Mr. LoneLy

Carl August Nielsen (9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a conductor, violinist, and composer from Denmark. His works have long been well known in Denmark and they have been "a mainstay throughout the Nordic countries and, to a lesser extent, in Britain," noted the critic Alex Ross in 2008 in The New Yorker, and rising young conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and Alan Gilbert are now playing Nielsen's music in the United States.

Carl Nielsen is especially admired for his six symphonies and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet.

Carl Nielsen appears on the Danish hundred-kroner bill.

Nielsen was the seventh of twelve children in a poor peasant family in Sortelung (Nørre Lyndelse), south of the city of Odense, Denmark. His father was a house painter and amateur musician. Carl first discovered music by experimenting with the sounds and pitches he heard when striking logs in a pile of firewood behind his home. He managed to learn the violin and piano as a child.

He also learned how to play brass instruments, which led to a job as a bugler in the 16th Battalion at nearby Odense. He later studied violin and music theory at the Copenhagen Music Conservatory, but never took formal lessons in composition. Nonetheless, he began to compose. At first, he did not gain enough recognition for his works to support him. During the concert which saw the premiere of his first symphony on 14 March 1894 conducted by Johan Svendsen, Nielsen played in the second violin section. However, the same symphony was a great success when played in Berlin in 1896, and from then his fame grew.

Nielsen continued to play the violin at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen until 1905, when he became 2nd conductor at the Theatre (till 1914). From 1914-26, he conducted the orchestra of "Musikforeningen". In 1916 he took a post teaching at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, and continued to work there until his death, in his last year as director of the institute.

On 10 April 1891 Nielsen married the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen, after having met just a month before in Paris, and the couple honeymooned in Italy. Despite a long period of marital strife including a lengthy separation and mutual accusations of infidelity, they remained married until Nielsen's death. They had three children: Irmelin, Anne Marie, and Børge.

For his son-in-law, the Hungarian violinist Dr. Emil Telmanyi, Nielsen wrote his Violin Concerto op. 33 (1911).

Nielsen suffered a serious heart attack in 1925 and from that time on he was forced to curtail much of his activity, although he continued to compose until his death. Also during this period he wrote a delightful memoir of his childhood called My Childhood on Funen (1927). He also produced a short book of essays entitled Living Music (1925). Both have been translated into English. He died in Copenhagen in 1931.