The symphony is in the standard four movements: A typical performance takes approximately 35 minutes.
The symphony's melodies have a distinctive Danish flavour and are imbued with Nielsen's personal style.
Nielsen scholar Robert Simpson describes the composer's symphonic debut as "probably the most highly organized first symphony ever written by a young man of twenty-seven.
"[2] The work opens in G minor, and closes with a rousing peroration in C major.
[3]) Simpson states "it is possibly the first symphony to end in a key other than that in which it started".