Five Fugues

Description

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) was a Danish musician, now widely recognised as Denmark’s most prominent composer. He was brought up by poor yet musically talented parents; he demonstrated his musicality from an early age before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen from 1884-1886. After a stint playing second violin in the Royal Danish Orchestra he returned to the Academy as a teacher, remaining there till his death. His career and personal life were both turbulent, particularly during his marriage to the sculptor Anne Marie Broderson. His early works show the influences of the Romantic composers such as Brahms and Grieg, but he soon developed his own style, diverging more and more from the standards of composition common at the time. He died of a heart attack in 1931, and is buried in Copenhagen.
These five short fugues seem to have been composed with no specific instruments in mind. They are presented in open score with very few tempo or articulation markings. Never the less, they show a remarkable insight into contrapuntal techniques, with use of stretto, inversion, augmentation etc. All three parts contribute equally to the music. In this edition, tempi and expressive markings are all editorial.