''Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp'' (in Danish: ; typically shortened to just ''Aladdin''),
Op. 34 (FS 89; CNW 17), is
theatre music for soloists, mixed choir, and orchestra written from 1917 to 1919 by the Danish composer
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen (; 9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor, and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer.
Brought up by poor yet musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he d ...
to accompany the Danish playwright
Adam Oehlenschläger's 1805 "
dramatic fairy tale" ("") of the same name. The play is a five-act retelling of the "
Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...
" story from the
Middle Eastern
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
, ''
One Thousand and One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...
''.
The play, albeit divided into two parts, received its premiere at the
Royal Danish Theatre in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, respectively on 15 February and 22 February 1919; Ferdinand Hemme conducted the
Royal Danish Orchestra. For each act, Nielsen provided extensive original music, and the complete score is the composer's third longest work, exceeded only by to his
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
s, ''
Saul and David'' (; 1902) and (1905).
Background
Nielsen composed much of the music in
Skagen
Skagen () is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in North Denmark Region, Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalbo ...
during the summer of 1918, completing it after returning to Copenhagen in January 1919. He experienced major difficulties with the work as the director,
Johannes Poulsen, had used the orchestra pit for an extended stage, leaving the orchestra cramped below a majestic staircase on the set. When Poulsen cut out large parts of the music during final rehearsals and changed the sequence of dances, Nielsen demanded that his name be removed from the posters and the programme. In fact, the theatre production in February 1919 was not very successful and was withdrawn after only 15 performances.
Music
Complete score
The complete score, lasting over 80 minutes, is Nielsen's longest work apart from his operas. Demonstrating great inventiveness, Nielsen's enriched style can be observed in the musical language he used for the exotic dances, paving the way for his
Fifth Symphony.
["Preface" to Aladdin]
Carl Nielsen Edition
. Royal Danish Library. Retrieved 26 October 2010. In May 1992 a recording of virtually the entire score was made by the
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir with
Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian conductor, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.
Biography
Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. His parents were the noted conductor and pedagog ...
.
Aladdin suite
Nielsen frequently conducted extracts from ''Aladdin'' to great popular acclaim both in Denmark and abroad. The music was successfully presented at London’s
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...
on 22 June 1923 and at 12 performances of ''Aladdin'' at the
Deutsches Schauspielhaus in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
in November and December 1929. Nielsen had been scheduled to conduct extracts with the Radio Symphony Orchestra on 1 October 1931 when he suffered a major heart attack. Lying on a hospital bed, he was nevertheless able to listen to the Oriental March, Hindu Dance and Negro Dance on a crystal set before he died the following day.
The extracts were published in 1940 as the ''Aladdin suite''. Its seven parts are:
* Oriental Festival March
* Aladdin's Dream/Dance of the Morning Mist
* Hindu Dance
* Chinese Dance
* The Marketplace in
Isphahan
* Dance of the Prisoners
* Negro Dance
A transcription for piano of the Oriental Festival March was published by Borup's Musikforlag in Copenhagen in 1926.
On the basis of information from the Carl Nielsen Society, the ''Aladdin Suite'' is currently one of Nielsen's most widely performed works.
"Performances"
, Carl Nielsen Society. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
Three songs
Nielsen published ''Aladdin, three songs from the play by A. Oehlenschlæger'' in 1919 as his Opus 34. The songs are:
* Cithar, lad min Bøn dig røre
* Visselulle nu, Barnlil!
* Alt Maanen oprejst staar
Discography
The table below lists commercially available recordings of the complete ''Aladdin'' Suite:
Notes
References
External links
*
''Aladdin'', CNW 17
Scores at the Catalogue of Carl Nielsen's Works by the Royal Danish Library
Royal Danish Library () is a merger of the two previous national libraries in Denmark: the State and University Library in Aarhus and the Royal Library in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, wit ...
{{italics title
Compositions by Carl Nielsen
Incidental music
1919 compositions
Orchestral suites
Adaptations of works by Adam Oehlenschläger
Orchestral compositions with chorus