Music in Danish Life
Music is an important part of the lives of most ordinary Danish people. One of the carefully observed traditions is to include music at Danish family celebrations such as wedding parties, birthdays and anniversaries. Indeed, it is not only common to engage one or more musicians for dancing but it is usual for the guests to write songs, normally to well-known traditional tunes, in honour of those to be celebrated.
There is also a tradition of singing in choirs. There are literally hundreds of amateur choirs throughout Denmark, usually specialising in traditional Danish songs or folk music. The supporting organization Dansk Amatørmusik claims it covers 30,000 choir singers and 6,000 members of amateur orchestras.
The Danes are also proud of their two national anthems. The one which is most widely used is Der er et yndigt land (There is a Lovely Land) which is sung loudly and enthusiastically at sporting events. The words are by the Danish poet Adam Oehlenschläger and the music by Hans Ernst Krøyer. The other is Kong Kristian stod ved højen mast (King Christian stood by tow'ring mast), used on official occasions when the royal family is represented. The words are by Johannes Ewald while the music is probably written by Ditlev Ludvig Rogert and can be heard in the final tableau of Elverhøj.
Read more about this topic: Danish Folk Music
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or life:
“The music stopp’d, and I stood still,
And found myself outside the Hill,
Left alone against my will,
To go now limping as before,
And never hear of that country more!””
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“For me, the principal fact of life is the free mind. For good and evil, man is a free creative spirit. This produces the very queer world we live in, a world in continuous creation and therefore continuous change and insecurity. A perpetually new and lively world, but a dangerous one, full of tragedy and injustice. A world in everlasting conflict between the new idea and the old allegiances, new arts and new inventions against the old establishment.”
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957)