by Finn Gravesen

Optimistic, life-enhancing symphony

No sooner had Carl Nielsen quit his intrigue-ridden post as chief conductor of the Royal Danish Orchestra than he embarked on work on his Inextinguishable Symphony. It was a time when he was deeply tormented by thoughts of divorce, problems with colleagues, and feelings of general doubt. Nonetheless, he was able to throw himself into the composition of this life-glorifying, positive symphony - giving it the preface: "Music is life and as such inextinguishable".

Karikaturtegning fra BT på Carl Nielsens 60-års-dag i 1925_Tegnet af Herluf JenseniusFrom chaos and conflict to life
You're immediately thrown into the work. From the very start the music in the symphony is characterised by bustle and turmoil, angular rhythms, blaring bassoons and fiery brass playing. The contrasting elements in the music manage to keep up a dialogue, and the intense start to the work gives way eventually to a more lyrical theme, which develops into a hymn. The drums play a predominant role throughout, ending right up front in the last movement - the tympany is always threatening, staging open war with the lyrical theme. The work abounds in excitement until the very end, with the little, almost defensive tune growing all time until it at last becomes victorious.

Not programme music
"This is not programme music, there is no programme only a pointer to the proper domain of the music," the composer wrote in the programme notes for the première performance. Nielsen did not want listeners to "translate" his music into some sort of plot. Music must speak directly - without having to account for itself on an intermissive basis.

This means that the symphony should not be interpreted either as the tale of a crisis in Nielsen's marriage nor as a comment on the First World War, which was raging at the time. In a letter dated May 1915, the composer describes very precisely the nature of his project with The Inextinguishable. "I have wanted to represent all that has the will or desire to live, an urge which cannot be held down. This does not mean that I intend to debase my art by making it an imitation of nature, but instead to attempt to let it express what lies behind."

Finn Gravesen is an author and editor, his latest work being "Who owns the music?" ("Hvem ejer musikken?") (2006) commissioned by the Ministry of Culture.
 
(The Carl Nielsen quotation is from Schepelern & Brodin: "Koncerthaandbogen", Copenhagen 1957, Vol. 2, p. 205. The last quotation is from Steen Christian Steensen's biography on Carl Nielsen: "Musik er liv, en biografi om Carl Nielsen", Fisker & Schou, 1999.)

Drawing of Carl Nielsen, by Herluf Jensenius.