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NIELS WILHELM GADE (1817-189o)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 383 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NIELS WILHELM See also:

GADE (1817-189o)  , Danish composer, was See also:born at See also:Copenhagen, on the 22nd of See also:February 1817, his See also:father being a musical See also:instrument maker . He was intended for his father's See also:trade, but his See also:passion for a musician's career, made evident by the ease and skill with which he learnt to See also:play upon a number of See also:instruments, was not to be denied . Though he became proficient on the See also:violin under Wexschall, and in the elements of theory under Weyse and Berggreen, he was to a See also:great extent self-taught . His opportunities of See also:hearing and playing in the great masterpieces were many, since he was a member of the See also:court See also:band . In 184o his Aladdin and his See also:overture of See also:Ossian attracted See also:attention, and in 1841 his Nachklange aus Ossian overture gained the See also:local musical society's See also:prize, the See also:judges being See also:Spohr and See also:Schneider . This See also:work also attracted the See also:notice of the See also:king, who gave the composer a See also:stipend which enabled him to go to See also:Leipzig and See also:Italy . In 1844 See also:Gade conducted the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig during Mendelssohn's See also:absence, and on the latter's See also:death became See also:chief conductor . In 1848, on the outbreak of the See also:Holstein See also: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 . See also:Hartmann .

He became court conductor in 1861, and was pensioned by the See also:

government in 1876—the See also:year in which he visited See also:Birmingham to conduct his Crusaders . This work, and the Fruhlingsfantasie, the Erlkonigs Tochter, Fruhlingsbotschaft and See also:Psyche (written for Birmingham in 1882) have enjoyed a wide popularity . Indeed, they represent the strength and the weakness of Gade's musical ability quite as well as any of his eight symphonies (the best of which are the first and See also:fourth, while the fifth has an See also:obbligato See also:pianoforte See also:part) . Gade was distinctly a romanticist, but his See also:music is highly polished and beautifully finished, lyrical rather than dramatic and effective . Much of the pianoforte music, Aquarellen, See also:Spring See also:Flowers, for instance, enjoyed a considerable See also:vogue, as did the Novelletten trio; but Gade's See also:opera Mariotla has not been heard outside the Copenhagen opera See also:house . He died at Copenhagen on the 21st of See also:December ago .

End of Article: NIELS WILHELM GADE (1817-189o)
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