Danish Music: The Golden Age 1800-1850

From the magical opening of
Gade's concert overture
Gjenklang af Ossian
(opus 1; 1840).
Shown here is p. 2 of the first
edition of the printed score
(Leipzig, 1854).
(Musikafdelingen,
Det kongelige Bibliotek,
Copenhagen.)
The tempo is Allegro
moderato, the key A minor.
The theme chanted quietly by
the cellos is derived from a
version of the Ramund ballad
that Gade found in the last of
five seminal volumes of
selected Danish mediaeval
ballads published by
Abrahamson, Nyerup
and Rahbek
(Copenhagen, 1812-1814;
see insert).
(Danske Afdeling,
Det kongelige Bibliotek,
Copenhagen.)
Surely the second movement
(Allegretto, A minor) of
Beethoven's Symphony No. 7
(1812) had not been
lost on Gade either.
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