Carl Nielsen

Carl August Nielsen (Known as "Carl Nielsen")

Denmark's Foremost Composer, Conductor, Violinist, Author of Six Symphonies

Born 1865-06-09

Nørre Lyndelse, Denmark

Passed Away 1931-10-03 Copenhagen, Denmark

Lifespan 66 years old

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Notice / Correction

"Music is life, and like life it is inextinguishable."

Archival Overview

Universally acclaimed as Denmark's greatest composer, celebrated for six monumental symphonies—including The Four Temperaments and The Inextinguishable—and beloved Danish folk songs.

Biographical Record

Carl August Nielsen was born on June 9, 1865, into a poor painter and village musician's family in Sortelung near Nørre Lyndelse on Funen. Playing bugle and cornet in an army regiment in Odense, he won a scholarship to the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.

Nielsen forged an original, muscular musical language rooted in progressive tonality and organic contrapuntal energy. His Six Symphonies—notably No. 4 The Inextinguishable (Det Uudslukkelige, 1916) and No. 5 (1922)—stand as towering monuments of 20th-century music. He also composed brilliant concertos for violin, flute, and clarinet, the opera Maskarade, and hundreds of cherished popular melodies in the Danish High School Songbook (Højskolesangbogen).

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Rest in Peace Forever remembered and cherished Your legacy lives on in all of us With deep gratitude for your life and light

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Vestre kirkegård
Copenhagen, Denmark

                         GPS: 55.6583, 12.5317                    

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