This gentle piece in a pastorale mood was written during an early phase of Larsson's career, when his music was tonal and neo-classical, with a cool, open sound. It is scored for a smallish orchestra with winds and brass, but mostly relies on the strings for its general texture. It is drawn from a set of incidental music Larsson wrote for a Shakespeare play in 1937.

The first movement is a lyrical one, in a gentle and rocking triple time, with effective horn writing that contributes a richness and warmth to the basic sound. The second movement is faster, still maintaining the gentle tone, although the music is built around rapid string figurations reminiscent of Sibelius. The melody has clever and unpredictable repeated notes and rests, while the accompaniment in lower strings keeps up a light pizzicato pulse. The pastorale third movement returns to the mood of the opening. In the epilogue, the longest movement, feathery, "snowflaky" textures on the strings and harp set a tone picture, over which the woodwinds contribute excellent solos before their melodies are adopted by the first violins. It is a very attractive small piece (ten minutes) for a small orchestra.

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi