Carl Nielsen was a modest, unpretentious man with no inclination to behave like the "great composer" he undoubtedly was. Despite his enormous influence on twentieth century music he regarded himself primarily as a musical craftsman, and was always ready to turn his hand to comparatively minor tasks.

One such was to write some music for a new production of the drama Aladdin, or The Miraculous Lamp by the Danish poet Adam Oehlenschlager (1779-1850), at the Royal Theater, Copenhagen. It can safely be assumed that this was more a pantomime than a serious play but, though time was short, Nielsen entered fully into the spirit of the venture and produced a work full of imagination, melodic beauty, and color.

At the first performance, the size of the orchestra had been reduced, cuts were made in the music and the overall effect ruined. Some years later Nielsen re-scored the work as an orchestral suite, and conducted the first full performance. Thereafter Aladdin become popular with Danish audiences, and is still frequently played. The fairy-tale atmosphere of the original remains as fresh and attractive as Grieg's equally-celebrated incidental music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt and, though movements such as "Aladdin's Dream," "Dance of the Morning Fog," and "Negro Dance" give little hint of the huge, complex canvases that Nielsen covers in his symphonies and other major works, the suite has a respectable place among musical scores that have long outlived their partners.

It might also be added that while the public at large might easily have found much of Nielsen's music too abstract and "experimental," this is but one of several examples of his willingness to put his skills to less challenging uses in light, entertaining pieces which nevertheless bear the unmistakable stamp of originality.

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