Carl Nielsen and Theories of Symphonism

Abstract

With few exceptions, theorists have been reluctant to define the essence of the symphony as a genre. One of the exceptions is Robert Simpson, whose five proposed characteristics for the ‘true’ symphony,published in 1967, are based in part on close analytical engagement with Nielsen’s works. Another exception is Mark Aranovsky in the Introduction to his book on the Soviet Symphony from 1960-1975. Aranovsky’s identification of archetypal qualities in each movement of the classical symphony, and his discussion of processes of dynamic evolution between those movements, may serve both as a critique of Simpson’s more formalistic prescriptions and as a template against which to measure asepcts of Nielsen’s first four symphonies, in particular their dramatic redistribution and rebalancing of archetypal qualities between the movements of the cycle.