Denmark Music and Dance

Denmark is a state at the transition from Central Europe to Northern Europe with (2018) 5.8 million residents; The capital is Copenhagen. The Faroe Islands and Greenland also belong to the national territory.

MUSIC

Among the most significant testimonies of ancient Danish music are the folk songs of medieval origin, handed down orally (especially ballads). In the field of cultured music, Denmark was for a long time dependent on the rest of Europe, even if the royal court devoted great attention to musical life, starting from the century. XVI. Numerous Flemish and German musicians worked in Denmark, including H. Schütz; instead, D. Buxtehude, of Danish origin, was active in Germany. The French influence, which provided the model for court ballets, was also relevant. In the theatrical field, C. Förster the Younger, R. Keizer, Gluck, Dittersdorf, Grétry worked, G. Santi and JAP Schulz, director of the Royal Theater (1787-95) and author of Singspiele in Danish. His successor FLA Kunzen also made a notable contribution to the birth of a national musical theater. At the beginning of the century. XIX dominated the influence of Viennese classicism; however, the first important personalities of local composers, JPE Hartmann and N. Gade, quickly established themselves, both inspired by national popular traditions (especially Hartmann) and German romanticism. In more recent times the most important figure is that of C. Nielsen, still tied to late Romantic premises. In recent decades, Danish composers have been inspired by Hindemith and Stravinskij, therefore to dodecaphony and to the most recent avant – garde.

DANCE AND BALLET

According to aparentingblog, the first relevant manifestations of dance took place already in the century. XVI, first in the form of an interlude of theatrical performances, then as autonomous choreutic representations of French inspiration. In the eighteenth century the influence of Italian artists took over, from the traveling company Mingotti who introduced pantomime to Copenhagen, to the Orlandi brothers, to A. Como, the first Dansemester of Danish elements, to A. Sacco, spokesperson for Angiolini ‘s ballet d’action and Noverre. The first flowering of the ballet originated from the meeting between the Italian choreographer V. Galeotti, the French school he certainly assimilated and the Danish culture from which he drew melodies and narrative ideas. Del Galeotti is still in the repertoire of the Kongelige Danske Ballet Amors og Balletmesterens Luner (The whims of Cupid and the dance teacher), which had its first triumphal triumph on 31 October 1786. Also a second flowering was at the beginning of a cosmopolitan nature. The protagonist was A. Bournonville, who from 1830 to 1877 directed the Danish Ballet almost continuously as principal dancer, choreographer and dance teacher, creating over 50 ballets and developing what is called “the Danish style”, still followed today. In the twentieth century the ballet found its most valid representatives in the choreographer Harald Lander, active from 1932 to 1951 and proponent of a more modern Danish ballet open to international influence, in Vera Volkova, in Niels Bjørn Larsen and Frank Schaufuss and in their son Peter Schaufuss. With them, and especially with Flemming Flindt, former first dancer then director and choreographer of the Kongelige Danske Ballet, the Copenhagen company opened up to the contemporary repertoire (Balanchine, Robbins, Petit, Cramer, Cranko, Tetley) while continuing to keep alive its particular technical-stylistic tradition. Other leading figures of Danish ballet of our time have been Erik Bruhn, a very fine interpreter both of the Danish repertoire and of the classical and contemporary ballet repertoire, and Peter Martins, since 1984 at the helm of the company created by Balanchine, the New York City Ballet. Peter Schaufuss also shone on the international stage both as principal dancer and as maître de ballet and reproducer of the great Bournonville repertoire.

Zealand

Zealand, Danish Zealand [ sjεlan], largest island of Denmark, km (without extra Islands) 7031 ², 2.24 million people.

Zealand is a gently undulating, agriculturally used, fertile moraine landscape (up to 126 m above sea level; cliff formation by chalk limestone: especially Stevns Klint, on the southeast coast, UNESCO World Heritage Site) with numerous tunnel valleys and Osern (Os).

North-east of Copenhagen are the deciduous forests, which were used by the Danish royal family for parforce hunting until the end of the 16th century and which were declared a World Heritage Site in 2015. Cultivation of grain, sugar beet, etc., dairy farming, tree nurseries, in the area around Copenhagen also field vegetables and fruit growing. Population, industry and the service sector are concentrated in the Copenhagen area. A tunnel and bridge connection over the Great Belt and the island of Sprogø to Funen was completed in 1997/98, a fixed connection to Sweden over the Öresund was opened to road and rail traffic in 2000. Main port: Copenhagen, international airport: Kastrup (on the side island of Amager).

Since the administrative reform of 2007, Zealand is a region with 7 273 km ² and 832 600 residents, the capital is Sorø. The region extends over most of Zealand and the islands of Falster, Lolland and Møn.