Interest in Hans Christian Andersen in musical contexts has been strong ever since the composer’s own time. Andersen himself cooperated closely with the notable Danish composers of his era, and as early as 1829, i.e. at the age of 24, he made his debut as the author of the vaudeville Kærlighed paa Nicolai Taarn (Love in the Nicolai Tower), which was to prove the first of a long succession of music drama works from his pen. In 1832 the first of the more serious works appeared, the Singspiel Bruden fra Lammermoor (The Bride of Lammermoor) with music by I. Bredal, and the opera Ravnen (The Raven) with music by J.P.E. Hartmann. His collaboration with the latter composer was particularly fruitful over the next few years, and resulted in among other things the opera Liden Kirsten (Little Kirsten) (1848), which remains to this day one of the period’s most successful and enduring Danish works.

Internationally, too, Andersen had the best musical relations and had personal contacts with among others Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Richard Wagner and Robert Schumann — Schumann even composed music for Andersen’s poems: in Fünf Lieder op. 40, which is dedicated to Andersen, there are four of his poems in translations by Adalbert von Chamisso, who was the author of the fifth poem, Verratene Liebe; but Andersen’s texts are Märzveilchen (March Violets), Muttertraum (A Mother’s Grief), Der Soldat (The Soldier) and Der Spielmann (The Fiddler).

After Andersen’s death in 1875, too, there was great interest in interpreting his works musically. In his younger days, as we have seen, he had written librettos for opera and ballet, but it is especially in his tales that the composers of posterity have found inspiration for their creativity.

The earliest known composition inspired by Andersen’s tales is the ‘programme music’ orchestral work Four Tales by H.C. Andersen musically outlined by Johan Ole Emil Hornemann, which saw its first performance in the Tivoli Gardens in 1848 — in other words while Andersen was still alive. The first time a tale formed the basis for a musicodramatic adaptation was in Johan Bartoldy’s operetta Svinedrengen (The Swineherd) from 1886. In 1930 the Danish author Gustav Hetsch, in the book H.C. Andersen og Musiken (Copenhagen 1930) could list no fewer than 29 Nordic composers (22 of them Danes), who had written music to, based on or inspired by Andersen, and innumerable others have done so since. Among the better known examples are August Enna (a whole six stage works and a cantata), Fini Henriques, Gunnar Berg, Poul von Klenau, Håkon Børresen, Finn Høffding, Ib Nørholm, Sven Erik Werner and Fuzzy — to mention but a few.

Foreign composers have also dealt with Andersen — again, some of the better known are Alexander Zemlinsky and Arthur Honegger (both with music to The Little Mermaid) as well as Igor Stravinsky (The Nightingale). As recently as 1999 the dacapo label released a CD on the international market with the Odense Symphony orchestra playing three symphonic works based on Andersen’s texts — Finn Høffding’s Det er ganske vist (It’s Perfectly True) (1943), Sven Erik Werner’s Det utroligste (The Most Incredible Thing) (1997) and Fuzzy’s Konen med æggene (The Woman with the Eggs) (1998). The most recent Danish composition with a text based on Andersen is Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen’s chamber opera The Little Mermaid (1999-2000), which was premiered by the Funen Opera on 6th May 2000.

But the most striking musical project ever is Symphonic Fairytales. Never before has such a great effort been made to create one great international Andersen event, and the Danish Government and the Minister of Culture have shown, with their moral and financial support, their recognition of the project’s potential and impact.