Karl Henrik Ludolf Nielsen (29 January 1876 – 16 October 1939) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

composer,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist, conductor, and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. Today he is considered one of the most important Danish composers of the early 1900s (together with the more famous

Carl Nielsen Carl August Nielsen (; 9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Brought up by poor yet musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he ...

Life

Nielsen was born in Nørre Tvede,

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. Although his family lacked any musicians, Ludolf took to music at a very young age. After a few years of violin lessons from local fiddlers, at eight he was playing at local festivals and other country occasions. In his mid-teens, he moved to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, which exposed him to a much broader musical milieu. At 19, he won a scholarship to the Danish Royal Academy of Music. There, he studied

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, and music theory. His composing talents were apparently self-developed. When about 20, Nielsen started composing, at the same time as Tivoli Orchestra hired him as a violinist. Some of his works were performed in 1899, but his first major success was with the symphonic poem ''Regnar Lodbrog,'' which gained him an additional scholarship that gave him the opportunity to spend time in the musically rich city of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, where he composed a few string quartets and had them published. He returned to Copenhagen and became conductor of the Tivoli Orchestra. In 1902, he composed his First Symphony, and the tone poem ''From the Mountains'' between 1903 and 1905. Just after his marriage in 1907, Nielsen composed a Romance for Violin (1908) and his Second Symphony (1907 – 1909). Like many other artists,

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

had a very profound effect on Nielsen; He wrote little until 1914, which saw his Third Symphony. After the War, he became a private music teacher and eventually returned to composing. The two most important works from this period are his ballet ''Lackschmi'' (1922) and the orchestral suite ''Skovvandring'' (Forest Journey), along with almost 100 Lieder. Between 1926 and 1939, Ludolf worked as a programmer for the Danish National Radio Corporation and, with the exception of a few radio plays, he ceased composing. On 16 October 1939, at the age of 63, Nielsen died in Copenhagen.

References

External links

Jens Cornelius: ''Ludolf Nielsen. Danske komponister, 2''. Multivers (2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Ludolf 1876 births 1939 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century classical violinists 19th-century Danish composers 19th-century conductors (music) 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century classical violinists 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century Danish male musicians Danish classical composers Danish classical pianists Danish classical violinists Danish conductors (music) Danish male classical composers Danish Romantic composers Male classical pianists Male classical violinists Male conductors (music) Royal Danish Academy of Music alumni