Niels Wilhelm Gade enjoyed a musical reputation well known outside of his homeland. Felix Mendelssohn, an early champion of his work, became a close associate. Shades of all the significant composers of the German Romantic style (Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, and especially Mendelssohn) can be heard in Gade's music.

Echoes of Ossian, Op. 1, is a concert overture inspired by a Danish poem about a magical bird. It was Gade's first important work, winning a prize from the Copenhagen Musical Society. The piece is typical of the concert overture sonata form of that time: a slow, soft introduction that presents the principal theme in the minor (the melody is based on an actual Danish folksong); this theme becomes the unifying "glue" throughout as its character is manipulated and transformed in terms of key, rhythm, tempo, instrumentation, etc.; appearance of a contrasting theme in major leads to an exciting development section. Gade's lyrical gift and sense of drama are already in evidence in this compelling composition.

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