Symphony No. 1 (Nielsen)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Symphony No. 1 in G minor (Op. 7, FS 16) is the first symphony by Danish composer Carl Nielsen, written in 1891 to 1892 and dedicated to his wife Anne Marie Carl Nielsen. The work's première in 14 March 1894 was given by Johan Svendsen conducting the Chapel Royal Orchestra (Royal Danish Orchestra), which Nielsen was sitting among the second violin. It is one of the two symphonies by Nielsen without a subtitle (the other one is Symphony No. 5).

The symphony is in standard four movements:

Allegro orgoglioso
Andante
Allegro comodo - Andante sostenuto - Tempo I
Finale. Allegro con fuoco

A typical performance takes approximately 35 minutes.

Opens in G minor and closes in C major, the work's tendency to move away from the original key to C major is the basis of the whole symphony's tonal structure, displaces for the first time Nielsen's hallmark composition device "progressive tonality". Nielsen at one stage had even thought of calling the work "Symphony in C".

Apart from the tonal progression, the melodies of the symphony are with distintive Danish flavour and Nielson's personal style. Although individuality can be observed in the composer's first symphony, its material can still remind one with Romantic composers such as Brahms or Dvořák, with echoes of Tchaikovsky and Bruckner.

Composer Robert Simpson describes Nielsen's symphonic debut as "probably the most highly organized first symphony ever written by a young man of twenty-seven"