(Apparently, doubling wasn’t as common in Denmark in 1922 as it is today.) Felumb said that it was possible, which led to the use of the solo English horn in the third movement of the Quintet. After the concert, in the middle of the night, Nielsen phoned Felumb to ask him if it was possible for an oboist to switch back and forth from oboe and English horn in the middle of a work. (He had just finished his Fifth Symphony.) The next month, Nielsen was conducting a performance of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in Copenhagen with no other than Felumb, again, performing the off-stage English horn solo. 1, 1922, while in Gothenburg on a conducting assignment. Nielsen began composing the Quintet on Feb. Later, he told the oboist, Svend Christian Felumb, that he wanted to write a quintet for them. He got to know both the Mozart work (which itself has a very odd history) as well as the members of the quintet. While Christiansen talked, the wind players kept on rehearsing and Nielsen asked if he could come over and listen. The work might not have been written except for the fortuitous timing of a phone call, in 1921, from Nielsen to the pianist Christian Christiansen at the very moment he was rehearsing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with four of the members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet (the Københavns Blæserkvintett). Thanks to the Danish Carl Nielsen Society and their website, we actually know a lot about the creation of this quintet. A much better timeline of his life is available on .Ĭarl Nielsen in 1917 About Carl Nielsen’s Quintetįor flute, oboe/English horn, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Later in life he became Director of the Royal Conservatory. He worked as a violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher, slowly getting his works accepted by the public, and gradually making a living as a composer. The marriage was tumultuous, and the two separated, finally, in 1919. They toured Italy together and married in Florence. In Paris, in 1891, he met a fellow-traveler, the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen.
He eventually won a grant giving him an opportunity to tour Germany, France and Italy. He continued to be diligent with his violin studies and began working as an orchestra violinist. All in all, he was a good but not outstanding student. With aid he was able to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and studied composition with the Danish composer Niels Gade.
He even worked for a while as a shepherd to help the family make ends meet. He started learning the violin at age six, but also learned bugle and alto trombone and performed as a musician in a military band (with the army’s 16 th Battalion) when still fourteen, which paid very modestly (including a loaf of bread every five days). Young Carl in military band uniform with signal horn and alto tromboneĬarl August Nielsen ( born Jdied October 3, 1931) grew up in the island of Funen in Denmark to poor but musically talented parents.