Carl Nielsen, labelled as Denmark's national composer, has long been relegated to a secondary status in English-language musicology as a composer of great national significance but negligible importance outside of Scandinavia. This thesis explores the links between Danish nationalism and Nielsen's music, as well as the effects of Nielsen's status as a national composer on the reception of his symphonic music outside of Denmark. The first section of this paper is a study of Nielsen's music in the context of Danish cultural nationalism at the turn of the twentieth century, focusing on the folk influences or "Danish" aspects of his symphonic music. It also examines the extent to which the national or Nordic qualities of his music are constructions and later attributions. The following section looks at the development of Nielsen's status as a national composer in Denmark, as well as how this label has engendered the stereotyping of his music as regional in English-language musicology. Nielsen has been neglected by the Anglo-Germanic canon which privileges central European compositional styles and methods while viewing nationally inflected music negatively. Although Nielsen's Danish background cannot be ignored, his symphonic music needs to be studied in a wider European context for his universal message to be appreciated

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