![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
Nancy Dalberg (1881-1949) might be one of the great what-ifs of Danish music. She was Carl Nielsen's assistant, and a skilled enough orchestrator that she completed the orchestration of some of Nielsen's theater music when Nielsen was pressed for time. But she only composed large-scale works of her own for a short time. She was a latecomer to composing, beginning to study composition only in her late 20s after an arm injury prevented her from playing piano; discouraged by hostile conductors and overtly sexist music critics, she ceased writing for orchestra in 1918 and composed only art songs after 1928.
Dalberg was the daughter of Christian Hansen, a pioneering biochemist who became wealthy after inventing the first standardized rennet extract. In keeping with the social norms of the day, she learned to play the piano as a child. However, her wish to continue her studies at the Royal Academy of Music was frustrated as her father did not believe it appropriate for a person of wealth and status. Her marriage in 1901 was somewhat liberating: her husband, an amateur musician and poet, encouraged her to resume her piano studies and pursue a career as a pianist. In 1909, after injuring her arm in a fall, Dalberg stopped playing piano for several years and began to take lessons in music theory and composition with first Johan Svendsen and then Carl Nielsen.
Dalberg was very much Nielsen's protégé: Denmark's leading symphonist conducted the premieres of all of her orchestral works and played violin in the premieres of all three of her string quartets. But other than Nielsen, she found no conductors interested in her orchestral music. Critics were no more encouraging: even the reviews that praised her music were tinged with sexist overtones. One reviewer, while praising the 1918 premiere of her only symphony, wrote: "A lady who writes orchestral works is a great rarity; a lady who attempts a symphony a phenomenon." The same reviewer went to on observe that the symphony "would have done justice to many of her male colleagues" -- undoubtedly a compliment, but implicitly disparaging the ability of female composers -- but criticized the lack of anything "specifically female" in it. Dalberg composed no more for orchestra after that concert, but continued to orchestrate music as Nielsen's assistant. She continued to compose chamber music, some of which was championed by the Hungarian violinist Emil Telmányi, for another decade, but eventually became frustrated by the lack of interest from performers other than Nielsen and Telmányi. Publishers were similarly frustrating to work with; she was only able to have her pieces published by submitting them as "N. Dalberg" rather than with her full name. For the last two decades of her life, Dalberg completed only art songs, though at her death her personal papers included sketches for an unfinished fourth string quartet. After her death, if known for anything at all, it was mainly for the art songs and for the orchestration she did for Nielsen.
The Scherzo for String Orchestra was Dalberg's first orchestral work to receive a public performance. Composed in 1914, it was first performed in November 1915 by the Royal Danish Orchestra, conducted by Nielsen. An example of the "fantastic scherzo" genre that was in vogue in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is rather more substantial than the typical symphonic scherzo, and passes as if improvisationally through a whole variety of moods and colors. An extended middle section encompasses a theme and variations, including variations featuring solo violin and cello.
(Sorry about the chirping birds, those seem to come from the background video. At least they don't seem like too much of a distraction. I don't actually have a recording of this piece, I know about it because I heard one of Dalberg's string quartets on the radio two or three years ago.)
Nancy Dalberg (1881-1949) might be one of the great what-ifs of Danish music. She was Carl Nielsen's assistant, and a skilled enough orchestrator that she completed the orchestration of some of Nielsen's theater music when Nielsen was pressed for time. But she only composed large-scale works of her own for a short time. She was a latecomer to composing, beginning to study composition only in her late 20s after an arm injury prevented her from playing piano; discouraged by hostile conductors and overtly sexist music critics, she ceased writing for orchestra in 1918 and composed only art songs after 1928.
Dalberg was the daughter of Christian Hansen, a pioneering biochemist who became wealthy after inventing the first standardized rennet extract. In keeping with the social norms of the day, she learned to play the piano as a child. However, her wish to continue her studies at the Royal Academy of Music was frustrated as her father did not believe it appropriate for a person of wealth and status. Her marriage in 1901 was somewhat liberating: her husband, an amateur musician and poet, encouraged her to resume her piano studies and pursue a career as a pianist. In 1909, after injuring her arm in a fall, Dalberg stopped playing piano for several years and began to take lessons in music theory and composition with first Johan Svendsen and then Carl Nielsen.
Dalberg was very much Nielsen's protégé: Denmark's leading symphonist conducted the premieres of all of her orchestral works and played violin in the premieres of all three of her string quartets. But other than Nielsen, she found no conductors interested in her orchestral music. Critics were no more encouraging: even the reviews that praised her music were tinged with sexist overtones. One reviewer, while praising the 1918 premiere of her only symphony, wrote: "A lady who writes orchestral works is a great rarity; a lady who attempts a symphony a phenomenon." The same reviewer went to on observe that the symphony "would have done justice to many of her male colleagues" -- undoubtedly a compliment, but implicitly disparaging the ability of female composers -- but criticized the lack of anything "specifically female" in it. Dalberg composed no more for orchestra after that concert, but continued to orchestrate music as Nielsen's assistant. She continued to compose chamber music, some of which was championed by the Hungarian violinist Emil Telmányi, for another decade, but eventually became frustrated by the lack of interest from performers other than Nielsen and Telmányi. Publishers were similarly frustrating to work with; she was only able to have her pieces published by submitting them as "N. Dalberg" rather than with her full name. For the last two decades of her life, Dalberg completed only art songs, though at her death her personal papers included sketches for an unfinished fourth string quartet. After her death, if known for anything at all, it was mainly for the art songs and for the orchestration she did for Nielsen.
The Scherzo for String Orchestra was Dalberg's first orchestral work to receive a public performance. Composed in 1914, it was first performed in November 1915 by the Royal Danish Orchestra, conducted by Nielsen. An example of the "fantastic scherzo" genre that was in vogue in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is rather more substantial than the typical symphonic scherzo, and passes as if improvisationally through a whole variety of moods and colors. An extended middle section encompasses a theme and variations, including variations featuring solo violin and cello.
(Sorry about the chirping birds, those seem to come from the background video. At least they don't seem like too much of a distraction. I don't actually have a recording of this piece, I know about it because I heard one of Dalberg's string quartets on the radio two or three years ago.)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-16 01:09 am (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNL0-f7ufVs
It's a live concert recording by an amateur orchestra, so the strings struggle at times, but the piece is still well worth listening to.