Section A1 (opening – fig. 2, bb. 1–24). Vegetative.

Tempo giusto. Just so. A strict tempo with no commitment as to character. No equivalent this time to orgoglioso, Colerico, or espansivo (Nielsen's designations for the first movements of Symphonies 1–3), nor even to an apparently plain allegro whose non-committal appearance is belied by the heading ‘The Inextinguishable’ and a bold motto on the facing page of the score (Symphony No. 4). Nielsen's pencil draft score for the first movement of the Fifth Symphony was headed All[egr]o moderato, but whereas in the First and Third Symphonies he upgraded the plain allegro of his draft scores to a character marking, here he downgrades it to total neutrality.

This is no character piece then, or if it is, the character is being deliberately withheld. There may be all manner of biographical and intertextual features behind the music, but these are not defining or confining elements. Even the title that appears on the draft score of the first half of the movement – ‘Vegetativ’ – is one Nielsen chose to suppress when it came to publication. Where the music is coming from is subordinate to what it is and where it is going to. And where it is going to is, even more than usually with Nielsen, an open question. As he was fond of saying, ‘Vi aner ikke hvor vi ender’ [We never know where we'll end up].