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 ...
's Wind Quintet, or as indicated by the original score, the ''Kvintet for
Flöte,
Obo
Obo is the capital of Haut-Mbomou, one of the 14 Prefectures of the Central African Republic, prefectures of the Central African Republic. It is close to the Pole of inaccessibility#Africa, African Pole of Inaccessibility.
Poste Airport is loca ...
,
Klarinet,
Horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
og
Fagot'',
Op. 43, was composed early in 1922 in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, Sweden, where it was first performed privately at the home of Herman and Lisa Mannheimer on 30 April 1922. The first public performance was on 9 October 1922 in the smaller hall at the
Odd Fellows Mansion in Copenhagen. It is considered a staple of the repertoire for
wind quintet
A wind quintet, also known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players (most commonly flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon).
Unlike the string quartet (of 4 string instruments) with its homogeneous blend of sound color, the in ...
.
Background
According to his biographer Torben Meyer, Carl Nielsen started composing the wind quintet in the autumn of 1921 after hearing four members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet (
flautist
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
: Paul Hagemann,
oboist
An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette.
The following is a list of notable past and pres ...
: Svend C. Felumb,
clarinettist
This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet.
Classical clarinetists
* Laver Bariu
* Ernest Ačkun
* Luís Afonso
* Cristiano Alves
* Michel Arrignon
* Dimitri Ashkenazy
* Kinan Azmeh
* Alexander Bader
* Carl Baermann ...
:
Aage Oxenvad
Aage Oxenvad (16 January 188413 April 1944) was a Danish clarinetist who played in the Royal Danish Orchestra from 1909. Carl Nielsen wrote his Clarinet Concerto for Oxenvad who played at its premiere in 1928.
Early life
Aage Oxenvad was born in ...
,
hornist
This list of horn players and pedagogues includes notable players of French horn, German horn, natural horn, Vienna horn, tenor (alto) horn, and alphorn.
B
* Radek Baborák, former Principal horn Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Phil. Or ...
: Hans Sørensen,
bassoonist: Knud Lassen) rehearsing the
Sinfonia Concertante by
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
with the pianist
Christian Christiansen, whom Nielsen was having a telephone conversation with while the winds rehearsed.
It was these musicians he specifically had in mind when he wrote the piece.
British composer and biographer
Robert Simpson writes, "Nielsen’s fondness of wind instruments is closely related to his love of nature, his fascination for living, breathing things. He was also intensely interested in human character, and in the Wind Quintet composed deliberately for five friends, each part is cunningly made to suit the individuality of each player."
Music
In a programme note, Nielsen himself provided a description of the work: "The quintet for winds is one of the composer’s latest works, in which he has attempted to render the characters of the various instruments. At one moment they are all talking at once, at another they are quite alone. The work consists of three movements: a) Allegro, b) Minuet and c) Prelude – Theme with Variations. The theme for these variations is the melody for one of C.N.’s spiritual songs, which has here been made the basis of a set of variations, now merry and quirky, now elegiac and serious, ending with the theme in all its simplicity and very quietly expressed."
Overall, the piece combines aspects of
neo-classicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, ...
and
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
.
The first movement is in
sonata
Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...
form, the second is a
minuet
A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''.
The term also describes the musical form that accompa ...
with a rustic quality and the third opens with a short
praeludium followed by a set of variations.
:
\relative c'
:I. Allegro ben moderato
The first movement begins with a statement of the theme in the bassoon in E followed by a reply in the upper winds before being repeated by the horn in the key of A major, which is then followed by fragmentations of the theme. The second theme enters in D minor and is played first by the horn, followed by the oboe and bassoon, all the while being accompanied by triplet figures in the flute and clarinet. The development begins after a restatement of the first theme. The recapitulation begins in E major and the second theme is in B minor and is now harmonized in thirds with the horn and bassoon. The movement eventually ends in the key of E. Overall, the movement appears to be written in the key of E, the dominant of the following two movements which are predominantly in the key of A.
:
\transpose c a
:II. Menuet
The second movement is fairly neoclassical and scores the horn lightly, allowing the player to rest. The first theme is presented as a duet between the bassoon and clarinet, and similarly, the second theme is also presented as a duet between the flute and oboe. This material is fairly simple, and all instruments are present when the first theme recaps. The trio, played by the bassoon, oboe, and flute, is
canonic and
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
in nature, contrasting with the simpler first and second themes.
:
\relative c''
:III. Praeludium – Theme with Variations
In the Praeludium, the oboe is replaced by the
cor anglais
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
, providing a different tone colour to an already colourful work. This change is thought to have been inspired by oboist Felumb's cor anglais solo during a performance of
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
's ''
Symphonie fantastique
' (''Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections'') Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performan ...
'' that Nielsen conducted in
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
.
The variations are based on Nielsen's own chorale tune ''Min Jesus, lad min Hjerte faa en saaden Smag paa dig'' (My Jesus, make my heart to love thee).
["Carl Nielsen: Quintet for Wind Instruments, Op.43 (1922)"](_blank)
Sierra Chamber Society program notes. Retrieved 10 November 2010. The variations are the most complex part of the piece and consist of the theme, 11 variations, and a final restatement of the theme.
Reception
The first public performance was on 9 October 1922 in the smaller hall at the
Odd Fellows Mansion in Copenhagen. It was performed by the five musicians mentioned in the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. The reviews were positive. ''Berlinske Tidende'' mentioned the work's "manly seriousness, rhythmic grace, fertile humour... The theme
f the third movementturned out to be Carl Nielsen's beautiful melody for the hymn ''My Jesus, let my heart receive'' (Min Jesus, lad mit Hjerte faa from ''Halvthundrede Salmer'') – only one line of music, but the longing and devotion of a mind are released in these few bars." It concluded that "the members of the Wind Quintet gave the new work an excellent performance and were rewarded with the warmest applause."
Nielsen scholar
Robert Simpson said the following about the Quintet.
The wind quintet was frequently played during the composer's lifetime, including a performance at the International Music Week in Berlin on 29 March 1923.
It was also performed at his funeral in 1931.
Performances today
On the basis of information from the Carl Nielsen Society, the Wind Quintet is one of Nielsen's most widely performed works, both in Scandinavia and the rest of the world.
"Performances"
Carl Nielsen Society. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
References
External links
*
*, Carion Quintet
{{Authority control
Compositions by Carl Nielsen
Nielsen
1922 compositions
Music dedicated to ensembles or performers