Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen composed his Norsk kunstnerkarneva (Norwegian Artists' Carnival) for a specific carnival: the pre-Lenten Carnival held in Oslo by the Society of Artists in 1874. The work is in standard rondo form and has three main themes, all of them in major keys: a Norwegian folk tune, an Italian folk tune, and a popular Norwegian wedding dance. Svendsen use of these themes is apparently symbolic: the Society of Artists intended the carnival to reconcile the Norwegian festival tradition with the gaiety of Italian pre-Lenten carnival. To drive his point home, Svendsen combines all three themes contrapuntally in the work's closing section.

© James Leonard, Rovi