Carl Nielsen - Springtime on Funen (Fynsk foraar), Op.42

Carl Nielsen - Fynsk foraar (Springtime on Funen), lyric humoresque for soloists, chorus & orchestra, FS 96 (Op. 42). Composed in 1921.

Parts/Movements:
1. Som en Graesgron Plet
2. A Se, Nu Kommer Varen
3. Den Milde Dag Er Lys Og Lang
4. Der Har Vi Den Aldrende Sol Igen
5. Nu Kysser Solen Mit Ojelag
6. Nu Vil Vi Ud Og Lege
7. De Gamle (The Old People) (Sa Saetter Vi Piben...)
8. Dansevisen ("Kom Her, Fiol Og...")

Nielsen had a deep affection for his native town, Funen, and nowhere is this better expressed than in his most popular choral work, Springtime in Funen, Op. 42. The work's text by Aage Bernsten in many ways resembles his own memoir My Childhood in Funen, which he published in 1927. Therein he offers this idyllic portrait: "Everything in Funen is different from the rest of the world, and whoever takes the trouble to listen will know. The bees hum in a way of their own with a special Funen accent, and when the horse whinnies and the red cows low, why, anybody can hear that it is quite different from anywhere else ... "

Nielsen composed Springtime in Funen as part of a national competition sponsored by the Danish Choral Society in 1921. Though the work is a masterpiece of pictorial and programmatic writing, his life was anything but pastoral at the time: he had recently separated from his wife and was not to be reconciled to her for more than a year. He was also going through a change of publishers at the time; nonetheless, he was able to overcome these negative influences in his music.

Nielsen called this work a "lyric humoresque" which aptly relates to both its simple, folk-like idiom as well as its compact form. The work is modestly scored for a four-part chorus, soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, a children's chorus and a small chamber orchestra. It is formally akin to a small cantata, consisting of several independent sections tied together with orchestral transitions. The choral writing is largely diatonic and homophonic, and solo melodies contain frequent alternations between major and minor tonalities.

This work is often cited as the most Danish of all Nielsen's compositions; this seems borne out as the chorus and soloists extol a countryside replete with grass, water lilies, and gnarled apple trees blooming. Given its relatively modest requirements, Springtime in Funen is a perfect work for a well-honed amateur chorus.

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