Nielsen's father was a simple craftsman, but with the help of friends, he studied at the Copenhagen Conservatory. From a young age, he was the second violinist in the Royal Orchestra for twelve years, which in 1892 premiered his First Symphony. It was somewhat influenced by Brahms' music, but already very personal, conveying the struggle between two tonalities, which becomes his usual style. He began to conduct his own works - his now popular Second Symphony ('The Four Temperaments') appeared in 1901. These temperaments are related to people and their conditions, conveying different player personalities. All of Nielsen's six symphonies should not be taken as programmatic music. Only after his post in the Royal Orchestra could he devote himself fully to composition. “Music, like life, is unfathomable,” he declared, and this characteristically vigorous and positive mood, without giving in to melancholy, gave the Fourth Symphony its name, and nurtured the atmosphere of many of his works. Grotesque elements can often be found in his work. For example, in the Flute Concerto, the solo playing is disturbed by vulgar interferences from the bass trumpets, while in the considerably stricter Clarinet Concerto, the freely aggressive drum almost destroys the concerto. This senseless element of competition is particularly noticeable in the Fourth Symphony, where, in the finale, two timpani groups engage in a struggle, as well as in the Sharing of the Spoils of the Fifth Symphony, whose existence is threatened by a militant drum. However, the other side of this element is progressive tonality (the starting key is conquered by another one), which Nielsen valued.
