Description
A Dream about ‘Silent Night’ (Drømmen om ‘Glade Jul’) was published in Christmas: Moods and Pictures for Piano – a 1905 collection of music by a number of Danish composers, including Carl Nielsen (1865-1931).
Nielsen’s piece is the only one based on a well-known Christmas carol. Despite its namesake, however, the famous carol’s melody features only briefly in the introduction before it meanders into an impressionistic flurry of ‘Nielsen-esque’ fluctuations and syncopations before returning in a gentle, shimmering conclusion.
Nielsen was prone to procrastination, often only finishing works just before a deadline or premiere. Nielsen dated his Silent Night December 3 – which, for sheet music destined to be for sale that Christmas, must have had the publishers at their wits’ end!
