Carl Nielsen's Musical Vitalism

Tarrant, C

doi:10.4324/9780429451713

Carl Nielsen's Musical Vitalism

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Christopher Tarrant

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a book chapter that has been published in its final definitive form by Routledge, 2022.

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Abstract

The vitalist aesthetic has become a key point of reference in the last ten years for our understanding of Carl Nielsen’s compositions and writings (philosophical, musical, and autobiographical). This talk situates Nielsen’s literary and musical output as a double-rejection of, on the one hand, a conservative approach to absolute music, and on the other hand the perception of decadence and degeneration in the late nineteenth century that was highlighted in Nietzsche’s critique of Wagner and cemented in the theories of reactionaries such as Max Nordau. This rejection manifested itself in various ways, extending to Nielsen’s direct attacks on Wagner in his musical writings; his understanding of aesthetic creation and Nature’s development of life as two sides of the same coin; his incidental appeals to physical health and musical health being in close relation; closeness with nature in his autobiographical Min Fynske Barndom (My Childhood on Funen); and crucially his musical output, in which the vitalist aesthetic is embedded. While there is consensus that vitalism is a potentially useful aesthetic category for engaging Nielsen’s music, some authors have been circumspect in their willingness to support the concept with analytical observations. This chapter engages Schenkerian, Caplinian, and Hepokoskian techniques in order to clarify Nielsen’s engagement with vitalism, and his place as an early modernist.