Nielsen's ink manuscript for the Third Symphony has appeared in Leipzig.

Among Carl Nielsen scholars it has always been said that the composer's ink manuscript of his third symphony, "Sinfonia Espansiva" was lost - bombed during the war, somebody said, - taken away to Rusia was another possibility. We all knew that at a certain time the manuscript must have been in Leipzig in Germany where the publisher C.F. Kahnt used to stay. In 1913 Kahnt Verlag published the symphony, and obviously, Carl Nielsen must have sent his ink manuscript to the publisher to be used in connection with the engraving of the printed edition.

During the DDR-days, the firm was closed down (at the same time reappearing in West Germany), and just before turning round the key in the 1960es, the publisher wrapped all its music and archives in brown parcels and placed them in the basement of a house in Leipzig. In 1977 the parcels were found (including the manuscript of the 3. symphony) and the whole collection was tranferred to the Sächsische Staatsarchiv situated in a Leipzig suburb, where they have been ever since - as for the Nielsen manuscript unnoticed by everybody except the Danish Mahler-scholar Knud Martner, who 15 years ago - still in the DDR-days - happened to see the Nielsen manuscript as a side effect of his search for Mahleriana in Leipzig. At that time Martner made a note about the manuscript and when he came back he passed it on to the then leading Carl Nielsen scholar. After that he did not give the matter further thought, but unfortunately his information was never made known to others.

By pure incident, the story came up in October 2000 - for the staff of the Carl Nielsen Edition and for everybody else other than Knud Martner and the person to whom he had given the information 15 years ago, as a great surprise, indeed. A quick contact by letter and telephone to Leipzig confirmed the existence of the missed manuscript in Leipzig, comprising 228 pages in Carl Nielsen's own hand. A trip to Leipzig made it possible for a person from the Carl Nielsen Edition for the first time to cast a glance at this very important source. It turned out that in Leipzig, the staff had no idea that this was an autograph by one of the great 20th-century composers of symphonies. In fact, the staff was a little surprised because of all the fuss in connection with this matter, and in Leipzig we could see that prior to our visit on October 6, 2000, only two persons had seen this manuscript in Leipzig since 1977: Knud Martner and a name which is unknown to me (these names appear on a sheet in the manuscript which every user must sign).

With this rediscovery a new, important element has been added to Leipzig's role in Carl Nielsen reception: here the fifth symphony experienced one of its most successful performances in 1927 under Furtwängler's baton, here Blomstedt has now launched his important series of Nielsen symphonies wth the Gewandhaus orchestra, and here rests the ink manuscript of symphony no. 3!

One could call this manuscript "the missing link" of the source chain for the 3. symphony. For Nielsen's large works the typical source situation is: sketches - pencil manuscript - fair copy (ink manuscript) - first edition. In other words, here we have the composer's own fair copy - the last handwritten version before the print. Because Nielsen would often make changes when he "copied" from the pencil manuscript, this ink manuscript gives us an insight into the composer's workshop, so to speak. For this reason, but also because an original Carl Nielsen manuscript in itself is an important part of the national cultural heritage, we must all be very happy that people, in spite of wars and political changes, have looked after this manuscript for almost 100 years, and that we now know where it is!!

Of course, it would have been better if this information had come up before, and not after, the new critical edition of the third symphony was sent on the market (which took place in december 1999). Not many (if any) details in the music would have been changed - a close study of the microfilm will show how many - but we would have stood on a firmer ground in the revising process, and - which is more important - it would have filled out the gap in the list of sources which accompanies every work in the new edition.

It is only to be hoped that people who still know about important information or sources concerning Carl Nielsen will use this matter as a lesson, and make their knowledge available to others. If we are to make progress in Carl Nielsen research of the future, the primary condition is, that all the sources are carefully registered and evaluated. Such a situation can only be created if all efforts are united.

Niels Krabbe, head of the Carl Nielsen Edition.