GADE, NIELS WILHELM (1817-189o)

This article appears in Volume V11, Page 383 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FRA-GAE

GADE, NIELS WILHELM (1817-189o) , Danish composer, was born at Copenhagen, on the 22nd of February 1817, his father being a musical

instrument

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

maker. He was intended for his father's trade, but his passion for a musician's career, made evident by the ease and skill with which he learnt to play upon a number of instruments, was not to be denied. Though he became proficient on the violin under Wexschall, and in the elements of theory under Weyse and Berggreen, he was to a

great

GREAT

extent self-taught. His opportunities of hearing and playing in the

great

GREAT

masterpieces were many, since he was a member of the court band. In 184o his Aladdin and his overture of Ossian attracted attention, and in 1841 his Nachklange aus Ossian overture gained the local musical society's prize, the judges being Spohr and Schneider. This

work

WORK

also attracted the notice of the king, who gave the composer a stipend which enabled him to go to

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

and Italy. In 1844

Gade

GADE, NIELS WILHELM (1817-189o)

conducted the Gewandhaus concerts in

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

during Mendelssohn's absence, and on the latter's death became

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

conductor. In 1848, on the outbreak of the Holstein War, he returned to Copenhagen, where he was appointed organist and conductor of the Musik-Verein. In 1852 he married a daughter of the composer J. P. E. Hartmann. He became court conductor in 1861, and was pensioned by the government in 1876the year in which he visited Birmingham to conduct his Crusaders. This

work

WORK

, and the Fruhlingsfantasie, the Erlkonigs Tochter, Fruhlingsbotschaft and Psyche (written for Birmingham in 1882) have enjoyed a wide popularity. Indeed, they represent the strength and the weakness of

Gade

GADE, NIELS WILHELM (1817-189o)

's musical ability quite as well as any of his eight symphonies (the best of which are the first and fourth, while the fifth has an obbligato pianoforte part). Gade was distinctly a romanticist, but his music is highly polished and beautifully finished, lyrical rather than dramatic and effective. Much of the pianoforte music, Aquarellen,

Spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

Flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

, for instance, enjoyed a considerable vogue, as did the Novelletten trio; but Gade's opera Mariotla has not been heard outside the Copenhagen opera

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

. He died at Copenhagen on the 21st of December ago.

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