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Denmark - Culture - MusicDenmark [Main menu] - [Previous paragraph] - [Next paragraph] 4.11.1 The Earliest Times 18th and 19th Centuries [top]Opera and ConcertsTo replace the burned-down Sophie Amalienborg, Frederik IV opened a new opera house in Copenhagen in 1703, the first performance in it being an opera by the Italian Bartolomeo Bernardi. Reinhard Keiser visited the city with his Hamburg opera company 1721-1723, and in 1722 two French actors were given permission to establish a theatre in Copenhagen, where they staged comedies by writers including Molière and Holberg, many with music. However, it soon met with financial difficulties and after the Fire of Copenhagen in 1728 it was forced to close completely. Theatrical performances were forbidden during the reign of the pietist king, Christian VI. The theatre did not reopen until 1747, and the following year under the name of The Danish Theatre it moved into a new building. Music was at first provided by the Town Musician and his men, but from 1770 the king's own orchestra, Det Kongelige Kapel (The Royal Orchestra), was permanently linked to the theatre. Musical gatherings and public concerts took place in Copenhagen from the beginning of the 18th century, partly under the auspices of the Music Society (founded 1744) in which J.E. Iversen, J.A. Scheibe and Holberg were the driving forces. It was forced to close in 1749, prey to its enemy the Italian opera, but soon new societies and clubs arose, in which amateurs could show off their talents, from time to time aided by professional musicians, including those from the Royal Orchestra. With guest performances in 1747 and the following years by Mingotti's Italian opera company, opera really became established in Copenhagen. Mingotti brought with him in turn the conductors Gluck, Salabrini and Sarti. The last two of these remained in the service of the court for a number of years, and Sarti provided the music for the first syngespil, a play with music to a Danish text (1756). More memorable were Johannes Ewald's Balders Død (The Death of Balder) (1779) and Fiskerne (The Fishermen) (1780), with national themes and with music by the German-born J.E. Hartmann. J.A.P. Schulz' Høstgildet (The Harvest Celebration) (1790) and Peters Bryllup (Peter's Wedding) (1793) established the Danish syngespil as a highly popular form of entertainment. Some of the songs from them became well known among the population at large, as did Schulz's simple Lieder im Volkston. His successor, F.L.Æ. Kunzen followed up his success with a large number of works (including Holger Danske). Schulz and Kunzen also introduced the Danes to the music of Haydn and Mozart. Their own music bears the stamp of French comic opera and the Viennese school. Ballet music was composed by Claus Schall. A particularly Danish flavour in music was in fact provided by immigrant composers from Germany. C.E.F. Weyse came to Copenhagen from Altona in 1789 at the age of 15, becoming a pupil of Schulz. He stayed until his death in 1842 and was the composer who created the Danish Romantic song, the romance. Friedrich Kuhlau, who came to Copenhagen in 1810, never became quite so Danish, but he wrote music for the festival play Elverhøi (The Elfin Mound) (1828), in which one of the melodies was that of the Danish national anthem, King Christian. They were originally pianists and both later became famous as composers for the theatre. Weyse also became known as a church musician, while Kuhlau's name was especially associated with the flute. Some of Weyse's romances come from his syngespil, for instance Sovedrikken (The Sleeping Draught) (1809), Et Eventyr i Rosenborg Have (An Adventure in Rosenborg Park) (1827) and Festen paa Kenilworth (The Festival at Kenilworth) (1836). Of Kuhlau's operas it was especially Røverborgen (The Robbers' Castle) (1814) and the Rossini-inspired Lulu (1824) that enjoyed success. Since the end of the 18th century, the Royal Theatre had been the meeting place for cultured academics and the upper ranks of the bourgeoisie. After 1836 it was also possible to forgather in the Music Society, which had been founded with the intention of publishing Danish music, but which developed into an institution for arranging concerts. From 1850 it was under the direction of Niels W. Gade, who became internationally recognised through his concert overture Efterklange af Ossian (Echoes of Ossian) (1840) and his First Symphony (1842), the first works of Danish National Romanticism. For some years, Gade, together with Mendelssohn had been a conductor in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, but he returned home because of the Schleswig-Holstein war in 1848, and he now became a central figure in musical life together with J.P.E. Hartmann. The two of them helped found the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in 1867, and in addition they both worked as organists. Hartmann wrote the opera Liden Kirsten (Little Kirsten) (1846) and music for a number of ballets and plays on national subjects. Gade wrote eight symphonies and choral works in all such as Elverskud (The Elf King's Daughter) (1854). Especially older vocal music was performed in the Cæcilie Society, founded 1851 by Henrik Rung. The romance, the song with piano accompaniment, was in the second half of the 19th century cultivated by Peter Heise, who also wrote the opera Drot og Marsk (King and Marshal) (1877), and by Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller.
Church Music Pietism had come to Denmark through Brorson's poetry and made its mark on church music through Pontoppidan's Hymn Book (1742), which was the last containing the music for the hymn melodies. After this, organ accompaniment with the hymn singing became general, and the chorale books suggest slow, formal choral singing towards the end of the 18th century. N.F.S. Grundtvig's hymns led to a need for livelier hymn tunes, and the romance gradually had an impact on the churches, as is seen in the chorale books by Berggreen (1853), Rung (1857) and Barnekow (1878). Towards the end of the 19th century Thomas Laub reacted against this secular tendency. His restitution of the old melodies found its expression in the chorale book entitled Dansk Kirkesang (Danish Church Song) (1918). Popular Song National and political movements, including those leading to the 1849 Constitution, and later popular groupings, for instance those centred on the folk high school movement and the workers' movement, created a basis for community singing, which gave the impetus to a large number of melodies and song books throughout the 19th century. This formed the background for a reform of popular song at the beginning of the 20th century, with work by composers like Thorvald Aagaard, Carl Nielsen and Oluf Ring. Carsten E. Hatting
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