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Niels Wilhelm Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was aDanishcomposer,conductor,violinist,organist and teacher. Together withJohan Peter Emilius Hartmann, he was the leading Danish musician of his day, in the period known as theDanish Golden Age.[1]
Gade was born inCopenhagen, the son of a joiner and instrument 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 learned to play upon a number of instruments, was not to be denied. Though he became proficient on the violin underFrederik Wexschall, and in the elements of theory underChristoph Weyse and Weyse's pupilAndreas Berggreen, he was to a great extent self-taught.[2]
He began his professional career as a violinist with theRoyal Danish Orchestra, which premiered hisconcert overtureEfterklange af Ossian ("Echoes ofOssian") in 1841. When the performance of his first symphony had to be delayed in Copenhagen, it was sent toFelix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn received the work positively, and conducted it inLeipzig in March 1843, to enthusiastic public reaction.[3] His work attracted the notice of the king, who gave the composer a Danish government fellowship which enabled him to go toLeipzig andItaly.[2] Moving to Leipzig, Gade taught at theConservatory there, working as an assistant conductor of theGewandhaus Orchestra, and befriendingMendelssohn, who had an important influence on his music.
In 1845 Gade conducted the premiere of Mendelssohn'sViolin Concerto in E minor withFerdinand David at the violin. He also became friends withRobert Schumann andRobert Franz.[4] Robert Schumann wrote a long enthusiastic article describing Gade as an exceptional young musician having the looks of Mozart and the four letters of whose name were those of the four strings of the violin. In his correspondence he talks of Gade as a rare talent with whom he sympathises as only with few. One of Schumann's piano pieces is entitled "Gade" and based on the notes G-A-D-E, and Schumann's third piano trio is dedicated to Gade. Gade conducted the first performance ofSchumann's piano Concerto with Clara Schumann at the piano.
AtMendelssohn's death in 1847, Gade was appointed to his position as chief conductor inLeipzig but was forced to return to Copenhagen in the spring of 1848 whenwar broke out between Prussia and Denmark. In Copenhagen Gade became acquainted with the composerCornelius Gurlitt and they remained friends until Gade's death. Gade became director of theCopenhagen Musical Society (Musikforeningen), a post he retained until his death. He established a new orchestra and chorus, while settling into a career as Denmark's most prominent musician. Under his direction, the Music Society reached its peak. He also worked as an organist; though he lost the prestigious position of organist at Our Lady, today'sCopenhagen Cathedral, toJohan Peter Emilius Hartmann, he served in theHolmen Church in Copenhagen from 1850 until his death. Gade was joint director of theCopenhagen Conservatory with Hartmann (whose daughter he married in 1852) andHolger Simon Paulli, became court conductor in 1861, and was pensioned by the government in 1876. An important influence on a number of Scandinavian composers, he encouraged and taughtEdvard Grieg,Carl Nielsen,Louis Glass,Elfrida Andrée,Otto Malling,August Winding andAsger Hamerik.[5][6]
Among Gade's works are eight symphonies, aviolin concerto,chamber music, organ and piano pieces and a number of large-scalecantatas,Comala (1846) andElverskud (1853) among them, which he called "concert pieces" (koncertstykker). These products, embraced post-1848 as works ofRomantic nationalism,[7] are sometimes based onDanish folklore. Apparently Gade never rated "The Bridal Waltz" (Brudevalsen). It was rescued byAugust Bournonville in his balletA Folk Tale (Et folkesagn) and became an essential part of Danish weddings.[8][9]
On 27 April 1852 Gade married Emma Sophie Amalie Hartmann, daughter ofJohan Peter Emilius Hartmann. He dedicated his Spring Fantasy to her to celebrate their engagement and his 5th Symphony with piano concertante as a wedding gift. In 1855, she died in childbirth while delivering twins; only one of them, Johan Felix Gade (1855-1928), survived. He became the father of organist and composerNiels Rudolph Gade.
Niels Gade remarried in 1857 to Mathilde Stæger, herself an outstanding pianist. For the wedding he wrote Fruehlingsbotschfaft expressing both his love for his now deceased first wife and the start of a new life and love for his second wife. This new marriage brought him two more children – a son,Axel Wilhelm Gade (1860-1921), who himself became a noted violinist, composer and conductor, and a daughter, Dagmar Gade (1863-1952). Niels Gade died in Copenhagen in the Christmas days of 1890.
There is no family connection with the composerJacob Gade.
A selection of Gade's correspondance with European contemporaries was published by Inger Sørensen asNiels W. Gade og hans europæiske kreds - En brevveksling 1836–1891.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gade, Niels Wilhelm".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 383.Leipzig Gewandhaus Kapellmeister | ||
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