Solon Raptakis & Ioannis Fulias,
“Aspects of Carl Nielsen’s evolution as a composer through his four string
quartets”,
in:
Kostas
Chardas, Petros Vouvaris, Kostas Kardamis, Giorgos Sakallieros & Ioannis Fulias
(ed.), 8th Musicological Conference: “Influences and
cross-influences” (Conference proceedings, under the auspices of the
Hellenic Musicological Society, Athens, 25-27
November 2016), Hellenic Musicological Society, Thessaloniki 2019,
p. 440-458.
Contrary to his symphonies, the four string quartets of the Danish composer Carl
Nielsen (1865-1931) have not been systematically analysed so far. However, a
comparative study of these relatively early chamber music works reveals the
remarkable continuity of the composer’s thought as well as the way that, within
two decades (from 1887 to 1906), he assimilates and constantly develops the
established (in his era) musical forms. Given that in all these four quartets
the same four-movement structure is always preserved, our analytical remarks
focus here, in turn, a) on the opening fast movements, which are initially based
on the ternary sonata form but paradoxically evolve towards the mixed form of
sonata-rondo, b) on the slow second movements, all of which are based on the
(not at all unvarying) requirements for the ternary form, c) on the third
movements, where the traditional “da capo” scherzo form gradually gives its
place to a more cohesive ternary formal structure, and finally d) on the final
fast movements, in which the composer gives the advantage to the ternary sonata
form, yet following a remarkable course from instances which are relatively
deformational and cyclically referential to previous movements,
to a type of structurally normative and absolutely autonomous final movement.
© Ioannis
Fulias