For this, his third set of published songs, Carl Nielsen chose poems by a young Danish writer, Ludvig Holstein, which had just been published. The songs are rural in subject matter, describing scenes set in fields and orchards. What may have attracted Nielsen to them is that Holstein avoids the sentimentalizing of country life. The people in the poem are real, hardworking farmers, treated with apparent understanding of their day-to-day life.

Nielsen responded by writing songs that were strophic (the same melody for a series of verses), in the nature of folk music) and were simple and naturally flowing. This was a departure from the expectations of concert music audiences, so the critics were generally quite unfavorable.

The Danish people thought otherwise. They enjoyed the six songs as concert numbers and bought them for home performance. One of the pieces, "Song behind the plow" (Sang bag ploven), went further than that, becoming a genuine popular song hit. This was not only gratifying for Nielsen as recognition for his artistic accomplishments, but provided a welcome income. However, he had to wait four years for this to happen, as the songs were not first performed until February 3, 1898, by Margarethe Boye and Ida M¿ller.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide