1864

Donald Macleod explores the composer Carl Nielsen's early life in rural Denmark in the aftermath of the catastrophic 1864 war.

When the sculptor Anne-Marie Nielsen created a monument to her husband, the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, she said she had wanted to capture "the forward movement, the sense of life, the fact that nothing stands still" in his work. From his early years in the woods and fields of Fyn (Funen), to his studies and triumph as a composer in Copenhagen, and years of restless travel and touring beyond, Donald Macleod traces the evolution of a composer determined to forge his own path.

Towards the end of his life Carl Nielsen wrote his autobiography 'My childhood', which looked back at his early years on Fyn. The book focuses on the idyllic aspects of rural life, despite the fact that these were the years immediately following the 1864 war, when Denmark lost two-fifths of its land area and one third of its population. But the prevailing national mood led to a determination to "win on the inside" what had been lost on the outside. Reforms were put into effect and young talent fostered. Nielsen's musical ability took him first to Odense and then to Copenhagen, though as a child roaming the woods and fields of Fyn, he may not have been aware of how Denmark was changing. With Donald Macleod.