to its neutral uniformity". After the cold and emotionless strings passage, clarinet and flute enter with "savage and destructively egotistical" melodies amid simple percussive beats. The ominous string music is painfully distorted and disintegrated. As the tonality rose in fifth from F to C and is attempting from C to G, the violas and cellos fail to catch the G pitch, falling in descending triplets and return to C. The music fades with violins' repetition on the pitch D, and tambourine. The viola (in French, alto; in German Bratsche) is a string instrument played with a bow. ... The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that plays in the tenor range and below. ... A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... Köçek with tambourine c. ...

From the cold landscape there arises a warm, optimistic theme in G major in Adagio non troppo section. The music is soon disturbed by woodwinds playing the shivering element in Tempo giusto, menaced by the snare drum at a tempo faster than that of the orchestra. It is at its climax comes the famous instruction to snare drummer by the composer to improvise "as if at all costs he wants to stop the progress of the orchestra". Nevertheless, the great theme triumphs eventually affirmed by the snare drum actually joins the orchestral fanfare; the solitary clarinet is remained to mourn, as if to the terrible cost of the victory, or as a comfort postlude to the weakening impact of the snare drum. Musical improvisation is the spontaneous creative process of a making music while it is being performed. ...

Notice that the instruction for the snare drum is not stated in the 1950 edition of the score, but replaced by written rhythmic line and instruction 'cad. ad lib.' after bars.^[15] A cadenza is usually now taken to mean a portion of a concerto in which the orchestra stops playing, leaving the soloist to play alone in free time (without a strict, regular pulse) and can be written or improvised, depending on what the composer specifies. ...

Second movement

The second movement in four section consists of an "exposition", a fast fugue, a slow fugue and a coda. The music bursts in energetically in B major and continues with great conflicts between instruments, until the calm, broad theme is found in the slow fugue. Without interference, it progresses to another triumphant coda in E flat major, ends in the key far remote from the opening. In music, a fugue (IPA: ) is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition, for a fixed number of parts or voices (referred to as voices regardless of whether the work is vocal or instrumental). ... Look up coda in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Recordings

At least 26 compact disc recordings are available by 1997.^[16] Although Nielsen has conducted the Fifth Symphony in five occasions, none of his performances was ever recorded. Four conductors and two orchestras have certain linkages with the composer, including Georg Høeberg, Erik Tuxen, Thomas Jensen, Jascha Horenstein, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.^[17] A Compact Disc or CD is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. ... Georg Høeberg (1872–1950) was a Danish composer and conductor. ... Thomas Jensen (1898 - 1963) was a Danish orchestra conductor. ... Jascha Horenstein (May 6 [O.S. April 24] 1898 in Kiev - April 2, 1973 in London) was a conductor. ... The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Danish: DR Radiosymfoniorkestret, where DR is an abbreviation for Danmarks Radio), is Denmark’s biggest and most renowned symphony orchestra. ... The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Swedish: Göteborgs Symfoniker) is an orchestra based in Gothenburg, Sweden. ...

Some record labels split the movements into more than one track each, as Decca Records does for Herbert Blomstedt's recording with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, while others have just two tracks for the two movements (e.g., Osmo Vänskä's recording with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). It has been suggested that Decca Music Group be merged into this article or section. ... Herbert Blomstedt (born 1927) is an American born, Swedish raised orchestral conductor. ... The San Francisco Symphony is a major orchestra based in San Francisco, California. ... The conductor Osmo Vänskä (* 28. ... The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is the BBCs classical music ensemble in Scotland. ...

A number of recordings have certain notability for their distinguished interpretations on the work and execptional styles. Leonard Bernstein's recording has helped the work to achieve international fame.^[18] Leonard Bernstein (IPA pronunciation: )[1] (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. ...

• Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Georg Høeberg, 1933 (Dancord)
• Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Jensen, 1954 (Decca, Dutton Laboratories)
• Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Erik Tuxen, 1955 live (Dancord)
• New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, 1962 (CBS, Sony)
• San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt, 1987 (Decca)
• Odense Symphony Orchestra, Edward Serov, 1993 (Kontrapunkt)

Decca may refer to: Decca Records, a 1929 British record label, also known as Decca Music Group Decca Radar (later Racal-Decca Marine), a British marine electronics manufacturer, a spin-off from the gramophone and records company Decca tree, a microphone recording system London Decca, a maker of turntable tonearms... The New York Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in New York City. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $68. ...

Notes

References

Books

• Simpson, Robert (1989). Carl Nielsen, Symphonist, 1865-1931. USA: Hyperion. ISBN 0-88355-715-0. 
• Fanning, David (1997). Nielsen: Symphony No. 5. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52144-088-2. 
• Lawson, Jack (1997). Carl Nielsen. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-3507-2. 

Robert (Wilfred Levick) Simpson (March 2, 1921 - December 21, 1997) was an English musicologist and composer best known for his symphonies and string quartets. ...

Scores

• Nielsen, Carl; Telmányi, Emil; & Tuxen, Erik (Eds.) (1950). Symphony no. 5 Op. 50 Miniature Score. Skandinavisk Musikforlag, Copenhagen.
• Nielsen, Carl; & Fjeldsøe, Michael (Ed.) (2001). Symphony No. 5, opus 50. The Carl Nielsen Edition. Preface and sources of this edition of score are available at the website of The Royal Library