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The Early Works of Niels W. Gade: In Search of the Poetic

Previous Gade scholarship has been confined to Germany and Denmark. Gade enjoyed a brilliant career in the 1840s at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and was one of few Danes blessed with international success. This Danish/German duality has led to two distinct views of the composer. The Danish view sees Gade as attempting to strengthen international recognition of Denmark's musical culture through the creation of a 'national tone'. German scholars, on the other hand, have stressed Gade's attachment to German Romanticism and his allegiance to figures such as Mendelssohn and Schumann. Anna Harwell Celenza offers a more complex analysis of the development of Gade's composition style and influences that helped to shape his creative identity.

Review: '... the first in-depth study of the composer's life and music available in English, offers a detailed sketch of the artist and traces the genesis and early development of his style... will appeal to anyone interested in Scandinavian music, and especially to individuals drawn to Danish musical culture. Yet, it is also sure to attract those intrigued by the covert and persistent influence of nineteenth-century German music criticism on the creativity and taste outside its own borders and time.' Notes