Music of Denmark


The origins of Danish music can be traced back to the Bronze Age. Horns or lurs have been discovered in various parts of Scandinavia, mostly in the region now known as Denmark, since the end of the 18th century. Denmark's most famous classical composer is Carl Nielsen, especially remembered for his six symphonies, while the Royal Danish Ballet specializes in the work of Danish choreographer August Bournonville. Danes have distinguished themselves as jazz musicians, and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival has acquired an international reputation. The modern pop and rock scene has produced a few names of note, including MØ, Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, Lukas Graham, D-A-D, Tina Dico, Aqua, The Raveonettes, Michael Learns to Rock, Volbeat, Alphabeat, Safri Duo, Medina, Oh Land, Kashmir, King Diamond, Outlandish, and Mew. Lars Ulrich is the first Danish musician to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Origins

The earliest traces of Danish music go back to the many twisting Bronze-Age horns or lurs which some experts have identified as musical instruments. They have been discovered in various parts of Scandinavia, mostly Denmark, since the end of the 18th century.
In his Gesta Danorum, historian Saxo Grammaticus refers to the power that music had over King Erik the Kind-Hearted. In the 13th and early 14th centuries, German minnesingers such as Tannhäuser and Frauenlob sang in the Danish courts. The Codex Runicus contains a verse written in runes with a non-rhythmic musical notation. The first line is Drømdæ mik æn drøm i nat. There is also evidence that English monks came to Denmark to sing at a celebration commemorating St Canute, who died in 1086. In 1145, Lund Cathedral received Scandinavia's first choir statues, and by 1330 it was one of the larger churches to have an organ installed.

Historical influences

The greatest influence on the evolution of music in Denmark has certainly been the monarchy. At the time of his coronation in 1448, Christian I engaged a permanent corps of trumpeters, and by 1519 the court had a corps of court singers and an instrumental ensemble as well. The collections of works used by the chapel royal under Christian III in the middle of the 16th century were based on Dutch, Italian, French and German masters. Christian IV spent considerable sums of money on training local musicians and bringing foreign masters to Denmark. Mogens Pedersøn, one of his Danish musicians who had studied in Venice under Giovanni Gabrieli, became one of Denmark's most important composers of church music. His principal work Pratum spirituale was a collection of 21 Danish hymns in five-part settings, a mass in five parts, three Latin motets and a number of Danish and Latin choral responses. It was published in Copenhagen in 1620 and is still performed today.
Under the influence of Louis XIV of France, music for the theatre was established in Denmark during the reigns of Frederik III and Christian V when lavish court ballets were performed. This soon led to opera and the performance of Der vereinigte Götterstreit composed by Povl Christian Schindler on Christian's birthday in 1689. Although it was a great success, there was little interest in opera after the theatre caught fire a few days later causing 180 deaths.
In 1569, shortly after the Reformation, Denmark's first hymn book, Thomesens Salmebog, was published with music for the individual hymns.
Dieterich Buxtehude was a Danish composer and organist, a highly regarded composer of the Baroque period. His organ works comprise a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and church services. But he is most remembered for his vocal compositions.

Classical music

Opera, song and concerts

opened a new opera house in Copenhagen in 1703, the first performance being an opera by the Italian Bartolomeo Bernardi. Reinhard Keiser, the prolific opera composer from Hamburg, presented his works in Copenhagen from 1721 to 1723. In 1748 Den Danske Skueplads moved into a new building and in 1779 Det Kongelige Kapel became a permanent attachment.
Pietro Mingotti, from Venice, who had formed an opera company was invited to Copenhagen by Queen Louise in 1747. His members included Christoph Willibald Gluck and Giuseppe Sarti. In 1756, Sarti provided the music for the first syngespil which, in the early 1790s, became established as a popular national genre with Høstgildet and Peters Bryllup. Both were composed by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz. Johann Hartmann is remembered for his two operas on texts by Johannes Ewald in which he helped creating a national musical style. The first of these, Balders Død, builds on the old Nordic mythology and uses dark colours when depicting the old Gods and Valkyries. The second, Fiskerne, describes contemporary fishermen's lives, and uses melodies inspired by the Scandinavian folk style.
Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, from Altona, who was a pupil of Schulz, is remembered above all for his Danish songs, hymns and carols, which remain popular to this day. But he also composed religious music, piano pieces, and symphonies.
Friedrich Kuhlau wrote Elverhøj , which contains the music for Kong Kristian stod ved højen mast, a Danish national anthem. Elverhøj is considered to be the first Danish national play and has been performed in Denmark more than any other play. Kuhlau was also a pianist who brought Beethoven's piano music to Denmark.
Schulz and Kunzen both gained importance as a result of their influence as chief conductors at the Royal Theatre. They brought the best of European music to Danish audiences. Weyse and Kuhlau contributed not only to orchestral and chamber music, but also to the popular repertory, Weyse with secular and religious songs and Kuhlau with chamber music suitable for amateur musicians.
Another successful composer and conductor in the mid-20th century was Emil Reesen, who is remembered above all for his highly successful operetta Farinelli, which is still popular today.
Opera has continued to figure prominently on the Danish music scene, thanks in part to the Copenhagen Opera House, which was opened in the year 2005. Although the majority of performances cover the works of the well-known European composers, Danish operas are also included from time to time. In 2010, with the involvement of the ambitious young artistic director Kasper Bech Holten, there were performances of Poul Ruders' new work Kafka's Trial, while in recent years works by both John Frandsen and Bent Sørensen have been part of the repertoire as well.

The Golden Age

The 19th century saw the emergence of a number of Danish composers inspired by Romantic nationalism. Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, apart from opera and ballet music, contributed to song and the piano repertory. From 1843 until his death, he was the organist at the Church of Our Lady. His works are not only romantic but often inspired by the old Nordic legends. According to Alfred Einstein, it was he who really founded Danish romanticism, if not Scandinavian romanticism altogether. His works had a great influence on the next generation of composers such as Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen.
Hans Christian Lumbye was employed as the first music director at the Copenhagen amusement park Tivoli when it opened in 1843. Here he had a platform for presenting a large foreign and Danish repertory, including his many waltzes and galops. In 1839, he had heard a Viennese orchestra play music by Johann Strauss, after which he composed in the same style, eventually earning the nickname "The Strauss of the North". One of his most popular pieces, associated with Tivoli, is Champagnegaloppen, which starts with the happy sound of a champagne cork popping. It has been used in several Danish films including Reptilicus, and Champagnegaloppen.
Niels W. Gade participated in the development of Musikforeningen which had been founded in 1836 with the purpose of extending and improving the understanding of classical music. He became its conductor in 1850, and under his management a number of masterpieces of choral music were given their first performance in Denmark, among them Bach's St. Matthew Passion in 1875.
File:Sylphide -Marie Taglioni -1832 -2.jpg|thumb|left|130px|Marie Taglioni in Bournonville's La Sylphide
At the conservatory in Copenhagen he helped teach future generations, including Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen. In the spirit of Romantic nationalism, he composed eight symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music, organ and piano pieces and a number of large-scale cantatas, among them Elverskud, the most famous Danish work of its kind.
Many other composers were part of this "Golden Age" of Danish music, among which Peter Heise, Emil Hartmann, August Winding, C.F.E. Horneman or Asger Hamerik.
Another major contributor to the Golden Age was August Bournonville, the renowned ballet master and choreographer. From 1830 to 1877, he was the choreographer at the Royal Danish Ballet, for which he created more than 50 ballets admired for their exuberance, lightness, and beauty. He created a style which, although influenced by the Paris ballet, is entirely his own. Bournonville's best-known works are La Sylphide, Napoli, Le Conservatoire, The Kermesse in Bruges and A Folk Tale. He drew on a number of different composers including Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, Holger Simon Paulli and Niels Gade. The ballets are widely performed today, not only in Denmark but worldwide, especially in the United States.

The Carl Nielsen era

As a result of problems with Germany, Denmark's attitude during the first half of the 20th century became nationalistic and introverted. The two leading figures, Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub revived interest in the purer music of earlier periods such as the Renaissance.
  • Carl Nielsen, now an internationally recognized composer, was the dominant figure in Danish music and musical life from the end of the 1890s until well into the 20th century. He had grown up in a small village on Funen but, by performing with folk musicians as a child and as a bugler in the army, he was able to enter the music conservatory in Copenhagen in 1884. By the time he took over Gade's role around 1900, Denmark's music scene was firmly established with strong popular interest and support. Nielsen's orchestral music, including six symphonies and concertos for flute, violin, and clarinet, is widely performed. Indeed, the success of his First Symphony when it was played in Berlin in 1896 paved the way for his growing reputation. The Third Symphony, which contains wordless vocal solos, was performed in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Finland within the first two years. The Fourth Symphony featuring a battle between two sets of timpani is the one which has been most widely recorded. Maskarade, a three-act opera based on the play by Ludwig Holberg, is regarded as the Danish national opera. Nielsen also composed the opera Saul og David which offers marvellous chorus scenes. Another important choral work is the cantata Hymnus amoris, a beautiful composition for choir and orchestra. He is also remembered for the incidental music he wrote for Adam Oehlenschläger's play Aladdin as well as for the songs he set to music, many of which are still popular in Denmark.
  • Thomas Laub, an organist, was devoted to reintroducing the old Protestant hymn tunes which had been forgotten or altered over the years. He published a number of important works including Kirkemelodier , Udvalg af Salme-Melodier i Kirkestil , Dansk Kirkesang and Musik og Kirke . Laub also wrote folk song music and together with Carl Nielsen published En Snes danske Viser .
  • Rued Langgaard, a late-Romantic composer, was not fully recognized until 16 years after his death. He was inspired by his conviction that music had a spiritual power and was therefore important for mankind. He was a prolific composer, completing over 400 works representing over 50 hours of music. His Symphony No. 1 Klippepastoraler is in the late-romantic style, reminiscent of Anton Bruckner while Symphony No. 10 Din Torden-Bolig is also majestic, but more in the style of Richard Strauss