43 Facts About Carl Nielsen

Carl Nielsen initially played in a military band before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen from 1884 until December 1886.

Carl Nielsen is especially noted for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet.

Carl Nielsen died from a heart attack six years later, and is buried in Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen.

Carl Nielsen maintained the reputation of a musical outsider during his lifetime, both in his own country and internationally.

In Denmark, Carl Nielsen's reputation was sealed in 2006 when four of his works were listed by the Danish Ministry of Culture amongst the greatest pieces of Danish classical music.

Carl Nielsen described his childhood in his autobiography.

Carl Nielsen's mother, whom he recalls singing folk songs during his childhood, came from a well-to-do family of sea captains, while one of his half-uncles, Hans Andersen, was a talented musician.

Carl Nielsen studied violin and piano as a child, and wrote his earliest compositions at the age of eight or nine: a lullaby, now lost, and a polka that he mentions in his autobiography.

The shopkeeper went bankrupt by midsummer and Carl Nielsen had to return home.

Carl Nielsen did not give up the violin during his time with the battalion, continuing to play it when he went home to perform at dances with his father.

Carl Nielsen studied composition under Gade, whom he liked as a friend but not for his music.

Carl Nielsen left the Academy at the end of 1886, after graduating with good but not outstanding marks in all subjects.

On 17 September 1887, Carl Nielsen played the violin in the Tivoli Concert Hall when his Andante tranquillo e Scherzo for strings was premiered.

Shortly after arriving in Paris in early March 1891 Carl Nielsen met the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen, who was travelling on a scholarship.

Carl Nielsen sublimated his anger and frustration over his marriage in a number of musical works, most notably between 1897 and 1904, a period which he sometimes called his "psychological" period.

Carl Nielsen had already fathered a son, Carl August Nielsen, in January 1888, before he met Anne Marie.

At first, Carl Nielsen's works did not gain sufficient recognition for him to be able to support himself.

Carl Nielsen was increasingly in demand to write incidental music for the theatre as well as cantatas for special occasions, both of which provided a welcome source of additional income.

The period was one of creative crisis for Carl Nielsen which, coinciding with World War I, would strongly influence his Fourth and Fifth symphonies, arguably his greatest works according to Fanning.

Carl Nielsen was admitted to Copenhagen's National Hospital on 1 October 1931 following a series of heart attacks.

Carl Nielsen was buried in Copenhagen's Vestre Cemetery; all the music at his funeral, including the hymns, was the work of the composer.

Carl Nielsen was to sit there between the rushing wings blowing a reed pipe out over Copenhagen.

Nielsen's works are sometimes referred to by CNW numbers, based on the Catalogue of Carl Nielsen's Works published online by the Danish Royal Library in 2015.

Carl Nielsen's interest and background in folk music had special resonance for Danes, and this was intensified during the nationalistic movements of the 1930s and during World War II, when singing was an important basis for the Danes to distinguish themselves from their German enemies.

Carl Nielsen's songs retain an important place in Danish culture and education.

Carl Nielsen himself was ambiguous about his attitudes to late Romantic German music and to nationalism in music.

Carl Nielsen studied Renaissance polyphony closely, which accounts for some of the melodic and harmonic content of his music.

Carl Nielsen is perhaps most closely associated outside Denmark with his six symphonies, written between 1892 and 1925.

Carl Nielsen described the symphony as "the life force, the unquenchable will to live".

Carl Nielsen wrote a considerable number of choral works but most of them were composed for special occasions and were seldom reprised.

Schytte thought Carl Nielsen had been pretentious presenting the lyrics in Latin rather than Danish.

Carl Nielsen composed several chamber music works, some of them still high on the international repertoire.

Carl Nielsen revised it several times, the final version in 1919 being listed as his Op.

In 1906, Carl Nielsen had explained the significance of such songs to his countrymen:.

Between 1994 and 2009 a complete new edition of Nielsen's works, the Carl Nielsen Edition, was commissioned by the Danish Government.

Robert Simpson's book Carl Nielsen, Symphonist was the earliest large-scale study in English.

Work carried out by the recently published complete Carl Nielsen Edition has revealed that the scores used in these recordings often differ from the composer's original intentions and thus the supposed authenticity of these recordings is debatable.

From 1916, Carl Nielsen taught at the Royal Academy where he became director in 1931, shortly before his death.

Carl Nielsen had private students in his earlier days in order to supplement his income.

Carl Nielsen instructed the conductor and choirmaster Mogens Woldike, remembered for his interpretations of Baroque music, and Rudolph Simonsen, the pianist and composer who became director of the Academy after Carl Nielsen's death.

The Carl Nielsen Society maintains a listing of performances of Nielsen's works, classified by region which demonstrates that his music is regularly performed throughout the world.

Carl Nielsen's image was selected in recognition of his contribution to Danish music compositions such as his opera Maskarade, his Espansiva symphony and his many songs including "Danmark, nu blunder den lyse nat".

The city of Odense, which has strong connections with Carl Nielsen, developed an extensive programme of concerts and cultural events for the anniversary year.