Music of Denmark
The modern pop and rock scene has produced a few names of note, including MØ, Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, Lukas Graham, D-A-D, Tina Dico, Aqua, The Raveonettes, Michael Learns to Rock, Volbeat, Alphabeat, Safri Duo, Medina, Oh Land, Kashmir, King Diamond, Outlandish, and Mew.
The collections of works used by the chapel royal under Christian III in the middle of the 16th century were based on Dutch, Italian, French and German masters.
Christian IV spent considerable sums of money on training local musicians and bringing foreign masters to Denmark.
Mogens Pedersøn, one of his Danish musicians who had studied in Venice under Giovanni Gabrieli, became one of Denmark's most important composers of church music.
[3] Under the influence of Louis XIV of France, music for the theatre was established in Denmark during the reigns of Frederik III and Christian V when lavish court ballets were performed.
Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, from Altona, who was a pupil of Schulz, is remembered above all for his Danish songs, hymns and carols, which remain popular to this day.
[7] Friedrich Kuhlau wrote Elverhøj (Elves' Hill) (1828), which contains the music for Kong Kristian stod ved højen mast, a Danish national anthem.
In the spirit of Romantic nationalism, he composed eight symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music, organ and piano pieces and a number of large-scale cantatas, among them Elverskud (The Elf King's Daughter), the most famous Danish work of its kind.
[17] Many other composers were part of this "Golden Age" of Danish music, among which Peter Heise, Emil Hartmann, August Winding, C.F.E.
Bournonville's best-known works are La Sylphide (1836), Napoli (1842), Le Conservatoire (1849), The Kermesse in Bruges (1851) and A Folk Tale (1854).
He drew on a number of different composers including Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, Holger Simon Paulli and Niels Gade.
The two leading figures, Carl Nielsen and Thomas Laub revived interest in the purer music of earlier periods such as the Renaissance.
Among the most successful are: Other notable contemporary composers include Bent Sørensen, and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (both winners of the Nordic Council Music Prize), and Frederik Magle (compositions for the Danish royal family).
It has been used in countless films, such as the classic Danish sex comedy I Tvillingernes tegn (1975), where it is the centerpiece of a big nude dancing production number set in the 1930s,[28] and Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried (2000), with Johnny Depp playing a gypsy in the 1920s.
[31] As jazz became more popular in the 1930s, one of the rising stars was the talented violinist Svend Asmussen (1916–2017) who made his first recordings in 1934 at the age of 18 and was still playing with his quartet more than 70 years later.
[32] During the German occupation in the 1940s, jazz was discouraged but many musicians continued to perform while others escaped to Sweden, including drummer Uffe Baadh.
[1] In the early 1960s, when there was something of a revival, the Jazzhus Montmartre opened in Copenhagen, reflecting the atmosphere of clubs in Paris and New York City.
Many Americans moved to Denmark including Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Lee Konitz and many others.
The American pianist Kenny Drew formed a trio with drummer Alex Riel and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen which became a staple at Jazzhus Montmartre.
[39][40] Other rock artists worth mentioning are The Kissaway Trail, Junior Senior, Nephew, Carpark North, Saybia, VETO, Swan Lee, Dúné, Volbeat and Dizzy Mizz Lizzy which has just had a revival.
[41] Famous Danish rock and metal musicians include Lars Ulrich, the drummer and co-founder of Metallica, Mike Tramp, the vocalist and co-songwriter of White Lion, and Kim Bendix Petersen, aka King Diamond, vocalist of Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond.
She knew and worked with Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen and has continued to make appearances on the Danish electronica scene well into the new millennium.
With his Coma parties, Kenneth Bager brought acid house to Denmark in 1988 and was active in building a Danish club scene, moving venues from the discothèques to deserted factories and basements.
[57] In the more mainstream part of the genre, Safri Duo also experienced international success with their mixture of tribal sound and electronica; also in the electronic scene adding elements of string and brass instruments is the indie folk/electronic four-piece Efterklang.
[61] The first systematic collection of popular folk songs, some of which go back centuries, was undertaken by the folklore collector Evald Tang Kristensen (1843–1929).
[63] Curiously, Danish folk music received its biggest boost from the home chart success of Sorten Muld, who used acoustic and electric instruments and electronica on old songs to create something very contemporary on its best-selling albums.
Indeed, it is not only common to engage one or more musicians for dancing but it is usual for the guests to write songs, normally to well-known traditional tunes, in honour of those to be celebrated.
Der er et yndigt land (There Is a Lovely Country) is sung loudly and enthusiastically at sporting events and is the most popular.
Lyrics are by Johannes Ewald while music was probably written by Ditlev Ludwig Rogert and can be heard in the final tableau of Elverhøj.
[12] The other was the completion of Danmarks Radio's Concert Hall in 2009 where the national broadcaster not only presents its orchestral music but also choirs, jazz, rock and pop.
