Nancy Dalberg (July 6, 1881 – September 28, 1949) was a Danish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Dalberg grew up on the Danish island of

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

(Fyn) where she learned to play the piano. Her father, a well-off industrialist, refused her wish to study at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. In the end she took up composition because of medical issues that affected her arm. She had private composition lessons with

Johan Svendsen Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 184014 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark. Svendsen's output includes two symphonies, a violin ...

Fini Henriques Valdemar Fini Henriques (baptized ''Finni'') (20 October 1867 at Frederiksberg - 27 October 1940 in Copenhagen) was a Danish composer and violinist. His parents were hospital inspector and justice counsel Vilhelm Moritz Henriques (1828-1889), ...

and

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 ...

. Her output was not particularly large and most of her works were written between 1914 and 1935. Her compositions include around 40 songs, orchestral music and chamber works. She was the first Danish woman composer to write a

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

. It was premiered to critical acclaim although it was noted with surprise and perhaps a touch of condescension that Dalberg was a woman. The two strongest influences that can be heard in her music are those of Svendsen and Nielsen although she writes entirely with her own voice. Her chamber music has received the most attention and one of her three string quartets, her Second String Quartet in G minor, Op.14 has entered the repertoire of many Scandinavian ensembles and was recorded on a Dacapo CD in 1999. (Dacapo 8.224138) The parts and score to this work were republished by Edition Silvertrust in June 2007.

Wilhelm Altmann Wilhelm Altmann (4 April 1862 – 25 March 1951) was a German historian and musicologist. Altmann was born in Adelnau (Odolanów), Province of Posen, and died in Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in ...

wrote of Dalberg's String Quartet No.2 (in

Walter Willson Cobbett Walter Willson Cobbett (11 July 184722 January 1937) was an English businessman and amateur violinist, and editor/author of ''Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music''. He also endowed the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music. Wal ...

's ''Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music''): '' “Nancy Dalberg published this work without giving her forename, and, had I not learned by chance that it was composed by a woman, considering also the austerity and native strength of her music, it would never have occurred to me that it was a woman speaking to us. Her mastery of the technique of composition is remarkable, and she has something definite to say.” ''

References

*Bruland, Inge. "Dalberg, Nancy." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed May 4, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/46411. *''Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music'', Ed. W.W. Cobbett, Oxford University Press, London 1963 *Jensen, Lisbeth Ahlgren. Notes to Dacapo ''Nancy Dalberg'', CD 8.224138, Dacapo, Copenhagen, 1999

External links

Nancy Dalberg String Quartet No.2--sound-bites and short biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalberg, Nancy 1881 births 1949 deaths Women classical composers Danish classical composers 20th-century classical composers Pupils of Carl Nielsen Danish women composers 20th-century Danish composers 20th-century Danish musicians 20th-century women composers