In the composer's workshop

Changing titles

In some cases, Langgaard worked carefully and altered a title by putting it in brackets (or crossing it out) and writing a new suggested title above. As a rule, though, his aesthetic sense prompted him to scratch out the rejected title meticulously, before writing the new.

When he had done this several times and the page had begun to look too messy, he changed the cover of the manuscript and made a new title page. However, he seldom threw the old title pages away, since in most cases the reverse had not been written on, and they could be used for rough drafts. Langgaard was sparing with his music paper, and therefore some 150 such title pages which have been used again are to be found among his papers! The example shown below is from Symphony No. 8, which is one of those to which Langgaard gave the most titles. The title, Som Solopgang, naar Solen er begravet (Like Sunrise, When the Sun is Buried) is a quotation from a poem by Johannes Jørgensen, published in 1931.

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