Editing Carl Nielsen (section)

=== Final years and death ===
Nielsen's final large-scale orchestral works were his Flute Concerto (1926) and the Clarinet Concerto (1928), of which [[Robert Layton (musicologist)|Robert Layton]] writes: "If ever there was music from another planet, this is surely it. Its sonorities are sparse and monochrome, its air rarefied and bracing."<ref name="OCM-Layton" /> Nielsen's last musical composition, the organ work ''[[Commotio (Nielsen)|Commotio]]'', was premiered posthumously in 1931 in [[St. Mary's Church, Lübeck]].{{sfn|Gibbs|1963|p=208}}

During his final years, Nielsen produced a short book of essays entitled ''Living Music'' (1925), followed in 1927 by his memoir ''Min Fynske Barndom''. In 1926 he wrote in his diary "My home soil pulls me more and more like a long sucking kiss. Does it mean that I shall finally return and rest in the earth of Funen? Then it must be in the place where I was born: Sortelung, Frydenlands parish".<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Grimley|2005|p=218}}.</ref>

However, this was not to be. Nielsen was admitted to Copenhagen's National Hospital (Rigshospitalet) on 1 October 1931 following a series of [[myocardial infarction|heart attacks]]. He died there at ten minutes past midnight on 3 October, surrounded by his family. His last words to them were "You are standing here as if you were waiting for something".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.carlnielsen.dk/gb/bio/ |title=Carl Nielsen biografi |last=Ketting |first=Knud |website=Carl Nielsen Society |language=en-GB |access-date=1 October 2018 |archive-date=15 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515111619/https://www.carlnielsen.dk/gb/bio/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He was buried in Copenhagen's Vestre Cemetery; all the music at his funeral, including the hymns, was the work of the composer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://carlnielsen.dk/pages/biography/last-years.php|title=Last years|publisher=Carl Nielsen Society|access-date=27 April 2015|archive-date=14 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414003940/http://carlnielsen.dk/pages/biography/last-years.php|url-status=live}}</ref> After his death, his wife was commissioned to sculpt a monument to him, to be erected in central Copenhagen. She wrote: "I wanted to take the winged horse, eternal symbol of poetry, and place a musician on its back. He was to sit there between the rushing wings blowing a reed pipe out over Copenhagen." Dispute about her design and a shortfall in funding meant that erection of the monument was delayed and that Anne Marie herself ended up subsidising it. The [[Carl Nielsen Monument]] was finally unveiled in 1939.{{sfn|Holmen|1985|pp=29–31}}