Danish composer Carl August Nielsen was born on 9 June 1865 in Sortelung on the island of Funen. He was the seventh of twelve children born into a poor peasant family. His father, Niels Jørgensen, was a painter and folk fiddler, and his mother sang traditional ballads. Nielsen received a violin at six and taught himself melodies, composing a lullaby and a polka by age nine. At fourteen he enlisted as a bugler and alto trombonist in the 16th Battalion band in Odense. In 1884 he entered the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studying violin, piano, and composition until 1886, and premiered his Suite for Strings, Op. 1, in 1888 at age twenty-three.
After graduation, Nielsen served for sixteen years as second violinist under Johan Svendsen in the Royal Danish Orchestra, taking part in the Danish premieres of Verdi’s Falstaff and Otello. He later became Kapellmeister at the Royal Theatre (1908–1914) and conductor of the Copenhagen Musical Society (1915–1927), while teaching at the Royal Conservatory from 1916 until his death. His oeuvre includes six symphonies (1892–1925), concerti for violin (1911), flute (1926), and clarinet (1928), the operas Saul og David (1902) and Maskarade (1906), the Wind Quintet (1922), four string quartets, choral works, and more than a hundred Danish art songs. His style progressed from Brahmsian Romanticism to progressive tonality, bold dissonance, contrapuntal clarity, and polytonal explorations, forging a uniquely Danish voice within European modernism2.
Nielsen’s music, characterized by its expressive energy and organic thematic development, often reflects conflict, resilience, and the vitality of nature. His Sixth Symphony, Sinfonia semplice (1924–1925), exemplifies his late-career economy and structural ingenuity. He died of a heart attack in Copenhagen on 3 October 1931 at age sixty-six and was buried in Vestre Cemetery. Although he was perceived as an outsider during his lifetime, his works secured international prominence in the 1960s through advocates like Leonard Bernstein. Today, Nielsen is Denmark’s foremost composer, celebrated through the Carl Nielsen Museum in Odense, the complete Carl Nielsen Edition, and his enduring presence in concert halls and on the Danish hundred-kroner banknote.
References: Wikipedia.org Britannica.com
Carl Nielsen's Fantasy Pieces Op.2 were originally composed for oboe. These two early pieces transcribe well for the double bass and are enjoyable and accessible,…
Carl Nielsen’s Fantasy Pieces Op.2 were originally composed for oboe. These two early pieces transcribe well for the double bass and are enjoyable and accessible, making a useful addition to the popular transcription repertoire They would be ideal for the intermediate bassist offering effective musical and technical challenges in the orchestral register of the instrument, but also venturing into thumb position.
Romance is lyrical and evocative, contrasting a livelier and playful Humoresque. The piano accompaniments are supportive and independent, full of late-romantic bravura and rhythmic invention, and the pieces can be successfully performed singly or together as a suite.
Fantasy Pieces Op.2 were composed in 1889 and the composer wrote: “The two oboe pieces are a very early opus. The first – slow – piece gives the oboe the opportunity to sing out its notes quite as beautifully as this instrument can. The second is more humorous, roguish, with an undertone of Nordic nature and forest rustlings in the moonlight.”
