Parraphrase on a bohemian-danish folksong

Carl Nielsen, the most significant Danish composer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wrote his paraphrase on a Bohemian-Danish folk melody in 1893 – during a period in which he was deeply engaged with folk tunes and their artistic elaboration. The work belongs to the context of Northern European nationalism, that movement which sought to unite folkloric elements with the formal language of classical Romanticism.

Scored for pure string orchestra, the piece unfolds a warm, lyrical tone that carries within it both the Bohemian and the Danish folk music tradition. The string texture remains transparent and songlike, while the harmonic language moves within the bounds of late Romanticism without ever lapsing into academic dryness.

The combination of two folk music traditions – the Bohemian and the Danish – is characteristic of Nielsen: the composer always showed an interest in cultural connections that transcended national borders. This compact work is likely to owe its particular appeal to precisely this hybrid origin of the melodic material, which Nielsen translates into an expressive paraphrase with a fine craftsman's instinct for string sound.