Jacob Gade’s Tango Jalousie is the best known piece of music ever written by a Dane. As late as the 1970s it was estimated that every minute of the day someone somewhere in the world was playing Tango Jalousie; only the Beatles’ Yesterday could for a time match its popularity. The income from Tango Jalousie - and his many other compositions - made Jacob Gade a very wealthy man and provided (and continues to provide) the capital for Jacob Gade’s Legat, which annually since his death on 20th February 1963 has granted considerable sums to talented young Danish musicians.

This Website tells the story, in sound, words and pictures, of Jacob Gade, Tango Jalousie, and the Foundation it enabled him to create. You can listen to Tango Jalousie while reading its history, in the course of which it has been recorded in countless different arrangements, as well as having been featured in numerous films.

Besides information about Jacob Gade, his life and works, you will also find here everything you need to know about his Foundation and the work it does to promote young and talented musicians in Denmark.

This Website also offers you links to other sources relevant to Jacob Gade and to the Tango in general. It will show you how you can buy CD’s with Tango Jalousie via the Internet and, should you wish further information about anything concerning Jacob Gade, his music or his Foundation, it will enable you to get in touch with the Foundation directly.

Jacob Thune Hansen Gade (called Thune in his early years) was born in the Danish town of Vejle on 29th November 1879. He came from a family of local musicians; his father had a small music shop, where he sold music and sold and repaired instruments, in addition to which he led a ten-piece orchestra that played for local dances and celebrations. It was natural that Thune should continue this musical tradition and to begin with he was taught the trumpet by his father. At the age of nine he made his debut with his father’s orchestra and the following year he was invited to Copenhagen to perform as a guest soloist with the band of the Tivoli Gardens. At the age of twelve or thirteen he began to take lessons on the violin, first with his father and then with a local organist. However, at an early stage he realized that he would have to go elsewhere if he were to get on in the world: “ It became clear to me that I would not make sufficient progress as things were, so I quietly conceived a plan to go to Copenhagen. I had also by this time begun to compose country dances, ‘hopsa’-waltzes, polkas and such like. Now I thought the time had come to make an assault on the nation’s capital. My purpose was clear. I was determined to be a conductor and a composer - by which I meant a composer of waltzes, since that, I thought, was a finer and more beautiful kind of music than anything else.”

Sixteen yeears old, with a modest starting capital of 80 kroner [Danish crowns, hereafter DK], Jacob Gade set off for Copenhagen. His funds did not last long; engagements were limited to small public houses and cafés and in the early days he spent many a night sleeping on staircases round about in the city. The first real step up the ladder of success came when, at the age of 17 or 18, he was engaged to play in the “Operetta”, Lorry Feilberg’s music hall in Allégade in Frederiksberg, then the centre of the popular entertainment scene in Copenhagen. Gade’s first published compositions date from these years; the very first appeared in the year 1900 - a drinking song, “Der er sollys i modne druer” [There is sunshine in ripe grapes], the text of which was written by his employer, Lorry Feilberg. The song became very popular and was sung by, among others, Elna From, an actress ten years Gade’s senior with whom he had his first real love-affair. With her he had three children, but the couple never married and by 1906 they had parted. During a stay in Oslo in 1908 he married the actress Mimi Mikkelsen, who remained his wife until her death in 1950.

Jacob Gade played for Lorry Feilberg until 1901, then for a year or two he played the violin with various orchestras in Copenhagen. He advanced to the position of conductor in 1903 and for the next few years he led several different orchestras playing light music for entertainment and dancing. In 1909 he became director of music at the fashionable Hotel Bristol on the City Hall Square and here, leading his orchestra with his violin as “Stehgeiger” in the light and concert music of the period, he acquired a reputation as a second H. C. Lumbye or Johann Strauss.

Alongside these engagements Jacob Gade began taking violin lessons from the very highly-regarded violin teacher Max Schlüter, who, after concertizing all over the world, had settled down in Copenhagen around 1909. However Gade later said that already by this time he was too old for even the best teaching to enable him to achieve a career as a classically-trained concert violinist. He had tried a few years earlier to gain admittance to the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music but without success.

His long career as a theatre and cinema conductor began in 1914 with an engagement at the Dagmar Theatre (1914-19). In this period he also gave a number of concerts (playing, among other things, one of Paganini’s violin concertos and Bach’s solo sonatas) and was at the same time very productive as a composer. Several waltzes with French titles (Valse Ravissante, Douce Secrets), as well as his “Gypsy Romances”, date from this time. These works were moreover published under the pseudonym “Maurice Ribot” - foreign names made a good impression and helped to give both the music and the composer an international flavour. Works like these were very successful and when the newspaper Politiken named him “the Danish Waltz King” his youthful dream was realized.

In 1919 Jacob Gade went to New York where he got a job as a violinist in a small cinema orchestra. Later he joined the 80-member orchestra of the Capitol Cinema and finally he competed successfully for a place in the National Symphony Orchestra (the New York Philharmonic). There he played for two years under the batons of the conductors Artur Bodanzky and Willem Mengelberg. This was the only time in Gade’s life when, as a performing musician, he was able to devote himself to the classical symphonic repertoire for any length of time.

While on holiday in Denmark in 1921 he was offered the position of conductor at the Palads, the largest cinema theatre in northern Europe. Here, until 1926, he conducted a 24-member orchestra. The experience Gade had gained at the Capitol cinema in New York now stood him in good stead when he had to put together the music to accompany films. This consisted of pieces of classical music mixed with original film music, the so-called “Cinothèque” music, which was designed to express various moods in the silent films. To this repertoire he added his own independent compositions, such as, for example, Jalousie, Tango Tsigane, unquestionably Gade’s masterpiece in this genre.

In 1926 Jacob Gade took over the management of the Nørrebro Theatre in Copenhagen while at the same time providing the music for the theatre’s shows and revues. However he was not a great success as a theatre director; as early as the end of 1927 he returned to the Palads Theatre as conductor and here he experienced the final flourish of the great silent-film era. When the sound film was introduced in Copenhagen in 1929, it was not long before he had to face the fact that the new medium had made the cinema orchestra superfluous.

Jacob Gade left the Palads Theatre in the autumn of 1929 but his popularity continued unabated and for a time he and his orchestra were engaged by the World Cinema Theatre. Then came a season at the large establishment National Scala, which opened in 1931. There he had an orchestra of 30 under his baton in the daily performances of light music. This was Gade’s last important engagement as a conductor: A new age was on its way and with it came new sounds - the sounds of jazz. This was one of the factors that caused Gade to withdraw from public performance at the beginning of the 1930s in order to devote himself to composition.

Gade had bought Tibirke Mill, in the north of the island of Sealand, as a summer house in 1925. He liked to get away from the hectic life of the city and now, free from public engagements, both the Rhapsodietta and the tango Romanesca were composed. Both these works, besides being published by a Danish publisher, were also published in Paris by Max Eschig. The same tendency to look beyond the national boundaries is evident with regard to some of the larger orchestral works which followed in the late 1930s. When Gade went to the United States again in 1939 he contacted American publishers with a view to having his works published there. He had with him several of his newest compositions, including Leda and the Swan, which was accepted for performance at a Broadway theatre. During his stay in New York he was lionized by the American radio stations and the big cinemas as an international celebrity.

He returned to Denmark on 8th April 1940 - the day before Denmark was occupied by the German army. In 1943 he and his wife went to live in the small fishing village of Thorøhuse, near Assens on the island of Funen. Here he lived out his final years in retirement, though he continued to compose - among other things the Valse Capriccio (1943), the tango El matador (1947) and Tango glamour (1950). His wife Mimi, whom he had married in 1908, died in 1950 and Jacob Gade died 20th February 1963.

Literature

Bjarnhof, Karl, Tango Jalousie (Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1971)

Christensen, Jørgen Gram, Jacob Gade - Et eventyr i musik Published by Byhistorisk Forlag in cooperation with Vejle Byhistorisk Arkiv (Vejle, 1996)

Hermansen, V., Jacob Gade, 1879-1963 (Vejle, published by the author, 1993)

A film on Jacob Gade’s life has been made by TV2 Denmark and JJ Film

Jalousie, Tango Tsigane was first performed on 14th September 1925 at the Palads Theatre in Copenhagen in connection with the premiere in Denmark of the silent film Don Q, Son of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Astor. During the playing of the film Gade made use of the theme as accompaniment and at the intermission the tango was performed in its entirety.

Gade himself told how he was inspired to write the melody that was to shape his life: “One day the papers were filled with sensational descriptions of a crime of passion, a jealousy-murder, which made such an impression on me that I could not stop thinking about it. During my morning walk across the fields, however, I came to the sensible conclusion that the horrifying drama was really none of my business, so it faded gradually into the background. Nevertheless the word “jealousy” stuck in my mind as a title to which notes began to attach themselves. When I got home I sat down at my desk and after a few hours Tango Jalousie was finished.” The title Jalousie, Tango Tsigane, spelt in the French manner, emphasizes the international character of the tune. “Tsigane” (Gypsy) refers primarily to the virtuoso introduction for solo violin, which sounds almost improvised. The tango can be regarded as falling into two main parts, the first characterized by the temperamental theme in d minor and the second by the lyrical, refrain-like D major melody which is repeated. Both themes are cast in the rhythm of the tango and distinguished by a strong melodic profile. The instrumentation is the composer’s own and it shows that Jacob Gade, though self-taught as a composer, was a master of his craft.

The tango was published in the same year by Gade & Warny, a publishing firm that Gade had just started with his colleague Jens Warny - a highly esteemed bandleader at the famous Nimb establishment in Copenhagen. Already the following year Jalousie was also published abroad, by Harms in New York and Brull in Paris, among others. Then in the 1930s came radio transmissions and gramophone recordings. Arthur Fiedler’s recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1938 on the Victor label, which in 1952 became the first recording of light orchestral music to pass the magic number of one million sold copies, further consolidated the success of the tango. Innumerable other recordings followed, including one by the famous English singer Vera Lynn, whose performance, using a text written by the American Vera Bloom in 1931, was a hit during the Second World War.

When the war had finally come to an end, it appeared that the melody had been performed more often than any other piece of music with which it could be compared and while Denmark had been occupied a small fortune had accumulated and was waiting to be collected by the composer. Since then the piece has continued to enjoy a

phenomenal success, as, for example, when the American singer Frankie Laine’s recording from 1953 also passed the magic number of one million copies sold.

Where does Tango Jalousie belong in the world of music? Does it deserve to be classified as “classical music” or is it “merely” light music? It is not easy to determine: it has been recorded in all conceivable (and some inconceivable) arrangements, but it is noteworthy that on the lables of many of the recordings the names of well-established musicians from the world of classical music are to be found. One can mention, for example, the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler, the violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, Sjællands Symfoniorkester (The Symphony Orchestra of Sealand) with Anton Kontra as soloist and John Frandsen as conductor, Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester (The Symphony Orchestra of North Slesvig) conducted by Frans Rasmussen, the Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and the Danish “Royal Chamber Singer” Ib Hansen, and of course, since he was eminently qualified for this kind of music in particular, the violinist Wandy Tworek. Jacob Gade himself, to be sure, led the orchestra in several recordings of Tango Jalousie, and there are innumerable others. Not many countries are not represented with orchestras, conductors, violinists, singers and/or choruses on the long list. The world-famous Argentinian tango orchestra Sexteto Mayor should also be mentioned, and among the newer Danish recordings, one by the Ars Nova chorus with Niels Henning Ørsted Petersen and Palle Mikkelborg which lasts no less than nine minutes.

Though originally written as accompaniment to a silent movie, the tune has also been used in more than 100 sound films and TV productions, such as “Paris in Spring” with Ida Lupino (1935), “City for Conquest” with James Cagney (1940), “Anchors Away” with Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson (1945), “Romance on the High Seas” with Doris Day (1948), “Flamingo Road” with Joan Crawford (1949), “Painting the Clouds With Sunshine” with Dennis Morgan and Virginia Mayo (1951), “Sea Chase” with John Wayne (1955), “Bombers B52” with Natalie Wood (1957), “Death on the Nile” with David Niven (1978), Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” (1997) and the British film “The Full Monty” (1998). In Denmark it has been used in Niels Malmros’ “Århus by Night” and in the TV series “Matador”. To these may be added some films from recent years in which the tune has been used as background music, as in “Tangobar” by the Argentinian director Marcos Zurinaga (1988) and the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s “Atame!” (1991). Animators too have had use for Tango Jalousie: Jannik Hastrup has produced a music cartoon lasting five minutes in which the piece is played by Sjællands Symfoniorkester (The Symphony Orchestra of Sealand) conducted by John Frandsen and featuring Anton Kontra as violin soloist. In a review in Information Erik Thygesen called it “A distinguished alternative to the tens of thousands of meaningless music videos of today. May it be used frequently and not just at short-film festivals.”

On 15th October 1967 a little ballet entitled Tango Chicane was performed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen (and subsequently in the United States and Greenland) by Flemming and Vivi Flindt. The idea and choreography were by Flemming Flindt and the music, by Per Nørgård, was based on Jacob Gade’s Tango Jalousie.

Per Nørgård has told about the making of the music:

“Flemming Flindt and I were commissioned to write a little ballet which was to have its point of departure in Tango Jalousie and it was first performed earlier [in 1967] in the hall at Assens in connection with the Jacob Gade celebrations. We were given free rein and I at once saw the possibilities of the word-play “tsigane-chicane”. I accordingly wrote a piece for orchestra in which I treated [Gade’s] model affectionately but ironically and took advantage of a number of musical resemblances, for example the Tosca-motif suggested by the upward rise at the beginning of the tango melody, and found a way to introduce a quotation from the Beatles’ tune “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” from “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Furthermore, Tango Chicane can be heard as a continuation of my ballet The Young Man is Getting Married - the ironic attitude of which my parents, whose living came from selling wedding dresses, had to learn to accept. Tango Chicane was a success, we thought, and I had to make several versions for use in places where a symphony orchestra was not available. Hence I performed it in an arrangement for violin and piano at the Royal Theatre when the orchestra was on vacation. The violinist was Wandy Tworek and later, wearing a moustache and with a palm by my side, we played the music for King Frederik IX. The music was also arranged for chamber orchestra and for a tour in Greenland in 1969 Gunnar Møller Pedersen made an arrangment for trio.”

The annual Performing Rights Society statements show Tango Jalousie to be one of the most often played tunes in the world and the most frequently performed piece of Danish music, especially favoured, apparently, in USA, Japan, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, Argentina and Finland. Fortunately, Jacob Gade lived to experience this world-wide success. During the later years of a long life he was able to enjoy the sweets of fame in the knowledge that he had created one of the most popular and most performed melodies ever written.

Some recordings of Tango Jalousie available on CD:

Arthur Fiedler (cond.), Boston Pops Orchestra. Living Era Original Mono Recordings from 1925-1944. 20 gramophone all-time greats vol. [?] ASV CDAJA 5155.

Vera Lynn (song). Jay Wilbur (cond.). It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow. Vera Lynn vol. II. Flapper PASTCD 7030.

Kathryn Grayson (song). The Hollywood Musicals. Great Dames in Films. MILAN CDCH 393.

Frankie Laine (song). Greatest Hits. Disctronics ONN 1.

Columbia Ballroom Orchestra. Let’s Dance. Invitation to Dance Party 1. DENON

DC-8521.

Yehudi Menuhin & Stephane Grappelli Play Jealousy and Other Great Standards. EMI. CDM 7 69220 2.

Placido Domingo (song). Be My Love. EMI. CDP 7 95468 2.

N.H. Ørsted Petersen, Palle Mikkelborg and Ars Nova. Hommage. Once Upon a Time. Sonet SLPCD 1662.

Anton Kontra (violin). Sjællands Symfoniorkester (The Symphony Orchestra of Sealand), John Frandsen (cond.). Symphony Orchestras and Music from Denmark. XPCD 0693.

Con Sordino. Jalousie. Tango Tsigane. Music by Jacob Gade, DAICA DCD 8120.

Bjarne Hansen (violin). Odense Symphony Orchestra, Matthias Aeschbacher (cond.). Jacob Gade. Jealousy. Suites, Tangos & Waltzes. DACAPO 8 224090.

Luis Bravo’s Forever Tango. Original Broadway Cast Album. RCA Victor. 09026- 68966-2

Sexteto Mayor Orchestra. A Passion for Tango. Angel (1994). CDC 0777 7 54857 2 1

Ildo Patriarca. Verano Porteno. Kardum (1997). Kar 996

Vantaa Pops Orchestra. Jealousy. Finlandia Records (1997). 0630-17672-2

Viveza. Tango, Tango. Omega (1998). OCD 3030

The Animated Jalousie:

Tango Jalousie (Denmark 1996).

A visual interpretation of Jacob Gade’s Tango Jalousie from 1925 which passionately expresses the drama of jealousy. An elderly violinist strikes up a tune and dances across the screen, young again. Meetings, hearts set on fire, rejection and defeat, maturity and peace.

5 min.

35 mm. no dialogue.

Music: Anton Kontra (violin), Sjællands Symfoniorkester (The Symphony Orchestra of Sealand), John Frandsen (cond.) Music recorded on CD (see above).

Director: Jannik Hastrup

Production: Dansk Tegnefilm Kompagni, Jannik Hastrup

Distribution: TV2/Danmark,

att. Mette Hoffmann Meyer,

Sortedam Dossering 55A,

DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø

tel. +45 3537 2200

fax: +45 3537 2227

E-mail: sales@tv2.dk

Douces Secrets, Valse lente (1919).

This waltz has the subtitle “Valse lente par Maurice Ribot”, but on the cover of the printed music the name Jacob Gade is included, in addition to the pseudonym, which would suggest that, having been assured of the success of the “French” waltz, the composer wished to emerge from anonymity. A characteristic feature throughout these waltzes is the instrumentation. Apart from several piano versions, they only exist in an edition for salon orchestra consisting of only one flute, one clarinet, two trumpets, a trombone, percussion and strings. As usual, no score was published, as the conductor directed from the piano part. The advantage of such an arrangement was that the music could be performed by ensembles consisting of different combinations of instruments to meet the needs of widely different occasions. Restaurants and tea-rooms attracted their clientele with the light music of the day and Gade knew how to accommodate his music to circumstances so as to reach the widest public, even if it meant being performed by, for example, a piano trio,

Rhapsodietta (1931)

The full Danish title, ‘Tibirke’: Rhapsodietta, refers to Gade’s summer house at Tibirke Mill, where he lived at the end of the 1920s. Gade was then approaching the end of his career as a violinist and conductor and in this work he tried his hand, for the first time, at one of the freer forms of classical music: the rhapsody. Gade undoubtedly had such works as Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies in his wide repertoire and perhaps it was they that inspired him to compose the Danish rhapsody, or Rhapsodie danoise, which was the title of the French edition of 1939. The work is composed for an enlarged salon orchestra and consists of five loosely-connected sections in potpourri form.

Romanesca, Tango (1933)

Jacob Gade composed other tangos than Jalousie, among them Romanesca, which he published in 1933 as the first work from his new publishing house, Edition Gade. In addition to the traditional arrangements for piano and salon orchestra, the new tango was also issued in an arrangement by Gade himself for large orchestra, published both by his own firm in Copenhagen and in Paris by Éditions Max Eschig. In the latter case the tango was also provided with a French text. The introductory violin solo with cadenzas is, if possible, more virtuosic than in its predecessor, Jalousie; nevertheless, though it has often been performed abroad, this tango has never succeeded in achieving a comparable breakthrough.

Wedding at Himmelpind. Rustic Suite (1937)

This depiction of a country wedding is one of Jacob Gade’s major orchestral works. It originally consisted of six movements but was later revised and reduced to four movements in the printed edition of 1941. About the background for the suite, Gade himself said, “It is a musical rendering of a number of scenes from my childhood. Himmelpind is a little place outside Vejle where I was born and I have many times as a child played at village weddings there.” Gade managed to evoke the rural atmosphere in Wedding at Himmelpind by simple means, such as when the church bells are heard during the wedding march and when the fiddler tunes his violin in preparation for the party. With the crowing of the cock in the final movement the festivities are drawing to a close and Gade undoubtedly here recalled the times when as a boy he played the trumpet in his father’s ten-piece orchestra.

Copenhagen Life. Waltz (1937)

In the same period as saw the composition of the large orchestral works, Gade wrote Copenhagen Life, the only one of his waltzes to bear the subtitle “Viennese Waltz”. The form is the classic one found, for example, in Franz Lehar’s Gold und Silber: an extended introduction followed by three waltzes. Unlike the “French” waltzes, Gade has chosen to compose Copenhagen Life for large orchestra - that is, with full woodwind and brass sections, percussion and strings. Copenhagen Life has probably been used to accompany a theatrical piece or Singspiel with the title Det kære København [“Dear Old Copenhagen”].

Leda and the Swan. Légende d’amour (1939).

This is music for a ballet based on the Greek myth of the princess Leda, who was married to King Tyndareus of Sparta. Zeus, king of the gods, fell in love with Leda and came to her in the form of a swan. Thus Leda became the mother of the beautiful Helen and Clytemnestra and also of the two Dioscorides (i.e. sons of Zeus) Castor and Polydeuces. When Gade went to the United States in the autumn of 1939, the recently-composed Leda and the Swan was one of the works he took with him. With choreography created by Sutro, a former ballet master with both the Metropolitan and Chicago operas, the work was accepted for performance at a Broadway theatre. Due to illness (“Leda” unfortunately came down with appendicitis), the opening had to be postponed until the following season.

Suite d’amour (1940)

This music was composed in the period after Gade had withdrawn fromcity life to devote himself entirely to composing. When asked if he missed the conductor’s podium, he replied in 1944, “No, not really; I would rather write music. In the old days one did it free of care for the sake of the money - one was always most inspired as pay-day approached. Now it is a matter of conscience.” Gade’s success had been primarily as a composer of music for dancing and entertainment, but the orchestral compositions from the end of the 1930s show that the master of light music also mastered some of the ingredients of classical music, as far as content, form and instrumentation are concerned.

Valse Capriccio (1943)

As a musical term “Capriccio” refers to a technically difficult instrumental piece, usually of a scherzando character - features clearly illustrated by Valse Capriccio. Gade knew very well how to exploit the solo instrument’s possibilities, both with regard to performance techniques (double-stopping, spiccato) and acoustical effects (harmonics). Valse Capriccio has a very Viennese quality and being capriccio it inevitably calls to mind both Paganini’s Capricci per violino solo and Fritz Kreisler’s Caprice Viennois.

Jacob Gade had stated in his will that he wanted to establish a foundation that would benefit young, talented musicians. As a guideline for the executors of the trust he wrote: “I remember to this day the difficulties, both financial and educational, that I faced when as a very young man I came to Copenhagen determined to carve out a career in the world of music. Therefore I am very anxious to ensure that the earnings that will accrue from the assets I leave will be used to ease the lot of the talented young musician so that, once he has demonstrated ability, he will be enabled to study with qualified teachers here and, if necessary, abroad without financial difficulties presenting too much of an obstacle.”

The income from Jacob Gade’s popular music formed the basis of his capital and thus for the Foundation. Since his death on 20th February 1963, Jacob Gade’s Legat has granted considerable sums every year to talented young Danish (and some non-Danish) musicians. And the royalties continue to come in - first and foremost from Tango Jalousie, but also from Gade’s other compositions - to the benefit of future recipients.

When Jacob Gade became a widower in 1950 he began formulating the plan to establish a foundation to assist young musicians. He knew that Tango Jalousie had come to stay and that for many years to come it would continue to earn a lot of money. The chairman of the Board of Trustees, the barrister Ove Bisgaard, who was personally acquainted with Jacob Gade for a number of years, has told of the origin and history of the Foundation:

“In 1956, having come to a decision about establishing a foundation, Jacob Gade deposited 100,000 DK in a bank account and spoke to me about it. His wife Mimi had died in 1950 and he could not find a better way to use the income that he - with good reason - expected that the melody [Tango Jalousie] would earn in the coming many years. The trustees, he said, were to find deserving young musicians (and by young he meant under the age of 23), preferably poor and homeless (“on steps and in hallways”). They should be talented, but not necessarily trained at the conservatory, of which he had had a disappointing experience in his youth. The instrument of foundation was worked out by me after his death in accordance with his wishes. The annual awarding of grants is to take place on his birthday and is to be a festive and entertaining occasion with publicity and the attention of the press, as one of the purposes of the award is to advance the reputations of the recipients.”

The first trustees, appointed by Gade himself in his will, were Karl Bjarnhof, a highly-respected author and organist whom he had first met in Vejle, the music critic and composer Axel Kjerulf, the Assens pharmacist and Gade’s long-time friend Jens Strøyberg and the barrister Ove Bisgaard, with the latter as Chairman of the Board. Gade died in the spring of 1963 and Kjerulf died in the autumn; Kjerulf was replaced by another well-known music critic, Robert Naur.

The Foundation’s programme of granting awards came into effect with Jacob Gade’s death and the first recipients to be nominated were the violinists Elisa Andersen and Anker Buch, to receive 20,000 DK and 3 x 20,000 DK respectively. The first awards ceremony took place with great festivity in Willemoesgården in Assens in 1964. The Foundation’s support of worthwhile musical activities is not restricted to individuals and for the next four years school children from all over Funen and North Slesvig were invited and transported by buses to an annual concert in Assens Hall. Among the recipients of group awards who performed at these ceremonies in Assens were Amatørsymfonikerne [The Symphony of Amateur Musicians] (1965), Jette Tikjøb with children from her music school in Århus (1966), The Danish Quartet and The Copenhagen String Quartet (1966) and Flemming and Vivi Flindt in the first performance of the ballet Tango Chicane, with music by Per Nørgård (1967). Later the awards ceremony was moved to Hotel Phønix in Assens, where the film Don Q, Son of Zorro was shown in 1969.

In the 1970s the Foundation initiated the practice of holding the awards ceremony in other places, mainly in Copenhagen and in Vejle (Jacob Gade’s birthplace), but also in Århus, Odense and Randers. Especially in connection with Tango Jalousie’s 50th birthday in 1975 and Jacob Gade’s centenary in 1979, large-scale television-transmitted arrangements were held.

No awards ceremony was held in 1993 as the event, exceptionally, was moved to January 1994 and for the first time held outside the borders of Denmark; it was decided that the ceremony should take place in Helsinki in Finland, since two of the award winners were studying at the Sibelius Academy there at the time. It was an occasion to recognize the friendly relationship that exists between Denmark and Finland and five young Finns were awarded grants to study in Denmark at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music. There is, moreover, a certain justice in this, as Finland is the country in Scandinavia in which the tango is most popular: Jacob Gade’s two tangos, Tango Jalousie and Tango Romanesca are played very often there.

The regular 1994 awards ceremony, at which three young violinists received awards, took place in connection with a concert of the Sorø International Music Festival, which on that occasion also received a grant from the Foundation. The Trustees have always regarded the general encouragement of musical performance amongst both young people and adults as an important part of their responsibility. Thus already in 1966 Jette Tikøb’s music school had received a grant and in 1996 the Suzuki Institute, and in 1998 Sct. Annæ Gymnasium (home of the Copenhagen Boys’ Choir) were similarly endowed, as have been several other choirs and orchestras as well.

By holding the awards ceremonies at different places in Denmark (and on a single occasion outside the country), by inviting well-known soloists and ensembles to perform at these festive occasions and by maintaining a close contact with the press, radio and television, it has been the purpose of the Trustees to make the Foundation, its source of income (in particular Tango Jalousie) and the talented young musicians who receive its awards as widely known as possible.

The musical line of the Foundation has been determined over the years by Karl Bjarnhof, Robert Naur and Nils Schiørring, who became attached to the Board in 1975. The assistance given by the Foundation can take various forms: sometimes exceptional talents, such as, for example, the virtuoso recorder player Michala Petri and the violinist Nikolaj Szeps Znaider, come to the attention of the Trustees at a very early stage and to begin with are helped first and foremost to get qualified teaching. If their development then is up to expectation, they may later receive one of the major awards (as did the two mentioned). Jacob Gade’s major grants, now of the value of 100,000 DK each, are awarded each year to 3 - 6 young musicians. A surprising number - indeed, most - of the recipients of these awards have gone on to achieve successful careers and belong today amongst the leading figures in Danish musical life.

In the mid-1970s the Trustees became aware that there was a great need among young music students to travel abroad in order to study, perhaps with particular teachers, for shorter or longer periods of time. Since then the Foundation has awarded travelling scholarships of 10 - 15,000 DK each to 15 - 20 music students each year. These are advertised and awarded on application. The Foundation also makes contributions to groups and activities of various kinds, including grants to enable musical organizations to make concert tours abroad.

Thus in grants and other forms of support the Foundation every year makes awards amounting to between 500,000 and 1,000,000 DK to Danish musical life. Since it began its work in 1963 approximately 20,000,000 DK have been given out.

What do the young musicians themselves say about the significance to them of the Jacob Gade Awards?

Ingolf Olsen, guitarist, award 1965:

“It was a wonderful surprise to learn that I had been granted a Gade award. I was very young and had just got involved in a project concerning Pierre Boulez’ Le marteau sans maïtre, conducted by Tamàs Vetö. No guitarist could handle the guitar part and then it was given to me to try. At the time I was actually serving an apprenticeship as organ-builder with the firm of Frobenius. The others taking part in the performance were musicians from the Royal Chapel orchestra - and I was an 18 - 19-year-old organ-builder apprentice! Now I was noticed; I was one of the first to receive a grant and it started me on my career - I might otherwise have been an organ-builder today. I was given a helping hand, I got the money - and as it was an honour, one didn’t even have to pay tax on it at that time. It meant peace in which to work and since then I have been able to make a living by playing the guitar and teaching for 25 years at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music.”

Michala Petri, recorder virtuoso, has received the award several times, first in 1969:

“I was only 11 years old and didn’t really understand at that time how important it was for me to receive Jacob Gade’s award, nor could I grasp how large the amount was - 10,000 DK seemed an astronomical sum and I suddenly felt very grown-up and accepted in the musical world. It happened on my mother’s 40th birthday. I came to Assens and played and met many interesting people - Ove Bisgaard, Robert Naur and Karl Bjarnhof, Amalie Malling and Henrik Sachsenskjold. I played a concerto in C by Vivaldi, I remember, and the following year I performed at the awards ceremony at Faldsled Inn. Later I received a grant of 30,000 DK to cover my travel expenses to and from Hannover, where I went for lessons once a week. The trip cost 495 DK then.

But the grant meant much more to me than the money. It attracted attention to my name and strengthened my decision to become a professional musician - something I had never considered before. It was, so to speak, a stamp of approval on my talent.”

Peter Bastian, bassoonist, award 1969:

“When I received Jacob Gade’s grant, I was at the point of having to make a fundamental decision. I didn’t know whether to choose a future in physics or music, even though I was already at that time playing professionally in the Danish Woodwind Quintet. The grant came to play a very important rôle in my development. It gave recognition to one who had not attended the conservatory and was thus something of an upstart - and of course it was a financial support of great significance.“

Morten Zeuthen, cellist, award 1973:

“I was very young, only 19, and regarded the grant as evidence of acceptance by the world of music. My education had not followed the usual course - I had not gone to the conservatory - and it was therefore of great importance to be made the focus of public attention in this way. I received 30,000 DK, which I used to buy a new cello. I have never regretted that, though it did cause problems, as I was not aware that I was required to pay tax of the grant and when the bill came from the tax office all the money had been spent.

What was perhaps most important was that I was discovered - that and my new cello. These were two good tickets that gave admission to a life in music, a nice pat on the back.”

Michael Schønwandt, conductor, award 1977:

“It was something of climatic shock to come to Italy from Denmark in June 1977. Early in the morning on the day after my debut concert in Tivoli’s concert hall I boarded the train to Italy to work as musical assistant at the performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera Maria Golovin. The days in the beautiful Umbrian town passed in a round of rehearsals, pasta and wonderful weather and thanks to the legendary speed of the Italian postal service it didn’t take more than a couple of weeks for a letter to arrive from my family with reviews of my Tivoli concert. So Denmark seemed rather a long way away, when a few days later I got a telegram! Now, in the age of fax-machines, telegrams have become something quite exotic, but 20 years ago too it was an event to receive a telegram. In a few excited words my family at home informed me that according to the newspapers I had been awarded Jacob Gade’s grant for 1977.

To receive the Gade-award was a great pat on the back to me after I had taken the plunge into the pool at the deep end. It could just as well have gone all wrong at my debut concert. As a young conductor, one is by definition just beginning to learn what the art of conducting is really all about and as a Gade-award winner I felt I had received recognition of the first steps I had taken on a journey without end and ‘good wishes for the future’. I will never forget the Gade Foundation for that.”

Katrine Gislinge, pianist, award 1989:

“I received Jacob Gade’s award at a very fortunate time. I was planning a trip to New York to study with Seymour Lipkin when, a couple of months before I was supposed to leave, a letter from Jacob Gade’s Foundation dropped into my letter-box which made it possible for me to extend my period of study in New York to a whole year. It was a real cachet to receive a Gade-award so early in one’s career and it means something for one’s future chances of receiving grants and awards. It is a grant of recognition, not something one seeks, and Jacob Gade’s award was the first big prize I received.”

In addition to the annual awards and travelling scholarships, the Jacob Gade Foundation makes yet another practical contribution to assist the development of talented young musicians. In order to help young music students to get flats in which they can live and work for a reasonable rent and in a musical environment while pursuing their musical studies, the Foundation has over the years acquired five houses in Copenhagen, Odense and Århus.

The first house, on the corner of Rigensgade and Gernersgade in Copenhagen, was acquired in 1968. It contained 26 flats, but it had to be given up a few years later due to the requirements of city planning. At the end of 1972, Kronprinsessegade 44 in central Copenhagen was bought. It contains 20 flats and 2 business tenancies. This was followed in 1977 by Herluf Trolles Gade 9, also in central Copenhagen, which contains 15 rooms, 1 flat and 4 business tenancies. In 1983 the Foundation acquired properties in Odense and Århus: Christiansgade 69 in Odense, with seven 2-room flats, and Barthsgade 4, Århus N, with 8 flats. Most recently, in 1993 the Foundation bought a large building, Liflandsgade 4 - 8 on the east (Amager) side of Copenhagen, comprising 30 flats and 5 business tenancies.

About 120 music students have their lodgings in these properties. All have rental contracts for periods of from 3 to 5 years, so there is a regular turn-over of tenants. When a flat becomes vacant it is advertised and applications are considered by the Trustees to ensure that the flats benefit as many deserving music students as possible.

Of the value of these student lodgings, Ida Rostrup, contrabassist, has said:

“I moved into the Jacob Gade Foundation’s house in Kronprinsessegade in Copenhagen when I had two or three years of my education [at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music] left. It was an incredible place to live, as the house is situated centrally in Copenhagen with a view over “The King’s Garden” [of Rosenborg Palace]. Just as important, however, is the fact that one lives with other young people who are in the same situation, which as a music student means that you can practise all you want, you don’t disturb anyone. It is also valuable to live in a musical environment among fellow-students with whom you can discuss and exchange ideas. You listen to each other and inspire each other - it is a very productive environment.”

The address of the Foundation is:

Jacob Gade’s Legat,

Østergade 29,

5610 Assens,

Denmark

Tlf. +45 - 70 10 11 99

Fax: +45 - 64 71 16 75

The Foundation is administered by a Board of Trustees, which over the years has included the following:

Ove Bisgaard, barrister, Assens, since 1963 (chairman)

Jens Strøyberg, pharmacist, Assens, member 1963-71

Karl Bjarnhof, author, Copenhagen, member 1963-75

Robert Naur, music critic, Copenhagen, member 1963-86

Hans Winding, medical doctor, Assens, member 1971-95

Nils Schiørring, professor, dr., Copenhagen, member since 1975

Toke Lund Christiansen, flautenist, Copenhagen, member since 1986

Michael Malmgreen, member of the Royal Chapel, Copenhagen, member since 1990

Holger Bisgaard, architect, Copenhagen, member since 1995

Ole Kongsted, museum curator, Copenhagen, member since 1996

Frantz Dolberg, lawyer, Assens, member since 2002