Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Hans Christian Andersen: the Musician

"When words fail, music speaks!"- Hans Christian Andersen

Go here to read a preview of the book Hans Christian Andersen and Music: the Nightingale Revealed, by Anna Harwell Celenza. It combines my own two obsessions of music and fairy tales by using the life and writings of Hans Christian Andersen to explore his tastes in music and the musical culture of the time. Andersen started life as a musician (he was a singer until his voice changed) and had a love of music his whole life. Many scholars have suggested that his personal reactions to his early rejections from the theater came out in his fairy tale characters, who are often the underdogs.

"I long for music like a man sick with fever longs for a drop of water."-Hans Christian Andersen

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