Carl Nielsen and the Danish Tradition of Story-Telling

The author explains Carl Nielsen’s sixth symphony, ‘ semplice ’, as ‘eventyr’, ‘fantasy-adventure’, setting it in the context of works by Golden Age authors like Adam Oehlenschlager, Hans Christian Andersen, August Bournonville and Soren Kierkegaard, and Nielsen’s own friend, the painter Vilhelm Hammershoi. Colin Roth reads Sinfonia semplice as a direct address to Nielsen’s own audience, its ironised, disruptive selfconsciousness blending autobiographical elements with musical ones in order to heighten the symphony’s narrative and expressive power.