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 ''Aladdin'', Opus 34/FS 89, is

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

written to accompany a new production of

Adam Oehlenschläger Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger (14 November 177920 January 1850) was a Danish poet and playwright. He introduced romanticism into Danish literature. He wrote the lyrics to the song ''Der er et yndigt land'', which is one of the national anthems ...

’s "dramatic fairy tale" presented at The Royal Theatre in

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 a ...

in February 1919.

Background

Nielsen composed much of the music in

Skagen Skagen () is Denmark's northernmost town, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalborg. The Port of Skage ...

during the summer of 1918, completing it after returning to Copenhagen in January 1919. He experienced major difficulties with the work as the director,

Johannes Poulsen Johannes Poulsen (17 November 1881 – 14 October 1938) was a Danish actor and director. He debuted with the Dagmar Theatre in 1901. In 1909 he joined the Royal Theatre as an actor, and from 1917 was also a stage director. Memorable roles ...

, had used the orchestra pit for an extended stage, leaving the orchestra cramped below a majestic staircase on the set. When Poulsen cut out large parts of the music during final rehearsals and changed the sequence of dances, Nielsen demanded that his name be removed from the posters and the programme. In fact, the theatre production in February 1919 was not very successful and was withdrawn after only 15 performances.

Music

Complete score

The complete score, lasting over 80 minutes, is Nielsen's longest work apart from his operas. Demonstrating great inventiveness, Nielsen's enriched style can be observed in the musical language he used for the exotic dances, paving the way for his Fifth Symphony."Preface" to Aladdin
Carl Nielsen Edition
. Royal Danish Library. Retrieved 26 October 2010. In May 1992 a recording of virtually the entire score was made by the

Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Danish: ''DR Symfoniorkestret''; English abbreviation "DNSO"), is a Danish orchestra based in Copenhagen. The DNSO is the principal orchestra of DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation). The DRSO is based at th ...

and Chamber Choir with

Gennady Rozhdestvensky Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Рожде́ственский; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian conductor. Biography Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. ...

Aladdin suite

Nielsen frequently conducted extracts from ''Aladdin'' to great popular acclaim both in Denmark and abroad. The music was successfully presented at London’s

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...

on 22 June 1923 and at 12 performances of ''Aladdin'' at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

in November and December 1929. Nielsen had been scheduled to conduct extracts with the Radio Symphony Orchestra on 1 October 1931 when he suffered a major heart attack. Lying on a hospital bed, he was nevertheless able to listen to the Oriental March, Hindu Dance and Negro Dance on a crystal set before he died the following day. The extracts were published in 1940 as the ''Aladdin suite''. Its seven parts are: * Oriental Festival March * Aladdin's Dream/Dance of the Morning Mist * Hindu Dance * Chinese Dance * The Marketplace in

Isphahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

* Dance of the Prisoners * Negro Dance A transcription for piano of the Oriental Festival March was published by Borup's Musikforlag in Copenhagen in 1926. On the basis of information from the Carl Nielsen Society, the ''Aladdin Suite'' is currently one of Nielsen's most widely performed works."Performances"
, Carl Nielsen Society. Retrieved 30 October 2010.

Three songs

Nielsen published ''Aladdin, three songs from the play by A. Oehlenschlæger'' in 1919 as his Opus 34. The songs are: * Cithar, lad min Bøn dig røre * Visselulle nu, Barnlil! * Alt Maanen oprejst staar

References